Uberdude's Go holiday journal

wineandgolover · Post by **wineandgolover** » Sun Jun 02, 2013 1:21 am

I think maybe you found your rival, in Yonmin!

Enjoying the stories. Keep 'em coming!

cdybeijing · Post by **cdybeijing** » Sun Jun 02, 2013 5:53 pm

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.

Uberdude · Post by **Uberdude** » Mon Jun 03, 2013 5:46 am

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!

quantumf · Post by **quantumf** » Mon Jun 03, 2013 6:12 am

Uberdude wrote:baiju, a stinky Chinese spirit

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

cdybeijing · Post by **cdybeijing** » Mon Jun 03, 2013 8:45 pm

quantumf wrote:
Uberdude wrote:baiju, a stinky Chinese spirit

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.

TIM82 · Post by **TIM82** » Mon Jun 03, 2013 9:48 pm

cdybeijing wrote:
quantumf wrote:
Uberdude wrote:baiju, a stinky Chinese spirit

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.

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 :lol:

Uberdude · Post by **Uberdude** » Tue Jun 04, 2013 12:22 am

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.

Uberdude · Post by **Uberdude** » Tue Jun 04, 2013 10:25 pm

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]

Uberdude · Post by **Uberdude** » Fri Jun 07, 2013 6:26 am

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]

Uberdude · Post by **Uberdude** » Sat Jun 08, 2013 5:51 am

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.

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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.

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Sacre bleu!

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Uberdude · Post by **Uberdude** » Sat Jun 08, 2013 6:08 am

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:

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And us playing:

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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!

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Uberdude · Post by **Uberdude** » Sat Jun 08, 2013 6:28 am

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

: P1000105.jpg (108.91 KiB) Viewed 16839 times

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.

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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).

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jts · Post by **jts** » Sat Jun 08, 2013 6:46 am

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

LuckyJim · Post by **LuckyJim** » Sat Jun 08, 2013 8:58 am

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

blitzt · Post by **blitzt** » Sat Jun 08, 2013 11:01 am

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.

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