Got Discouraged Yesterday

Yesterday I had a very discouraging go day.  I know I should play more, so I decided to play some games yesterday in the morning before my lesson with Yilun Yang to warm up.    I played three games in a row early in the morning.  They were auto match games set at the slowest possible setting, which is 25 minutes of basic time.  I played them rather quickly though, not using the time I had available to myself.  It wasn't a blitz pace by any means, just a fairly normal online playing pace.   I lost all three games, which really didn't bother me  all that much.  I was fine with the results, and glad that I had gotten some games in.

What bothered me was the effect that these games had on my lesson with Yang a half hour later.   After the first lesson game was over Yang commented immediately that I had played too quickly.  He hadn't told me that in a long time.  I knew it was true.  I had been sucked into a quick pace with those games earlier, and even though I had taken a half hour to distance myself from them, I continued to play at way too quickly a pace to think through my moves properly for my lesson.  This was very disturbing to me.

My lessons are at 11:00 am.  I know one thing for sure.  I won't be playing any games the morning of my lesson again.  I'll do tsumego instead, and play game after.

Counting Up My Go Workshops So Far

After signing up for the Jenny Shen workshop coming up this December I realized that it would be my first multiple day workshop with a pro other than Yilun Yang.   That prompted me to ask myself just how many workshop I had attended with Yang to date.  

From August 1997 until January of 2008 I have attended Yang Workshops at four locations.  In the early years I would attend three workshops a year during the Summer, Fall, and Spring.  More recently I have limited myself to one workshop per year in the Winter.

Following is a list of those workshops to the best of my memory broken out by year:

1.......1997.....New Jersey Yang Workshop

2.......1997.....Lancaster Yang Workshop

3.......1998.....Gaithersburg Yang Workshop

4.......1998.....New Jersey Yang Workshop

5.......1998.....Lancaster Yang Workshop

6.......1999.....Gaithersburg Yang Workshop

7.......1999.....New Jersey Yang Workshop

8.......1999.....Lancaster Yang Workshop

9.......2000.....Gaithersburg YangWorkshop

10.....2000.....New Jersey Yang Workshop

11.....2000.....Lancaster Yang Workshop

12.....2001.....Gaithersburg Yang Workshop

13.....2001.....New Jersey Yang Workshop

14.....2001.....Lancaster Yang Workshop

15.....2002.....Gaithersburg Yang Workshop

16.....2002.....New Jersey Yang Workshop

17.....2002.....Lancaster Yang Workshop

18.....2003.....Gaithersburg Yang Workshop

19.....2004.....New Jersey Yang Workshop

20.....2005.....Evanston Yang Workshop

21.....2005.....New Jersey Yang Workshop

22.....2006.....Evanston Yang Workshop

23.....2007.....Evanston Yang Workshop

24.....2008.....Evanston Yang Workshop

Unusual Auto Match Results

I played an auto match game on KGS today and recognized the name of my opponent as someone I had played before.   I recalled that the last time we had played it was a rated game in which I was leading up until the end.  After I passed my opponent pulled off an invasion that should not have worked, but it did, and I lost that game by 18.5

I recalled that the main reason I had lost that game was that I had not bothered to count the board as I would have in a real life tournament game.  I had plenty of time on my clock.   I could have counted, and I could easily have made a few defensive moves if I had bothered to count the board.   Even without the defensive moves I came to realize later when reviewing the game that the correct move would have come to me if I had spent sufficient time reading.  I found the right move easily later.  However, I let myself get thrown by the invasion.

Today I was leading again in what should have been the last few moves of the end game.   I counted the board and saw I was at least 15 to 20 points ahead.  I made a few defensive moves.  As the game was finishing up my opponent tried to pull off an invasion again anyway.  This time he failed.   I kept my cool and countered of of his moves.   I won the game by 22.5

None of what I have written so far is that unusual.  However, when looking at my list of games I came to find that my previous game with my opponent had been eight days earlier, and it had been most my recent game on the server.  Both games were rated.  It is odd that I should end up with the same opponent for auto match eight days apart.  I guess we both like auto match, and I guess we both play at the same time.  He is in Japan and I play in the morning here is New Jersey.

I need to watch less and play more for sure.

Signed Up For Jenny Shen Workshop

Jenny Shen is going to be giving a workshop in Philadelphia at the University of Pennsylvania on December 12, 13, and 14.   It is being sponsored by the Penn Go Society.  The workshop is being offered at a great price due to a grant the club was able to obtain.  Penn Go Society members and Youth Players may attend for $50.00 and all other will pay $100.00.  That would include me.   Considering that a workshop like this would ordinarily run about $200.00 this is a great deal.  

I have taken some of Jennie Shen's lessons on the audiogolessons web site, and she is a good teacher.  I also saw her review games at the U.S. Go Congress this year.  I am looking forward to taking this three day workshop with her.  Since I know a few of the people who will be attending I am sure it will be a nice social occasion as well as a great educational experience.