So the UMBC Go Tournament was the first tournament I helped to run and play in. What a fortunate occasion! Anyhow, it was a bit of craziness trying to transport everything. I need to figure out a better system for the future (although thank goodness I had portable carts, an empty box, and an empty luggage).

Tournament Summary: We had about 20 people show up. It was apparently not a huge showing but I think it was pretty good for a tournament that was planned and announced within a month. We’ll aim for better next time.

Results: Justin Teng and Jason Long took 1st place in their respective divisions. How did I do? 0-3. (There was an odd number of players in Round 2 so I dropped out for that round).

Overview: The first two games I lost were against SDKs. I took no handicap against the first match which proved to be disadvantageous but I don’t think I played poorly. In the other SDK game I actually played quite well but my opponent managed to bring a large group back to life. In the final loss against a DDK, there was a lot of fighting but I spread myself out too thin.

Meta-Analysis: I’m happy with my results. I played interesting games where I wasn’t afraid to jump into questionable territory for fear of not gaining a win. I fought well and believe that my issue is the inability to maintain well balanced play throughout the entire game. That’s okay with me, because that means there is very obvious and definite growth in the horizon.

Take-Away Lesson: What does it mean to lose? What does it mean to win? There’s a scene in Hikaru no Go where Akira’s dad (who was considered the best player in that day in age) loss a game against Ogata. And instead of focusing on the fact that he lost, the audience focused on the fact that his game of Go had taken a new life and was evolving in new and exciting ways. That’s the way one should view the results. It’s always nice to have a solid win, but growing and learning from your game is the only we can progress not only on the board, but in life as well.

Lately I’ve been looking at my style of play. It’s always safe, nice to opponents, and afraid to try anything new for fear of losing. Erm… yeah that wasn’t working out. Evolution requires trial and error, to think anything less will only result in a stable condition which will allow others to surpass you.

Who remembers the following scene?

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Yesterday I went on tilt and promptly lost four games in a row. After that, with no sleep and a ten page paper on my mind, it was game over for any other games I tried to start. It wasn’t until last night where I finally ended my streak with a win over a 14k.

So the question for new players is: how do we prevent this tilt? It’s something that I hope to be able to write about in length in the future; but for now, I hope that the following perspective will help shed some light for you.

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So I’m unbelievably busy with grad school work now, but that didn’t stop me from trying to play today. I have a ten page paper to finish by 7:00pm, and I played go… I know…. Anyhow, I lost my first game due to failing to defend a single point. Unfortunately, with all the stress, lack of sleep, and urgency of other things that I need to do, I went on tilt and could not regain composure. Against my better judgment, I went ahead and played another game after that. No good either. Two resignations. Ugh…

The lesson of the day is simple. It’s just like Yuan Zhou told me, “When you play Go, you don’t want to have other distractions or other tasks eagerly waiting your attention.” And I definitely think that all this school stuff definitely impacted the quality of my games. sigh. It was two games… need to just move on.

Make that three losses… this is just an awful streak. I’m being outfought in every battle… absolutely pathetic…

This will be my only game for today. It was played pretty poorly in my opinion. That’s what I get for playing first thing in the morning I guess. The fun part is that I got to play an opponent that I had played before on my zenix account. At the time, he was 16k and I was 19k, and I managed to win by 30 points! Needless to say, I was excited at the prospect of being able to play with him again on equal grounds!

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One of the fun things about getting to play go on the internet is the fact that you have a lot of opponents to play with. While that is great in a lot of aspects, I used to always get the itch to rematch with opponents so that I could see if I got any better. Call it a grudge if you will, but for me it’s usually more of a curiosity than anything else.

Lo and behold, I was granted the opportunity to play against an opponent that I had previously lost to before. When I last played this guy, I lost practically every single fight that I got into. So in hindsight, I think I just wanted to reclaim some of my honor and dignity. =)

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Just played against a 6k with a 6 stone handicap (which should have been 8 might I add) and lost due to a misclick. hangs head in shame Words can barely describe how blown I feel right now…. so incredibly blown… On the upside though, this may be one of my more interesting games since I managed to hang in there even though I was supposed to given two more stones. Check out the kifu to see my epic fail.

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So I played my first teaching game on KGS today. It was a pretty quick game with a 3-dan who UTTERLY demolished me. I couldn’t help but laugh as I watched my shapes get cut up into tiny little pieces and get swallowed up whole by Leviathan. Don’t even want to think about what it would be like to play a pro right now…. head explodes

Anyhow, here is the following onslaught. The 3-dan has an interesting idea called: One Point Teaching Game. At first I was like do I pay him a point or something…. but then it became clear to me at the end. He gives one solid point for the player to work on. BRILLIANT! Considering weak players are being pulled five millions different directions at once (e.g. life and death, tesuji, opening theory, etc.), it’s nice to have one solid thing to focus on.

So I’m sure the question then is, what was my one point lesson for today?

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So I think this is my first official Saturday post in terms of posting a game and giving an overview as to my progress. Last night I visited the GWGC, but it was relatively uneventful… just a friendly sparring match with my cousin. For him, go is far more of a recreational activity. So I tried to give him four stones, but that wasn’t not enough of a handicap. Oh well, we’ll try six stones next time.

In terms of Go study, that’s kind of been slowed down a bit. Job hunt and school are taking a lot more of my time these days (which it should =D), but I’ve tried to play at least one to two games a day. Today I played one against an 18k, but it was utter destruction. Unless people would like me to post it up, I’ll post the second game I played yesterday against a 11kyu. It was more or less speed Go for me since I only had 10 min main time. He loss on time, but it’d be nice to get some commentaries on whether I would’ve been able to actually win. Cheers!

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So last night I had some unexpected bro-time. It was great to be able to end class and head over to hangout with Nate and discuss philosophy, theology, and then one of the most intense games I’ve ever played so far. Man… here’s to you Nate. That was an awesome game. (Unfortunately, I do not have the game record; so lessons learned for next time!)

Now I’ve talked to Josh recently, and he suggested that I try to play two games a day and play people who are stronger then me without giving the handicap (in order to raise my rank higher). So interestingly enough, I decided to give it a shot against a 10 kyu. I have not had time to comment on my moves yet, but you’ll see about two to three areas where I’m literally one step short of winning the capture race. What does this mean? Clearly I did not read it out far enough. Enjoy bashing away at my very sad game…

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