The 5th 21- of June

The World Champion returns Aunt Beast's serve with a vengeance, playing an opening novelty on move 25 of the theoretically winning side of 21-. Aunt Beast will have to think about this for a while. The position is *3 + 10P7.

21- (Jordan+Aunt Beast* - Khorkov) 1(22)2 1(23)1[2,3] 4(24)23 4(25)4[5-14] ...



Trying turn the game into a sum of several complicated components, Josh plays three anagos in a row: 5(26)6 5(27)5[7-14] 7(28)8 2(29)2 15(30)16



Rather than responding to the anago 7(28)8 with an enclosing Q as per his typical strategy, Roman instead replies in a different component entirely, reducing the *3 to *0. Having an anago hanging around tends to make the game more complex, and this position, A8Q1PA7, is no exception.

The game continues with 15(31)15[16] 17(32)18 17(33)17[18-19] 7(34)8[9-12] 8(35)34[13-14] 13(36)35.



Josh's strategy of repeatedly nudging the game in a more complex direction is succeeding: this is *3 + X, where X is a rather complicated position that cannot be completely described in chained pivot/loop notation, due to the fact that spots 24 and 25 are on the same boundary. As Josh warned Roman, "A person could easily lose their way in a forest such as this." Can Roman find his way? Is there even a way for him to find?

Update: Roman resigned a few days later.