Great night at the Go club
Its rare that I single out any one night at the Go club as particularly good, but tonight made me feel like I’m actually making progress with my game, and that my peers there have noticed.
I played 3 games tonight - one against a beginner where he took 7 stones. That game I lost, mostly because I wasn’t sure how to take enough risks while attacking. In the end, we didn’t bother counting, it was probably 30-50 points.
The second game was much better - I played Mr. Takabi, a regular at the club, with 7 stones of my own. I was happy with the way I played, until a mistake at the very end which took me from a 10-15 point lead, ultimately to a 1-point loss. 1 point! That was the closest I’ve ever come to beating any of the regulars at the club.
The next game was against Yasu, another semi-regular fixture at the club. Mostly I’ve seen him play Mr. Takabi, but not others. I took 5 stones in our game, and played well throughout, but ultimately losing by about 14 points (W-90, B-76). During the game there were numerous utterances of “oh, good, good” and occassionally he would ask “who was your teacher” or “do you read about go?” I was flattered. Afterwards he complimented my movement, and the strong connections I built during our game.
I left feeling great - and especially glad that I just bought the next book in the ‘Learn to Play Go’ series (Vol III now). Now to finish Vol II, and the last bit of ‘Go! More Than a Game’.