I am not sure if its just late and I am missing something very obvious, or of the SGF is messed up, but at cursory glace Black 158 (or any time after) at J13 makes 2 eyes, no? And the variation with Black 168 at T13 gives Black a ko, no? And I have not even looked that closely at the tree at the end of the game... Black seems ok on points, so I don't get it... Somebody explain, pls.

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- Bantari
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WARNING: This post might contain Opinions!!

Probably I made a mistake in the recording and white exchanged j13 for h12 at the correct time, namely after k16. Also maybe o16 at n16 works (n16 o16 o15), I should have spent more time reading that.

And yes that's a ko. If white doesn't make s13 hane exchange but just avoids the seki then black s13 descent (on move 164 in main tree instead of p7 liberty) wins. White should s13 before t9. Sorry for the messy tree, I recorded it in a rush.



I am good at resigning games I haven't lost.

I don't see a ko, the variation with black 168 at T13 ends with white 173 at R7. White will capture 3 stones and has another eye at S10.

Sorry for the spam, but I just have to write this. I just came back after a pretty long break (lots of university work und motivation issues) and found this thread after reading a bit here and there on the forums and read it all straight through. And it's just SO interesting to read them and look at the pictures, thank you so much for sharing! It's an absolutely amazing "holiday" (of three months if I sum it up correctly, wow!) and I wish you lots of fun and PLEASE keep us updated! Your posts really fan the flames again better than anything else in the last few days.

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Because I did p7 too early, here's a corrected sgf:

On Wednesday a new student, Patrick from Germany, arrived and we went to the Jjimjilbang, a public bath/spa/sauna. There were lots of hot tubs, cold baths, steam rooms, and naked old men, so no pictures of that part! After that we put on some provided pyjamas and went through to a big lounge area where you can relax, watch TV, have some drinks and snacks, go in hot/cold rooms, use massage chairs. Of course we played baduk (that's Patrick I'm playing, he's around 1 dan, I won on 3 stones):



There was also a little restaurant where we had dinner: you can spend the whole day there (we stayed from around 4pm to 10pm). After dinner Sai and I played rengo against Thomas and Patrick. We lost, so as punishment had to stay in the cold room for 10 minutes, but it wasn't that cold compared to England in winter .



That evening, Blackie was doing a commentary on baduk TV:

A lot's happened since my last post, so here goes:

On Thursday (27th) I played this game with a Korean guy who sometimes drops by BIBA. He offered 10000 won (about £6) if I won, but I didn't have to pay anything if I lost; a sponsorship rather than betting game. Thomas had lost such a game previously, but I managed to win mine after sacrificing (ahem!) loads of stones in the opening but killing lots of stuff later.



On Friday we went to the Hankuk Kiwon to cheer for Sojin who was playing in the Korean baduk league. We took the train from Sanbon station right next to BIBA. It's above ground this far out, once into central Seoul it goes below.



Inside the Hankuk Kiwon we went to a room with a little TV studio for the baduk TV commentaries on the league games, with spaces to each side for the teams to review the games and some tables and chairs for visitors. The actual games were taking place upstairs somewhere. I'd seen these two on baduk TV before, the guy on the right is Song Taekon 9p. After the Hankuk Kiwon some of us were planning to go out clubbing in Seoul and we tried to persuade these two to come along with us (Blackie was concerned about us going with no Korean as a guide), but failed.

Here's the Tbroad team. Blackie used to play for them so he was cheering for them as a team, but Sojin individually. You can see the bright TV studio on the right.



And Sojin's team: Shinan Chunil Salt. Their coach (the guy at the back with stripey cardigan with blue trim) is Lee Sanghun 9p (Lee Sedol's brother), I saw him at the Lee Sedol dojang before.



Here we are reviewing Sojin's game and chatting with Kim Hyemin 6p, current holder of the Women's Kuksu.

Out of curiosity, which languages do people use when you are discussing games, etc. and how is your Korean?

English. My Korean is pretty basic, I can order gimbap for lunch and say hello, bye, please etc. There's also a few Korean phrases we like to use when playing such as "shinja" = really? for a surprising move or "an dei" = not working for when you do something stupid or "mula" = don't know (probably I transliterated them wrongly).

To continue the Hankuk Kiwon trip write up, here's Yoo Changhyuk 9p in the studio. Blackie laughed when the female pro commented that Sojin's record in the baduk league of something like 22 loses and 7 wins was pretty bad and Yoo said not bad but terrible! Still his team managed to win a year or two ago despite him losing a lot so he won lots of prize money .



Here's Sojin's game. He was white and won when he killed black's reduction/invasion of the centre. L11 was the losing move.



And here's the sgf on go4go.

http://www.go4go.net/go/games/sgfview/34549

And him playing:

While Sojin was playing Thomas played a game with this Korean guy who was an insei 30 years ago or so (with Blackie betting on his student) and won. Afterwards we went to a cafe next door to the Hankuk Kiwon and it turned out this guy was the proprietor and he treated us to red bean bingsu, a dessert of crushed ice and these red beans often used in Korean food (I'd had a donut with them as filling instead of jam which was a bit weird).



Afterwards Sai, Patrick and I went club despite not finding a Korean as a guide. Dia recommended a club and after getting lost we found it thanks to a wifi hotspot and google maps and a taxi driver. It was more a lounge bar than a club though and full of foreigners so we found another place and had a good time dancing the night away.

In rather stark contrast to clubbing, the next day (Sat 29th) we went to stay in a Buddhist temple for several days (http://templestay.com/). This seems to be a Korean wide program, but at the temple in Seosan we went to the chief monk is a baduk fan (and Tygem 9 dan) so there's lots of baduk to be played as well as meditation, bowing, making lothus flower lanterns etc.

Here I am in the provided orange clothes, which leaked dye and turned everything yellow!



In the afternoon we went to a local baduk club and played a match which BIBA won 4-3. I won my game convincingly (that's Augustine on my left).



And they treated us to dinner afterwards, everyone here is very hospitable. They seem to like foreign baduk players.

In the evening we played games with a load of Korean guys from the same company/club who were staying for the weekend. They were very enthusiastic to play with us and kept saying "Big match!" and calling Richard a champion when he beat their best player by half a point in an even game the next day. Here I am playing with him taking 2 stones. The game was really crazy, he had lots of sharp tesujis and loved to fight and kill and I made several mistakes in semeais where he got 2 hanes to gain a liberty and win instead of dying. The board was a graveyard and he ended up with minus 20 points or so and I was positive. His style seemed very overplayish, maybe a typical betting player, but his game with Richard seemed a lot more sane.



We got up early (4:30) the next day for prayers/bowing at 5, and then some meditation and morning walk and exercises:



Group photo with the Korean guys in front of the temple, plus Il Kwan sinim, the very welcoming monk who looked after us. We stayed on the middle floor in rooms like that in the first picture, sleeping on mats. The top floor was a prayer room with lots of Buddha statues in alcoves, the ground floor was the main room where we did meditation, bowing etc.

I really enjoy this journal, please keep the posts coming O: I like seeing how "the other half" lives. I hope you continue to have safe travels O:

very interesting journal! particularly about how those kids are learning go by fast forward play and fast forward review! makes me want to take the next plane to Korea and check it all out by myself:)

Having tea (and biscuits, how English!) in the temple.



Playing baduk with the Korean guys on Sunday morning. I lost my game, another big fighting game with lots of semeais.



We made paper lotus flower lanterns in the afternoon, here's Thomas making a funny face behind Sai.

On the Sunday evening there was a music concert in front of the temple with a mixture of traditional Korean music and modern like K-pop etc. The Tygem 9 dan monk sang in it, what an all-round awesome guy! (He's also a master at some martial art that I forget the name of -- akito?)





The temple food was pretty basic: rice and seaweed soup and vegetables; no meat . Fortunately we ate out in restaurants most evenings so got some meat then, for example a tasty lamb ribs stew.

As well as the main ornamental temple building there were other buildings for the living areas, canteen, offices and also this baduk room with an expansive library. One day we were playing some games there and then a load of kids came in for a lesson:



The temple was near Seosan, a city south west of Seoul and Sanbon, and we went to another club to play some games and eat pizza and fried chicken. I played a kid (Tygem 5d, often people use Tygem ranks when arranging handicaps for games) who I had beaten as white with no komi by half a point the day before (I was leading comfortably after the opening so played slackly and he caught up a lot from a big yose mistake of mine) and crushed him this time after he played a peep that wasn't really sente and I resisted and broke through a one point jump and killed stuff.

Here's Richard playing the teacher from earlier, he won by 4.5 as black giving no komi.



And Thomas had a very good game against this guy, the 2nd best player in the province, but missed a tesuji and lost some stones in late middlegame and lost by 3.5. The kid I played is on the right.

Making bigger paper lanterns:





We ate a meal monk style in the temple, using 4 bowls (one for rice, one for soup, one for water, one for vegetables) and having to do serve things correctly etc. Sinim (polite title for a monk) could only speak a little English so it was fortunate Augustine was there to translate for us.



Another thing we did in the temple was 108 bows whilst making prayer beads (108 beads, 1 per bow); it was rather tiring and the fidgety thread made it rather hard to concentrate on the meditative soundtrack, but it was a good experience.