| The Turning Point As Weishun attacked, however panicky I was, I tried to calm myself and analyzed the whole of the board again... A sense of peace enveloped me as I took a deep breath and look at the game from a new light. That was when I realized that a flicker of hope still existed for me to turn the situation around. On the board, I discovered that the counter-attacking attempts made by him had in fact caused him to neglect the foundation of the seeds from which it connected itself. It was here that I could work something out... I prayed that he did not realize it at this moment. At the same time, a lot of things had been going through my mind as I considered setting up a bigger trap for him... I decided to take a great risk and purposely left a bigger hole for him to attack in the hope that he would just follow. I deliberately did it quick... actually an attempt to make him think that I had made another mistake in my haste... And now, Weishun knew my time was up and he had to round up the game somehow. So to my relief, he attacked the hole anyway. That was when I moved silently... as if fleeing from him but had actually moved stealthily closer and closer to the weak point that he had neglected. And when I was ready to push the button, I struck him hard. |
| The Last Moment He immediately stopped in his track as he realized what I had done. He knew the portion he neglected was really critical to the game. He tried to save it immediately and now it was his turn to think hard. In the end, he actually used up more time than me to handle the crucial situation. The overall result was that I could finally capture some of Weishun's seeds from this neglected portion and made a turnabout in the overall situation of the game. It was crucial as Weishun had been leading the match so far. Now, I could seemingly be able to be on par with him in terms of territories and seeds... The game proceeded as usual and was close to completion... There were some really nerve-racking moments as we later fought for last remaining pieces of land on the board. We knew that each small piece of land was decisive and nobody could afford to waste them at a time like this... |
| The Count The last few seconds ticked away as we put in our last seeds to finish off the final borderline conflicts. Time was up and we stopped. It was now the moment to count all territories conquered and to decide who was the winner. From the board, it was still difficult to see who had actually won the game. In fact, the audience around us was starting to count the territories mentally and deciding for themselves who would emerge as the double Champion... It was another nerve-racking moment as the referees counted them one by one. �Black 60, 61, 62� White 58, 59, 60�� It seemed time passed like an eternity� The declaration of the winner is at hand... NEXT |