Nearing the 3 000 mark in site hits

Hi my dear readers! So the counter on this website is nearing 3 000 hits! Considering that I’ve only had this blog for about 6-7 months, I think that is a fairly good run. Of course it has come at a price… I almost missed a deadline at work because I was intent on uploading a game review and was fiddling with the sgf to make snapshots of the board; I had to ask for several extension for school assignments, thought this might be more because they usually are due on Wednesdays and Tuesdays is the weekly club evening; My other blogs are fairly neglected, having only re-blogged other people’s posts rather than written my own; and since I started playing baduk, I have had no social life outside the context of this game.

Yet still, I am amazed by a small group of regular readers, and the occasional spikes in visitors who found their way through to this blog. Since I started this journey, I’ve had 1 538 visitors accounting for a total of 2 827 page views; I’ve accumulated 30 likes on posts and 125 comments; I have 18 dedicated followers (who clicked the “follow me” button). So yay to that! Also WordPress shows from which countries people are accessing my blog; and in first place, with 1 063 views, comes the USA! Second place goes to Canada with 219, and 171 secured South Africa third place. It is funky to see some of the more distant places as well… 1 view from Mongolia and 1 view from Iceland… From the African continent, only Egypt and Madagascar feature… I knew there was a small baduk playing community in Madagascar, but am surprised to see someone from Egypt checking this blog out… Maybe they were lost…

But thank you to all those reading, and I’ll keep on writing and playing in the mean time. If anyone wants me to share something, events, etc. or wants to be a guest contributor, feel free to let me know (as soon as I have a secure “contact me” thing on here). I will be traveling to Mexico, Kenya, Botswana, and Zimbabwe, as well spending a lot of time in Johannesburg… So posts might be few until April, but I’ll try to keep things running!

[Problem] Black to save the day… and my game (in retrospect)

This is a problem that came up in a 9 stone handicap game I was playing on DGS. I ended up resigning after I misread this life and death situation, as ended up being behind by too much… But afterwards I looked it over again, I wonder if there is a way to save these stones. The situation is simple, save the square marked stones after white plays their marked stone (red triangle); it’s black’s move.

흑수활… Black to play and live

This actual problem looks simple to me… but somehow I just can’t figure it out… Where is Batman when you need him…

Note: at request, here is the sgf file of the actual game…

[KGS] 1 loss and 2 wins…

So I decided to revisit my account; previously I didn’t really do much on KGS… it was too hard to get games. However, recently I managed to get a few; mostly I think this is because somehow my rank got jumped to 14k? and thus automatch had more options for pairings, and while I’m down to 16k now it still is easier than when I was at 20k. My current won/loss record (for ranked games) is 11/12, which looks better as well.

So I here are three games that I played recently; I don’t have time to review them in depth, and I can’t embed EidoGo on wordpress… for some dumb reason, really… So here are the numbered gibo [기보; kifu], as well as links to the sgf files, should you want to review them thoroughly (hint hint)

W+3.5; 6.5 deom [덤; komi]

The first game was a loss, but not by that much… I’m Black, and my opponent is a 14k from Japan (evidenced by their profile, and the Japanese comments I couldn’t understand during the game) I payed very light, more so than usual, so it wasn’t a typical big-framework-turns-into-territory game that I would normally lose by the early middle game… It remained close till the end of the middle game, with a few mistakes costing me a win. The result of a loss by 3.5 points, is very slim. Gibo is here, and if someone can tell me what they were trying to say to me, please do.

B+Resign; 6.5 deom [덤; komi]

So after this, I went on to play a game against an 18k, I had dropped back to 18k? with my previous loss, so got paired up to someone a few stones weaker. This game because a massacre… I’m not sure if his 18k rank is very solid, or if my understanding of normal strength at 18k is overestimated. Either way, I turned on the auto pilot after the opening… Of course this isn’t the best way to play, and he managed to capture 8 stones of mine, simply because I wasn’t reading at this point and just clicking… Somehow, it is hard to concentrate on a game like this. In the end I was ahead by enough, and my opponent ended up resigning close to the end. While this game wasn’t useful for me, I think such games help the weaker player; when I was in a similar position, seeing my groups die one after another after simple reading mistakes definitely spurred me on in terms of studies.The gibo is here, but there isn’t much to say about this.

B+49.5; 6.5 deom [덤; komi]

The third game now… which is more even. I played black, and this was against a 17k, whose username was “serenity”… In my head that is a Firefly reference, and anyone saying differently will be scoffed at! Anyway, the result was a convincing win for me, so I ended up at 16k after this, which is about what my rank on KGS should be (according to other people). The game ended up fairly territorial, but my opponent was more aggressive than I was; however, I had an edge in reading/fighting skills, so I stopped most of his invasions. A few mistakes here and there didn’t affect my score that much. What was interesting is that I started realising that his invasions actually helped me in securing my territory; of course this is normal, but it made me rethink invasions… I’m not sure what the lesson for me here is, but there must be one for sure. The gibo is here.

Go pedagogy in South Kora (video): RELAY BADUK – 릴레이 바둑 ㅋ (Girls vs. Boys Team)

All about Influence in GO/Weiqi/Baduk

Tkts (again) to 김한비 (Daejeon/South Korea) for another wonderful short video about how kidds are being educated in Go (Baduk) in South Kora. – In my understanding “Relay Baduk” is teaching a lot more than only about GO itself… within an environment of “friendly competition” (here ‘girls team’ vs. ‘boys team’).

Go pedagogy in South Korea: Relay Baduk

I have no doubts about that “Relay Baduk” can give kidds the skills as team players, and they learn to overtake responsability for their own decisions against their peer group (team), understand / read silently the doing of their Go partners (e.g. as we know in Rengo / Pair GO) and give support to each other (e.g. the stronger players help the weaker players).

I like in the video, that there is given “no time pressure” by the teacher. Every kidd takes the time it needs to think…

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Me, the teacher!

I actually was genuinely scared of losing… and the subsequent embarrassment.

Usually I am the one on the receiving end of teaching games, being low of rank but stout of heart (or whatever fancy phrasing that would best describe it.) However, a friend of mine expressed interest in learning chess… naturally I immediately jumped in and saved her from that vile game! And showed her the true path! The path of BADUK!!!! Okay, I’m being overly dramatic here, and really, I don’t hate chess; but since her interest was in learning an abstract strategy game that would possibly help her in concentration, I thought I’d snatch her up before any chess player could get to her. After all, there are enough chess players in South Africa already. So, with the South African sun and a slight breeze I set myself upon the mission of teaching a very busy Med student the ultimate game…

W+34.5; 9H & 0.5 deom [덤; komi]

 Teaching someone is something I rarely do… I tried it once, but that particular attempt didn’t work out (I’m putting it on her leaving for Uganda, not my teaching skills). Anyway, so I explained the basic rules, and we played one game of capture baduk, and one regular game on a 9×9. Afterwards we played a teaching game on a 19×19 board. She caught on pretty quick, and she did a lot better than my first game on a 19×19. I ask at each point what she tried to achieve with her move, and explained basic concepts to her as they appeared on the board (ladders, nets, etc.); the result of this first teaching game was quite good. I was very impressed by her.

The question now is whether she’ll continue to play, I do hope so, and considering that she’s a good friend I’ll take up any opportunity to for- I mean encourage her. Playing against a 9 stone handicap was interesting for me though, I rarely play against any handicap (let alone 9 frakking stones); at some point I started to wonder whether I’d lose even… which would have been the biggest embarrassment. In the end some overplays were needed to ensure that I would save face.