Moon Dowon 3p's Unexpected AI Squeeze

During my stay at BIBA, our studies and activities were almost always at Flower Baduk, a Go center located at the heart of Seoul, in Chungmuro 충무로.

Founded in 2014 by four Korean female professional players, its objective was — and still is — to provide in-person lessons with pro players to adult amateurs. Nowadays, the sole owner is Moon Dowon 문도원 3p, one of the four founders, one of the main casters on Baduk TV, and a former holder of the most-wins-in-a-row record on the Women's Nongshim Cup, 7 in total. Around 2018, Moon Dowon retired from playing in order to focus on teaching and casting.

Moon Dowon 문도원 3p

Flower Baduk's founders, from left to right: Lee Dahye 이다혜 4p, Kim Hyerim 김혜림 2p, Bae Yunjin 배윤진 3p and Moon Dowon 문도원 3p.

A panel of Flower Baduk's founders, from left to right: Lee Dahye 이다혜 4p, Bae Yunjin배윤진 3p, Moon Dowon 문도원 3p and Kim Hyerim 김혜림 2p.

The ambiance is always pleasant at Flower Baduk, and that's certainly one of its main upsides for its students, as most people find it much easier to learn in a more positive environment.

Flower Baduk

I studied with BIBA at Flower Baduk for 6 months in 2025. Overall, I studied in Asia for a year, between 2025 and 2026. If you would like to know more, do check my video summary for that period.

A Pair Go Challenge

One day, after realizing I was by myself, without any other BIBA student, nor Diana Koszegi 2p — my main teacher —, Moon Dowon 3p invited me to play pair Go with three of her students. During a more or less common side pattern, my partner played the mistaken, unexpected cut at 8:

Where should Black play next?

My first, immediate answer was simply turning at A, capturing White's stones on the side.

However, right when I thought this was all obvious, during the review with Moon Dowon 3p, she and the other three students started discussing for a while in Korean, without placing any sequences on the board. Since my Korean at the time was infinitesimal, I mentally checked out. But, later, after checking the game out with AI, I began to suspect why they stopped to discuss at such a seemingly obvious move.

If Black tries to capture White's group, White gets a ton of squeezing power from the outside:

Black has three directions from which to be squeezed, from A to C, there's no way to protect them all. According to AI, capturing White on the side is a 3-point loss.

This is AI's recommended sequence, after Black captures White's group on the side:

Black gets sente to play 19; but White gets thick on the left and bottom-right, the aji in the bottom-right is drastically reduced, Black's bottom-left corner is greatly reduced, and Black's bottom is essentially the captured group in the end.

Going back, Black's best choice was to instead play what my opponent pair opted for, to capture the cutting stone:

Black 1 damages the A stone while thickening out Black's corner and outside, which grants Black sente to play the urgent move at 5.

Later that day, I showed these surprising AI sequences to Moon Dowon 3p, thinking she would be just as amazed. I was then dumbfounded by the bored look on her face when she told me the squeeze and the outside forcing moves were what she was suggesting to her students when I zoned out due to my lacking Korean abilities.

Appendix: A Pro Game Example of the Same Type of Squeeze

A similar sort of squeeze should have happened in a game between Wang Xinghao 9p and Shibano Toramaru 9p, for the 2026 Kuksu Mountains world championship, seen on the video down below around the 7-minute mark.