Today I reached 29k... and then it went to 29k?. I guess I just keep riding on the edge of an actual rank. :/


JohnBrian [25k] vs. wolvie [30k?] H5: B+94.5
I'm now on a 4-win (5-win if you count the escapee) streak. The rank change should change that a little bit though, but according to my scores, I may even need to play games that are ranked at 28k. We'll see. :)

This weekend is *ultra busy*.. I'll be *very* suprised if I get any games in. :o

Well, it was bound and determined to happen later. Played a 2H game with Machao, and around move 147 or so, I had an escapee on my hands.

Oh well, hopefully sometime it'll go into resignation and then I'll be able to review it. From what my friends tell me though, I was "kicking some butt" and expressing a lot of RAWR. :)

For those that are curious.. the lyrics are from a Garbage song. It seemed appropriate. :)

Run my baby, run my baby, run
Run from the noise of the street and the loaded gun
Too late for solutions to solve in the setting sun
So run my baby, run my baby, run.

Yup, my rank still has a ? by it. It actually managed to be 29k? for an entire 10 minutes before reverting back to 30k? (just from me sitting in the channel, no less). Unsure ranks can be quite volatile. I don't have much of a problem with it, however. :)


LeegleechN [28k?] vs. wolvie [30k?] : B+35.5
When this game was finished, I wasn't sure if I really deserved to win the game. I made a couple big mistakes, including attempting to make life with a 3-3 point and failing. In an attempt to take the lead, I started an invasion, and my opponent reacted in the wrong way, completely swinging the tide of the game and making my aforementioned group live and taking quite a bit of stones in the process.

(Btw, this game was from yesterday, I was just too lazy to update last night. Whee!)

I turn 24 today. Where's my cane? ;)

It turns out when I say I won't be able to play over the weekend... I end up playing at least once. Note to self: always make a comment about not being able to play on the weekend every week. :D


berrybear[29k?] vs. wolvie[30k?] 0.5 komi: B+34.5
In this game, I played some unneeded stones (example: connecting when they're already connected). I think I did better at not making useless gote defensive moves, I think this stems from an ever-growing assurance that my stones are infact safe and a speculative invasion there would be fruitless.

This did not stop W from attempting speculative invasions at D19, G6, K5, L6 and O6. In the past B would have allowed such speculative invasions to go through, but B connected instead of chased, and let W play useless stones in B's territory.

I'll probably do a full thoughtful review on Sunday, after I have a chance to relax and get a clean mental slate.

Have fun today, people! I know I will! :D

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. :)