Masters of overplay
Roln111 (Iliya Shikshin) 8d and
zchen (Michael Zhaonian Chen) 7d are both famous players on KGS. They have similar
styles: powerful attackers, good at finding unexpected plays,
like using thickness to attack.
I remember a couple years ago when Michael played under
another handle darkmage, in his profile info he had this saying:
"It's okay to lose because of the overplay. Don't lose because you were
afraid and tried to hide". And he fervently follows this idea in his
games. But sometimes it works against him, as an example, his last game against
Iliya. Black move 85 was clearly overplay. zchen ignored 2 consecutive moves in
the center. Eventually his weak group was killed and he had to resign not even
entering into the end game.
As for myself, I prefer pragmatic and patient
style, positional judgement to attacking. Although, aggressive fighters
attract more fans and their games are much more spectacular.
Do you believe there might be a superiority of one
particular style in future?
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