Chiaki Mukai 5-dan, My most memorable game
- Black: Chiaki Mukai 5-dan
White: Wang Chenxing 5-dan
130 moves. Black wins by 1.5 points.
Click here to enlarge
Woman players profile
My most memorable game is a game I played with Wang Chenxing in the 2nd Huading Tea Industry Cup World Women's Team Championship. This tournament is fought among three-player teams from Japan, China, Korea, and Chinese Taipei. My teammates were Xie and Okuda.
After a win and a loss, our final match was with the Chinese team. If we could beat them, there was a chance of winning the tournament, so we were really psyched up for this match.
I had black. We both played cautiously in the opening, and I thought the game was a little easier for White. Black 65, following beside White, was a move that made a strong impression on me. I was aiming at the cut of 69 next, and I looked on the white group in bottom right not as thickness but as a target for attack.
When I was able to hane at 87, I felt that I had seized the initiative, as I had become thick in the centre and was able to attack the top right white group with Black 91 on. When I secured the right side up to 127, the game looked a little favourable for me.
After this, a very difficult endgame contest followed; we both made slips and the lead switched back and forth. In the end, I was able to secure a win. Our team also beat China, but we took third place in a multiple tie (based on totals of individual wins). Still, this was a memorable tournament for me.