"Satisfaction lies in the effort, not in the attainment. Full effort is full victory."
-- Mahatma Gandhi
Of course, this means that full effort is required, which I have to admit is not always happening in my online games. Something to work at!
Saturday, April 26, 2008
Quote of the Day
Just a reminder of something we should know, but not always easy to remember.
"Satisfaction lies in the effort, not in the attainment. Full effort is full victory."
-- Mahatma Gandhi
Of course, this means that full effort is required, which I have to admit is not always happening in my online games. Something to work at!
"Satisfaction lies in the effort, not in the attainment. Full effort is full victory."
-- Mahatma Gandhi
Of course, this means that full effort is required, which I have to admit is not always happening in my online games. Something to work at!
Sunday, April 20, 2008
Quick Boston Update
Game 1: against 2k, giving 2H, won by 8.5 points.
Game 2: against 2d, i took black, no komi, lost by 2.5 points because of sloppy yose in byo yomi.
Game 3: against 3k, giving 3H, lost by resign when I was 10-15 points behind still and not enough end game left.
Game 4: against 4k, giving 4H, lost by resign when I couldn't find any more chances and I was too much behind.
More later, sleep first.
Game 2: against 2d, i took black, no komi, lost by 2.5 points because of sloppy yose in byo yomi.
Game 3: against 3k, giving 3H, lost by resign when I was 10-15 points behind still and not enough end game left.
Game 4: against 4k, giving 4H, lost by resign when I couldn't find any more chances and I was too much behind.
More later, sleep first.
Saturday, April 19, 2008
Boston Go Tournament Tomorrow!
Tomorrow, Boston Spring Tournament!
Will be interesting, I haven't been playing as much as usual. I guess I will either play well and win many games, or play horrible, and lose many. Both ways, I will learn many things, I am sure. Wish me luck! Or maybe just calmness and focus.
Will be interesting, I haven't been playing as much as usual. I guess I will either play well and win many games, or play horrible, and lose many. Both ways, I will learn many things, I am sure. Wish me luck! Or maybe just calmness and focus.
Saturday, April 05, 2008
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Oza Game Six: The Shame!
This game was ...
bad.
I could come up with many excuses, about being tired, about trying too hard, about it being the last game. But the story is, that I just played some bad moves without enough thinking. Or without thinking at all.
My favorite review quote: "White A is just unthinkable. If I were white, I wouldn't be able to sleep that night, full of anger, having played this humiliating move"
This summarizes the game, it mostly teaches me to take a deep breath, focus and be present. Not just play the first likely move. Or unlikely move. This game is more about lack of discipline than about lack of go knowledge.
The good news is that I had a great time at the oza, meeting many people I had only met on line before. On Monday, we did some sightseeing of Baltimore, which was fun in itself. And I learned lots from all my games, now I just need to apply it.
bad.
I could come up with many excuses, about being tired, about trying too hard, about it being the last game. But the story is, that I just played some bad moves without enough thinking. Or without thinking at all.
My favorite review quote: "White A is just unthinkable. If I were white, I wouldn't be able to sleep that night, full of anger, having played this humiliating move"
This summarizes the game, it mostly teaches me to take a deep breath, focus and be present. Not just play the first likely move. Or unlikely move. This game is more about lack of discipline than about lack of go knowledge.
The good news is that I had a great time at the oza, meeting many people I had only met on line before. On Monday, we did some sightseeing of Baltimore, which was fun in itself. And I learned lots from all my games, now I just need to apply it.
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Oza Game Five: Moyo Madness
Yes, I know, I have not been posting. Got kind of distracted by kicking out my husband. Which was good decision, but had me pay less attention to go for a few weeks. Life is good now though, the lack of negative energy in the house is amazing, and I hope my go will reflect that. Some day ^^
I almost decided to skip my Oza game 5 and 6, but I want to add them for completeness. I'll keep it pretty short though.
Game five story in a nutshell: he made big moyo, I tried to stay calm and not panic. The important word being 'tried' Somehow, it didn't quite work out that way ^^ Here is one of the positions.
The calm thing to do would be to play at A, get thick and attack the B group. Sendol showed this:
Not quite what happened in the game. I guess this is where I lost my calmness, and things kind of detoriated. I ended up losing by 6.5 points. I will share my sendol review of the game. It has many interesting variations. Too bad I didn't find them during the game. Enjoy!
I almost decided to skip my Oza game 5 and 6, but I want to add them for completeness. I'll keep it pretty short though.
Game five story in a nutshell: he made big moyo, I tried to stay calm and not panic. The important word being 'tried' Somehow, it didn't quite work out that way ^^ Here is one of the positions.
The calm thing to do would be to play at A, get thick and attack the B group. Sendol showed this:
Not quite what happened in the game. I guess this is where I lost my calmness, and things kind of detoriated. I ended up losing by 6.5 points. I will share my sendol review of the game. It has many interesting variations. Too bad I didn't find them during the game. Enjoy!
Thursday, January 31, 2008
Oza Round Four: Calmness
Sunday morning, I woke up at the tail end of a dream. In my dream, we just had played a game, were counting, and I won the game by a few points. Good start of the day, before it even had started ^^
I talked to a friend about calmness and meditating, and we both agreed we should meditate just now, just for a few minutes before the game madness started. It wasn't much, but even the few minutes helped me to find and keep my calmness during my first game.
This time, I got black again. I had been studying Chinese opening.
Geez, I sure hoped this was not going to be one of those boring moyo versus moyo games! I decided that I would do it the easy way, invade at A and then simply reduce his moyo enough to win the game. Sounds like a piece of cake, doesn't it?
We played a few more moves.
I paused. This smelled a lot like a moyo pivot. The shape seemed to be for black to play at A, but I did not want to give white a good move at B in reply.
After thinking for a while I decided to play this way.
In my universe, this prevented white from having a good move to build his moyo. In reality, playing at A would have been correct. White's move at B would be answered by playing in upper right corner at Q14.
This game black position has an invasion at H17, and looking back, my move feels clumsy.
Luckily, my opponent cut me at A, which gave me a nice, juicy group to chase. I was not unhappy.
Time to make mistake in direction of play. I played M18, figured I would strenghten my top group. But that group is fine for now, and I'd better pressure from the other direction at P13. This is what the board would look like with correct direction of play.
My result wasn't bad, but I still wish I would have played P13. It seems like such an obvious move now.
We played, and we played, and we played. He got a nice moyo, so I did a lot of counting to make sure I stayed ahead. I stopped recording here.
I won the game by 11.5 points. I fully believe that the few minutes of meditation before this game helped me maintain my calmness and focus. I am sure there is a lesson to be learned from that. I hope I am finally ready to learn it.
Sendol review of this game.
I talked to a friend about calmness and meditating, and we both agreed we should meditate just now, just for a few minutes before the game madness started. It wasn't much, but even the few minutes helped me to find and keep my calmness during my first game.
This time, I got black again. I had been studying Chinese opening.
Geez, I sure hoped this was not going to be one of those boring moyo versus moyo games! I decided that I would do it the easy way, invade at A and then simply reduce his moyo enough to win the game. Sounds like a piece of cake, doesn't it?
We played a few more moves.
I paused. This smelled a lot like a moyo pivot. The shape seemed to be for black to play at A, but I did not want to give white a good move at B in reply.
After thinking for a while I decided to play this way.
In my universe, this prevented white from having a good move to build his moyo. In reality, playing at A would have been correct. White's move at B would be answered by playing in upper right corner at Q14.
This game black position has an invasion at H17, and looking back, my move feels clumsy.
Luckily, my opponent cut me at A, which gave me a nice, juicy group to chase. I was not unhappy.
Time to make mistake in direction of play. I played M18, figured I would strenghten my top group. But that group is fine for now, and I'd better pressure from the other direction at P13. This is what the board would look like with correct direction of play.
My result wasn't bad, but I still wish I would have played P13. It seems like such an obvious move now.
We played, and we played, and we played. He got a nice moyo, so I did a lot of counting to make sure I stayed ahead. I stopped recording here.
I won the game by 11.5 points. I fully believe that the few minutes of meditation before this game helped me maintain my calmness and focus. I am sure there is a lesson to be learned from that. I hope I am finally ready to learn it.
Sendol review of this game.
Monday, January 28, 2008
Oza Round Three: Death and Destruction
Board 42, on which I played three out of my six tournament games. I am sure there is some cosmic significance in that, even if I haven't found it yet.
Game three was my worst game of the tournament. I don't know what I was doing, but it wasn't very good. Minue reviewed the game and talked a lot about what is thickness and what is not thickness. Which, frankly stated, was more interesting than my game.
The game was too many mistakes, resulting in many dead groups all over the board. The end count was almost like a 25 kyu game, half the board was black, half the board was white. Luckily , my white half of the board was about 30 points bigger. It felt more like a swindle than like an earned win though, I killed a group that should have lived easily.
About thickness. How to know whether a group is thick or not? Basically, it needs to have at least two of
Next requirement, it needs to be outwards facing with room for development. If it is inwards facing, it is just solid, not thick. Also, thickness implies efficiency. A local position can be thickness on one board, but overconcentrated on another board, when there is another group too close by. Minue's review has many examples.
It had been a long day, so we didn't want to spend too much time getting dinner. The best solution seemed to be to go to Ruby Tuesday. Sounded like fast and reasonable food. Turns out I was wrong on both counts, it took us ages, and my veggie burger was more awful than I have ever tasted. On the other hand, we had fun eating together, and the salad bar was good. Not to mention the fact that the Vermont Go Club managed to find a geocache while waiting for our seating.
Game three was my worst game of the tournament. I don't know what I was doing, but it wasn't very good. Minue reviewed the game and talked a lot about what is thickness and what is not thickness. Which, frankly stated, was more interesting than my game.
The game was too many mistakes, resulting in many dead groups all over the board. The end count was almost like a 25 kyu game, half the board was black, half the board was white. Luckily , my white half of the board was about 30 points bigger. It felt more like a swindle than like an earned win though, I killed a group that should have lived easily.
About thickness. How to know whether a group is thick or not? Basically, it needs to have at least two of
- many eyes
- strong connection
- plus, many liberties
Next requirement, it needs to be outwards facing with room for development. If it is inwards facing, it is just solid, not thick. Also, thickness implies efficiency. A local position can be thickness on one board, but overconcentrated on another board, when there is another group too close by. Minue's review has many examples.
It had been a long day, so we didn't want to spend too much time getting dinner. The best solution seemed to be to go to Ruby Tuesday. Sounded like fast and reasonable food. Turns out I was wrong on both counts, it took us ages, and my veggie burger was more awful than I have ever tasted. On the other hand, we had fun eating together, and the salad bar was good. Not to mention the fact that the Vermont Go Club managed to find a geocache while waiting for our seating.
Saturday, January 26, 2008
Oza Round Two: The Joys of Hastiness
Game two was another enjoyable game, the opening went well and I felt good. I was white. Review by sendol.
Opening highlights:
White has made her first mistake already, by not replying to black move five. Luckily, black is a generous player and decides to make a mistake too.
If you know the UL joseki, you will know that black now needs to atari at B17. He can end in sente so he can attack the white upper right corner. But this black atari'ed the other way. I ended up with nice profit.
Next local fight happened in upper right.
White played A after black approached, which, in hindsight, was way too hasty, and not necessary. She should just have replied at B and things would be fine.
Now black can jump out and things are pretty easy for him. Instead, black surprisingly attached to my A stone, leading to good result for white.
White got nice big profit again. I felt pretty good by now, and played A. After sendol's review, I decided that I'd rather have played B, a nice and thick move.
The game goes on for a while, I feel good and powerful and almost perfect, make mistakes, but so does he. The details aren't too important (check sgf if you want to see). But the story is funny.
I decided that this was important moment in middle game. I had some ideas, but not sure which was best. I had a move I was dying to play, but was not sure whether this was the best timing. I mostly wanted it because it was cute. Since I tried to prevent myself from playing hasty moves (not successfully so far this game) I got up, and wandered off. I walked around for a bit. Got myself some water. Thought about the move, thought about better alternatives, thought about finding my calmness (not that I did, but at least I THOUGHT about it), and walked back to the board.
I sat down, read for a bit more, and then played the worst and hastiest move ever. Things fell apart pretty fast, I was annoyed at myself and went on to lose the game. I still had chances but didn't find them.
Oh well ^^
At least I proved to myself that hastiness is never good. Since I didn't know that yet :p
Opening highlights:
White has made her first mistake already, by not replying to black move five. Luckily, black is a generous player and decides to make a mistake too.
If you know the UL joseki, you will know that black now needs to atari at B17. He can end in sente so he can attack the white upper right corner. But this black atari'ed the other way. I ended up with nice profit.
Next local fight happened in upper right.
White played A after black approached, which, in hindsight, was way too hasty, and not necessary. She should just have replied at B and things would be fine.
Now black can jump out and things are pretty easy for him. Instead, black surprisingly attached to my A stone, leading to good result for white.
White got nice big profit again. I felt pretty good by now, and played A. After sendol's review, I decided that I'd rather have played B, a nice and thick move.
The game goes on for a while, I feel good and powerful and almost perfect, make mistakes, but so does he. The details aren't too important (check sgf if you want to see). But the story is funny.
I decided that this was important moment in middle game. I had some ideas, but not sure which was best. I had a move I was dying to play, but was not sure whether this was the best timing. I mostly wanted it because it was cute. Since I tried to prevent myself from playing hasty moves (not successfully so far this game) I got up, and wandered off. I walked around for a bit. Got myself some water. Thought about the move, thought about better alternatives, thought about finding my calmness (not that I did, but at least I THOUGHT about it), and walked back to the board.
I sat down, read for a bit more, and then played the worst and hastiest move ever. Things fell apart pretty fast, I was annoyed at myself and went on to lose the game. I still had chances but didn't find them.
Oh well ^^
At least I proved to myself that hastiness is never good. Since I didn't know that yet :p
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Oza Round One: Liberties Matter
First game, board 42, I took black. I thought I was doing pretty well till I got greedy and tried to kill. Sendol looked at the game, and made me realize I know nothing about go. Big surprise, eh?
In this game, I got greedy and tried to kill. Which frankly lead to a mess. I had focused on this hidden liberty. The liberty that wasn't there in my reading, or my reality, but suddenly popped up when I tried to take the ten stones, and he politely pointed out 'They still have a liberty'.
Oh...
The liberty which was hidden between the bushes. The liberty who decided he did not want to be seen. And he wasn't. At least, not by me. It was one well-hidden liberty.
During review, I found out that that liberty issue wasn't a big deal at all, but many other things were. Of course, that didn't fix my 'I am guilty and I suck' feelings, but I decided I could work on those later. I still believe that every liberty in that group should have been accounted for. "It is midnight. Do you know where your liberties are?"
Some highlights:
Here I played A directly, but I should have played the two upper sansans first. I still have a hard time knowing when to play sansan and when to leave it so one can choose another joseki if needed.
For a long time, I always played it. When I realized I didn't always have to play it, I often ignored it. Followed by a period when I decided that it was too big to omit. Of course, that couldn't last, and someone convinced me that it is better to keep choices open. Which I have been doing. But shouldn't have done on this board. This position looks so much better with the sansan exchanges.
I think it is time to figure out when I want to play it and when I want to omit. Can't be too hard to learn, can it?
Here my opponent plays a greedy move (glad I never play greedy like that! Cough, cough... )
I failed to punish correctly. Where I knew I was doing a splendid job, sendol corrected me on that. I got remarks like
'sendol [-]: b too passive'. (me and my passive playing style...)
Leading to
Now if White plays at A, White will be clearly leading. Luckily, my opponent missed this opportunity and gave me some more chances.
I am too tired to show them all, but this link will get you the sendol reviewed game.
For fun, this is when I stopped recording because I was in byo yomi.
He killed my A group, I retaliated by killing his B group. It was a big mess, I was running out of time, and making way too many mistakes. I resigned.
I would like to tell about my other games, and tell many more stories, but my life is interfering. I started putting up a few oza pictures here, but I still have many to upload.
In this game, I got greedy and tried to kill. Which frankly lead to a mess. I had focused on this hidden liberty. The liberty that wasn't there in my reading, or my reality, but suddenly popped up when I tried to take the ten stones, and he politely pointed out 'They still have a liberty'.
Oh...
The liberty which was hidden between the bushes. The liberty who decided he did not want to be seen. And he wasn't. At least, not by me. It was one well-hidden liberty.
During review, I found out that that liberty issue wasn't a big deal at all, but many other things were. Of course, that didn't fix my 'I am guilty and I suck' feelings, but I decided I could work on those later. I still believe that every liberty in that group should have been accounted for. "It is midnight. Do you know where your liberties are?"
Some highlights:
Here I played A directly, but I should have played the two upper sansans first. I still have a hard time knowing when to play sansan and when to leave it so one can choose another joseki if needed.
For a long time, I always played it. When I realized I didn't always have to play it, I often ignored it. Followed by a period when I decided that it was too big to omit. Of course, that couldn't last, and someone convinced me that it is better to keep choices open. Which I have been doing. But shouldn't have done on this board. This position looks so much better with the sansan exchanges.
I think it is time to figure out when I want to play it and when I want to omit. Can't be too hard to learn, can it?
Here my opponent plays a greedy move (glad I never play greedy like that! Cough, cough... )
I failed to punish correctly. Where I knew I was doing a splendid job, sendol corrected me on that. I got remarks like
'sendol [-]: b too passive'. (me and my passive playing style...)
Leading to
Now if White plays at A, White will be clearly leading. Luckily, my opponent missed this opportunity and gave me some more chances.
I am too tired to show them all, but this link will get you the sendol reviewed game.
For fun, this is when I stopped recording because I was in byo yomi.
He killed my A group, I retaliated by killing his B group. It was a big mess, I was running out of time, and making way too many mistakes. I resigned.
I would like to tell about my other games, and tell many more stories, but my life is interfering. I started putting up a few oza pictures here, but I still have many to upload.
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Back Home From Oza
One word I can say about Oza: 'Wow!'
I had a wonderful time. I wish I could start telling you all the stories right now, but I would like to look at my games, download pictures and maybe even get some sleep. I do have a life to attend to, now that I am home again.
The short story: I went 2-4 at 1k. All six games are full of learning opportunities, I can't wait to sit down and look at them seriously. I spent some time with my first game, and had an informal opening review with GeorgeW about my second game, but that's it for now.
HKA did a wonderful job organizing this tourney in Baltimore. I think we can safely volunteer him again. I met many old and new friends: goddess, Meepy, Flameblade, ellimist, SergioP, Stormer, and gottago. I am too tired to think of everyone.
I have been composing titles for all my games to tell about them over the next few days. Apart from go, there was The Best Thai Food Ever, The Unexpected Pillow Menu, The Geocaches Which Didn't Want to be Found, The Waiter's Meltdown, The Frozen Swimming Pool, The Worst Veggieburger Ever, and The Pilot Wandering Into My Friends Room. Oh, and let's not forget the Crabcakes Recommended by All and they were right.
I will study day and night to become stronger for next oza. I can't wait!
I had a wonderful time. I wish I could start telling you all the stories right now, but I would like to look at my games, download pictures and maybe even get some sleep. I do have a life to attend to, now that I am home again.
The short story: I went 2-4 at 1k. All six games are full of learning opportunities, I can't wait to sit down and look at them seriously. I spent some time with my first game, and had an informal opening review with GeorgeW about my second game, but that's it for now.
HKA did a wonderful job organizing this tourney in Baltimore. I think we can safely volunteer him again. I met many old and new friends: goddess, Meepy, Flameblade, ellimist, SergioP, Stormer, and gottago. I am too tired to think of everyone.
I have been composing titles for all my games to tell about them over the next few days. Apart from go, there was The Best Thai Food Ever, The Unexpected Pillow Menu, The Geocaches Which Didn't Want to be Found, The Waiter's Meltdown, The Frozen Swimming Pool, The Worst Veggieburger Ever, and The Pilot Wandering Into My Friends Room. Oh, and let's not forget the Crabcakes Recommended by All and they were right.
I will study day and night to become stronger for next oza. I can't wait!
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