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The inevitable ending we both saw was |39.q9 40.p9 41.n8.
At the end, spd_iv said "i should have played 26.q10 ;)" ... but I don't think that's the answer, because I was planning |27.r6, but just before I played it, I saw the devastating 28.q6 response, and if he had let me close the s10 gap first, that q6 reply would not have worked: |26.q10 27.s10 28.s4 29.r6 30.q6 31.t5 32.s7 33.s6. Without closing the gap, it's losing: |27.r6 28.q6 29.t5 30.s7 or |27.r6 28.q6 29.s6 30.s5 31.t4 32.u3 33.r5 34.r4 35.s3 36.s2 or |27.r6 28.q6 29.t7 30.s5 31.w4 32.u4.
Is there anything White could have done after |26.s4 to win?
Backing up a step, after |25.t8, is there a winning move for Black? I'm thinking 26.s10 would have made things more interesting, but after 27.s9 28.r8 29.t11 30.s4 31.r6, White might be winning.
Or, going forward a step to |27.r7, is it possible for either player at that point to play differently, and win? Or is the draw already sealed? If |28.q3 then 29.o4, and then... um... oh yeah, 30.n4 31.n6 32.p3 33.l5 34.o5 35.p5 36.q6 37.r6 38.s7 39.u6 40.u3 41.v4 42.w2 43.t5. If |28.p3 then 29.s5 30.u3 31.q4. If |30.q10 then 31.s9 32.t6 33.p5 34.p7 35.q8.
It seems that my early judgment that |11.r12 was probably strong enough to support a cascade attack starting at F9 was not quite right! Twixt has a lot of tough judgment calls like that in the opening moves. Spd_iv was probably thinking something I'd play something like |13.t13, continuing the windmill, but I was running out of room on both the left and the right, which I've learned to recognize as a very bad sign.
For white, it seems natural to try 27.q6, which I think doesn't work: |27.q6 28.q5 29.s5 30.t6 31.t7 32.o6 33.u5 34.u3; or |27.q5, which seems strong on the top, but I guess still loses to 28.s10?
I thought white's actual sequence 27.r7 28.q5 29.s5 30.t6 31.p5 was brilliant.
BTW, I can't copy from this page when I'm composing a comment. I can select, but focus jumps as soon as I try to copy. I have to click "No comment", and copy to an external editor. The problem does not occur when not in compose mode. Does this happen to anyone else?
The 2-2 crossover (here, R6) is an important pattern. In fact, I used it in my game against tasuki. It may be the first thing to consider if the link crossover (R7) doesn't work.
The reply to |27.q5 that worried me was 28.p5. Then, for example, 29.p7 30.r4.
|27.r6 was really a dilemma. Should I take the risk that my opponent won't see the non-obvious reply 28.q6? If my opponent were a lesser player, I might have tried it. Risk a loss for the chance at a win, or take the draw? The Championship is on the line! I won't comment on the other games in progress, but I will say that I analyzed them before making this choice.
I can't reproduce your copy & paste problems - what OS and browser are you using?
How about
|20.p6 21.n6 22.m7 23.p7 24.q8 25.m4 26.n9 27.o9 28.o11 29.t17 30.t15 OR
|20.p6 21.p7 22.o8 23.o9 24.n10 OR ... ?
For the C-P problem, I have had it with a variety of flavors and versions of linux, and several versions of firefox. But it's easy to work around, if I use the mouse to select Edit/Copy, instead of typing ctrl-c. I thought I had tried this before posting, but I'm so addicted to the keyboard that I apparently accidentally used the keyboard version of mouse selection (alt-E-C).
I remember also thinking, if |22.m9 then 23.n12 (I have to close that up because 23.n10 24.l11 25.n12 26.k13 is disastrous). So 23.n12 and then 24.r9 25.r10, which looks good for White, or 24.p8 which I had already misjudged as a win for White, except in this scenario there is the possibility of making a 25.m8 threat thru the little gap. But now I see 24.q8, and now nothing seems to work for White. Yikes! Did I dodge a bullet?
Dushoff: Thanks. I guess I was light on the Linux testing. I have no desktop Linux at the moment. Is it just Firefox? Did you try any other popular browsers?