My second win on KGS also turned out to be the oddest game I've played thus far.


Naruto202[25k?] vs. wolvie[30k?] : B+305.5 (B+88.5)
One of the main oddities that happened was the unbelievably high point difference. This occurred because there were some places that still needed to be played when we both passed.. and the computer counted the center dead, when it was alive, for all intents and purposes. Black still would have won.. but by at least 200 points less. Another crucial point that should have been played was A2, but it was neglected by W.

The game progression was very odd as well. As a beginner, B errs on the side of defense instead of attack, because they are still worried about the life and death potential of their stones. In this game, B was basically forced out of this mindset due to W's constant overplays. Since the only way to counteract an overplay is to attack and punish.. B had to do just that. Combined with a lack of reading on W's part, B got away with some plays that should have ended up dead. Not exactly the way to play most games.. but at least this game forced B out of the comfort zone.

Note: I'm trying to get out of the "me and them" way of describing games, and instead using "Black and White" to describe the game. Makes it impartial. :)

Now.. the weekend. I rarely get to play on KGS during the weekends, but I usually spend the time giving my mind a breather, and also working on L&D problems. I probably won't be able to play on Friday, since the evening seems to be booked with roleplaying + Serenity.

Have a good weekend, people! Also, thanks to everyone who commented on tonight's game! :)

I've started the attempt of playing a game per day.. hopefully this trend will continue. I have a feeling that it won't, though. Fridays-Sundays are usually very busy with me, especially this weekend, since Saturday is my Birthday :D.

For my birthday, my brother has ordered 4 Go books, all of them suggested by nachtrabe: Opening Theory Made Easy, Lessons in the Fundamentals of Go, Life and Death, and Battle Strategies. Now I just have to figure out what to get my brother for his bday in return :O

We had a power outage today at work, so it allowed me some time to take a look at some Shusaku games that I downloaded from the internet. There's one that I've started the humble beginnings of memorization, but I find it hard sometimes, since I have the urge to make my own moves, which are invariably *not* what was played. Sigh. I think I get this game up to 15-20 moves, but there are some moves even before then that trip me up. Oh well.. such is life (and death!)

My game of the day:


JohnBrian[25k] vs. wolvie[30k?], 19x19 H5: W+8.5
I played a handicap versus JohnBrian, whom I originally met just minutes before discussing how much escapees suck (since he just had someone escape his game). Figuring that I'm trustworthy (which I am!), we decided to play a game. I haven't yet reviewed it all the way through, but the biggest glaring mistake that happened was I didn't fortify/protect this HUGE moyo that I had. I should have sacrificed a couple stones and taken the rest of the board.

Tenuki, wolvie! TENUKI! :)

I have won my first game on KGS! :D


TempusTM[29k?] vs. wolvie[30k?]: B+45.5

Things I need to work on:
- Don't respond to moves. Tenuki whenever possible to get the biggest points.
- If I can wreck an opponent's moyo.. do so!

Now I go and relax for a while. Aaaaaah!

I neglected this blog for a while it seems... I played a couple of games on KGS last week and was going to update the site, but never got around to it. So instead of posting those end results here (you can see the sgfs on KGS anyway), I'll start new again!

My rank has a ? by it now, due to the lack of games. However, the rest was warranted... I had some things I needed to take care of in my life. Now that they're mostly resolved, I can continue on learning more about Go!

This weekend, I actually played a face to face game with cecilm[22k], one of my real-life friends who also happens to be obsessed with Go. My brother and I went to his party on Saturday, and we ended up playing a game together. I told him that my rank is around 30-29k on KGS, and so I started with a 6 stone handicap. We chatted along while we played, and I ended up having a lot of fun. Others at the party were looking at the board with blank stares, and comments ranged from "OOoooh, mints!" to "I bet there's a bit of strategy involved in this game...", which is now the understatement of the year. I won by resignation, which actually helped boost my esteem, especially when I was told that I was stronger than 29k.

I guess we'll see later tonight, when I hopefully will have time to play a couple games! :D

I attempted to play a free game tonight (link to the game is here), but my internet connection was so horrible at my parent's house. Everytime I did a move it would take 30 sec - 1 min to show up on the server, costing me time and causing much aggravation for my opponent. I eventually resigned even though it was a fairly interesting match, I just wish I could have completed it.

I'm also having problems studying Go right now because of some rather emotional things in my life right now, which includes much drama and general mindfuckery. Hopefully I'll get my concentration back.

I studied some more life and death problems today, and then I went and played a game. However, it wasn't on KGS, instead it was against my roommate on my incredibly ghetto goban. He knows a bit about go, and we're both beginners. He played a while on KGS a while ago, but doesn't play now. I recorded the game using my Pocket PC, but I'm not able to save it, since it crashes when I attempt to do so (found that out yesterday). I'm using the Go Suite.. I wonder if anyone else has that problem with it.


wolvie[30k] vs. acturi[?]: W+Res
It was a fun game.. he ended up resigning. We went ahead and put it into the score calculator and it came up with W+123. I guess that means the next time I play, I'll be giving him quite a handicap. That would be a new experience for me.. gasp.

I may not be able to play on KGS until maybe late Saturday or Sunday. Oh well, I have my life and death problems to keep me company. :)

I was able to play on Tuesday Night.. one game though, which wasn't too bad. It was a free game with no handicap against something that I estimate to be around 18-20k, with me being white. Things started out well enough in the opening (since I played freaking everywhere.. heh), but at the beginning of the midgame, I found myself having problems distinguishing whether a move was a threat or not. I managed to not have a group killed outright in the beginning of the midgame, but in the endgame I lost a fairly large group that I thought was very alive.


wolvie[30k] vs. cytorch[-]: B+109.5
Once I lost that game, I licked my wounds for a while in the form of playing some Playstation 2 (which also kicked my ass, but that's another story).

I didn't play yesterday since I was still licking my wounds and had some personal stuff happen. Things like that tend to distract from the game. :(

I was bored today at lunchtime, and despite being told not to play against computers (I can hear nachtrabe already.. "Stop playing computers! *whap*") I went and played one anyway. I remember just a week or two ago, it would completely stomp me into the ground, and the only way I could possibly get close to defeating it would be to have 7H. I played through a game today, and well.. in an even game, I only ended up losing by about 8.5 moku.


gnugo[?] vs. wolvie[30k]: W+8.5
I wonder what that says about my progress. :o

Tonight I wasn't expecting to play any games. On weekends I spend time with my family, and therefore don't have access to my computer in my apartment. However, my brother let me install CGoban on his computer and log on to KGS.

I talked to some of my Go friends before finally biting the bullet and putting up a game. It didn't take too long for someone to accept my game, and they ended up being an unranked person. Since I need all the playing I can get, I accepted the game and the game started.


wolvie [30k] vs. TFukushima[?] : W+Res
I have a tendency to get extremely nervous when I play games against other human beings (I'm more of a co-op person), so it didn't take long before the adrenaline was pumping. I missed some really big points in the opening, practically giving him a large chunk of the left side extending into the middle. However, I successfully invaded his lower right corner, and he resigned once he found it was lost. After the game, I used the score estimator just to see how far I was behind: at the time, Black was 20 points ahead.


tintin29 [29k?] vs. wolvie [30k]: W+49.5
I joined another game, this time against a 29k?. My opening was a little bit stronger, but I made some rather foolish plays and did some questionable stone placement that cost me a chunk of the board. There were several places where I could have tried to regain those points, but I'm still a novice when it comes to reading plays out. White ended up winning by 50 points.

The second game got reviewed (thx nachtrabe), and I ended up learning way more by the game that I lost than the game I won by resignation. After the review, I had a tutoring session with shygost about openings, where I also learned a lot.

I'll have screenshots of the end games that I played on Tuesday.

Right now I'm having an odd mix of fun and frustration about my play.. it's quite interesting.

Things to work on:
- Life and Death problems (thx again to nacht)
- Work on uncongested play and jumping
- Know when a play is a threat

Now for a day of rest.. see you all Tuesday! :)

Yesterday I spent some time reading material from Sensei's Library. I started at the Pages for Beginners and eventually worked up to the Essential Go Terms. I think I only got so far as reading about Atari, since it's easy to branch off from node to node and read about other topics that are related to the subject just read. It reminds me of when I would go to Everything2 and meander from node to node, fascinated by what nodes are linked to what, and seeing what topics I would end up at. On SL, I managed to find myself at Go Etiquette. Wackyness.

I also had a little bit of time yesterday to read through some of Learn to Play Go, Vol 2. It's the only Go book that I own right now, since I was able to find a beginner's book to Go at the DPL when I was just starting out. I think I've about reached their extent of Go books there (such a shame). I foresee needing to make an order of books sometime in the near future.

I wasn't able to play any games last night (I have other activities scheduled on Fridays) and have jitters about playing today. Is this normal or am I thinking about it too much? I think I'd feel a bit more comfortable after I read all the way through Vol 2, which I'll do within the next couple days before rereading it. During the weekends I'm usually busy, so I may try and get a book on Beginner Problems so I'll have something to do away from the precious internet.

Hopefully I'll be back on KGS on Tuesday. Go long weekends! :)

After a quick google search, I have found no suitable Go clubs in my immediate area. The closest one is Fiery Rain of Go Stones, but they meet from 1-5PM on Sundays. This cuts into family/football time, which is quite unacceptable.

Does anyone know of any Denver Go Clubs that aren't all the way across town (relative to Aurora) and don't have sucky hours? :/