First handicap game as White.

Today, I played my first handicap game as White. It was pretty difficult. It was against Xinyu [17k], and Black had two stones. I would have won if not for missing the fact that a group in the lower left was not alive, but unsettled still. It was doubly frustrating because I am reading a couple books on Life and Death right now!

In any case, it was educational, and I learned a few things. The most important, of course, is to make sure a group is settled. It seems that at my level, this is the hardest hurdle to overcome. I feel as if I play tenuki, I will be told in analysis, "You should have stayed local and finished settling the fight," and if I play locally, I will be told, "Here you should have played tenuki." It is a difficult thing to balance, but hopefully I will pick up on it soon.

I've been busier now that school has started, but hope to meet up with Terri sometime soon to play or look over a game. Yesterday, I defeated a 15k by a slim margin, after having made a giant mistake.

Here is my first handicap game, from today.

Update on my rank.

Well, I am currently rated 15k on KGS. I felt that this had to be a bit inflated, as I really just started playing Go less than a month ago. However, after defeating a 10k player with only four handicap stones, I wondered. Today, I played a game against Harmo543 [15k], and won by quite a few points. After this game, I am pretty sure that I must really be 14-15k. I know it is only two games, but I also played Wes yesterday from The Phoenix Go Club, and he is 4k. I had nine-stones, and only lost by about twenty moku. If I remember correctly, that would make my strength about 15k. I can't remember where I read it, but I believe that each stone is worth about ten moku, and each point of strength is one stone. Four Kyu, plus nine handicap stones equals thirteen. Add two more points (lost by twenty or so moku), and you have fifteen.

Here is the game against Harmo543.

The Phoenix Go Club

Today, Holly and I went out to the Phoenix Go Club's Saturday meeting. With my schedule, I will be able to go every other Saturday, which I am excited about. There were a few members there: Bill, Richard [5k], Kyle [10k], Michael, and Wes [4k]. Those are their American Go Association rankings. All the people were very nice. I played a nine-stone game with Richard, and lost roughly eighty to six moku. I then played a nine-stone game with Wes, and lost about sixty to twenty-five moku. Holly watched my first game, and then played a teaching game with Kyle with a nine-stone handicap. We both had a lot of fun, and are excited about going back!

One important thing that West taught me was the way to prioritize my thinking. He said, and I am paraphrasing, "Before each move, think: one, do I have weak stones, if so, make them stronger; two, does my opponent have weak stones, if so, attack them; three, if there are no weak areas, then secure more territory." This was a great piece of advice, as I often have a hard time wondering what is most important.

Great teaching game, and Holly's progression.

Yesterday, I played a 4-stone handicap game against a new friend TheBeast[10k] on KGS. He just happened to get a game I submitted to The Go Teaching Ladder, and reviewed it. We both sort of knew of each other from Go Discussions, and so we met up on KGS to play a few days ago. He's a good teacher, and yesterday's game was very fun, even more so due to the fact that I won! Granted, it was Shido-Go, but it was great fun, and I had no expectation of coming closet to winning. It was a real confidence booster, and if TheBeast let me win, it was a great idea because it has greatly boosted my confidence. He even commented that when he reviewed my game from just last week, he thought it was very bad (he capitalized all the letters in "bad"), but that now he was shocked at how much progress I made. TheBeast said he felt I would be SDK (single-digit kyu) soon. I don't know about that, but it's a nice thought. The game is here. Just click the SGF button next to the TheBeast game. There is a great fight on the right hand side that had us both sweating. We both thought it was a great fight.













In addition, Holly and I are continuing to play. While I have reached 15k, she has kept up with me by still being able to beat me half the time with seven handicap stones. That means, I believe, that she is about 22-24 Kyu. Yay Holly!

Very strange game.

Today, I played an interesting game against CJA [13k]. He was extremely aggressive right off the bat, but I defeated him. I wasn't sure if his rating was artificially inflated, and so I looked at his record, and while he had some wins against 19-22 Kyu players, he also had some against a variety of 9-12 Kyu players. You can see the game by following this link and clicking the SGF button next to the CJA game.

Possible lead content in Yunzi stones...

Please read the January 2, 2008 post on Chiyodad's Go blog. It is very important if you have Yunzi stones in your home, especially if you have small children around (as I do). According to this post, some Yunzi stones have roughly two-hundred the legal lead allowed in products in the United States.

Among other things, progress in the New Year, and some sad news.

Well, I've been busy. Over the last few days, I've been playing and reading a lot. I've also met a very nice woman by the name of Terri on Go Discussions. She is a retired teacher that devotes most of her time to learning Go. She has a Pro-level teacher, and has been kind enough to spend time with me reviewing some of my games on KGS over the last couple of days. Everything together has helped quite a bit.

One important thing Terri (Buzzsaw on KGS) has taught me is how to count which side is the largest. The largest side must be played on first. Why play for the smaller area before the largest? Simply by counting the points between the single corner stones (once played) and taking the lines to the edge into consideration, it is easy to tell which side is the largest.

My KGS rating has climbed up all the way to 17 Kyu already. It was 18 Kyu when I went to sleep last night, but apparently the people I had defeated before gained a large enough amount of strength to affect my rating as well! It was a nice New Year's treat to wake up to.

Some sad news for the Go world arrived today. In Korea, the world's Go capital, there is apparently a decrease in popularity going on. This post by a Korean Pro gives a lot more details. Up until the 1990s, I hear that Japan was the capital of the Go world. Japan experienced a similar decrease in Go popularity in the 1990s, and Korea took Japan's place. If this happens to Korea, what country will become the world's center for Go, or Baduk, as it is called in Korea.

Hopefully, in this New Year, I can reach the single-digits in the Kyu ratings. Happy New Year!