There Is Death In The Dame

Another name for this post might be "Dame Disaster".

I will report on my own results at the NJ Open in another post.  But here I want to tell about the most exciting part of the tournament for me. Perhaps it might be more accurate to say it was the most fascinating part of the tournament for me.   It was fascinating, yet tragic.  After observing this event I felt as if there ought to be a lesson in it, but I don't really think there is.

Two of my go buddies were playing each other, and I was watching the very end of the game. Black seemed to have won the game for sure, by perhaps eight or more points.  There seemed to be agreement that it was over except to fill the dame and move the stones around.  In fact, white seemed tacitly prepared to lose gracefully.   Black played a dame.  White handed over a stone.   Black could have passed, and it would have been over.  But black searched for another dame, and found one.   White was poised to pass another stones, but decided to find that one last elusive dame.   He played a stone.  I froze in terror for black as I saw the damesumari from which there was no escape.   After a pause white said, "I just saw something.".  Black saw it too, and played the move he had to play to minimize his loss, hoping he still had enough to win the game, but knowing in his heart that he did not.

That was yesterday.  These two guys actually have to work together today.  They not only play in the same club.  They also work for the same employer.   Luckily there were no hard feelings, but plenty of sympathy to go around for black yesterday.

The take home lesson here, if there is one, might be "Rich men don't seek dame".

Tuesday Is "Play Like Chas Day"

Monday a week ago I was feeling depressed about my go game and I decided to try to desensitize myself to these bad feelings by playing a large number of games the next day.    I proceeded to play six games quickly that Tuesday.  I lost all six of them, and I definitely played poorly, but I achieved the result of making myself more willing to play without fear in the following days.   I found myself less concerned about playing my required go game for the rest of the week, and less insistent that they be played first think in the morning. "Play Like Chas Day" had been born.  It is named in honor of my friend, Charles Layton, who plays fast and furious, and racks up as many as 30 games in a day, and has over 5,000 games to his credit in his first year of online play.

This week I decided to repeat "Play Like Chas Day" again yesterday.  I had similar results as last time.    I played eleven games this time, and lost all but one of them.   I came away from the experience feeling as if I had played too quickly, not very well, and was not particularly interested in reviewing right away, but I was definitely desensitized.

All but one of my games yesterday was an auto match.  The other was with a friend who I often end up turning away because the timing isn't right when he asks me to play.   Something unusual happened with auto match yesterday. 

If you look at the image you will see all my games from yesterday including seven unfinished games in a row begun in the span of three minutes time.  I kept getting matched with the same 5k player who kept running away from me... very odd.   What was even odder is that after the 2nd time he got matched with me he kept seeking a match.  You would think that if he didn't want to play with me he would have waited until I got a match before he put up another offer.   I guess this goes to show just how few people are actually looking for an auto match.

Knowing Stuff - Bulky Five

Last night a strong player reviewed a game for me, and showed me a number of variations in a corner invasion.  He asked me what I would do if my opponent responded in certain ways... the answer being to exploit cuts.   This prompted me to reflect again on the importance of knowing stuff.   I should know that stuff, and I shouldn't have to stop to think about it or read it.  I should just know it.

I saw the importance of knowing stuff illustrated vividly yesterday afternoon in a game that two of my friends were playing together.   They shall both remain nameless here.

White was way ahead and he won the game easily, but could have won by a landslide if some vital information about the bulky five had been seared into his memory.   White had attacked a black group and reduced it to a bulky five.  There was also a false eye attached to the bulky five, and there a miai situation which insured that the false eye could never be real.    After making the placement on the vital point of the bulky five, white could have used his next move to insure the isolation of the group.  Black would have needed two moves in a row inside the bulky five to make two eyes after the killing placement.   He could never get those two moves in a row.  But rather than insuring the separation, white added a move inside the bulky five.  This was essentially a pass.   Black went on to secure a connection for his formerly dead bulky five shape to another live group.   I imagine that there was wailing and  gnashing of teeth after that.

White was in byo yomi, which of course makes it hard to think clearly.  All the more reason, however, for having as much "stuff" seared into one's memory as possible ...  stuff you don't need to think about, not for a minute, not for even ten seconds.

I had fun watching that game because I saw this situation, and I knew the instant that the second stone went down into the bulky five that it was no better than a pass.   How exciting.  White, by the way, is a great player and gave me a trashing the week before.   So I ask myself, what obvious things do I not know?  What "pass moves" do I make each day because I lack that critical knowledge?  What do I have to think twice about that will steal critical seconds when I am in byo yomi, which is more likely to occur now that I can actually read far enough ahead to start using up my time in the middle game?

I have to do more tsumego, and I have to learn more positions by heart...  L, L+1, L+2.  I have said before that I want to not only know their status, which I do, but know every likely attack, and proper refutation.

I am going to be a go player yet, and knowing stuff is going to help to get me there.

Enriching My Love Of The Game - Two Years Old

Yesterday marked the two year anniversary of my first post on this blog.  

Guo Juan Group Lessons

I recently started taking group lessons with Guo Juan, and am very excited about the group lesson experience as a supplement to my private lessons with Yilun Yang.

You can read details about the lesson schedule and get pricing information at Guo Juan's Internet Go School Web Site.    A new term will begin in April, and I know after only two weeks of participation in this term that I will be signing up again.

I had thought about taking these group lessons before, but was a bit worried about taking time out of my weekends for it.  It was the recommendation of friends, however, who had taken the lessons in the past that convinced me to do it this time.

At 120 Euros (about 160 USD) you get ten weeks of lessons.  Groups meet for an hour and a half at the assigned time in a private room on KGS.   Three groups are running this term, A, B, and C.    Apparently there was not enough interest to run the D group, although that is a shame because this would be a great way for 30k to 20k players to begin their go education along with the audio go lessons.  Perhaps players of that level don't think they are ready for lessons, but I think they are.

I am in the B group, which ranges in strength from 10k to 1k, although the strongest player currently enrolled is 4k.  Classes are an hour and a half each, but you are allowed to observe all other levels besides your own.   I enjoy watching the A group and the C group lessons too.  This gives great value for the money because you can watch four and a half hours of professional instruction a week if you are so inclined.  In addition to that you can watch the lessons in video format if you are lucky enough to have someone in the group who is able to record it and make it available for download.

During the first two weeks the lessons have consisted of review of games that students have played.   Each week we get a file of tsumego to solve.  So far there have been 20 problems in the file.   We go over many of the problems at the end of the lesson, and we receive a file later with the correct answers so we can check our work on any of the problems that we did not review in class.   

I find that having classmates adds to my desire to play and discuss games outside of class.  It's motivating.   We all know we should solve tsumego, but being given a set of problems to solve and knowing that you will be expected to have done your homework makes it more likely that you will actually work on tsumego than if you have to search out problems on your own and force yourself to pay attention to them.

I often see double digit kyu players asking how they can improve.   This certainly seems like a great way to do it.   I would highly recommend to anyone that they take these group lessons.  It's like being at a workshop without air fare and hotel fees.  It's well worth the money.

Nice Damezumari In My Game Today

I dutifully put up an auto match request this morning to play my required daily game.   I think it is a good idea to get this one required game out of the way first thing, and then maybe play more games as the day progresses because I want to play, not because I have to.

I have increased the handicap range on my free auto match settings to 9H to get practice giving handicap and also to add variety to my daily game.  So far I have only had to take or give 4H with this higher setting, probably because most other people have the handicap limits set much lower.

Today I got to play white in a 3H game.   I didn't feel as if I was doing a very good job, and I was pretty sure I was down in the game although I had not counted.   But then in the end game I saw an opportunity to set up a damezumari situation.   I only expected to get four stones out of it because I expected my opponent to see the continuation that would result in the loss of progressively more stones since two more damezumari situations would occur if he continued to answer my moves.   Much to my surprise my opponent connected not once, but twice.   With the second atari he should have sacrificed even more stones.

In the board position above white plays first.   Rather than replying at 2, black should just play at 3 and give up four stones.   The game continued as in the diagram and black resigned after move 5.     Afterward I checked to see what the score was before the sequence and I was losing as I thought.   I would have still been losing by 10.5 if he had given up four stones instead of connecting the first time.

I was really happy to have seen such a sequence and to have acted on it, but if I played a mediocre game overall, why am I so happy over this?  I must not be very highly evolved.

My Long Time Study Partner - Charles

For nearly a year I have made references to someone I have mentored online.   He used to be a student, but now he is much more of a study partner than a student because he is only three stones weaker than I am at this point.  I first made contact with him when he called me up asking about Wings Go Club.  That day I helped him login to KGS for the first time.  I helped him set up an account, and I played his first 9x9 game with him there.  I have watched him grow from 21k to 10k.  I have stood in awe of his ability to play day in and day out without fear or fatigue,  and have urged him to start taking lessons with Yilun Yang, which he has been doing now for several months.

I have gone out of my way to not mention his KGS user name when I write about him because I didn't want to expose him.   But today after we reviewed a situation in his game that started as a  bulky five, then progressed to a pyramid shape, and resulted in a big chase resulting in eventual, undeserved life for his stones, I told him that I might write a blog post about it.   He said that was a good idea.  That prompted me to ask how he would feel about me using his KGS name on the blog.  The conversation went like this:

buzzsaw [7k?]: btw

buzzsaw [7k?]: I have avoided using your KGS name on my blog

buzzsaw [7k?]: and sometimes it is difficult to do

buzzsaw [7k?]: do you mind if I mention you by name?

ChasLayton [10k]: I don't care. I'm an open book.

buzzsaw [7k?]: people may come to play you 

buzzsaw [7k?]: people read my blog

ChasLayton [10k]: They do anyway.

buzzsaw [7k?]: well, yeah, I send them to stalk you

buzzsaw [7k?]: but not through the blog

ChasLayton [10k]: I figured that out

buzzsaw [7k?]: I say, "go stalk charles"

ChasLayton [10k]: and some of them do

ChasLayton [10k]: I can't imagine why, except I'm online so much

buzzsaw [7k?]: well that is the reason

buzzsaw [7k?]: it is a constant

buzzsaw [7k?]: that people like

ChasLayton [10k]: Right.

buzzsaw [7k?]: they like to see the fighting spirit

ChasLayton [10k]: I'm like gravity

buzzsaw [7k?]: the fearlessness

...

buzzsaw [7k?]: you are a law of nature

buzzsaw [7k?]: me too

buzzsaw [7k?]: inertia

...

ChasLayton [10k]: yes, it's inertia

ChasLayton [10k]: Like now, I'm itching to play again. Send me in, coach!

buzzsaw [7k?]: okay okay

buzzsaw [7k?]: go get 'em charles

The cool thing about Charles is that he plays up to 30 games a day, and has nearly 5,000 games under his belt in one year.   He is the opposite of me.  He told me that he is glad that I like to watch so much more than I like to play because he reaps the benefit of that.   That may be true, but I believe that I have learned a lot by teaching him over the course of the past year.

So when you are on KGS stop by a ChasLayton game and leave a little kibbitz message, "Buzzsaw sent me to stalk you, Charles."

Okay I Promise Not To Do This Every Day...

But I am really enjoying my new program that keeps track of how I spend my time studying go.

This is how I spent my time today...

If you click on the graphic it should open in its own window and be a little easier to read.

How Do I Spend My Time Studying Go?

I have often thought it would be a good idea to keep track of the time I spend on various go activities.  I think it would be fun if nothing else.   For an artistic type I have always had an unusual interest in how numbers can describe my life, as much as I always hated math as an academic pursuit.  I am sure it would be revealing of what I value about go. Yesterday I did a search for software for the Mac that would allow me to pursue this.   I downloaded a trial of OfficeTime, which allows one to start a stopwatch to tally up the time you spend when you are involved in any task.

I started by creating a list of the activities that I would be most likely to engage in related to my go study.   The list had thirteen items on it by the time I was finished generating it.  I can add more items if necessary.  I chose to designate these activities as projects, but I could have made them categories within one project called "go study".   Using the project format will allow me to further define activities by category within project if I choose to do so at a later time.

My Project list includes the following:

1. blogging about go
   
2. reading Go Discussions
   
3. reading go books
   
4. playing pro games
   
5. studying tsumego
   
6. watching others play on KGS
   
7. reviewing games of others on KGS
   
8. editing my Yang lessons Next Move SGF Style
   
9. preparing and giving lesson reviews
   
10. playing on KGS
    
11. having my games reviewed
    
12. Guo Juan Group Lessons
    
13. Yang Lessons
    

The graphic is a chart of my go activity for yesterday and shows that I engaged in four of the thirteen activities listed above.  It also shows how much time was spent in each activity, and represents that time in a pie chart.

I can already see that I will need to add a category called "attended Go Workshop".

I should note that the chart is based on activity after I downloaded the software.  Earlier in the day I played a game and had it reviewed by a stronger player.  I can add those activities manually into the software if I desire, but I didn't bother.    I have played one game per day now for seven days in a row.

I Got Caught Speeding

First of all let me report that I have played a game every day for the past five days.

Yesterday it was past 6:00 PM and I had not played my game for the day.  I was really tired from lack of sleep the night before due to a bad case of "go head", and didn't feel like playing at all.   I considered playing two games the next day to make up for it, but I thought that I should play anyway because one game a day is not that big a deal.  If I can't keep that small a commitment, then what kind of a go player am I?   Can I say I am studying with any seriousness if I can't play a game a day?   

I put up a game in the EGR and was hoping to play slowly, but got sucked into a fast pace again as I have so many times in the past.  I guess part of the problem was that I really wanted the game to be done so I could say I had played it.    I ended up resigning after failing to kill some stones that had invaded my center.   I squeezed them first, and it was looking promising.   A friend messaged me afterward and reminded me to slow down in the future.   He pointed out that I had played 40 stones in two minutes at one point during the game.

I got caught speeding.... "But officer, I had no idea I was going that fast."  

Had A Great Game Last Night

Last night at about 7:00 PM I realized that I had not played my game for the day.   I try not to play at night because I am usually too tired to do well, and it also rams me up so much that I have trouble sleeping, which is exactly what happened last night.

I tend to prefer auto match, so I tried to use it, but it was not getting me a game in a timely fashion, so I put up an offer in the English Game Room on KGS instead.  I didn't have long to wait for someone to take it.   Much to my pleasure, the game was taken by someone who I had not played myself, but who my study partner had played previously.  My study partner has spoken very highly of this guy, and so I was very pleased to be playing him.

I had set two hours of basic time, and was hoping for a slow game.   My 6k opponent started off nice and slowly.  I followed suit.   After a bit of time had passed I realized how calming and pleasant the game was at this slow pace.  We were chatting away about our common friend, and my opponent's go club.   We were also talked about my lessons with Yilun Yang.   I invited my opponent to come and observe one of the reviews of my lessons that I do in the Wings Go Club room on a regular basis.   It turns out that his club meets one of the days that I do my weekly reviews, and he asked if the whole club could attend.   I told him I would be happy to have them.  He said that he would be able to put the review up on the wall for everyone to see.   How cool is that?

The game felt like a cross between a club game where we were socializing, and a tournament game where I was counting the board regularly and really trying hard to win.  I was doing both of those things, and enjoying myself very much.  Stylistically, I would characterize the game as one of my typical peaceful and solid games.   This was indeed a "Terri" game.  My player was very peaceful as well.  There was an attempted invasion shortly before the end, but that was a necessary try on his part.  I felt as if I could have played tenuki in the middle of the invasion a few times, but I was not about to tempt fate, having been caught in damezumari so many times in the past,  so I matched him move for move until he gave up on the invasion.

Maybe my mantra, "strangers are for play, and friends are for review" is wrong after all.

Anyway, I was really careful with this game.  I counted well enough that I could afford to make a real chicken move at the end.   I suppose that is bad form, but my feeling is that if I know I am winning by a big enough margin, why not avoid any possibility of trouble?   My opponent resigned the game just before scoring, which is fine with me.   It was not a large enough margin that I would have bothered to do that myself, but everyone has their own style.  In a sense, it is a way of saying, "I don't need to be shown I've lost."

The dan player who had been observing said it was a good game for me to have Yang review, and I have him look at it on Thursday.

One thing I learned from this game is that I am, in fact, capable of slowing down online.    I think that I allow my opponents to set the pace.    I must stop doing this.   If the time is there to use, it doesn't matter if they want to use it or not.  I do, and I should, regardless of what they do themselves.

Reading Basic Techniques of Go

I have many books in my go library to which I have not paid adequate attention.  Some of them are just too advanced for me.  Some of them I have read earlier and at some time decide to read them again.   Basic Techniques of Go is a book  that I read previously and skimmed very quickly at the time.   I have picked it up again recently, and am finding it interesting the second time around. 

I have learned something from this book, however, about my shortcomings in digesting written go material.    With anything but the most simple diagrams, I seem to be unable to follow the addition of stones on the board that the diagrams show.   My problem seems to be an inability to "clear" the diagram of the numbered stones in advance of reading the stones one by one as they are added.   I am sure that this disability is a symptom of my inability to read well during actual games.  It is a matter of poor visualization.   Yet, when I find myself looking at a diagram that challenges me, I tend to get frustrated and move on to the next diagram.

In Chapter 1: A Survey of Tesuji, I found myself skipping over diagram after diagram due to my inability to "clear" the stones.   Obviously my visualization skills need to improve, and I imagine that a dan player reading the same material would experience no such problem.   Yet, I want to benefit from the material, so I either have to get out a board and place the setup stones to read this chapter, or I need to make an SGF file to refer to as I read it.   I am not sure yet which would make more sense.  The board and stones are more like real life, yet the SGF lasts longer, and I can go back to it later.

Chapter 2: Principles of Even-game Fuseki, on the other hand, I found very easy to read.  Starting diagrams were simple, and so few stones were added in follow-up diagrams that it was easy to "clear" the stones and see the stones as they appeared one at a time.

I wonder if most go books are meant to be read with a board or not.  Obviously no one would read a kifu without a board, or at least I think they would not.  But go books?  I wonder.

New Study Plan

I don't believe in New Year's resolutions, but I do believe in trying to improve things at any time of the year, and so I am trying to improve my study routine beginning now.   I refuse to call it a New Year's resolution.    I will call it a study plan.  

I have noticed (and been told) that my Study plan is heavy on study and light on playing.   This has always been the case with me.  Perhaps it is my academic background.

I think that I would profit greatly from playing more and studying less, so I am going to try to be more balanced this year.   I will begin by playing one game per day whether I want to or not.   I am hoping to get these games reviewed by stronger players, not just play them.  I want to learn something from the games I play.   Once I can successfully play one game a day and get it reviewed I will try increasing to two games when possible.

Another thing I want to do is to count up the games I play including my lesson games, club games, and tournament games.   I want to see how close to 1,000 games I can get this year.

Amazingly enough, the person I started to mentor online at the end of January has played nearly 5,000 games on KGS in his first year of playing go.  This has brought him to a solid 10k from 21k, and he is now more my study partner than my student.   I find his dedication to play to be amazing and inspiring.   I would never hope to play that many games in so short a period of time, but I ought to be able to get 1,000 games under my belt in one year if I really try.

I believe that the proverb is 1,000 games to shodan.   Perhaps that may have been true in the days when games were face to face, and were hard to find.   Or it might even be true today if they are slowly played, spaced out in time, and well reviewed.

If I do manage to play (and mostly review) 1,000 games this year it will be interesting to see just how much of the gap from 9k to 1d I am able to bridge.

I Won An Award in August And Didn't Even Know It

Today I got an envelope in the mail from the U.S. Go Congress.

Much to my surprise it held a certificate for Third Place in the 9 - 10 kyu division for the 2008 U.S. Go Congress.   I didn't think I would be in the running for a prize since I had left a day early and taken a bye in the 6th round.  Apparently my 3-2 record had been enough to secure me the third place spot.  Of course it didn't hurt that I played at the higher rank in the division.

I am particularly pleased with this result since I had promoted two stones and I considered it victory enough to come out slightly better than even in my game results.   

Had Fun At The Jennie Shen Workshop

We had a good workshop last weekend with Jennie Shen at the University of Pennsylvania.   I played three even games with players very near my own strength.   The B group had a concentration of players in the 10k through 8k range.     

Jennie provided good analysis that went deep into the middle game fighting.  I found it very interesting watching not only the B analysis (my own group), but also catching the tail end of the A analysis when I was lucky enough to conclude one of my games early on with a resignation, my own, of course.  :-)

I was very pleased to have the time to sit in on the A analysis while my peers were laboring to conclude their own games in the next room.   I can never understand the desire to finish workshop games which are probably only going to make it to move 100 in analysis, although Jennie went deeper into the game than I am accustomed at workshops.

We all were able to see the A analysis on the final day since it made little sense for B players to play a game with each other that would not see analysis while a pro was in the next room.  I don't think anyone in the B group opted to play rather than watch A analysis.

I also found it a contrast to what I am accustomed to that handicap was used in the games.  At Yang workshops games tend to be even regardless of the disparity in rating in order to allow for more natural opening play for analysis.  That makes sense given Yang's emphasis on opening theory.   In contrast Jennie seemed more interested in getting to the very late opening and early middle game.  She mentioned a part of the game that we, in English, do not even have a name for: the part which is actually between what we call the opening and what we call the middle game.   She told us the name for it in Chinese, but I didn't quite catch it.  Maybe we need another go word in English.   I imagine there is no word for it in Japanese either, because if there were we English players would undoubtedly be aware of it, and using the word as our own, as we do so many other Japanese terms.

Jennie informed us that you can't lose the game in the first sixteen moves, but when a strong player interpreted that to mean that she did not think the opening was important, she was careful to correct him on that.  The opening isn't unimportant, you just can't lose in the first sixteen moves, barring a very unusual situation.

I got to see some players at the workshop that I had played in previous tournaments, and I got to meet some new people too.   One of the highlights of the weekend was our trip to Chinatown for a nice dinner.   I was in the same car with NannyOgg from KGS who had come down from New Hampshire in a rental car.  Through failure to observe on all our parts that car was impounded that night.  When we walked back from dinner we could not find the car and confirmed with a passing police officer that it had been towed.  The four of us from that car, including Jennie, got an exciting and lengthy trip to the impound lot to reclaim the vehicle.   Jennie characterized it the next day as a super tesuji.  

Off To Jenny Shen Workshop

Tomorrow I will be off to Philadelphia to attend the Jenny Shen Workshop.   I can hardly wait.   I will see NannyOgg there.  She is the author of the Shodan Challenge Blog which was one of my primary inspirations for starting a blog of my own.    NannyOgg and I met online initially through the Wings Go Club leagues.   Way back in the day I think that I actually used to give handi to Nanny, but those days are LONG gone.

I am not going to be bringing my Tablet PC to the workshop.   It still works fine, but it's old and slow, and I have two game recording devices at my disposal, both of which I will be bringing with me.   I will have my iPod Touch with SmartGo touch, and I have my Palm device with Pilot GOne. 

Got A Review Yesterday

In my previous blog post I put out an open invitation for stronger players to observe my games weekdays from about 8:00 AM to 10:00 AM and offer comments afterwards. 

Yesterday I stuck up an auto match at the assigned time and noticed a 1 dan and a 1 kyu observing.  After the game was over they offered to review.  It turns out they had seen my blog posting and taken me up on my request for observers.   I very much appreciated the review.

Got Myself One Official Mentor - Looking For More Off The Record

While reading Go Discussions I learned about a room on KGS with which I had been unfamiliar.   It is called The Enclave.   I discovered that many people I know hang out it in regularly.  I was pleased to see them there, and I have met some new people as well.   

I found out that they have a mentoring system at The Enclave.   Having mentored someone since January myself, and seeing how it has benefited him to have someone sitting in on so many of his games, I thought that maybe it was a good idea for me to seek out a mentor for myself.    I realize that this might sound odd coming from someone who takes professional lessons.  The person I continue to mentor also takes professional lessons with Yang.  However, two hours of a professional's time on alternate weeks is not the same thing as having a stronger amateur player following you around and taking an interest in your game.   That is what I do for my "mentee".  We rarely play each other but we review a lot.  I don't think there is a good simple word for the one who is being mentored, so I call him my mentee.  Forgive me for making up a word.

I got a mentor through The Enclave who is 1k and who is mostly available evenings.   I don't play much at all in the evening, so I don't expect that my games will be watched much, but we can certainly review the games I play earlier in the day, which is probably a better use of the limited time my mentor may have available to give me than for him to watch me play and review afterward.  That takes twice as much time, if not more.

I also don't think most people are as interested as I am in watching games of players weaker than themselves.   I actually find it fascinating to watch games of players three, four, and five stones weaker than myself to see what I can find in their games that they might not have seen themselves.  I think it is a good way to focus on life and death as those situations often come up in the corners at my level and below.   It is also a good way to look for good end game moves.

My feeling is that the greater the number of  strong players who take an interest in my game the better, so I am hoping to find others to watch me play from time to time.

So let this be an open invitation to players stronger than my own 8k on KGS to look in on my game and to offer some comments afterwards if the spirit moves you.   Having observers makes me want to try harder for "the fans" and helps me to slow down a little.  As much as I detest blitz, I play really fast if I don't check myself.   I tend to play weekdays between 8:00 AM and 10:00 AM on KGS as buzzsaw. I use auto match, so my games won't be in a room, but will appear in the active games list.   My attitude lately is that strangers are for play, and friends are for review.  That seems to be working for me emotionally.

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