TAAI 2011: Zen keeps winning; two more second places for Fuego

The TAAI tournament concluded last night with the 9x9 and 13x13 tournaments. In the 9x9 tournament, Fuego had technical problems with its opening book, and got into bad lines in several games. In round one against CyGo, the game with Fuego as Black turned into the infamous "Z" opening, which seems to be completely lost for Black according to our previous experience.
See the game on EidoGo. After move 9, Black's stones have a "Z" shape. Both players have two one-space extensions at opposite sides of the board. If all stones are safe, The extra black stone in the center loses its meaning, and Black cannot give the komi. In this game, White makes a mistake at move 18. Simply blocking from the outside at B6 would capture the black stones and easily win the game. Both games against Zen were simple losses straight out of the opening. In the last round, Fuego was matched against MoGo in what amounted to a playoff for second place. After being tied after two regular games, the programs played two more, and Black ended up winning all four games. So Fuego and MoGo shared second place. I will post the overall standings once they are announced.

The 13x13 tournament saw Fuego's best effort in this event. It achieved a winning position against Zen but lost its way in the end. See the game here. After Black lives at the bottom with move 77, Black is ahead. Fuego also counters White's invasion at the top left very strongly with move 81. If it captured one stone with 87 at D12, it would easily win the semeai. Inexplicably, Fuego switches elsewhere. Still, I think Fuego is slightly ahead until move 95. Blocking on the outside wins by about 1.5 points in my analysis. The inside block either loses points, or leads to a ko fight that Fuego cannot win. For 103, M9 seems better but still not enough to win. Overall, a good effort by Fuego, but a missed chance for a rare victory against Zen.

Final standings on 13x13 were the same as on 19x19:

1. Zen 3 wins
2. Fuego 2 wins
3. Mogo 1 win
4. Coldmilk 0 wins

Zen' games (all board sizes)
Fuego 9x9 games
Fuego 13x13 games
Fuego 19x19 games