Emergo

Game 1 of a 'best of 19' match - not counting draws - between

Ed van Zon (NL), white, and Christiaan Freeling (NL), black.

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1. c4e5
2. d3c6
3. d1a3
4. g4b1
5. f4g6Black, though he wants to, cannot attack. b2 or c2 are followed by b4 or d5: black must capture four and is next 'decapped' with g46x. c5 is none better. Therefore he plays g6 himself.
6. c2a2
7. e7g5Attacking at last ...
8. d6!Ed finds the weak spot. How did I get here? I considered g5c1x a save haven, but not after d6, because it is followed by c2. However, carefull consideration reveales that gc5x is worse. White gets a three and a three with two prisoners, cooperating nicely in either of the two main lines. Black's shadowpiece is two high in both lines. Meagre compensation. These lines are similar to what comes now. The difference is that black comes out with a shadowpiece of three and white now has three under two instead of vice versa. Here we go.
g5c1x
9. c2c15x
10. d6b4xc6a4x
11. b5Naturally.
ac4x
12. c53xb42x
13. c31xac2x
14. bd2xWhite has two men in hand, black five. Black must enter one, white one, black one, white one, black three. So the shadowpiece is three high and will remain so, unless a player attacks beforehand. This, and the fact that white has two adjacent weak pieces for target, is black's hope & compensation.
e4
15. b2f4
16. d6e3Black has entered his shadowpiece. The entering stage is over. White now has the initiative (which, in fact, he had all along) and can freely start a 'feeding combination' to (have black) build a strong piece.
17. e76e5a1xThis much was expected. But not what comes next. I was so focused on the follow-up cb2, which would give white a solid six, that I failed to notice another purpose: to get rid of the man on b2.
18. c4b3!ac3x
19. bf3xA nice lightfooted knock-out.
BLACK RESIGNS.

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[Game 1:  1-0]
[Game 2:  1-0]
[Game 3:  1-0]
[Game 4:  1-0]
[Game 5:  1-0]
[Game 6:  0-1]