Ah, arguments about taste! The best kind of arguments!

I have made a standing order to my friends and colleagues that whoever visits China and brings me a bottle of Shui Jing Wang (http://www.shuijingfang.com/), will be reimbursed and gets something nice in exchange when I happen to be travelling... This seems to yield a bottle in every year or every second year. However, I have also cautioned everybody that the taste is an acquired one, and I take no responsibility if they decide to bring some for themselves. None have yet dared

On Monday evening Blackie replayed some Korean Baduk League games from the weekend off his phone and we discussed them, guess the next move etc. Thomas and I won some donuts for getting them right. Memo, a guy from Turkey, not sure if I mentioned him yet, had been into Seoul for the day (BIBA is very near Sanbon metro station, about an hour to Seoul centre) and came into BIBA afterwards. Also the Sunday night was Flora's last night at BIBA, she went back to Hong Kong on Monday.

Here's my game with the Korean kid, with summary of On Sojin 7p's comments.

Yesterday I got up early enough to need breakfast so went to the supermarket. I bought something from the bakery which looked like bread with some bits of fruit on it, maybe mango or pineapple. The bread was sweet, rather like brioche, and the bits were actually sweet potato! For lunch had pizza which also had potato on top, but just normal not sweet this time. Also got cash at the ATM in the supermarket, much better rate (1700 won/pound from Visa with 2% charge + 1 pound flat fee from bank so about 1662) than UK high street before leaving (around 1550, Marks and Spencer was best at 1565) or Heathrow airport (1440 or something risable) and bit better than Incheon airport exchanges (1640).

Played some more on Tygem and won 18 games in a row as 3d so went up to 5d. Just played a 5d and narrowly won, he played much more sensible Go but then he was from China, maybe Korean 5d will still do the crazy stuff.

On Tuesday we replayed some Go Seigen games with On Sojin (Sojin likes Go and Sakata, there was one of Sakata's moves he was particularly impressed by: "Oh!!!!! So strong!"). In the evening I played some 10 second games (you have 10 periods, but each one you use has a 2 point penalty). I'd lost one earlier in the day to Thomas, but beat him in the evening and lost to Hiroki. As usual Blackie and Dia were playing Catan, but they did take a break to look at this move Hiroki used against me (I haned on outside which was a strong answer, but made some mistakes later):

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$B
$$ +---------------------------------------+
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . O . . . . . . . X . . . . . |
$$ | . . . O 7 . . . . , . . . . . X . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . 3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . 5 4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . 6 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . 1 , . . . . . , . . . . . , . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . X . . |
$$ | . . 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . O . . . . . , . . . . . , . . . |
$$ | . . . . . O . . . . . . . . . X . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ +---------------------------------------+[/go]

Last few days have been a bit quiter. On Wednesday Blackie went to China on business; he is part owner of some restaurants there. Not sure if he is also doing Go stuff, he used to play on the Wuhan (iirc) team in the Chinese league and did some training for them. Memo went back to Turkey too, maybe he is joining in the protests now as he was following them closely whilst here.

Days have mainly been coming into BIBA, playing/watching some games on Tygem, doing a few problems, playing some games. I played a league game (30 mins main plus 30 secs 3 times) against Thomas which I (black) won after some pretty bonkers stuff happened in overtime:



Today I played a friendly game against Sai, and then in the evening playing my first game (10 seceond) against On Sojin 7p. Thomas had just lost on 6 and 7 stones so I started on 6 (should be 4 to start probably Dia said, but he's pushed up the handi against other students). It was amazing how so many of my groups got attacked but I fought back strongly and managed to kill his 3-3 invasion of a 4-4 stone plus one point jump inside my moyo which had a lot of bad aji and he resigned. Then I played Park Young-un 7d amateur also on 6 stones, and having seen my play against Sojin he adapted his play to exploit my weaknesses (no josekis, just immediate fighting with loose shapes) and he won that game which embarrassed Sojin a bit . But just to give an idea how strong Youngun is: he is former 1st class insei, Kim Youngsam 7d who won the EGC 2011 in Bordeaux with straight wins and used to teach at BIBA too before military service, was _only_ 3rd class.

I can't remember all the game, but here was the start, a nice idea for 6 stone games.

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$W
$$ +---------------------------------------+
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . X . . . . . , . . . . . X . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . X . . . . . , . . . . . X . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . 0 . . 9 . . . . . |
$$ | . . . 6 . 5 . . 7 . . . . . . 4 . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . 8 . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . X . . . . 2 , . . 3 . . X . . . |
$$ | . . . . . 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ +---------------------------------------+[/go]

Time for some pictures! Here's me playing Sai yesterday, with Youngun in green in the background and Sojin at the back replaying a Go Seigen game, and some of the Korean kids from the go school across the hall.



If you are watching a 9d play on Tygem you might think there is some old bearded master playing, but more likely it's a 10 year old Korean kid who's barely paying attention.



Sacre bleu!

Today Mr Seong, director of the Korean go school across the corridor from BIBA, took 4 of his students (including Hyeonbin, Blackie's son (I spelt it wrongly before)) and me and Thomas in a minibus to Lee Sedol's academy in Seoul for a match with some of the kids there. Here's a view from the route:



And us playing:



This little rascal beat me with a trick in the taisha. Actually afterwards I realised I resigned a really close game but I was psychologically beaten after making so many mistakes under time pressure. I just replayed the game and scored it and seems I was ahead by komi. Woops!

These two kids made a triple ko and had to call sabonim (teacher) to ask what to do which caused much amusement:



I also lost my other game in the morning against the kid in red and blue above which was quite disappointing as he only seemed about 1-2d in strength, but as excuses I had a headache from not having any breakfast and they play so fast which makes me blunder a lot (missed an atari, filled in my own liberties in a semeai etc) and in the end lost by 4 points. He probably thought I was 10kyu at times. Later I saw him replaying a pro game from a record at blitz speed: learning by osmosis/patterns rather than conscious thought.

I had some ramen and biscuits for lunch and felt better and managed to win my next game. Maybe they were running out of weak players for me to play (or just took pity on me, one of the teachers was watching me when I was comfortably ahead in the 2nd game) so I took 2 stones from this kid and he beat me up.



Here's the sgf with some comments from Youngun 7d. I didn't play particularly well (but at least better than 2nd game) and he did seem strong. There wasn't a clock for that game but I tried to play quickly (he hardly used any time and at the end was obviously getting bored with me continuing a lost game).



The tournament ended with me on 1 win and 3 losses which was disappointing, and feeling I need to do lots of easy problems quickly so I can play faster without my level dropping so much. I also played another friendly game with the other kid from the triple ko game which I won by 20 or something comfortable.

And just because there's space for one more pic, here's the lunch staple of takeway gimbap (3000 won, just under 2 GBP).

Thanks for all the stories and pictures! This is really fun to read about.

Fun stories and great pictures and thank you for the commented games.

uberdude, I PM'd you this question too, but can you (or other members) identify the model timer/clock in the photos in post #27? And, perhaps a supplier who carries that timer?

Thank you.

Again, thanks for letting us live vicariously through your experiences, even the slightly disappointing ones.

Playing fast is hard, but perhaps fast reading is exactly what you need now to up your game.

Good luck, and keep reporting!

_________________
- Brady
Want to see videos of low-dan mistakes and what to learn from them? Brady's Blunders

I like your blog! It`s good to see so many pictures and to read about your experiences as they unfold. Are you enjoying yourself? Do you feel that you are learning a lot?

I`d love to know what those kids from Lee Sedol`s academy did to get so strong so quickly. Do the teachers make them solve a lot of problems? Do they play a lot over the board and/or online?

If only I could get more than a week`s holiday! I wish I could spend a month or more studying go every day with like-minded people. Still, reading about it is almost as good So, thanks for that.

_________________
Learn the "tea-stealing" tesuji! Cho Chikun demonstrates here:

Yesterday I got to 6d on Tygem. I'd won my first 11 games as 5d but then was really stupid and lost one I was massively leading (totally outplayed him in a moyo game, e.g. he gave me sente 3-3 invasion, but then instead of passing and winning by 30 I tried to kill him and he counterattacked and I died massively). Would've been funny to leapfrog from 3d to 5d to 7d with a 38 game winning streak (especially after losing to some 2ds!). Lost my first game as 6d by 0.5 after good start but 6d's desperate attempts to catch up aren't so easy to quash.

We also watched some of the LG cup games and then reviewed them ourselves and then with teachers. Richard looked at Iyama Yuta's. In the opening we preferred black nobi in lower left after attach, then if white connects left hoshi, white blocks corner, then atari top left stone. Sojin was shocked at white's sacrifice of top right, surely good for black, but then maybe he was too happy because the kosumi defence of the press on the right afterwards was very slack, maybe a losing move, at least one space jump to centre from right hoshi stone, or maybe even a tenuki reduction of centre possible as white's "thickness" group from the top right trade isn't actually alive yet so it's not so easy to defend the centre points. But then the trade of the ponnukis was awesome for white (his was worth more than 30 points, black's less than 20) who also got to ladder the 2 stones on his wall. Black had to pull out his stone from atari. A normal choice after white's blocking attachment (as leaning on the other stone wasn't effective) was just nobi along letting white build centre and then use the wall to kill white's thickness.

I looked at Gu Li's game, not reviewed with teachers yet, and Thomas at Lee Sedol's.

In the evening I played a league game (30 mins plus 30 secs 3 times) with Wangyu, one of the kids who went to the Lee Sedol academy match at the weekend. I was rather lucky to win with a time tesuji that I only realised was a real tesuji too as I played it!

A comment from On Sojin 7p I found really interesting is he said this white 6 is a mistake, should answer with small knight's move. I myself have thought that the result from taking the corner is good for black who is alive with good shape and has some points, whereas white has some vague influence that can be a weak group later (see viewtopic.php?p=118879#p118879).

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$c Bad pincer
$$ ---------------------------------------
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . 2 . . . . . , . . . . . 1 . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . , . . . . . , . . . . . , . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . 4 . . . . . , . . . . . 3 . . . |
$$ | . . . . . 5 . 6 . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ ---------------------------------------[/go]

This has been played many times professionally (though knight's move is more common overall, particularly recently), but Sojin was adamant it was a mistake with black double 4-4s. If black 3 is 3-4 aiming for mini chinese then pincer is ok, (but knight's move probably still preferred).

So here's Gu Li's game I reviewed myself, and then with Dia and Richard:



d15 at r14 (or r13 or r12 but I prefer r14, as no most pros recently, for more solid corner given we strengthen white side stone to develop lower side) would be normal if top left was a 4-4, with 3-4 approach is also big.
The meaning of r12 was probably to stop white answering e13 at p14.
q12 solid, if f4 then black may s11, or given top side potential perhaps the unusual looking q12 s13 q14 to build a wall
c18 is not needed to live, but a black play there is sente which is very painful, and w living with b12 attachment loses d12 cut aji
d5 surprising, w block at c5 is soft as black can attacj at d3 and if white hanes then atari and h5 cap is powerful. Normal move locally is d3 and can lead to corner life, but then white cuts off f3 and gets strong on lower side so p4 is nice to attack m3.
d6 is trying to make sense of c12 (if white takes corner black makes left side) and means w has to take gote after black takes the corner
b1 a nice tesuji to cut off f3 in sente
f6 should maybe be d8 peep first if he wants both, but that's a bit hopeful
d10 nice resistance, maybe black was self indulgent in expecting connect?
p4 necessary defence now h3 strong
e11, I wondered if black should try to make the r15 q14 s14 s13 exchanges first to protect the corner (if white 3-3 then block top and let white make sente ponnuki but keep corner). Dia said a commentary on cyber oro said the same
g10 wasn't sente, r17 good to take corner
With e8 black tries to punish white from ignoring g10 and not answering d8 peep with capture, but the sequence gained black nothing but a heavy group. Perhaps Gu Li missed that he had to play g8, it looks like he can play b7 but then white g8, black a8, white a10 and black can't connect to the corner due to shortage of liberties by the white stones in atari in the corner!
g5 strange shape to me, trying to use f3
j13 nice move to stop h16 cut due to liberty shortage. Gu Li doesn't seem to be his usual strong self. Dia said the oro commentary said he wandered round a lot, perhaps upset that his left sequence didn't work out well.
if f18 is ponnuki capture on outside, maybe white can f18 rather than atari and revert, seems to lead to a semeai.
127, if connect then his group is heavy, or did he want to save it for another ko threat? But when white captures his centre 3 stones are alive and good profit
l18 lives half the group so success for white
j4, if r7 then white l4 bigger
s5, if inside hand then white is about 10 ahead, so b has to fight
l6 very nice tesuji: if capture then w ataris and ladders.

Dia said the Oro commentary also said black's left sequence was a failure.

Been a few days since the last update. On Friday On Sojin 7p played in the Korean baduk league against Shin Minjoon 1p, one of the young rising stars who featured in the youngsters vs top pros match a few months ago (http://gogameguru.com/prodigies-upset-t ... -go-games/). On the Thursday we'd watched the first 2 boards in which Lee Changho 9p beat Lee Sedol 9p and Park Yeounghun 9p beat Kang Yootaek 5p, so Sojin's team were already 0-2 down. The plan was to go into the Hankuk Kiwon to watch the games, but that was called off with Sojin's team losing which was disapointing. Sojin lost too, he died big in the opening ("sacrifice strategy!" as he likes to say) and got some squeeze to grow his centre moyo but he had to go for a rather desperate kill of the invasion and resigned when that failed.

Reviewing the game with Youngun 7d (who narrowly beat me on 6 stones in another 10 second game, and beat Hiroki on 9 stones!), the problem seemed to be he played this variation when he had the ladder that stops white laddering the one stone with at , but white had the ladder on the 3 stones so his shape for the fighting was poor. Youngun suggested playing ladder breaker at a after white's attachment of because if answers the corner fight is better, and if white reinforces at it is a small minus exchange but you get compensation with the block at b (better than c). Sojin's not been into BIBA since this game so I don't know his opinion yet. He's not been studying baduk much lately as he has an English exam coming up. He wants to do well because if he gets a good mark there's a better chance he can do his 2 years military service (at 27 he's left it quite late) with the some division associated with the US army which is apparently better.

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$c Sojin is black
$$ ---------------------------------------
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . O . X . . . . . . . . . X . . . . . |
$$ | . . . , X . . . . X . . . . . O . . . |
$$ | . . O O O X . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . X O X . . . . . . . . . b O . . |
$$ | . . O O X X . . . . . . . . . a c . . |
$$ | . . . X O . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . X . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . , . . . . . , . . . . . , . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . O . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . 9 O . 7 . . . , . . . . . , X . . |
$$ | . . 0 . 2 5 6 . . . O . . X . . . . . |
$$ | . . . 3 1 4 8 . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ ---------------------------------------[/go]

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$cm11 cont.
$$ ---------------------------------------
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . O . X . . . . . . . . . X . . . . . |
$$ | . . . , X . . . . X . . . . . O . . . |
$$ | . . O O O X . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . X O X . . . . . . . . . . O . . |
$$ | . . O O X X . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . X O . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . X . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . , . . . . . , . . . . . , . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . O . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . 7 5 9 0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . 4 X O . X . . . , . . . . . , X . . |
$$ | 8 1 O 2 O X O . . . O . . X . . . . . |
$$ | . 6 3 X X O O . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ ---------------------------------------[/go]

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$cm21 cont.
$$ ---------------------------------------
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . O . X . . . . . . . . . X . . . . . |
$$ | . . . , X . . . . X . . . . . O . . . |
$$ | . . O O O X . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . X O X . . . . . . . . . . O . . |
$$ | . . O O X X . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . X O . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . X . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . , . . . . . , . . . . . , . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . O 5 4 6 8 0 . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . X X X O 3 7 9 . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . O X O 1 X . . . , . . . . . , X . . |
$$ | O 2 O O O X O . . . O . . X . . . . . |
$$ | . O X X X O O . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ ---------------------------------------[/go]

The ladder white has is at which means black needs to make the atari there rather than directly, but then white gets some pushes in sente to strengthen his stones and black gets bad shape.

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$cm31 cont.
$$ ---------------------------------------
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . O . X . . . . . . . . . X . . . . . |
$$ | . . . , X . . . . X . . . . . O . . . |
$$ | . . O O O X . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . X O X . . . . . . . . . . O . . |
$$ | . . O O X X . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . X O . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . X . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . , . . . . . , . . . . . , . . . |
$$ | . 0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . 6 9 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . 5 4 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . 3 O X O O O O . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . X X X O X X X 1 . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . O X O X X . . . , . . . . . , X . . |
$$ | O O O O O X O . . . O . . X . . . . . |
$$ | 8 O X X X O O . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . 7 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ ---------------------------------------[/go]

White then denies black the ko with and the cut at doesn't capture anything thanks to those pushes along line 6 that white got.

Something to note is the placement of white l3 on the 3rd line is crucial here, if it were on the 4th line at hoshi then black could make these exchanges in sente before playing he corner attachment and now white doesn't have that ladder anymore, in fact black captures white's cut in a ladder if the same sequence happens.

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$cm9 if White on hoshi...
$$ ---------------------------------------
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . O . X . . . . . . . . . X . . . . . |
$$ | . . . , X . . . . X . . . . . O . . . |
$$ | . . O O O X . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . X O X . . . . . . . . . . O . . |
$$ | . . O O X X . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . X O . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . X . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . , . . . . . , . . . . . , . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . O . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . 3 . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . 5 O . X 1 2 4 O . . . . . , X . . |
$$ | . . . . O X O . . . . . . X . . . . . |
$$ | . . . X X O O . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ ---------------------------------------[/go]

White can kill the corner, but the trade is good for black when he munches the 4th line stone, which he can't if it were on the 3rd line.

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$cm9 if White on hoshi...
$$ ---------------------------------------
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . O . X . . . . . . . . . X . . . . . |
$$ | . . . , X . . . . X . . . . . O . . . |
$$ | . . O O O X . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . X O X . . . . . . . . . . O . . |
$$ | . . O O X X . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . X O . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . X . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . , . . . . . , . . . . . , . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . O . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . , O . X 1 . . O . . . . . , X . . |
$$ | . . 2 . O X O 3 5 7 9 . . X . . . . . |
$$ | . . . X X O O 4 6 8 . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ ---------------------------------------[/go]

Also I played some more league games. I lost to Mingjong (who I beat in the game in post #22) after a reasonable opening with plenty of trades and fighting spirit (Youngun said my sacrifice was good), but then my first move of byo-yomi I panicked and got squeezed and captured in a ladder. Doh! But I did beat Hyeonbin by thirty or so in a game where he went for a centre territory rather than trying to kill me, and it just wasn't enough.

P.S. maybe the lower right shimari was the other way round.

On Friday/Saturday I got into a bit of a slump and lost 4 games in a row on Tygem, rather spoiling my 11-2 record at 6d so far. I also sucked at solving some quite basic tsumego. I took a break from Go and went for a nice little walk in the woods on the kills around Sanbon:



And here's a view of Sanbon. I'm hoping to climb that hill in the background later, but that'll be a whole day's walk. That green net in the lower right is a contained golf driving range; making best use of limited space! I saw one on the trip into Seoul too.



And a panoroma from the same spot, aren't cameras clever nowadays!

Today I played in the Hanbyon (spelling?), the monthly rating tournament for kids (from the whole Seoul area I think, some from the Lee Sedol academy were there). By a happy accident it is held in a school just a few minutes from Blackie's flat.



Here's some nice artwork on one of the club minibuses that brought the kids here.



The tournament was in the school hall, I counted 132 boards. There were 10 divisions, I was in #5 as was Hyeonbin. Mingjong, Wangyu, and Pyongyu were in #1. Maybe I could be in #3 if the games weren't so fast, but Thomas got 3/5 in #5 last month. "Little monsters" he called them . Thomas was registered, but decided not to go this time so it was just me and I got a little bit lost on the way (went to the middle school next door first, it was in the elementary school). I noticed in the corridor some posters of various Korean stars including Park Ji-sung (footballer at Manchester United) and Cho Hun-hyun, the 'baduk emperor' (and some gymnast and tennis and badminton players I didn't recognise).

Here's the opening ceremony with some prize-giving, check out the little kid on the right, can't have been more than 5 or 6. He was in group 9 or 10:

The hall:



Some of the group 1 players:



I won my first 2 games, the first was a fairly sane Kobayashi opening game with a bit of fighting later, but nothing bonkers happened and I won by some reasonable amount of points.



For lunch I went to a nearby shop I got a triangle of rice wrapped in seaweed with a bit of meat, a popular equivalent of a sandwich here (they also had some sandwiches but looked rather unappetizing spongy white bread), and a pastry and yogurt drink.

View from the stage:



Results sheet (after round 2, but only round 1 results?), I'm #23 (BIBA).



Mingjong won all his games, he's on the left here playing game 5.