Boston Tournament

Yesterday, I played in the Boston tournament, was much fun. I met old friends and new friends and played games too!

I had been having my normal pre-tourney 'I am going to lose ALL my games' stress-out and had been whining my lack of self confidence. But thanks to the help of some wiser people, mostly got over it. Mostly ^^

It also helps that I spent most of Saturday outdoors, enjoying the sun, hiking, spending time with friends. Kept my mind of my suckiness at go :p

The tournament started off badly by losing my first game against a 1d. I messed up a local fight, badly so.

Second game, I had to give 2H to a 2k. I had been wondering whether I would be able to give stones, and it was hard, but not impossible. I managed to pull ahead till I ignored some aji in one of my groups and lost too many stones in the process. Lesson of the game 'When ahead, play thickly' Yes, I know, I have heard that before, this was a good reminder.

Still, even with the loss, I felt mostly good about my game and was more confident about the notion of giving stones. Good, because the next game, I gave 3H to a 3k. This didn't go as well, I was behind in territory. But he left weaknesses in his groups, which I could exploit and he resigned. Lesson of the game: 'When ahead, play thickly'.

At least I won one game now, so the last game didn't matter as much. I know it shouldn't matter at all, but I am afraid it still did. I played a 2d, I took B, no komi. I will have to study this game more, I feel I made too many mistakes and he managed to kill a small group of mine. Now I was behind by so much, I followed Guo Juan's advice 'When behind, look for something to kill'. I found it, and killed a bigger group of him right back at him and this was eventually enough to make him resign.

That last game was the only game I entered byo yomi, so I guess I am getting better at managing my time.

Looks like I can't deny AGA shodan rank any longer, I am happy on the one hand. But on the other hand, it is so ridiculously weak, that I realize even more how much I still have to learn.

Since this was origially a shodan challenge blog, will summarize my tourney time table for reaching shodan:

Jan 2005: Boston, 13k, went 1-3.
Apr 2005: Vermont, 11k, went 2-2
July 2005: Boston, 8k, went 2-2
Dec 2005: Massachusetts, 5k, went 2-1
March 2006: Vermont, 3k, went 1-3
Apr 2006: Massachusetts, 3k, went 2-2
May 2006: Boston, 3k, went 1-3
July 2006: UVGC, 4k, went 0-4
Dec 2006: Vermont, 2k, went 1-2
March 2007: Montreal, 1k, went 2-1
Apr 2007: Boston, 1d, went 2-2

Thanks to all the wonderful people who have helped me reach my original goal! I am amazed about how giving the go world has been, and fully intend to keep giving back to it. Now I am ready to start learning about go :)