2024 U.S. Go Congress

 

Above is a photo of a gathering of most of the BenKyo League members who attended the Go Congress this year.  We had 12 members in attendance which is about 1/3 of our currently active membership. We gathered for a photo before heading off to the Midtown Beer Garden for an outdoor dinner together Tuesday evening.

It has been nearly a month since I have posted. During the time since then I was busy preparing for the U.S. Go Congress, then attending it, and eventually recovering from it. I'm ready to resume posting now.

Today's post will be a summary of the U.S. Go Congress from my point of view.

The Portland Congress was my 21st Go Congress, unless you count the two virtual Congresses of 2020 and 2021.  If so, it was my 23rd Go Congress.

My first Congress was in Lancaster PA in 1997. It was the 13th U.S. Go Congress with a shirt designed by my teacher, Yilun Yang.  Since then I have missed exactly a handful of Congresses, five to be exact. They are crossed off below.

It was nice to see old friends again at the Congress and I think I must know at least 25% of the people in attendance from having met them at previous Congresses.  I knew quite a few of the members of my 9k band.

During the Congress I never bother to keep track of the specifics of the amount of time spend on my various Go Activities, so there will be no colorful beachball today, nor a list of activities with their percentages.  I found not recording the details of my activities to be refreshing, and have decided to discontinue doing so for the time being.  

I did not take full advantage of the Congress activities.  

I could have played in the Senior Tournament and also the Women's Tournament, but did not participate in either.  It was my feeling that one serious game per day would be enough for me.

I did play in the Open, and I ended up with a record of 3/3. 

I recorded all of my games in SmartGo One.  I did a pretty good job of it considering that I only do it at the Go Congress once a year.  I messed up one of my games and had to stop recording, but my opponent provided me with the record.

I wasn't thrilled with losing my first game, which was close. I made up for it by winning the next two games. 

My second game of the Open was a BenKyo League pair up which I was lucky to win because I played loosely with a weak group, and did not get punished for it. 

My third game was a 3.5 win.

I lost my fourth game to an 8k and won my fifth game with an 8k giving me a record of 3/2 going into the final game of the Open.  It took the pressure off because I felt that 3/3 would be a respectable record.  The competition was really tough this year. And being 0.14 points away from 10k didn't really. I was probably at a disadvantage in my games even against other 9k players since I was much closer to 10k than to 8k.

In my final game I was paired with a 9k with a record of 4/1. I lost that game and my opponent went on to win 3rd place in the 9k band. The winners of the band has records of 6-0, and 5-1, so competition was fierce at the 9k level.

I uploaded all of my Open games into my SGF Library on OGS so I could add them to my games spreadsheet.

Clossius, in my most recent two hour lesson, reviewed my first three Open games.  He will review the last three Open games in my next lesson on August 2nd. I spent at least the first 15 minutes of my lesson just talking about the Congress.  Anyone who is interested can watch my lesson. The lesson was streamed live.  Anyone who would like to watch my lesson next week can tune in to the Clossius Twitch Stream at 2:00 PM EDT on Friday, August 2nd.  My lessons with Clossius are always publicly streamed, and they are usually on alternate Fridays.

I did participate in one event besides the Open.  I was a popular opponent in the Baum Tournament which involves children playing people who are at least 40 years older than themselves.  My gray hair was a beacon to the children.  I was approached often and ended up playing six games, and I have the twenty dollar bill to prove it.

I am fourth from the left in the top row holding up my prize money.  Above are all of the participants in the Baum Tournament who won prizes.  All you had to do was play five games, and if you were as old as me, you did not need to seek out the children. They sought you out. I knew Leonard Baum because he was local to me, and he is greatly missed.  It is nice that there is an event to honor him at the Congress.

For me the highlight of the Go Congress was playing Pair Go with Ben Mantle AKA BenKyo Baduk.  Ben is one of the three teachers I take lessons with.  We were going to play Pair Go Last year but I came down with Covid before the event, and Ben had to find another opponent.  This year we did play and won one of our games.  We played black in both of our games which was great because it gave us the chance to use the Points Lover opening.  We lost the first game by a mere 2 points and we were ahead on the board by 10 points in our second game, so we won that game.  Our performance was particularly impressive because the time controls for Pair Go were changed to 30 minutes absolute.  Given that Ben is often in overtime quickly in his games he and I both knew that absolute time was going to be a challenge.  He assured me that he had it under control, and that I could actually take more time than usual on my moves.  He was right because we were always ahead of our opponents on time.

One consequence of being at the Go Congress was that I got behind on my Spaced Repetition Problems for the Internet Go School. I tried to remember to do the minimal number of problems per day to avoid using vacation days, but I ended up using a vacation day because I was forgetful. That was the day following Pair Go, so I was especially tired.

On the way home from the Congress in the air I caught up on my backlog of problems.  I chipped away at them until they were all finished.

Let's talk about Covid. 

I caught Covid at the Congress in 2023 and 2022, so avoiding Covid this year was a priority for me.  Last year I missed half of the Congress banished to my dorm room (rightfully so). In 2022 I merely came home with it and missed none of the Congress. 

This year I wore a mask indoors at all times except those few occasions when I dared to eat indoors.  I did not give in to the temptation be go maskless because most others were going maskless.  I did that last year, and I knew the cost of doing so. I had learned my lesson.

I ate outdoors as much as possible as part of my Anti Covid Plan, but it became too inconvenient and too socially isolating to do it at all time.  So I did eat breakfast in the hotel after the first couple of days, and I did attend the banquet on the last day. It was convenient though to have the park available right  behind the Student Union as a place I could carry a sandwich to to eat outdoors.

I tested for Covid when I got home and was negative, although I did catch what we were referring to as the crud. It felt lousy but it didn't feel like Covid.  At no time did my temperature even get as high as 98.6, and I never had a sore throat, which was the first sign of Covid the two times that I had it.  

The Covid Policy at the Congress did not require masks, and only suggested the wearing of masks after a case of Covid was identified. I realize that requiring masks indoors is hard to enforce, but I'd like to see people wearing masks at least during their Open games, and perhaps other games.  Game play is the longest period of time when people are in close proximity to other people indoors.  Maybe masks in lectures would be good as well.

Since it has been a while since I posted I will add a list of the games I played since my last post.

I had a really good week right before the Congress. All wins :-)

More than 30 games in less than a month.

Not too shabby.

Celebrating Six Consecutive Months as the BKL Hand of God

 

I have mentioned the BenKyo League title of The Hand of God previously.  I took an interest in competing for the title in January of this year, and have managed to win it for six consecutive months.  My achievement earned some notice in the BenKyo League monthly Magazine which you can see below.

I've earned the title a total of eight times, and am now sitting at the top of the list of holders of that title.  The history of title holders is maintained in the Hall of Fame channel of BenKyo League where Title Holders and Main League Prize Winners are recorded for posterity.

I'll have a challenge holding my title in the month of July because I will be away at the U.S. Go Congress the 13th through the 21st.  I am trying to get ahead on points for the Title Tournament before I head out for the Congress.

Now for my uusal Go Activities content:

It was a moderately active week with Spaced Repetition Problems from the Internet Go School coming in as the top activity.

It was a slow week for Live Play with only eight games being played.

Getting More Active in the Internet Go School

First of all let me admit to having been lazy with blogging this month.  I won't try to catch up with a week by week description of my Go Activity. Rather I will just pick up from here.

My special topic for this week is my participation in the Internet Go School. I've been active in the Internet Go School to varying degrees since its inception.  For the past year or so the number of problems I was doing on a regular basis had dropped, and I decided about a month ago to pick up the pace.

My Go Activities this week reflect the work I have been doing to up my game at the Internet Go School.

The orange slice of the chart above represents over six hours of time devoted to the completion of Spaced Repetition Problems in the Internet Go School.

My efforts have placed me at number four on the Leaderboard for the week.

It isn't a small matter to even get in the top ten of the Leaderboard on a regular basis, so it felt good to be number four, if only for a short time.

I have managed to add back problems from the Basic Course on a gradual basis in the past year by rewatching lectures, and adding back problem sets a few at a time.  I have added back all of the problems from the Most Basic section and from the Basics: Step-by-step section.  I still need to add back some problems from the remaining sections of the Basic Course.

I have made progress on building up my vacation days which had dropped below 20 at one point, and I am getting close to 2,000 days in a row of study with the Internet Go School.

I highly recommend Guo Juan's Internet Go School.

I had the pleasure recently of playing two games across the board with a good friend of mine who stopped in on his way home from a trip to Boston with his father.  Those two games are at the top of my list of games for the week.

It was a busy week with 12 games played.  All but the two games played across the board were BenKyo League Title Tournament games.

Speaking of BenKyo League, I had a particularly good month in May winning titles in the Title Tournament.  I have commemorated the event with a partial screen capture of my roles in BKL.  There are other roles cut off below.

The roles of The Hand of God through The Phoenix are titles from the BKL Title Tournament.

I was given the role of BenKyo Ambuzzsawdor because I am known for my promotion of the BenKyo League.

BenKyo League Added 14 New Members Last Month

 

BenKyo League is growing at an amazing pace.  Since the beginning of May we have gained 14 members.  Ten of them are new, and four of them are returning members.

You can join BenKyo League through Ben's Patreon which you will find in this link to BenKyo League.

Check out Ben's Tiers.  Tier 3 will get you two leagues, three interactive group classes a month, and a fantastically active go community. Currently there are over 70 class videos a library which continues to grow every month.

We'd love to have you join us in one of our five Main League groups.  

When you join, please let Ben know that buzzsaw sent you. We'll get you started playing right away to place you into our rating system.  

Looking for DDK Players for BenKyo League

 

BenKyo League is growing.  Seven new players joined us so far in May.  We welcome players of all levels with players ranging in strength from 4d to beginner.  The league is a great value for $25.00 a month.  It includes two leagues and three interactive Study Group Classes per month, and a library of over previous class videos that you can watch. 

Right now I am especially hoping to recruit DDK players.  We already have ten DDK players and we are looking for more.

I assure you that it is not too early to join. You can learn in a great community. You don't need to wait for new month or a season to begin.  Now is the time to join. And if you do, please tell Ben that buzzsaw sent you.

Now for my usual go content...

It was a typical week with nearly 20 hours of Go Activity.

I played seven games alternating losses and wins.

I am not doing well in this season of NAOL.

5,000 Plus Games and STILL Not a Dan Player

I think it is fairly commonly said that you should play 1,000 games to achieve dan level status. 

I realize that playing 1,000 games is a suggestion rather than a guarantee. It may have rung true in a time when there was no internet, and every game was across the board and precious. Those games were probably recorded on kifu and poured over afterward.  I doubt that the proverb holds true today except perhaps for those devoting a great deal of time to study and review.

On occasion people have asked me how many games I have played and I have usually estimated 3,000.  

I thought it was about time that I made an effort to come up with something more accurate. I started with looking at the games I have played on KGS over the years using my two most active accounts, goddess and buzzsaw.

After renaming myself from goddess to buzzsaw I pretty much stopped playing with the goddess account which only has 656 games.  

Let's take a closer look at the buzzsaw account on KGS where the bulk of my games have been played.

The buzzsaw account was created in 2005 during the height of the Wings Go Club popularity on KGS.

The blue cells represent the period of time when I studying with Yilun Yang for the second time. I started lessons with Yang again in May of 2022, and am still taking lessons with him.

In 2015, when I stopped lessons with Yang,  I virtually stopped playing go.  These were my quilting years. There was a period of about three years when the only games I played were at the U.S. Go Congress, and I didn't attend every year.

The orange cells represent the time when I was involved in the American Yunguseng Dojang. I am currently on a Spectator Membership for AYD, but intend to return to league play at some time in the future.

So from where have I documented the remaining games that make up the 5,000 plus games I have played?

When I counted up my games on KGS small board games were deliberately not counted because I only wanted to count 19x19 games.  The rough estimate of games on OGS comes from deleting 100 games to account for the occasional small board game I have played which is why I say it is an estimate that I have 1300 games on OGS. The tournaments game count is directly from the AGA Ratings Database. The Fox games are all 19x19.

What isn't included are all across the board games other than tournament games.  These are club games, and workshop games, of which there are many. It also does not include games played on IGS, NNGS, the ancient Yahoo Go Server, and my less active KGS accounts.  These games probably account for an additional 1,000 games.

Though I played my first game of go in 1970 the games I am counting start from 1997.  There was not much to count in the first 27 years when I unsuccessfully tried to force family and friends to learn how to play the game.

Having counted over 5,000 games I am satisfied that I have played quite a few games, and will probably stop counting now. Why did I count them up?  I was simply curious.

I've pretty much given up on the idea of ever achieving dan status, so I'm not complaining, but observing.

Now for my usual Go Content:

It was a very active week for Go Activities with nearly 27 hours spent.

Eleven games were played.  Four of them were Guided Go games played with the help of Clossius during my two hour go lesson.  Most of the remaining games were BenKyo League games.  There was one NAOL game played.

Renewing Membership in The Internet Go School

A couple of days ago I needed to resubscribe to Guo Juan's Internet Go School.  I did so without hesitation. It was 149 Euros to renew my membership for another year.  I try to start every day with Spaced Repetition Problems from the Internet Go School.

Some days I get distracted and end up using a vacation day because I forget to do my problems before midnight.  I am trying very hard to remember to do my problems every day.

I currently have 14 days in a row without missing a single day.

For the past four days I have been adding more problems by reactivating some of the problem sets I had deactivated previously.  When I do that I rewatch the lectures related to the material.  

Today I added the three problem sets related to lesson 9 of the Basics: Step-by-step from the Basic course.

I'd like to work up to 100 problems on most days.

I am currently number 14 on the weekly leader board.

Now for my usual Go Activities Content:

It was a fairly average week for Go Activity with more than 18 hours spent.

I played six games, all of them being BenKyo League games.

My Week of Go Activities

Nearly 22 hours were spent on Go Activity last week.

Ten games were played.  Four of them were Guided Go with Clossius on Fox.

Guided Go on Fox

 

Last week I devoted my lessons with BenKyo Baduk and with Clossius to a process called Guided Go.  The student plays games and talks about their thinking which is guided by the teacher.  Very seldom is an actual move suggested.  In the image above you can see the six games that I played in those two lessons.

The first two games were played on Fox with the guidance of BenKyo Baduk on Thursday during our 90 minute lesson.

The remaining four games were played on Fox with the guidance of Clossius the next day, on Friday, during my two hour lesson.  

I was using my sandbagging account, but it isn't really all that much of a sandbagging account anymore.  I started the account at 16 kyu and managed to double rank it up three times on the way to 9 kyu where the account currently sits.

Since creating the account I have had 54 wins and 13 losses.  All but a handful of the games were played on my own.  I actually have a legit Fox account which is rated at 6k and which is three wins away from ranking up to 5k.

Now for my usual Go Activities content:

It was an average week for Go Activity with nearly 22 hours spent.

I played 14 game, most of which were BenKyo League games.

A Look Back at the Last Four Years of Go Activities

 

The image above represents the proportion of time I spent on various activities in the more than four years that I have been recording the time I spend studying go.  I use an IOS app called Now Then.

Yesterday I decided to take a look at my top ten activities starting from the lime green section at noon and going clockwise around the beach ball.

I was pleased to see that Live Play was my number one activity.

Since I have joined BenKyo League I really enjoy watching other league members play so it is no surprise at all that Watching Others Play came in second.

In third place we have Spaced Repetition Problems which are the problems I do for the Internet Go School.

In fourth place we have BenKyo Live Stream.  I'm not surprised because Ben has had some pretty long special event streams in the past couple years.

In Fifth place we have Clossius Live Stream. 

A big surprise was YD Game Review at 6th place.  When I think about it though I was devoting about an hour and a half weekly to attending YD Game Reviews nine months out of the year, so it should not have been such a surprise to find it in 6th place.

In seventh place is Tsumego 101 Weiqi.  I've slacked off a bit with the tsumego practice and I need to pick it up again.

Clossius My Lessons comes in at eighth place.

Reviewing My Games comes in at ninth place. This was another big surprise.  I don't feel as if I spend enough time reviewing my games, so I was surprised that it even made the top ten.

Last, in tenth place among the top ten comes BenKyo Private Lessons.  There is a reason for that.  I started lessons with Clossius a full year before I started lessons with Ben.

Perhaps a year from now I will take a look at the top ten for just a year and see if they have changed.

Now for my usual Go Activities Content, a look at the last week:

It was a very busy week for Go Activity with over 26 hours spent.

I played a total of 16 games, two of which were simul games with In-seong Hwang.