It's over! I played 19 out of 20 games and ended up 10th place out of 59 players. Phew, such insanity. But also such fun. I wish I could say that I will never do this again, but I'd better not make promises like that.
This tournament has shown me clearly that I shouldn't play go during the daytime though. My playing quality goes way down with the continuous interruptions. I'll go back to my normal schedule of studying during the day, and playing at night. Much better.
Spending some time studying all the mistakes I made during this tournament. After I get some sleep, that is ^^
Saturday, May 20, 2006
Friday, May 19, 2006
Variety
The iron man insanity is still going on, and I have to say that I have played a nice variety of opponents. Yesterday included a 24k and a 5d, today I played a 2d and a 30k so far. Nothing like getting wiped off the board first thing in the morning ^^
Last night at 1am, I decided to take a short nap before my 2am game. I put my alarm clock on 1:45, so that I would not miss my game. I check the settings about three times, just to be sure I wouldn't oversleep. Next thing I know, I wake up and it is 2:10am. So I missed that game, I was annoyed with myself and checked my alarm clock again to figure out why it didn't wake me up. Very simple. I had set it for 1:45 PM. I wish americans would use 24-hours time, like civilized countries do.
That was the only game I missed so far though, I am now at 18 out of 19 games, not too bad. Still annoyed though ^^
One more game to go, I hope I can make it. I have something going on tonight, but could be back in time to play. And otherwise, oh well. I am not going to have perfect attendance anyway ^^
Last night at 1am, I decided to take a short nap before my 2am game. I put my alarm clock on 1:45, so that I would not miss my game. I check the settings about three times, just to be sure I wouldn't oversleep. Next thing I know, I wake up and it is 2:10am. So I missed that game, I was annoyed with myself and checked my alarm clock again to figure out why it didn't wake me up. Very simple. I had set it for 1:45 PM. I wish americans would use 24-hours time, like civilized countries do.
That was the only game I missed so far though, I am now at 18 out of 19 games, not too bad. Still annoyed though ^^
One more game to go, I hope I can make it. I have something going on tonight, but could be back in time to play. And otherwise, oh well. I am not going to have perfect attendance anyway ^^
Wednesday, May 17, 2006
One Colour Go
Today, at club, I played my very first game of one colour go. I had heard it wasn't that hard, and I have to agree. It was amazingly easy to remember which stone was which colour. It was made even easier by the fact that I stayed away from complicated fighting situations ^^ It also was made easier by the fact that I eventually resigned.
What I found hard was seeing the health of groups at a glance (which got me into trouble) and reading out aji around groups. I guess I will have to practice it more.
After the game, my opponent made me change all the W stones to real W stones, just to test whether i recalled correctly. I missed one W stone somewhere, but everything else was fine. Interesting experience.
What I found hard was seeing the health of groups at a glance (which got me into trouble) and reading out aji around groups. I guess I will have to practice it more.
After the game, my opponent made me change all the W stones to real W stones, just to test whether i recalled correctly. I missed one W stone somewhere, but everything else was fine. Interesting experience.
Bad, Bad, Bad Mistake
Last night, I finally had a focused tournament game. I played against a 5k. He opened high chinese, I played one of the Chinese counter strategies.
When I played D7, I expected him to take E4, but he decided to split the top instead. I happily took E4 myself, and this position felt good for W. Although I have to admit that I my positional judgement is not strong enough to say that for sure.
He replied E5, and of course, I should have played the outside hane at F5, for which this result is to be expected.
This seems an ok result for W. But instead of that outside hane at F5, I made a bad mistake and played the inside hane at D5. Bad, bad, bad mistake! Very hasty. This was one of those moves where you click, stop, and stare in horror at the board. Where you get that sinking feeling of 'OMG, why the heck did I play that move???' in your stomach. This is the result I got. Bad for W. Sigh. I still can't believe I did that. Not like I didn't know it should be the outside hane. I end up with this sucky result (12 @ 7 )
I was very annoyed with myself. I had only one person to blame for this position, and that was me. I sighed and went on with the game, expecting to lose, but wanting to fight back and play good moves the rest of the game.
We played and we played, and we played. He got a huge moyo, I got a somewhat smaller moyo. I tried to grab points where I could and play actively. Still, I counted myself behind. Not by a huge amount anymore, but behind nonetheless. We were so far in the game already that I decided to just play it out, it seemed a shame to resign when there were only 20 or 30 moves left. I tried to catch up as much as I could in end game.
We played one of those manhood ko's, which I thought wasn't going to make much difference in the outcome. Still, this being an iron man tournament after all, I was committed to winning it. We found ko threat after ko threat, until he played away from the ko, even although he still had a ko threat left. I filled the ko, we both passed and I watched the counting. OMG!!! W+1.5 !!! That was quite a surprise. I clearly need to work on my counting. I tend to overestimate my opponent, while I under-estimate myself. Which doesn't impact games with a somewhat bigger margin, but in this case, it clearly did impact the result I counted.
I must have gained in yose, I will have to sit down and look at this game today. I was tempted to resign a few times during this game, but I am happy that I managed to get back into the game instead.
This morning, things didn't go so well. I managed to turn my stones into an earth worm which was just pathetically thrashing around. After a while I resigned in disgust, I had made too much of a mess. Yes, I could have lived, but with a horrible stone efficiency and I had really hurt two of my other groups. It was too painful to continue the game.
We are halfway there, ten games down, ten to go. Yes, this tournament is insanity, but I have to admit that I enjoy playing in it and trying to beat the challenge of playing as many games as I can. Not to mention the fact that I have played a nice variety of opponents.
When I played D7, I expected him to take E4, but he decided to split the top instead. I happily took E4 myself, and this position felt good for W. Although I have to admit that I my positional judgement is not strong enough to say that for sure.
He replied E5, and of course, I should have played the outside hane at F5, for which this result is to be expected.
This seems an ok result for W. But instead of that outside hane at F5, I made a bad mistake and played the inside hane at D5. Bad, bad, bad mistake! Very hasty. This was one of those moves where you click, stop, and stare in horror at the board. Where you get that sinking feeling of 'OMG, why the heck did I play that move???' in your stomach. This is the result I got. Bad for W. Sigh. I still can't believe I did that. Not like I didn't know it should be the outside hane. I end up with this sucky result (12 @ 7 )
I was very annoyed with myself. I had only one person to blame for this position, and that was me. I sighed and went on with the game, expecting to lose, but wanting to fight back and play good moves the rest of the game.
We played and we played, and we played. He got a huge moyo, I got a somewhat smaller moyo. I tried to grab points where I could and play actively. Still, I counted myself behind. Not by a huge amount anymore, but behind nonetheless. We were so far in the game already that I decided to just play it out, it seemed a shame to resign when there were only 20 or 30 moves left. I tried to catch up as much as I could in end game.
We played one of those manhood ko's, which I thought wasn't going to make much difference in the outcome. Still, this being an iron man tournament after all, I was committed to winning it. We found ko threat after ko threat, until he played away from the ko, even although he still had a ko threat left. I filled the ko, we both passed and I watched the counting. OMG!!! W+1.5 !!! That was quite a surprise. I clearly need to work on my counting. I tend to overestimate my opponent, while I under-estimate myself. Which doesn't impact games with a somewhat bigger margin, but in this case, it clearly did impact the result I counted.
I must have gained in yose, I will have to sit down and look at this game today. I was tempted to resign a few times during this game, but I am happy that I managed to get back into the game instead.
This morning, things didn't go so well. I managed to turn my stones into an earth worm which was just pathetically thrashing around. After a while I resigned in disgust, I had made too much of a mess. Yes, I could have lived, but with a horrible stone efficiency and I had really hurt two of my other groups. It was too painful to continue the game.
We are halfway there, ten games down, ten to go. Yes, this tournament is insanity, but I have to admit that I enjoy playing in it and trying to beat the challenge of playing as many games as I can. Not to mention the fact that I have played a nice variety of opponents.
Tuesday, May 16, 2006
Now I Remember...
Why I usually don't play day time games on line. Just too many distractions, I have managed to lose every single iron man game so far. On the upside, I did make it to all seven of the rounds. Of course, this means that I am now more committed to play as many games as I can, if only to remind myself that day time is for go studying, and night time is for playing :) I always joke I lose seven stones when all the kids are awake, and that seems pretty close to the truth.
I am sure each one of those games will have lessons to teach me, so I'll sit down later and calmly go through today's games. For now I just want to have some tea and study on my goban.
The ironic thing is that during my last game, I had 12 kids running around, a plugged toilet, and general chaos. And now that the game is over, almost all the kids are on a walk, back to their own home, asleep, or just doing something quietly. They have a good sense of timing ^^
I have been working on tesuji study, trying to do it in a more organized way. I want to improve both my speed and my reading depth. Lots of room for improvement.
Someone asked about the PDA I use. It's a Palm M105, which I picked up for maybe $40 on ebay last year. Even then, it was old technology already. It is perfect for my purpose though, I use it for go and geocaching. I use PilotGOne for my go studying, and am mostly happy with the program.
Ah, kids are back home with some animal bone, zombies and other assorted goodies. I'll go find a quiet corner and hide with my goban.
I am sure each one of those games will have lessons to teach me, so I'll sit down later and calmly go through today's games. For now I just want to have some tea and study on my goban.
The ironic thing is that during my last game, I had 12 kids running around, a plugged toilet, and general chaos. And now that the game is over, almost all the kids are on a walk, back to their own home, asleep, or just doing something quietly. They have a good sense of timing ^^
I have been working on tesuji study, trying to do it in a more organized way. I want to improve both my speed and my reading depth. Lots of room for improvement.
Someone asked about the PDA I use. It's a Palm M105, which I picked up for maybe $40 on ebay last year. Even then, it was old technology already. It is perfect for my purpose though, I use it for go and geocaching. I use PilotGOne for my go studying, and am mostly happy with the program.
Ah, kids are back home with some animal bone, zombies and other assorted goodies. I'll go find a quiet corner and hide with my goban.
Monday, May 15, 2006
Temporary Insanity
Argh, I did it again! I wasn't going to sign up for the KGS Iron Man Tournament. Twenty games in five days, every 6 hours, is insanity. Last year, I managed to play all 20, so I feel that I have been there, done that and could try to behave more sane this time around.
It didn't work. I was strong till about 15 minutes before the tournament. When the announcement came up about the tournament starting in fifteen minutes, I was inevitably drawn to registering. And I can't even play all the games this week I think, I have some other commitments. But that won't keep me from trying anyway ^^
I played one game so far, against a 6k, I did mostly ok till he outread me in the end. Clearly shows I should work more on my tesuji problems. Was a fun game though. This morning, I was supposed to play a game, but my opponent never showed up. He had registered for both the open and the handicap division, and chose to play his handicap game. I had to wait for 45 mins for him to time out, what a pain. So I won on time, but I'd rather lost by playing a good game. Oh well, it is within the rules, but I wish KGS would make it impossible to enter both divisions at the same time.
It didn't work. I was strong till about 15 minutes before the tournament. When the announcement came up about the tournament starting in fifteen minutes, I was inevitably drawn to registering. And I can't even play all the games this week I think, I have some other commitments. But that won't keep me from trying anyway ^^
I played one game so far, against a 6k, I did mostly ok till he outread me in the end. Clearly shows I should work more on my tesuji problems. Was a fun game though. This morning, I was supposed to play a game, but my opponent never showed up. He had registered for both the open and the handicap division, and chose to play his handicap game. I had to wait for 45 mins for him to time out, what a pain. So I won on time, but I'd rather lost by playing a good game. Oh well, it is within the rules, but I wish KGS would make it impossible to enter both divisions at the same time.
Thursday, May 11, 2006
Problems, problems, problems, problems
Have been doing tons of them, I guess that's an advantage of traveling. It turns out I brought way too many books though, I could easily stay another few weeks / months / years and be ok on the go books. Most of the time, I have been using my PDA, it is working out well. It is small and it is totally filled with go problems. My only regret is that I don't have a way to get new games / problem collections on there. But that is not really a big issue.
I have been playing a few games on KGS, but I was not really in a very focused mood, so they were not the best games I have ever played. It was nice as a distraction though. Gotta love the internet, where you can play go with your friends, wherever you are, whenever you want to.
Still don't feel very good at them, I just am way too slow, I will have to do more and more and more till my speed improves.
So much to study, so little time ^^
I have been playing a few games on KGS, but I was not really in a very focused mood, so they were not the best games I have ever played. It was nice as a distraction though. Gotta love the internet, where you can play go with your friends, wherever you are, whenever you want to.
Still don't feel very good at them, I just am way too slow, I will have to do more and more and more till my speed improves.
So much to study, so little time ^^
Saturday, May 06, 2006
You Know The Days Are Getting Longer...
... when dawn is breaking, and the birds are singing when you finally log off from KGS.
This means that there are more hours in the day to study go, right?
I will be traveling next week, so I won't be playing much, will be a good time to focus on problems. I will be stuck in bus, train, airplane for way too much time. The good thing is that I can do go problems without any interruptions. I am putting together a collection to put on my PDA, and I will take some books too, just in case something happens to my PDA collection.
Yes, I do realize that normal people usually don't spend more time on packing their go stuff as opposed to things like clothes. Or shoes. I have friends who have to take just the right shoes everywhere. I guess they have weird priorities. Glad I am not them ^^
For your entertainment, Morsus just added this poem to his user info.
Nanny Ogg has got a knack
At writing blogs she is no hack
But on the board her moves were slack
'Til Minue the whip did crack
And got Nanny back on track
Now she's got a new attack!
Burma Shave
This means that there are more hours in the day to study go, right?
I will be traveling next week, so I won't be playing much, will be a good time to focus on problems. I will be stuck in bus, train, airplane for way too much time. The good thing is that I can do go problems without any interruptions. I am putting together a collection to put on my PDA, and I will take some books too, just in case something happens to my PDA collection.
Yes, I do realize that normal people usually don't spend more time on packing their go stuff as opposed to things like clothes. Or shoes. I have friends who have to take just the right shoes everywhere. I guess they have weird priorities. Glad I am not them ^^
For your entertainment, Morsus just added this poem to his user info.
Nanny Ogg has got a knack
At writing blogs she is no hack
But on the board her moves were slack
'Til Minue the whip did crack
And got Nanny back on track
Now she's got a new attack!
Burma Shave
Friday, May 05, 2006
MGA Spring Tourney
Last Sunday, three players from our go club drove down to Somerville to play in the MGA Spring tourney. It was a good tournament and one of our club members even managed to play a perfect 4-0 and win the tourney.
I didn't do as well, played 1-3, but one of the losses was yet again due to time.
My first game was even, and I got behind, but managed to pull back in an endgame exchange (mutual destruction). This was when byo-yomi madness got to me. I panicked and made a few bad moves, so I resigned.
The second game was another even game, and this time I managed to make enough bad decisions to get myself behind without coming back in end game. Another resignation.
Third game was more of the same, but the fourth game was better. The first three games, I didn't really care about winning or losing, but with the fourth game I did.
You see, the fourth game was against an opponent who I had played before. The last time I played him, I had killed a huge group of him. He continued playing and complicating in the hope of making me run out of time, and he succeeded. Yes, it is within the rules, but the way he did it felt kind of iffy. Especially when he later told me proudly 'The only hope for winning was to make you run out of time' Whatever.
This made me very determined to win my game this time. This was my only handicap game this tournament, I got 3H. I started out badly with a mistake in the corner, I was so annoyed with myself. I had some more doubtful moves, but I managed to pull off a solid win, even after I got into byo yomi. The MGA has a lot friendlier byo yomi than last week though. This was canadian, 25 stones in 5 mins. Much easier than the 4 times 15 secs we had last week.
I enjoyed all my tournament games, and did ok. Not as well as I had wanted to do, but good enough for now. I met a fellow KGSer, snip, which was very sweet. Only that was worth driving up to Boston already. The games were a nice bonus :)
I didn't do as well, played 1-3, but one of the losses was yet again due to time.
My first game was even, and I got behind, but managed to pull back in an endgame exchange (mutual destruction). This was when byo-yomi madness got to me. I panicked and made a few bad moves, so I resigned.
The second game was another even game, and this time I managed to make enough bad decisions to get myself behind without coming back in end game. Another resignation.
Third game was more of the same, but the fourth game was better. The first three games, I didn't really care about winning or losing, but with the fourth game I did.
You see, the fourth game was against an opponent who I had played before. The last time I played him, I had killed a huge group of him. He continued playing and complicating in the hope of making me run out of time, and he succeeded. Yes, it is within the rules, but the way he did it felt kind of iffy. Especially when he later told me proudly 'The only hope for winning was to make you run out of time' Whatever.
This made me very determined to win my game this time. This was my only handicap game this tournament, I got 3H. I started out badly with a mistake in the corner, I was so annoyed with myself. I had some more doubtful moves, but I managed to pull off a solid win, even after I got into byo yomi. The MGA has a lot friendlier byo yomi than last week though. This was canadian, 25 stones in 5 mins. Much easier than the 4 times 15 secs we had last week.
I enjoyed all my tournament games, and did ok. Not as well as I had wanted to do, but good enough for now. I met a fellow KGSer, snip, which was very sweet. Only that was worth driving up to Boston already. The games were a nice bonus :)
Wednesday, May 03, 2006
So much to study...
... so little time. The last few days, I have been swamped with real life, very annoying, less time to study go. Luckily, today is better, and I have played through the ear reddening game already, will do some go problems next.
Last Sunday, I went to the MGA tournament with two friends from club and met a bunch of other friends there. It was fun, even if my performance could have been better. I played 1-3 as 3k and one of the losses was yet again due to time. I want to dedicate a seperate post to the tourney, but today is reserved for studying and go club.
I have been replaying the first 180 moves of the ear reddening game and the Game of the Century every day. It is interesting to see that there seem to be new insights every day. I had never stayed that long with the same game, it's very different and it feels like the games are starting to become more part of me. I am sure it will be even more be ingrained once I have played them 10,000 times.
Today is a yucky and rainy day, perfect to stay indoors and study and play go. Off to do my problems!
Last Sunday, I went to the MGA tournament with two friends from club and met a bunch of other friends there. It was fun, even if my performance could have been better. I played 1-3 as 3k and one of the losses was yet again due to time. I want to dedicate a seperate post to the tourney, but today is reserved for studying and go club.
I have been replaying the first 180 moves of the ear reddening game and the Game of the Century every day. It is interesting to see that there seem to be new insights every day. I had never stayed that long with the same game, it's very different and it feels like the games are starting to become more part of me. I am sure it will be even more be ingrained once I have played them 10,000 times.
Today is a yucky and rainy day, perfect to stay indoors and study and play go. Off to do my problems!
Saturday, April 29, 2006
PDA
With my new study method, I have rediscovered my PDA as a way to store reviews and problem collections to take with me on the road. I have a very old PDA, which was out-of-date already when I bought it last year. I did not want to spend much money on it.
I have used it for geocaching, and some for go, but I have to admit that the heavy users were my kids, who like playing the games on it. Until I started more goban studying this week, that is.
Yesterday, we had a homeschool meeting at a playground, so the kids were all playing, while the parents were socializing in the sun (Yay for homeschooling!). I had gotten my PDA from the car and was working through some tesuji problems. One of my friends was watching me and looking more and more puzzled.
Finally she asked 'What are you doing on that PDA?'
'Go problems'
'You are NOT playing GO on it, are you?????'
'Yup ^^'.
'I thought that was one heck of a long calendar you must be updating'...
Ha! Whoever would want to use a PDA for calendar and memo functions? Way more perfect to take sgf files to wherever I want to study go. Silly people.
I have used it for geocaching, and some for go, but I have to admit that the heavy users were my kids, who like playing the games on it. Until I started more goban studying this week, that is.
Yesterday, we had a homeschool meeting at a playground, so the kids were all playing, while the parents were socializing in the sun (Yay for homeschooling!). I had gotten my PDA from the car and was working through some tesuji problems. One of my friends was watching me and looking more and more puzzled.
Finally she asked 'What are you doing on that PDA?'
'Go problems'
'You are NOT playing GO on it, are you?????'
'Yup ^^'.
'I thought that was one heck of a long calendar you must be updating'...
Ha! Whoever would want to use a PDA for calendar and memo functions? Way more perfect to take sgf files to wherever I want to study go. Silly people.
Thursday, April 27, 2006
New Study Method
This week, I have been trying out a new way of studying, recommended by my teacher minue. I have been playing all my lessons / reviews on a real goban instead of just on the computer. I had been doing some replaying pro games on goban and a tiny bit of studying, but not that much. My usual studying is either from books, or at the computer. Click, click, click, click. He told me how important it was to replay all those lesson sequences with my own hand.
I got out my beautiful new goban, and have been using it all week long, almost all day (well, in between life). It is interesting. Going through a lesson or review takes me a lot longer, but it feels like the learning is deeper. Maybe because all senses are involved? I don't know what it is, but I feel that I am retaining more.
Not to mention that it is an enjoyable activity to sit outdoors, at my picnic table, and play go. The feel of the stones, the sun in the sky, the daffodills blooming, the chickadees singing, the kids screaming... I am sold.
It does take a lot more time to study this way, but I believe it's worth it. I have been staring at my tournament games so many times now, that my mistakes have been etched into my permanent memory, as never to be made again.
I talked to a dan player at club about this, and he said that he always reviews all his games on a real goban, even his on line games. Interesting. I think it does beat the 'click click click' of computer reviews for sure.
I got out my beautiful new goban, and have been using it all week long, almost all day (well, in between life). It is interesting. Going through a lesson or review takes me a lot longer, but it feels like the learning is deeper. Maybe because all senses are involved? I don't know what it is, but I feel that I am retaining more.
Not to mention that it is an enjoyable activity to sit outdoors, at my picnic table, and play go. The feel of the stones, the sun in the sky, the daffodills blooming, the chickadees singing, the kids screaming... I am sold.
It does take a lot more time to study this way, but I believe it's worth it. I have been staring at my tournament games so many times now, that my mistakes have been etched into my permanent memory, as never to be made again.
I talked to a dan player at club about this, and he said that he always reviews all his games on a real goban, even his on line games. Interesting. I think it does beat the 'click click click' of computer reviews for sure.
Wednesday, April 26, 2006
You Know You Play Too Much Go...
... if your toddler's first colour words are 'black' and 'white'.
Well, at least she sorts the stones into the right bowls now. Who cares about any other colours anyway?
Did I ever mention that one of her first words was 'go book'? ^^
Well, at least she sorts the stones into the right bowls now. Who cares about any other colours anyway?
Did I ever mention that one of her first words was 'go book'? ^^
Tuesday, April 25, 2006
Western Massachusetts Spring Tournament
On Sunday, I made the drive down to Massachussets to play in their spring tournament. Last time I had a snow storm while driving down, this time it was just a gloomy and rainy day. Perfect for being nice and snugly indoors and playing go.
It was a pretty small tourney, about 16 people maybe? I decided to enter as 3k AGA again, I felt that I should be able to do that pretty easily. I ended up playing 2-2, so looks like 3k is fine for now. My first game, I gave 4.5 reverse komi to a 5k. The game went pretty well, apart from two BIG mistakes (all the other mistakes were not as big ^^) The first one was the upper right corner.
After playing out that corner, I decided to tenuki to the upper left (C15). Bad decision. My teacher Minue made that very clear to me in his review. "C15 is big, but just territorial move. A is surronding black "stones", putting pressure on it." Yes, he is totally right, and the lack of this move is one of my big regrets for this tournament. Not to mention how horrible things get for White, when Black cuts at C and then later plays at B. W gets very much sealed in, painfully so. I guess this was a good learning opportunity to remind myself about the urgency of move A. I mean, hane at the head of two, how hard can it be to see the urgency of that? I was kind of worried about the cut at C, but I could have actually read that out after the hane and seen that I was fine.
My second big mistake was a hasty invasion of the right, resulting in a group which was a pain to take care of. I still managed to win the game, even when the clock started yelling at me. I discovered that I still HATE talking clocks. And the byo yomi was 4 times 15s, which is not very generous. For the longest time I had 15s SD left, and I just closed my eyes and threw stones at the board, losing like 10 or 15 points in yose that way. Won by 1.5, phew.
My second game was giving 2H to a 5k, although I suspect that she was somewhat weaker. I won pretty easily by 33.5.
Time for pizza and on to round 3. This was the game I enjoyed most this tournament. I turned one of his groups into a nice dumpling, and had fun attacking another of his groups. Of course, I over-attacked and exploded, losing myself left and right, but at least I had fun before I resigned ^^.
I did make yet another huge mistake this game, the lack of move A in this position, I omitted it for the longest time. W finally had enough of it, and got move B... Painful. This position is still giving me nightmares. Why didn't I just play the darned move??? I have spent quite a lot of time looking at this game yesterday and today and this is the move (or lack thereof) I regret the most. Lots of other mistakes, but this one just seems worst.
My last game had a 30k moment early in the game. Still can't believe I did that, it has to do with misreading a ladder. It's a mistake I should not have been making. Oh well.
It was a pretty small tourney, about 16 people maybe? I decided to enter as 3k AGA again, I felt that I should be able to do that pretty easily. I ended up playing 2-2, so looks like 3k is fine for now. My first game, I gave 4.5 reverse komi to a 5k. The game went pretty well, apart from two BIG mistakes (all the other mistakes were not as big ^^) The first one was the upper right corner.
After playing out that corner, I decided to tenuki to the upper left (C15). Bad decision. My teacher Minue made that very clear to me in his review. "C15 is big, but just territorial move. A is surronding black "stones", putting pressure on it." Yes, he is totally right, and the lack of this move is one of my big regrets for this tournament. Not to mention how horrible things get for White, when Black cuts at C and then later plays at B. W gets very much sealed in, painfully so. I guess this was a good learning opportunity to remind myself about the urgency of move A. I mean, hane at the head of two, how hard can it be to see the urgency of that? I was kind of worried about the cut at C, but I could have actually read that out after the hane and seen that I was fine.
My second big mistake was a hasty invasion of the right, resulting in a group which was a pain to take care of. I still managed to win the game, even when the clock started yelling at me. I discovered that I still HATE talking clocks. And the byo yomi was 4 times 15s, which is not very generous. For the longest time I had 15s SD left, and I just closed my eyes and threw stones at the board, losing like 10 or 15 points in yose that way. Won by 1.5, phew.
My second game was giving 2H to a 5k, although I suspect that she was somewhat weaker. I won pretty easily by 33.5.
Time for pizza and on to round 3. This was the game I enjoyed most this tournament. I turned one of his groups into a nice dumpling, and had fun attacking another of his groups. Of course, I over-attacked and exploded, losing myself left and right, but at least I had fun before I resigned ^^.
I did make yet another huge mistake this game, the lack of move A in this position, I omitted it for the longest time. W finally had enough of it, and got move B... Painful. This position is still giving me nightmares. Why didn't I just play the darned move??? I have spent quite a lot of time looking at this game yesterday and today and this is the move (or lack thereof) I regret the most. Lots of other mistakes, but this one just seems worst.
My last game had a 30k moment early in the game. Still can't believe I did that, it has to do with misreading a ladder. It's a mistake I should not have been making. Oh well.
Friday, April 21, 2006
The Joy of Ladders
A few nights ago, I played my weekly slaughter game with edison. During fuseki, I played this move(N3), which edison considered a mistake.
I thought that the joseki was at O4, but did not want to play that because of the White K3 stone. N3 seemed a viable alternative. My teacher minue later confirmed that O4 was a bad move on this board.
Edison hummed and hawed for a bit.
NoSide [7k]: hmm... interesting move n3
NoSide [7k]: could it be a bad move i wonder
NannyOgg [-]: well, i think joseki is O4
NannyOgg [-]: but that doesn't seem to fit the board
NannyOgg [-]: so who knows ^^
Drimgere [5k?]: >_>
NannyOgg [-]: i won't pretend to understand what i am doing :)
NoSide [7k]: temptation is very big to mess with that formation of yours
NannyOgg [-]: sure
NannyOgg [-]: don't blame me if it explodes in your face
NoSide [7k]: that's what i'm worried about
NannyOgg [-]: hehehe
NoSide [7k]: toilet break
NannyOgg [-]: LOL, i seem to do that to you at least once a game
Drimgere [5k?]: nanny loosens noside's bowels?
NoSide [7k]: i get scared easily..what can i say :)
NannyOgg [-]: hehehe
NannyOgg [-]: i'll remember that
NannyOgg [-]: and make good use of the knowledge
charkysan [14k?]: you're on a roll
NoSide [7k]: temptation to p3 is really big
NoSide [7k]: should i do it?
slade [6k?]: for some reason r3 is looking good too
NannyOgg [-]: it's your decision
NannyOgg [-]: i'll just do the exploding, you do the deciding ^^
And so it went, he did play P3. I briefly considered to cut with an empty triangle, but decided that there was no reason to do so, since the ladder didn't work for him anyway.
Of course, you can guess the rest of the story. He played a few moves and then realized the ladder didn't work. This threw him off for the rest of the game, and he ended up resigning. 2-2! I am catching up with him. I HAVE to beat him again next time!
I thought that the joseki was at O4, but did not want to play that because of the White K3 stone. N3 seemed a viable alternative. My teacher minue later confirmed that O4 was a bad move on this board.
Edison hummed and hawed for a bit.
NoSide [7k]: hmm... interesting move n3
NoSide [7k]: could it be a bad move i wonder
NannyOgg [-]: well, i think joseki is O4
NannyOgg [-]: but that doesn't seem to fit the board
NannyOgg [-]: so who knows ^^
Drimgere [5k?]: >_>
NannyOgg [-]: i won't pretend to understand what i am doing :)
NoSide [7k]: temptation is very big to mess with that formation of yours
NannyOgg [-]: sure
NannyOgg [-]: don't blame me if it explodes in your face
NoSide [7k]: that's what i'm worried about
NannyOgg [-]: hehehe
NoSide [7k]: toilet break
NannyOgg [-]: LOL, i seem to do that to you at least once a game
Drimgere [5k?]: nanny loosens noside's bowels?
NoSide [7k]: i get scared easily..what can i say :)
NannyOgg [-]: hehehe
NannyOgg [-]: i'll remember that
NannyOgg [-]: and make good use of the knowledge
charkysan [14k?]: you're on a roll
NoSide [7k]: temptation to p3 is really big
NoSide [7k]: should i do it?
slade [6k?]: for some reason r3 is looking good too
NannyOgg [-]: it's your decision
NannyOgg [-]: i'll just do the exploding, you do the deciding ^^
And so it went, he did play P3. I briefly considered to cut with an empty triangle, but decided that there was no reason to do so, since the ladder didn't work for him anyway.
Of course, you can guess the rest of the story. He played a few moves and then realized the ladder didn't work. This threw him off for the rest of the game, and he ended up resigning. 2-2! I am catching up with him. I HAVE to beat him again next time!
Tuesday, April 18, 2006
New Goban!
Finally showing off my new goban. It is just a cheap set from Yellow Mountain Imports, but I am very happy with it. It looks great and it feels great to play on it. I still want to oil the stones, as per chiyodad's example, but it might take me a while to get around to that. For now it works just fine the way they are.
I was doing some go studying on the computer today, when I realized I should be outside when we had such nice spring weather. I took my board and studied some pro games outdoors. Very enjoyable! Later I played some capture go with my seven year old daughter.
I will get to play in a go tournament this weekend, the Western Massachusetts one. Looking forward to it. I will enter as 3k again, that rating worked out well last time. Apart from the talking clocks that is, we'll see how I do with them this time ^^
I was doing some go studying on the computer today, when I realized I should be outside when we had such nice spring weather. I took my board and studied some pro games outdoors. Very enjoyable! Later I played some capture go with my seven year old daughter.
I will get to play in a go tournament this weekend, the Western Massachusetts one. Looking forward to it. I will enter as 3k again, that rating worked out well last time. Apart from the talking clocks that is, we'll see how I do with them this time ^^
Thursday, April 13, 2006
SDK
Taking a break from studying to do some writing. Any excuse will do when I am annoyed with my slow progress in memorizing the game of the century.
When I reached AGA sdk a while ago, I still didn't feel like an 'official' sdk, because I wasn't sdk on KGS yet. The KGS rankings are so much stronger than the AGA ranks, I considered myself a KGS ddk for the longest time.
Yesterday, I talked to a friend, and he convinced me that the time has come to consider myself a KGS sdk too. I seem to be playing on a 5k to 7k KGS level now, based on my games and on opinions of friends and teachers. SDK-hood is kind of inevitable, even if I still feel unsure about my own abilities part of the time. Argh, I just don't like ranks at all, it always feels like a pain when I have to deal with them.
Next on my road is AGA shodan (which doesn't seem like a big deal anymore now that I have become closer) and then KGS shodan (which seems more of a big deal, but still only a tiny step on my road to getting stronger). It's funny that the stronger I get, the less important rank seems to be getting though. Interesting. I still remember how desperate I was to to from 19k to 18k on KGS. I don't feel the same desperation about rank anymore, although my quest for improvement still is there. It just doesn't seem to be measured as much by rank, it really is about making the stones flow better and playing better moves for the board. It is measured by showing better spirit and by reading deeper and faster.
I guess I'd better go back to memorizing that pro game if I actually want to see any improvement happening.
When I reached AGA sdk a while ago, I still didn't feel like an 'official' sdk, because I wasn't sdk on KGS yet. The KGS rankings are so much stronger than the AGA ranks, I considered myself a KGS ddk for the longest time.
Yesterday, I talked to a friend, and he convinced me that the time has come to consider myself a KGS sdk too. I seem to be playing on a 5k to 7k KGS level now, based on my games and on opinions of friends and teachers. SDK-hood is kind of inevitable, even if I still feel unsure about my own abilities part of the time. Argh, I just don't like ranks at all, it always feels like a pain when I have to deal with them.
Next on my road is AGA shodan (which doesn't seem like a big deal anymore now that I have become closer) and then KGS shodan (which seems more of a big deal, but still only a tiny step on my road to getting stronger). It's funny that the stronger I get, the less important rank seems to be getting though. Interesting. I still remember how desperate I was to to from 19k to 18k on KGS. I don't feel the same desperation about rank anymore, although my quest for improvement still is there. It just doesn't seem to be measured as much by rank, it really is about making the stones flow better and playing better moves for the board. It is measured by showing better spirit and by reading deeper and faster.
I guess I'd better go back to memorizing that pro game if I actually want to see any improvement happening.
Tuesday, April 11, 2006
Because It's There!
A while ago, someone asked me why I want to improve at go. I have been thinking about it, and am still thinking about it.
I love the way the game seems to get deeper every single day, even if I sometimes do think back wistfully to when the game still was simple. Making a move used to be so easy, I would just play the first likely move and it was fine. Now I am slowly beginning to realize that every move affects a lot of stones on the board, and I am starting to see that my opponent might not always follow my plans. Sometimes he even has a plan of his own! The fiend!
I love the way the stones sometimes flow just the right way. Mind you, this doesn't happen very often, usually they seem to be placed very awkwardly. But once in a while, I do have a game which I feel good about, where the stones fall into the right place, almost by themselves. There is a good flow to the game. I want to increase the number of games where that does happen.
I love the intellectual challenge I get from trying to improve my go game. Improving is not trivial at all, I had NO clue at all about how hard this road would be. Yes, I am enjoying every step on this road, but I will not say that this road is easy at all. When I first got back into go, I had no idea how badly this would consume me, how hyperfocused I would get on this game. And even after working hard for quite a while, I still feel very, very weak at go.
I love the sense of history I get when replaying and studying old games, and when reading about go players long ago. This drives me to improve myself as to get closer to their mastery. My go would be awesome if it would be only half as good as the old go masters.
Still, none of those reasons seem to be why I want to improve in go. I do know that the drive is there, very, very strongly. I cannot stand still, I have to play, study, do tsumego, and get stronger, there is no other option. After thinking about my reasons for a long time, I can only explain my quest for strength in George Mallory's words 'Because it's there.'.
I love the way the game seems to get deeper every single day, even if I sometimes do think back wistfully to when the game still was simple. Making a move used to be so easy, I would just play the first likely move and it was fine. Now I am slowly beginning to realize that every move affects a lot of stones on the board, and I am starting to see that my opponent might not always follow my plans. Sometimes he even has a plan of his own! The fiend!
I love the way the stones sometimes flow just the right way. Mind you, this doesn't happen very often, usually they seem to be placed very awkwardly. But once in a while, I do have a game which I feel good about, where the stones fall into the right place, almost by themselves. There is a good flow to the game. I want to increase the number of games where that does happen.
I love the intellectual challenge I get from trying to improve my go game. Improving is not trivial at all, I had NO clue at all about how hard this road would be. Yes, I am enjoying every step on this road, but I will not say that this road is easy at all. When I first got back into go, I had no idea how badly this would consume me, how hyperfocused I would get on this game. And even after working hard for quite a while, I still feel very, very weak at go.
I love the sense of history I get when replaying and studying old games, and when reading about go players long ago. This drives me to improve myself as to get closer to their mastery. My go would be awesome if it would be only half as good as the old go masters.
Still, none of those reasons seem to be why I want to improve in go. I do know that the drive is there, very, very strongly. I cannot stand still, I have to play, study, do tsumego, and get stronger, there is no other option. After thinking about my reasons for a long time, I can only explain my quest for strength in George Mallory's words 'Because it's there.'.
Thursday, April 06, 2006
Weekly Slaughter 2-1
Argh!! Last night, Edison beat me during our Weekly Slaughter game. I can't even blame him much, it was more me making a lot of bad decisions. He stood by and watched while I suicided my invading group. Good learning experience ^^
I will have to spend some time reviewing the game and figure out all my bad decisions, so that I won't make them again. I didn't like move 8 for me, and it only got worse from there. Oh well, next time I'll do better. It was a fun game anyway, at least till I made that doomed invasion. No idea what I was thinking, but it wasn't a particularly good plan.
The best way to describe this game came from shy: shygost [-]: now white departs wisdom... to panic. Yes, that is what seems to have happened. Very apt description.
Some random game comments:
NoSide [7k]: u know what i don't understand about our games?
NannyOgg [-]: no?
olczyk [14k]: A lot?
NoSide [7k]: our pace is almost as slow as a pro title match.... yet these people actually hangs around to watch :)
NoSide [7k]: amazing isn't it?
Battousai [-]: actually this is slower than the chinese and korean title matches :P
I started studying the game of the century: Honinbo Shusai versus Go Seigen. Go opens at sansan, hoshi, and tengen, very interesting. Yet another famous historical game, I love the sense of history these games are giving me. This is a game which was played in 1933. I relish the thought that we can study and learn from games which were played this long ago. And that go players around the world have been learning from this game for more than 70 years.
I will have to spend some time reviewing the game and figure out all my bad decisions, so that I won't make them again. I didn't like move 8 for me, and it only got worse from there. Oh well, next time I'll do better. It was a fun game anyway, at least till I made that doomed invasion. No idea what I was thinking, but it wasn't a particularly good plan.
The best way to describe this game came from shy: shygost [-]: now white departs wisdom... to panic. Yes, that is what seems to have happened. Very apt description.
Some random game comments:
NoSide [7k]: u know what i don't understand about our games?
NannyOgg [-]: no?
olczyk [14k]: A lot?
NoSide [7k]: our pace is almost as slow as a pro title match.... yet these people actually hangs around to watch :)
NoSide [7k]: amazing isn't it?
Battousai [-]: actually this is slower than the chinese and korean title matches :P
I started studying the game of the century: Honinbo Shusai versus Go Seigen. Go opens at sansan, hoshi, and tengen, very interesting. Yet another famous historical game, I love the sense of history these games are giving me. This is a game which was played in 1933. I relish the thought that we can study and learn from games which were played this long ago. And that go players around the world have been learning from this game for more than 70 years.
Tuesday, April 04, 2006
White To Play
We have started a Ruler of the Hill type tournament with our go club, it is a fun way to get some good games in. Not to mention that there is a lot of taunting going on between the two teams, always good for the club spirit, right? Sunday night, Eksu of the other team was king, and I seemed to be the most logical one to challenge him. Soon, we got a battle game Nanny-Eksu going. It started with tengen, and only got worse from there. At some point the position was like this:
W to play. Pretty simple, right? The top group obviously can be killed. Somehow I totally misread and played tenuki... I knew that he could live or connect back now. Shows you how much time I must have spent reading that out, this is not a particularly deep problem. Sigh. I glanced at the top, said 'Too bad!' and played K2... Ended up losing the game by 4.5 points. Oh well ^^
I actually don't mind the top much, that was just a silly misread. I have more regrets about a ko I played later, and my end game. There could have been a lot of improvement in those two. My ko threats were too small and my endgame sucked. The rest of the game I felt mostly good about, it was a fun game to play. When he started with tengen, my fighting spirit demanded me to attach to him and crosscut. So we got the pinwheel fight starting at the center of the board. I love those kinds of games!
Later, my teacher sendol reviewed the game, which opened my eyes to some possibilities I hadn't seen before. So much to learn, so little time.
W to play. Pretty simple, right? The top group obviously can be killed. Somehow I totally misread and played tenuki... I knew that he could live or connect back now. Shows you how much time I must have spent reading that out, this is not a particularly deep problem. Sigh. I glanced at the top, said 'Too bad!' and played K2... Ended up losing the game by 4.5 points. Oh well ^^
I actually don't mind the top much, that was just a silly misread. I have more regrets about a ko I played later, and my end game. There could have been a lot of improvement in those two. My ko threats were too small and my endgame sucked. The rest of the game I felt mostly good about, it was a fun game to play. When he started with tengen, my fighting spirit demanded me to attach to him and crosscut. So we got the pinwheel fight starting at the center of the board. I love those kinds of games!
Later, my teacher sendol reviewed the game, which opened my eyes to some possibilities I hadn't seen before. So much to learn, so little time.
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