Proud Moments

Proud Moment #1:

My rank is now officially AGA 2 dan!  The results from the last MGA tournament were added recently, bringing my rank up.  This is the highest my rank has ever been.  The goal, of course, is 5 dan, and I still have a long way to go.

Here's my current AGA player card:

Having my rank drawn out in a graph like this is really misleading.  My January MGA tournament was my first AGA rated tournament in 5 years, so there are no data points between 2011 and 2016.  I also have a 4 year AGA tournament gap between 2006 and 2010 (I was in London), which is why you also see a perfectly straight (and misleading) line there.

Proud Moment #2:

I started watching the EYD video today that, if I had watched it before my game on Wednesday, would have taught me how to handle my opponent's moves.  So why is this a proud moment?  I missed the first (key) move in the situation.  But, in the video, In-seong goes one to explain all the follow up moves when someone misses the key move (as I did).  What I was proud of was that I played all of the best moves in the follow-up sequence.  He showed mistake after mistake that the player in my situation was likely to make and in all the cases, I kept playing the best possible move under the circumstances.  Because I missed the key move, the situation was still terrible for me but, still, I was really proud.  I like to study, so I often know joseki moves.  But my weakness is when things get complicated and off the book.  This is why I was proud about how I handled this mistake.

Proud Moment #3:

I beat Walther at club today!!!  (Walther's a 5 dan!)  I haven't beat Walther since before we went to China, which was 10 years ago.  Here's our game (my recording might not be perfect, but it's close).

(;GM[1]FF[4]CA[UTF-8]AP[CGoban:3]ST[2] RU[Japanese]SZ[19]KM[6.50] PW[Walther]PB[Becci]C[B+res.] ;B[pd] ;W[dp] ;B[qp] ;W[dc] ;B[oq] ;W[qf] ;B[nc] ;W[qj] ;B[qh] ;W[rh] ;B[ce] ;W[ph] ;B[cn] ;W[fq] ;B[ed] ;W[ec] ;B[fd] ;W[fc] ;B[gd] ;W[dj] ;B[gc] ;W[bc] ;B[bp] ;W[cq] ;B[dl] ;W[be] ;B[bf] ;W[de] ;B[df] ;W[cd] ;B[cf] ;W[ef] ;B[eg] ;W[ff] ;B[dh] ;W[hf] ;B[jd] ;W[fh] ;B[ei] ;W[cl] ;B[cm] ;W[ck] ;B[em] ;W[ci] ;B[bh] ;W[ek] ;B[fi] ;W[fl] ;B[gn] ;W[hh] ;B[gj] ;W[hl] ;B[ij] ;W[jf] ;B[dd] ;W[ee] ;B[gg] ;W[gf] ;B[fg] ;W[im] ;B[gp] ;W[hr] ;B[io] ;W[mc] ;B[md] ;W[ld] ;B[ke] ;W[le] ;B[kf] ;W[lc] ;B[ne] ;W[jh] ;B[lf] ;W[id] ;B[ic] ;W[nb] ;B[ob] ;W[oc] ;B[nd] ;W[pb] ;B[mb]C[Oops! I forgot W had another liberty at N15!] ;W[oa] ;B[kc] ;W[lb] ;B[ki] ;W[ji] ;B[jj] ;W[kh] ;B[lh] ;W[li] ;B[kj] ;W[hd] ;B[hc] ;W[lg] ;B[mh] ;W[je] ;B[kd] ;W[mg] ;B[kg] ;W[jg] ;B[ng] ;W[ii] ;B[hj] ;W[ig] ;B[hg] ;W[od] ;B[oe] ;W[pe] ;B[kn] ;W[fm] ;B[fn] ;W[km] ;B[lm] ;W[kl] ;B[ll] ;W[ln] ;B[jn] ;W[lk] ;B[kk] ;W[qm]C[I'm not sure about this... either White played somewhere else, like this, or I have the order wrong somewhere.] ;B[gm] ;W[mk] ;B[mm] ;W[ho] ;B[gl] ;W[lo] ;B[jm] ;W[jl] ;B[il] ;W[ik] ;B[jk] ;W[il] ;B[in])