This isn't quite a study journal like most others, but more of a blog for my upcoming summer Go fest. Tomorrow I am leaving the UK for South Korea, where I will stay at BIBA (http://biba2011.blogspot.co.uk/) near Seoul for a month. Then I will go to Osaka, Japan for the 3 week summer Go camp run by the Kansai Ki-in and then spend a few days in Kyoto with a friend. Then back to the UK for a couple of days and then to the European Go Congress (http://egc2013.go.art.pl/) in Olsztyn, Poland for 2 weeks, and then 2 weeks at the Polish Summer Go Camp (http://lsg.go.art.pl).

After that I'll be playing in the British Championship title match against my friend and rival Andrew Kay (he's also going to Poland and then the WAGC in Japan after that). He's currently a bit stronger than me (though I did beat him last weekend at the tournament to decide players for the title match) so winning that would be a nice way to top off the summer and measure the success of my study (though I am going primarily to have fun rather than work really hard to get stronger).

Pics or it didn't happen!

As a first test post, I thought I'd try rescaling and uploading a picture. I bought myself a new camera for this trip, a Panasonic Lumix DMC-SZ3. Here's a picture from last weekend's Challengers' tournament (http://www.britgo.org/node/4348).

From the front that's Des Cann on the left and my empty chair; then Boris Mitrovic and Tim Hunt; as often happens Andrew Kay won rather quickly so he and Alex Kent were elsewhere; Alex Rix and Francis Roads at the back (and organiser Jenny Radcliffe's leg).

My game with Des was rather interesting (yes I pushed on the 6th line!), here's the sgf:


Edit: Hmmm, you always get the image in the attachments box at the bottom which makes an inline img tag a bit duplicatey, though it does allow text and pic to go together...

Argh! 1:30 am. Should go to bed, got to pack and do a few things tomorrow before my flight which is at a civilised 9pm from Heathrow (such as give my sister who also lives in Cambridge (as a student) all the Jaffa cakes I bought on special offer but don't have a chance to eat before they go off!).

For the variation at 214: shouldn't B start a ko instead?

And at 168: is there something disastrous that B can do if W doesn't connect, or just bad endgame at C1?

Yes



There's nothing, just I had counted I was about 20 ahead so fixing any weakness that would give me an opportunity to lose. Similarly I don't think j18 needed. In the game I regretted not spending a move on top right too as even though I don't need it that's obviously a way to screw up (and I should answer s15 at s14).

Oh my goodness.
Are these huge moyo battles the norm for you?

I am very much looking forward to your championship games.

I don't particularly like moyo games as one move wrong on a key point can almost be game over, but on reflection a fair few of my games in the Challengers' did have big moyos:

So I'm now in Korea, here's some pics of the journey.

The funky roof of the new concourse at London King's Cross station.


A giant flying smartie tube with wings.


Dried out lake beds or something in Inner Mongolia from the air.

Blackie (Kim Seubg-jun 9p) and Dia (Diana Koszegi 1p) who run BIBA came to pick me up from Seoul Incheon airport, which is a big new modern airport built or reclaimed mudflats. There's a long suspension bridge linking it to the mainland which you can just about see through the windscreen.


View from the car on the expressway to Seoul. BIBA is in Sanbon, a satellite city of Seoul surrounded by mountains like these: san means mountain.


Centre of Sanbon, it seems quite a small place horizontally, but they squeeze in a lot vertically. BIBA is on the 7th floor of one of these blocks with shops and cafes at ground level.

Thanks, nice of you to take us with you this way

_________________
“The only difference between me and a madman is that I’m not mad.” — Salvador Dali ★ Play a slooooow correspondence game with me on OGS?

So a bit of info about what I've done since arriving in Korea on Thursday afternoon.

The BIBA students stay in Blackie's apartment in Sanbon, which is on the top (19th) floor of an apartment block (pretty much every building is hi-rise). He and his family live on the 1st (ground in British English, though that seems a bit inappropriate 19 floors off the ground!) floor and the students on the 2nd. At the moment there are 8 international students (a bunch of local Korean kids come along too). Here's the view from the balcony of his flat.


After dropping off my luggage at his flat, Blackie dropped off the car (it was rented, very swish with a fancy sat-nav that gave you not just a map view but also computer game style 3d driving view with all the right buildings) and we went to BIBA, pictured below, where I met the other students who I'll introduce later.


We went for dinner to a Shabu-Shabu restaurant, and then back to BIBA (all just a few minutes walk away) and I played a quick testing game (to see if I really was 3-4d like I said) with Hiroki, a student from Hong Kong, which I won after a good start where he made a heavy group but then I allowed him to make a big territory elsewhere but in the end I killed the big heavy group in an exchange. Then at 10pm we went back to Blackie's flat and I played another quick testing game with Yonmin, Blackie's 10 (Korean-age, they start at 1 not 0) year-old son, which I also won quite convincingly (but he was also watching TV at the time!). Then we had a little party for Gareth's birthday (a guy from UK I knew already, he's been at BIBA over a year) which also doubled up as a welcome party for me.

The evening finished with some drinking games, here's Blackie doing press ups with Dia on his back for a dare, with Yonmin looking on.


I got up quite late on Friday, still a bit jet-lagged, and went to BIBA around lunchtime. Black had picked up some food for us and I had a meat dumpling. Then I played a 30 min + 3 times 30 sec byo yomi testing game with Richard from the US, which I lost on time having just died in the endgame (I didn't defend a 2nd line cut, and although he couldn't capture the 1st line stone I forgot my whole group could become a dead shape!) The game was fairly close otherwise: I was behind in the opening but he played slackly so I caught up in the middlegame when he cut some of my centre stones but I settled them by making 20 points in the centre, and then lost in yose. Afterwards Black reviewed the game, there was a really nice sharp sequence he pointed out we had both missed. Then we went to play Choku, or foot volley ball with some Korea gentleman who had been playing in BIBA.


Betting seems to be quite popular here, and we bet dinner on a game of choku so we went for the strongest BIBA team of Blackie, Dia, and Gareth, and we won, so had a very nice meat buffet with lots of soju (a liquor) and beer courtesy of the friendly chaps below.

On Saturday I went to BIBA around lunchtime, but Blackie had already bought lunch so he showed me where to get the dumplings and also gimbap (rice and some veg and meat in a seaweed roll) for 4000 won in total so under £3. On Sojin 7p was there and he showed us a game he played recently in an exchange with some Taiwanese professionals. He got into a bad position in the first fight because he missed a necessary order exchange and his opponent resisted with the key shape point, but then he won anway with stronger fighting later. We played a few game on Tygem and Oro (Sojin misclicked!) and then went to play tennis (Blackie, Sojin, Dia, Richard, Thomas from France) and badminton (Gareth and Sai from Thailand). Maybe I've played more sport than baduk so far! Then back to Blackie's flat for ramen for dinner, and then Blackie, Dia and Sojin (the baduk pros) played Settlers of Catan (Blackie and Dia often play it in the evening), whilst Richard, me, and Yonmin played a 3 way tournament that Blackie put up 10000 won for the winner. Money seemed to motivate Yonmin and he beat both of us! Our game was lots of fighting and he was quite greedy: he could have easily won by a little but went for a huge kill and I could have won this big semeai but made a mistake so he won it by 1 liberty as I needed an approach move. Need more tsumego! I didn't take many pictures on Saturday, so here's Sanbon in daylight:

I think maybe you found your rival, in Yonmin!

Enjoying the stories. Keep 'em coming!

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

Andrew I'm enjoying living vicariously through your travels. Please say hello to Richard for me. I met him in Beijing last summer while he was devouring tsumego at a rate of about 100 / day. Tell him I was the normal guy that only joined the program for 3 weeks at the beginning.

Just a quick update tonight before we head back to Blackie's flat. Sunday is a rest day so no teaching in BIBA, but I went in and played some games on Tygem (when in Korea, do as Koreans do). My account was 2d with few games registered a while ago just to watch pro games. I forgot how crazy tygem style was: it was hard to take my opponent's seriously with all the bad moves, crazy invasions, love of weak groups and no respect of thickness, so I did fall asleep and lose one or two games which was disappointing. Also did some problems. In the evening we watched some Korea Baduk League games live on TV and drank baiju (aka "Chinese detritus"), a stinky Chinese spirit I remember from when I went on the China Go trip in 2007.

On Monday in BIBA I played a game with a Korean kid from the Go school opposite. I was black with 6 reverse komi and managed to win. Afterwards On Sojin reviewed the game; will try to record it tomorrow. Gotta go!

No way! Baijiu is delicious. I frequently pop into my local Chinese shop just to buy some. From the wikipedia page: "Baijiu has a distinctive smell and taste that is highly valued in Chinese culinary culture. Connoisseurs of the beverage focus especially on its fragrance."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baijiu

Actually, it is disgusting. I have no idea how you can drink it. Most of it is over 100 proof as well, so even if I wanted to drink it my body couldn't handle it.