Japan!

It's official!  I registered for the 2017 Osaka Go Camp!

I'm only on Unit 1, Chapter 5 of my Japanese lessons on Mango.  And I've had a very slack fall Go-wise.  Time for some New Year's resolutions...

Chun's Recommendation #6 or, Hawk Hike

I skipped the MGA Handicap Tournament this past Sunday in favor of Chun's Recommendation #6 (meditation), in the form of a Hawk Hike.  Mt Tom in western Massachusetts is supposed to be one of the best places to see the hawk migration.  Unfortunately, on Sunday we were also getting the fringes of Hurricane Matthew, so it was rainy and cloudy and windy and the hawks chose to stay put for the day.

I waited out most of the rain, and then hiked out to Mt Tom in the eerie fog.  It was beautiful.  

At one point, I heard music nearby and some sort of cabin loomed up out of the fog, just off the trail.  I heard voices but never encountered the people.  It felt straight out of Heart of Darkness.  

By the time I got back to the lookout tower at Goat Peak, the fog had cleared, so I had some hope of seeing hawks.  They did not seem to be migrating, but they were definitely hanging out.  I'd look north through my binoculars, wait a beat or two, and see a hawk circling above the trees.

When that hawk landed or flew too far away, I'd turn and look south.

Pause...  then, yep!  Another hawk.  Wait until they fly behind the hill and turn north...  and another!  Often a second would fly into view as I watched.

I don't know hawks well enough to identify them specifically, but I know enough to tell that they were definitely hawks of some sort and (having watched more hours of the Cornell hawk cam than I care to admit) almost definitely not red-tailed hawks.

Yunguseng fan!

I got my official Yunguseng fan in the mail!

Year 2: Off to a rough start

Ugh! 0-6 in AYD for this month! The middle of the week evening time is really hard for me, but two of those games I played in the afternoon on the weekend. And my opponents are all playing evening games too, so it seems I should win occasionally, right?

 I think part of what's happening here is this opposite of visualizing success thing that sometimes takes over me. Star athletes are said to use a technique of visualizing success: if you can see yourself making that perfect olympic dive, it will happen. I sometimes end up doing the opposite: I visualize failure in my games and it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. It's not quite conscious, or I would simply stop. I think it is, at least in part, a gender thing. I noticed this same exact phenomenon in one of my student's exams last year. She had failed the exam and brought it to office hours to go over it. The first question on the exam had 4 or 5 parts to it, all of which were variations on basically the same thing (maybe taking derivatives of functions or something like that). Each part was testing slightly different things but, for the most part, if you knew how to do them, you knew how to do all of them. But, looking at my student's exam, she nailed the first few and then bombed the rest. I said to her, "I know what happened here!" and described what happens to me in my Go games. She said, "Yes! That's exactly what happened to me here." Steele doesn't quite address this issue in Whistling Vivaldi, but he talks about similar things. Go is certainly an area in which there is a stereotype of women not doing well, so it makes sense that it would affect me. It's really hard to snap out of that mindset. I don't really have any techniques for doing so, other than waiting for it to go away.

 So, I'm off to D league for October. The bright side of that is that it frees me up for Tuesday music jamming nights. :)

Meanwhile, I utterly failed to meet my goal of 25 games for September, clocking in at a measly 14. Maybe that has something to do with my abysmal performance in AYD too.

On a brighter note, I've started something new! In my 15 years of playing and studying Go, I've never managed to regularly keep up with the latest professional games. I'm a creature of habit, so it needs to be part of my routine or it's not going to happen. So what I've started doing is this: after I read while eating my breakfast in the morning, I take just a few minutes to go through the most recent game posted on go4go.net. It's not the same as keeping up with the latest big tournaments, but it means I get to see lots of very recent pro games. I'm hoping it will help give me new ideas, but it's also fun and inspiring. I think this counts as #5 on Chun's list of recommendations: "Watch games, just watch, download wbaduk app or daily professional games app, Do it when you have 5 minutes free time, on the bus, waiting for coffee etc." (Maybe #6 would help with the visualizing failure problem too...)

Not just me

My goal is to reach 5 dan in 5 years (well, 4 years now).  But not just me -- I want the rest of my club (those who are not already there) to reach 5 dan with me.  We have a lot of low-dan and SDK players in our club.  I'm hoping we can all push each other and climb together.

This is kind of the opposite of what a student of ours said last year.  When getting ready for our exam, this student wanted to be able to bring graph paper.  I pointed out that I couldn't allow that, because then I would have to let everyone do that, and then we'd have to check that the paper everyone brought in didn't have any writing on it and it would take forever.   This student (completely serious) said, "No, not everyone -- just me."

Meanwhile, I'm hurtling toward D league in AYD.  I've lost all three of the games I've played so far.  (Ugh!  I just can't get my head in the game after working all day and with a full day following.)  My first game actually wasn't too bad:

(;GM[1]FF[4]CA[UTF-8]AP[CGoban:3]ST[2] RU[Japanese]SZ[19]KM[7.50] GN[2016-09-06a]PW[Michel Babany]PB[Becci]DT[2016-09-06]EV[AYD ]PC[Toronto]CH[1] ;B[pd]C[White: Michel Babany Black: Becci ]N[Michel Babany vs Becci] ;W[dc] ;B[pq] ;W[dq] ;B[co] ;W[cl] (;B[dn]C[This is not the proper move.] ;W[gq] ;B[bq] ;W[nc] ;B[lc] ;W[qc] ;B[pc] ;W[qd] ;B[pe] ;W[pb] ;B[ob] ;W[qb] ;B[oc] ;W[qf] ;B[ic] ;W[ci] ;B[qo] ;W[oq]C[Michel and I both thought this was a good move, but In-seong says it just helps Black.] ;B[op] ;W[nq] ;B[pr] ;W[np] ;B[oo] ;W[jp]C[Black gets a strong shape and sente to play the right side.] ;B[qh] (;W[rf] ;B[og] ;W[gd] ;B[ce] ;W[cd] (;B[ch] ;W[de] ;B[di] ;W[cj] ;B[dh] ;W[ek] ;B[gh] ;W[id] ;B[jd] ;W[ie] ;B[hc] ;W[ih] ;B[gj] ;W[bn] ;B[bo] ;W[gl] ;B[gf] ;W[ge] ;B[ig] (;W[jg] ;B[if] ;W[jf] ;B[je]C[This cut is good for Black.] ;W[jh] ;B[hk] ;W[jk] ;B[hl] ;W[jm] ;B[gm] ;W[fl] ;B[im] ;W[fn] ;B[gn] ;W[en] ;B[jj] (;W[kj] ;B[ij] ;W[ki] (;B[jn] ;W[km] ;B[kn] ;W[lm] ;B[ip] ;W[iq] ;B[hp] ;W[hq] ;B[kp] ;W[jo] ;B[ko] ;W[io] ;B[ho] ;W[jq] ;B[in] ;W[kq] ;B[mo] ;W[nn] ;B[no] ;W[ke] ;B[kd] ;W[le] ;B[lg]C[This is painful for White.] ;W[nb] ;B[na] ;W[ma] ;B[oa] ;W[md] ;B[mb] ;W[qj] ;B[mh] ;W[kf] (;B[ql] ;W[nj] (;B[ol] ;W[rh] ;B[qi] ;W[ri] ;B[pj] ;W[hi] ;B[gi] ;W[hj] (;B[gk]C[This move is a mistake. Black had a chance to kill the large White group in the center. ] ;W[ik]C[But after White cuts, game is ok for White.] ;B[fb] ;W[cr] ;B[br] ;W[cn] (;B[do]C[This is a mistake. ] ;W[bs] ;B[ep] ;W[fp] ;B[eq] ;W[er] ;B[fq] ;W[fr] ;B[dp] (;W[fo] ;B[dl] ;W[dk] ;B[cm] ;W[bm] ;B[dm] ;W[bk] ;B[fm] ;W[el] ;B[em] ;W[pk] ;B[qk] ;W[rj] ;B[oj] ;W[nk] ;B[ok] ;W[sm] ;B[mr] ;W[mq] ;B[rm] ;W[sl] ;B[sk] ;W[rk] ;B[sn] ;W[rl] ;B[qn] ;W[nr] ;B[be] ;W[bd] ;B[ff] ;W[eb] ;B[fc] ;W[ed] ;B[jl] ;W[kl] ;B[il] ;W[kk] ;B[cq] ;W[dr] ;B[hh] ;W[ii] ;B[nl] ;W[ml] ;B[mj] ;W[ni] ;B[lj] ;W[mi] ;B[li] ;W[lk] ;B[lh] ;W[mk] ;B[gp] ;W[df] (;B[bh] ;W[oh] ;B[pg] ;W[nh] ;B[ng] ;W[bf] (;B[bi]C[Black missed a chance here.] ;W[al] ;B[bj] ;W[an] ;B[ef] ;W[fd] ;B[dg] ;W[cf] ;B[mn] ;W[fa] ;B[gb] ;W[os] ;B[ps] ;W[mc] ;B[la] ;W[ld] ;B[ga] ;W[kc]) (;B[aj]C[Black can kill by playing here.])) (;B[bi] ;W[bj] ;B[bg] ;W[dj] ;B[ad] ;W[ac] ;B[ae] ;W[bb]C[This way, the game is good for Black.])) (;W[dm]C[White can kill by playing here.])) (;B[cq]C[Black can live by playing here.])) (;B[hh] ;W[ii] ;B[ik] ;W[gk]C[Black is afraid of this cut, ] ;B[fg]C[But Black should be able to live here. Then White is in trouble.])) (;B[mj]C[Black should look for a strong move for separating White.])) (;B[mj]C[Black can jump here -- the whole White group is so weak.] ;W[lk] ;B[nl]TR[qj]C[Black can capture the marked White stone as a bonus after attacking the whole White group.])) (;B[kk]C[Black should cut directly.])) (;W[ij]C[Again, White should hane inside.])) (;W[hg]C[White should hane this side.])) (;B[de]C[Black MUST nobi here -- just can't give White that awesome tiger's mouth. (I'm learning how to use these attachments, and still not doing very well.) ] ;W[ed] ;B[dh] ;W[ch] ;B[cg] ;W[bg] ;B[bf] ;W[dg] ;B[eg] ;W[cf] ;B[df] ;W[cg] ;B[bd] ;W[bc] ;B[ff]C[Looks fine for Black.])) (;W[qg]C[This is the proper move for White.] ;B[ph] ;W[pj]LB[og:A]C[Later, this is the place for White to invade. White aims at A.])) (;B[eo] ;W[fp]C[If Black jumps out, the two Black stones become a burden (with any pincer).]) (;B[gq]C[So Black should consider this counter-pincer.] ;W[ep] ;B[jp]C[If White comes out, Black should just give it away. ] ;W[dn]C[Even if White comes back, Black can still do something in the corner.] ;B[qk]C[So Black can leave it and play for the right side.]))

In the review of my second game, in which I lost to someone whose username is "shtfrbrns", In-seong basically said that sometimes I play well and sometimes I play like crap (this is not quite the way he phrased it) and he didn't really know what to say. It's totally true, and I don't have an answer for it either.

One year down, four to Go

I'm now one year in to my 5 Years to 5 Dan plan!  That means it's time to look both back and forward.

Looking back:  I went 4-2 as 2 dan at the Canadian Open, and my AGA rank is officially 2 dan (for now, at least).  I think that's pretty good for the first year (having started at 1 dan last year).  If I continue at this rate, I'll meet my goal.  :)

I did not meet my goal of 357 games for the year.  I clocked in at 285, which is 80% of my goal.  (Actually, I stopped counting at the end of August, so this was short of a full year by 2 weeks, though I certainly have not come anywhere near meeting that goal in the past two weeks.)  But my summer got congressed, which was a huge contributing factor to not meeting those goals.

Looking forward:  My next medium term goal is to be 3 dan by this time next year.  I'll consider that goal met if I get to AGA 3 dan and/or I play with at least an even record as 3 dan in some kind of significant tournament.  (That means I'll need to be playing in tournaments...)

I have a lot of things working in my favor.  I'm doing AYD during the academic year, which is totally insane.  I'm having a really hard time playing decent games at night after a long day of work (more on my particular games coming soon).  But I'm playing and getting games reviewed, as well as getting lectures to go along with them.  So that's great.  I have An Huang in my department, so I'm getting regular games with a 6 dan.  It's clear that I have a lot to learn from him, so I'm really happy about that.  I'm so lucky to have him there.  And, of course, I have the best club in the country, full of strong and fun players to learn with and from.  :)

So I have all of that during the academic year to get ready for next summer, when I plan to go to the Osaka Go camp.  To that end, I'm starting to learn a tiny bit of Japanese, using Mango through my library, combined with making flashcards for Anki.  Sukoshi nihongo o hanashimasu!

Returning to regular play

Our club's recovery from Congress is slow, but we are recovering.

In particular...  Walther's back!  I played him at Diesel on Thursday.  I resigned when a group of mine died, but it was so nice to have him back and to get to play with him again.  And we have our next dan level class scheduled.  On September 15th, we'll study (at Mr. Park's suggestion) this  game between Ma Xiaochun (b) and Yi Chang-ho (w) from 1997:

(;GM[1]FF[4]SZ[19]AP[SmartGo Kifu:4.2]CA[utf-8] GN[1997-10-09a] PW[Yi Ch'ang-ho]WR[9d] PB[Ma Xiaochun]BR[9d] EV[2nd Samsung Cup]RO[Semi-final] DT[1997-10-09] PC[Silla Hotel, Seoul] KM[5.5] RE[W+0.5] CP[GoGoD Collection Copyright © 2001-2015 John Fairbairn. All rights reserved.] CH[1];B[pd];W[dd];B[qp];W[dq];B[do];W[co];B[dp];W[cp];B[eq];W[cn];B[dn];W[dm] ;B[cq];W[dr];B[bq];W[cr];B[cm];W[cl];B[br];W[er];B[bm];W[bn];B[bl];W[bp] ;B[fq];W[fo];B[en];W[dl];B[ap];W[ao];B[fr];W[bk];B[cs];W[fm];B[np];W[jd] ;B[cc];W[cd];B[dc];W[fc];B[fb];W[qj];B[gc];W[fd];B[hb];W[gd];B[hd];W[he] ;B[hh];W[id];B[hc];W[fh];B[hf];W[ge];B[bd];W[be];B[bc];W[cf];B[jf];W[nc] ;B[qg];W[qm];B[pc];W[ne];B[lf];W[ld];B[ri];W[oq];B[op];W[qq];B[pq];W[pr] ;B[pp];W[rr];B[or];W[rp];B[ro];W[nq];B[ps];W[qr];B[nr];W[mq];B[mr];W[mp] ;B[kq];W[mo];B[pn];W[sq];B[pm];W[ko];B[so];W[sp];B[kc];W[kd];B[ng];W[qi] ;B[rj];W[qh];B[rh];W[pg];B[qf];W[nh];B[mh];W[mi];B[li];W[ni];B[qk];W[lj] ;B[lh];W[kj];B[ii];W[kg];B[kf];W[mg];B[lg];W[nf];B[fi];W[iq];B[jp];W[hp] ;B[jo];W[jn];B[in];W[io];B[kn];W[jm];B[km];W[jl];B[gh];W[ln];B[kp];W[hj] ;B[fg];W[eh];B[gf];W[ff];B[eg];W[dg];B[ef];W[ee];B[lo];W[df];B[fe];W[qo] ;B[ei];W[qn];B[dh];W[mm];B[ip];W[ho];B[hq];W[pk];B[ql];W[pl];B[rm];W[rn] ;B[ec];W[ed];B[bh];W[ie];B[ob];W[lm];B[pj];W[oj];B[kl];W[ll];B[gp];W[go] ;B[lq];W[jb];B[hm];W[kk];B[gl];W[ep];B[ij];W[nb];B[ib];W[ko];B[jc];W[kb] ;B[lb];W[lc];B[ic];W[lp];B[kr];W[hk];B[bj];W[fn];B[es];W[em];B[ds];W[ak] ;B[fk];W[hl];B[mb];W[ma];B[ja];W[ek];B[ik];W[il];B[cj];W[ck];B[bg];W[mc] ;B[ka];W[pf];B[ph];W[qb];B[pb];W[qe];B[pe];W[re];B[mf];W[rc];B[rf];W[se] ;B[of];W[me];B[bf];W[ce];B[oe];W[od];B[pi];W[gk];B[fj];W[fl];B[ok];W[ol] ;B[nk];W[nl];B[oi];W[nj];B[rl];W[ki];B[kh];W[ae];B[ji];W[dj];B[di];W[aq] ;B[na];W[oa];B[pa];W[qa];B[na];W[ad];B[ac];W[oa];B[sr];W[ss];B[na];W[if] ;B[ig];W[oa];B[sf];W[qd];B[na];W[dq];B[dr];W[oa];B[sb];W[rb];B[na];W[eo] ;B[dq];W[oa];B[sc];W[sd];B[na];W[ks] (;B[gq];W[oa];B[oh];W[mk];B[na];W[jr];B[ir];W[oa];B[sm];W[sn];B[na];W[ls] ;B[lr];W[oa];B[qc];W[sa];B[na];W[hr];B[jq];W[oa] (;B[sc] (;W[sb];B[na];W[ci];B[bi];W[oa];B[ar];W[cg];B[ch];W[na];B[la];W[oc];B[og] ;W[qs];B[os];W[ej];B[aj];W[af];B[ag];W[ap];B[hi];W[gj];B[ff]) (;W[rq])) (;B[so])) (;B[la];W[hr];B[gq];W[jr] (;B[is];W[js];B[ls];W[hs];B[lr];W[os];B[ns]) (;B[lr];W[os];B[ns];W[ls];B[is];W[js];B[jq];W[ir];B[gr])))

When Chun returns, I will declare Congress a success.  (Are you reading this Chun?  I said "when", not "if".)

We also had a special guest appearance from Devin Fraze on Thursday!

And I played my first game against An Huang, our newest tenure-track hire in the Brandeis math department on Friday -- he's probably about 6 dan!  I'm so lucky!  We didn't finish our game because we left to go to a Women in Science Initiative beginning-of-the-year event (free beer).

I'm planning to buy some more Go sets for the math department because we have a few grad students who are interested in playing, and we might be able to get Dave Hampton from the neuroscience department to come by (he stopped by briefly on Friday) and, while he's still at Brandeis, Neil, of course!  If we can get some regular play happening, I'll also invite the Brandeis club to join us.

Classes started on Thursday, so the craziness of the semester is picking up.  I'm trying to set aside my Go time from the beginning of the semester, in hopes of doing a better job of defending it.