Blogger Beta

Blogger Beta is awesome

I haven't been playing go.

I think my 3-5 5-4 opening is completely valid, just I don't have the positional judgement/reading to back it up. I'll stick with common openings until then.

KGS3/ CGoban 3 is coming out soon.

I hate physics. English is crazy. School sucks. :( *emo*

Interesting Summer.

So. I started the summer as a 12k. I ended the summer as an AGA 6k, and being able to occasionally beat a KGS 5k. But I still have trouble at the 8-9k level, so that's what, 4 stones improvement over 3 months? Still far from KGS 1d. Whatever. I'll get there one day. Soon. Hopefully.

I tend to not play go when I have excessive amounts of free time. I tend to knit and draw in that time. I tend to play go when I really dont have the time for it. -___- figures.

But this summer was awesome for go. I met so many strong people. Wah. Lots and lots of cool people, esp James Wu. ;D

Last thing you'd expect

at Go Congress



Breakdancers.

Yeah. Note the audio.

Guo Juan

While at Go Congress, I was lucky to watch Guo Juan review one of Calvins games. I think this was the main thing I learned from Go Congress. It's easier to attack two groups than just one. Attacks should not be direct. When attacking groups, know which of your stones can die, and which should not die.

I haven't applied this much though. I'll try, I guess.

Congress

Go Congress was amazingly fun. I feel that I didn't take full advantage of all the lectures, etc there though.

Pair Go was fun. Frustrating, but fun.

Meeting all the strong players was also just so cool.

Sigh.

Hehehe.

I just totally gave up on 1d. I havent played, with the exception of a blitz game, in like, a week. Whee... :( Instead I've been doing totally useless things because I have the attention span of a goldfish.

Oh well. Congress tomorrow.. I'm dreading it. Ah well.

Uh. Wtf.

My parents think I'm going to get either
a) kidnapped
b) killed by an axe murderer
or
c) die in a plane crash

at Go Congress. They also believe that all go players I met online are secretly online predators out to kill me/bad stuff.


..
yeah. Someone convince them you're not axe murderers.

Fail.

Forgot to post this on Sunday.

Happy 20th, Wayne. Sorry, couldn't make it to shodan.



I fail :(

Ah well. Before this summer ends then.

I'm bored.

This was the first thing that came to mind after seeing INVINCIBLE posters.

.. Yeah.



I should be playing go.

Home

I'm home. And home is wonderful.

7 days left. Guh.

Chicago, here I come.

Ohnoes. It's AUGUST. School starts soon. D: Summer's almost over! 29 more days! Crunch time~!

I'm off to Chicago for 5 days. Damn you, college interviews ;_;. There are 12 days until Congress. That leaves me 7 days to get stronger, unless I spend loads of time reading go books.


Goal: AGA1d in 7 days. Woo! for ambition.
How I will achieve this: I probably won't.
I'll start by playing more games as W. Playing as B gives me this wonderful, tremendous advantage. I need to learn how to win without that advantage.
Then, I'll reread Lessons in the Fundamentals of Go until I need to pass it off to Calvin.
Then it's Attack and Defense, How to Kill and the Chinese Fuseki. Again.
I guess I should print out some professional games to review. Maybe I can borrow my mom's laptop to play a few games, too. That should be it for the amount of time I'm in Chicago. Bah, sightseeing. Who needs that. Ehe0

Lawrence's dad kept telling me to play slower in my games. So I slowed down, and found I can do much, much better when I slow down. Hey, at least I havent been blitzing. >_>;
So I guess I'll be playing games without time limits, or ones with very slow time limits from now on.

Can I do this? I can get to AGA1d probably. KGS, I don't know. I'll find out in September, when the next San Francisco tourney thing is.

Ugh, ambition post. One day, I'm going to look back on this and wonder what I was thinking.


In other news, yesterday, there were lots of spectators. I ended up teaching a girl from Miami and her sister how to play go. Then, her grandma asked where they could buy a goban. BWAHAHA. One more go player!

1/5

Woohoo! Won one game!

.. eheheh. I won against a 4k but lost against a 6k. Guess I'm really 5k now. Just a bit more and I'dve reached my goal this summer! In the game to the left, I was w. Almost killed, but ended up getting killed. Overlooked a cutpoint. Ah well.

Hm, results.
As far as I can remember, Michael (Cheng..?) won 1st place in the 1st division, Lawrence Ku won 1st in 2nd, Hugh something (little kid, really really cute) won 1st in 3rd, and I have no idea who won 1st in the 4th division.


8th place in 3rd division! Our of 9! Woohoo! XD





Yay for dramatic shots of people playing go. Haha, yeah...



This little kid was horribly cute. Don't think he played in the tournament, but he knew how to play go. I believe that's Tony something's little brother. Awwwwww.

Ah well. I'll figure out my real rank when the AGA updates it. I still have a month left. I can do this.


But man, I'm tired.



PS: Taiyaki is good. Little fish pancake things with red bean paste. :9

And, pictures to come once I upload them.

And uploaded...

Fail.

Um, I fail. Good news is I'm 5k AGA.

Lost all my games. Made super stupid mistake in a 3h (I'm taking W) game. The result of too much internet go- I didn't see the board correctly.

Oh well, two more games tomorrow. Maybe I won't lose them all. Thanks for your well wishing :P


Ing counting is weird.

NorCal Open

It's tomorrow. And transportation's being stupid. I might need to ask my parents to take me. :/ Which is yeah.

I haven't played recetnly. Did a shitload of go problems today though.

I don't know what rank to register as.

A game.

Have a game.







This game was played under "timshel" (Hey, I just read East of Eden.. It was sort of asking for it. Anyways, I'm apparently 5k now, though I haven't been winning consistantly. More like consistant, but kindasorta close losses. ) This is one of the few games that started out really nicely. Time for me. Note my opening.

Unfortunately, this game doesn't illustrate the opening I'm experimenting with very well. :/

Experimental Fuseki

Lately, I've been experimenting with different openings, namely 3-4+3-5 and 3-3+3-5 openings. I find 3-5 to be very useful, since it emphasizes outer thickness as opposed to the corner. With outer thickness facing an enclosed corner, I get a nice moyo, and attacking position. Trouble is, I haven't played enough with this fuseki to learn what its weaknesses are.

I've also found that I'm a couple stones weaker when I take white. I feel that I'm around 7k as black, and maybe 10k as white

timshel

Woohoo! 5k?! I beat a 6k today, though it was mostly a fluke. He overlooked something and I killed a huge group

Wow

Wow. I beat Wayne with 6 handicap.


.. wow.

I was totally slaughtered though.

North California Open

Oooh. NorCal Open. Its going to be July 29-30 (Its a weekend) in the hospitality room of Union Bank in Japantown.


AWWRIIGHT. Hella cool. Gonna go get my AGA rating~.


I totally gave away my location with this post, didn't I...


And someone make me stop playing blitz. :/

9k!

Mayonnaise is solid9k now. I've played pretty well against 8 and 9ks, though I havent played many games as white.

This position arose in a game I played today, against stivel 9k. I was black. Woot.










Yep.

Actually, this entire post was just an excuse to use that GoodShape thing. :D