Another puzzle: why did the Master play White 130 and so ensure his
own defeat?
He made the play at eleven thirty-four, after twenty-seven minutes of
deliberation. It was a matter of chance, I suppose, that he should have made
a bad play after deliberating almost a half hour. Yet I was sorry afterwards
that he had not waited another hour and so carried the play past the noon
recess. If he had left the board and taken an hour and a half’s rest, he would
probably have played more effectively. He would not have fallen victim to
a passing wraith, so to speak. He had twenty-three hours of play remaining,
and need not have worried about an hour or two. But the Master was not
one to make tactical use of a recess. It was Black 131 that had the
advantage of the recess.
White 130 seemed like a counterattack at close quarters, and Otaké said
that he had been left with his arm twisted behind him.
This was Wu’s comment: “It is a delicate spot. White 130 may be seen as
an effective play in response to a cutting thrust.”
