I’ve only recently started messing around on KGS, and mostly I watch other people’s games to learn a thing or two; for the most part my online play has been on IGS/Pandanet, until now. My switch to KGS is because it simply is easier to navigate, and they have a South African room as well as an Esperantujo room; IGS might have those as well, but if I’ve got to click more than a predetermined number of times to get there, I won’t get there.
So I played a teaching game with a 3k, under the watchful eye of a 1d, with a 9 stone handicap; the outcome was… well of course I lost, severely, but I learned a few things here and there. The outcome is here on the right. My usual attempt to take the corners went nowhere, though I managed to secure quite a bit in the middle; his invasion à la Omaha beach was thwarted by some over-defensive playing, which of course lost me even more territory in other places. You give, you get I guess, though I gave a lot more than I got…
Final results:
White 176.5 (terr. 121 | capt. 49 | 6.5 komi)
Black 77 (terr. 64 | capt. 13)
What was interesting about this, is that it was the first time I’ve used a timing system, byoyomi in this case… I’m not so sure how that all works yet, or if it was really active; all I know is that every time I was approaching 30 seconds when it was my turn my laptop started vomiting beeps and flashes. There are a few cases where I just plainly made the wrong move because of it, though that in the end wouldn’t have influenced the outcome that much I think.
Overall, I think the issues is my understanding of the basics of the game; beyond the actual rules that is. Therefore, I’ve ordered Go for Beginners by
My Cat Plays Baduk 