I recently wrote a post concerning being able to overcome the blade of your opponent. To not fear it, but to step forth and dive into the abyss.

As a manga reader, I’ve recently read the Fairy Tale chapter. There is a scene where the protagonist (Natsu) faces an unsurmountable strength. When confronted, Natsu normally will not stop until he wins. For the first time however, he admits defeat. And just when he does, his opponent then says:

“Fear is not ‘evil.’ It is to know your own weakness. If you know your weakness, people can become strong.” - Gildartz

As much as I try to avoid it, failing to save a vital group that costs you the game is one that still gets me in a bad mood. See the following kifu to see. The game changers starts at Move 95.

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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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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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So I didn’t think that game really was a good game for people to overview in terms of skill. I decided to play another game (against my better judgment). Here is an even game where the opponent requested an undo at three different occasions. They were blatant self-ataris, so against my normal policy I let him undo them. I did make one mistake and misread an atari and loss a group. Sticking with solid play and solid fundamentals let me win the game. He made a number of errors which I took advantage of, so perhaps the game might not have been a win for me. Enjoy.

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