Should I be worried?
Saturday, July 26, 2008
Friday, July 25, 2008
Well...
Let's just say I still have lots of room for improvement in my tournament play.
First game against European 2d, I lost.
Second game, against American 1k, another loss.
Third game, against 2d, lost.
Fourth game, against 4k, giving 4H, lost.
Yes, that is 0-4. It happens. Will study my game records and get stronger. I feel good about getting tournament experiences and having good games to review. Now I just need to figure out how to win in tournaments ^^
First game against European 2d, I lost.
Second game, against American 1k, another loss.
Third game, against 2d, lost.
Fourth game, against 4k, giving 4H, lost.
Yes, that is 0-4. It happens. Will study my game records and get stronger. I feel good about getting tournament experiences and having good games to review. Now I just need to figure out how to win in tournaments ^^
Friday, July 18, 2008
Boston Tournament
Today made arrangements so that I can go to Boston on Sunday to play in the MGA tournament. Looking forward to a day full of go and serious games.
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Back to Basics Yet Again
And yet again, I find myself going back to basics. Corner shapes. Been there before, will be there again, and trying to regain my earlier mastery of L-groups, J-groups, and variants. Or should it be called mastery if I have forgotten so many details?
Anyway, I am studying basic corner shapes and pondering the fact that go study always end up going back to basics. How peculiar. And I never seem to have mastered any of the basics as much as I should. How annoying!
Maybe it's time to reread Lessons in the Fundamentals of Go, just need to find some spare time somewhere.
For now, a L-group problem for fun and entertainment, black to play.
Enjoy!
Anyway, I am studying basic corner shapes and pondering the fact that go study always end up going back to basics. How peculiar. And I never seem to have mastered any of the basics as much as I should. How annoying!
Maybe it's time to reread Lessons in the Fundamentals of Go, just need to find some spare time somewhere.
For now, a L-group problem for fun and entertainment, black to play.
Enjoy!
Saturday, July 12, 2008
The Unbearable Lightness of Being
More of the teaching game against minue.
Second interesting situation in the game:
Here, we had a fight in the upper left, which got good result for black, and black needs to figure out what to do now. Sounds easy, eh?
I looked at the board, and decided that I wanted to pull out my F10 stones. Mostly for lack of finding better moves, not because I was convinced it was the right thing to do. The game goes downhill very fast from there. Bad bad bad idea.
What I didn't recognize, was how light my F10 stones were. I used them to get good corner result. They served their purpose and are disposable now. Instead, the focus point of the game is somewhere else.
Let's pretend black will pass, where would white like to play? White would love to get move A. Black just has to prevent white from doing so, and black's game is fine.
Black has pretty easy way of checking the top, for example this:
Game is good for black now.
Moral of the story: Don't try to save light stones by making them heavy.
The game review has more followups and variations.
Second interesting situation in the game:
Here, we had a fight in the upper left, which got good result for black, and black needs to figure out what to do now. Sounds easy, eh?
I looked at the board, and decided that I wanted to pull out my F10 stones. Mostly for lack of finding better moves, not because I was convinced it was the right thing to do. The game goes downhill very fast from there. Bad bad bad idea.
What I didn't recognize, was how light my F10 stones were. I used them to get good corner result. They served their purpose and are disposable now. Instead, the focus point of the game is somewhere else.
Let's pretend black will pass, where would white like to play? White would love to get move A. Black just has to prevent white from doing so, and black's game is fine.
Black has pretty easy way of checking the top, for example this:
Game is good for black now.
Moral of the story: Don't try to save light stones by making them heavy.
The game review has more followups and variations.
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Interesting Moves
I played a game against my teacher Minue with two interesting board situations. This was a 2H game. Here is the first board situation. Black to move.
This was where I wasn't sure what would be the correct move for this board. I ended up playing C12:
When I self reviewed the game, with some friends, I did not really like that move, and thought I should have played L17 or E16 instead. Minue didn't agree and said C12 wasn't bad, so that wasn't my big mistake this game. Although E16 got a 'This move is ok too'.
The interesting moves he showed me here were those:
I never pondered that follow up, will have to experiment with it. The other move I could consider was this one:
Interesting ideas.
My big mistake was later during this game, but that will have to be posted another day. Stay tuned for further developments!
This was where I wasn't sure what would be the correct move for this board. I ended up playing C12:
When I self reviewed the game, with some friends, I did not really like that move, and thought I should have played L17 or E16 instead. Minue didn't agree and said C12 wasn't bad, so that wasn't my big mistake this game. Although E16 got a 'This move is ok too'.
The interesting moves he showed me here were those:
I never pondered that follow up, will have to experiment with it. The other move I could consider was this one:
Interesting ideas.
My big mistake was later during this game, but that will have to be posted another day. Stay tuned for further developments!
Tuesday, July 08, 2008
Focus
Lesson of the day: stay focused!
Yes, I know that has been a lesson many other days. Today, it hit home when I had killed a group, was comfortably ahead, and listened to my kids playing instead of thinking about the game.
He threatens to connect to his dead group and I totally make an unrelated move, taking a few points, but allowing him to get back to life.
What was an easy game, now turned into a 'grab every point you can!' one and I ended up winning by a few points. It helped that his resurrected group consisted of 30 stones surrounding zero points. Gotta love stone efficiency!
And gotta love focus or lack thereof. It is bad form to lose focus during game, just because one is winning. I guess after focus, I might revisit 'Winning a won game.'
Yes, I know that has been a lesson many other days. Today, it hit home when I had killed a group, was comfortably ahead, and listened to my kids playing instead of thinking about the game.
He threatens to connect to his dead group and I totally make an unrelated move, taking a few points, but allowing him to get back to life.
What was an easy game, now turned into a 'grab every point you can!' one and I ended up winning by a few points. It helped that his resurrected group consisted of 30 stones surrounding zero points. Gotta love stone efficiency!
And gotta love focus or lack thereof. It is bad form to lose focus during game, just because one is winning. I guess after focus, I might revisit 'Winning a won game.'
Saturday, July 05, 2008
Simul Game
Yes, I know, I have been absent from this blog for too long. I seem to have an overabundance of life lately. Not in a bad way, just in an overwhelming way. One good part of life was becoming an American citizen yesterday. Wow! Huge step, I am no longer Dutch.
But back to the weiqi work shop in the Woodlands. The last day, our teacher gave a simul. We paired up to decrease the number of boards. The group was way too big for individual boards. The pairing up worked out quite well. It was nice to have someone to talk about the game and discuss best next move.
Of course, we ended up losing the game, but we had a great grand finale, in which we suicided our own corner. Well, technically it was a ko, but we had played all our ko threats as timesujis.
And yes, that was the Tsumego of the Day I posted last month. Enjoy watching us mess it up.
But back to the weiqi work shop in the Woodlands. The last day, our teacher gave a simul. We paired up to decrease the number of boards. The group was way too big for individual boards. The pairing up worked out quite well. It was nice to have someone to talk about the game and discuss best next move.
Of course, we ended up losing the game, but we had a great grand finale, in which we suicided our own corner. Well, technically it was a ko, but we had played all our ko threats as timesujis.
And yes, that was the Tsumego of the Day I posted last month. Enjoy watching us mess it up.
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