World Student Go Oza game review 2
Here's the second game review of my World Student Go Oza games! This time we're seeing my fourth-round game against the Taiwanese female representative. This game effectively decided the third place in the final rankings.
This time, the comments are purely my own feelings and speculation.
If you have some thoughts or opinions about the game, please leave a comment!
World Student Go Oza game review 1
It's a bit overdue, but here's a review of my game with Youwhan Kim from the World Student Go Oza! Most of the comments are my impression, but a few of the impressions are by the Nihon Ki-in English class attending professional players.
I'll aim to review one or two games more from the tournament before long. Next up in line is the important, decisive match I played on the fourth round with Taiwan!
Did the game evoke any feelings or impressions? Please leave a comment!
Fujisawa game review: Nihon Ki-in “first place” tournament, 1959
The following kifu and most of the comments included are from the Fujisawa Complete Works, volume 3. For advice on how to study professional games, read this essay.
Fujisawa Hideyuki got promoted to 8 dan just one month before this game.
Gothenburg Open, 27—28 October
Long time no write! Last weekend, on Friday to be exact, I flew to Gothenburg to participate in the annual Gothenburg Open go tournament. I'd received a deal from the tournament organizers, basically getting my accommodation and flight expenses covered, in exchange for teaching players during the tournament. Benjamin Teuber 6 dan of Germany had gotten a similar offer. This year's edition of the tournament ended up being the biggest one held up to date, with 68 participants.
I arrived in Sweden at Friday noon. One of the main tournament organizers, Robin, courteously picked me up from the Landvetter airport and drove me to the tournament venue along with Benjamin. The Swedes had rented a flat (probably) owned by a local chess club, and so the venue was very well suited for a go tournament as well.
Since it was my first time in the city, and I couldn't be of much help with the tournament organization which was at the time under way, I ended up strolling around the city a bit. There were some nice sights around, but I ended up wondering why they have so many stairs in the city. It wasn't only once, or even just a few times, that I had to walk up a long flight of stairs, only to find myself walking down another one the next instant.
Gothenburg, the city of stairs
Takapotku 2012, first return tournament
Now after my return from Japan, I've noticed that without a strict weekly rhythm, it's very difficult to get things (such as writing on the blog) done. Starting now, I'll experiment if I can build myself a weekly rhythm, even though I've neither university studies nor regular work to do during the summer. It's somewhat twisted, but I'm actually looking forward to autumn so that I can continue with my studies! The current plan is that I try to get my bachelor's degree done within a year, so that I could try to miraculously gather funds and return to Japan in next year's autumn.
Last weekend, I played in the first tournament after my return from Japan. The tournament was Takapotku open, conveniently (for me) timed for June instead of the usual February. Winning the tournament wasn't a goal; from the start, I participated solely to get a real game with Jeff (Su Yang 6 dan). It then resulted that I succeeded in beating Jeff, but "accidentally" lost to Juri. In the end, we took the top three places, exactly like last year.
In the following are some photos from the tournament, as well as a detailed commentary of my game with Jeff. Click on the photo to see it in slightly more detail. A few of the photos are slightly blurry; my hands are at fault for that. Also, the borders still seem to be cutting off some of the photo captions: I'll really try to work around that soon!
Last weeks in Japan, part 4: tv game with Fujisawa Rina
At the time of writing this blog post, I have actually already returned to Finland, but I'll be writing the "returning to Finland" blog post a bit later.
In Last weeks in Japan, part 3, I'd forgotten May 3, Thursday, which was a day when Kobayashi-sensei had asked me to participate in her children's go class as a guest. It was then that the famous tv face, Anti Torumanen (indeed, almost all of the kids had seen me on television), came to play some simultaneous games with the more promising children. I played three sets of two-game simultaneous matches, handicaps included (ranging from two to five stones), and ended up winning all the games too. Apparently some of the children came for the class from somewhere pretty far away (like, a 1-2 hour trip), which was fairly surprising, considering that the class itself only lasted for about two hours.
Last Monday, on May 7, I played in a tv broadcast game against Fujisawa Rina, professional 1 dan. Before the match, which started at 6 PM, I first went to visit a zen buddhist temple in Ueno with Kobayashi-sensei. We were shown around the temple a bit, and I was taught the very basics of zazen (sitting meditation). By the end of the one-hour visit, the monk who was showing us around was asking if I wouldn't become his disciple. As monk life in Japan nowadays can be fairly modern, and not too ascetic, I might even consider such a proposal if I ended up going to Japan again (and if I could be insei at the same time). It seemed fitting that first there'd be some meditation, and then a tv match against a pro soon after that.
Since this was already the second time I was to be featured in a tv program in Japan, I wasn't really nervous at all. It was interesting to see some details about how those go commentary programs that you see on tv in Asia are made. The commentator for my game was Sakai Maki 8 dan, also one of the insei instructors. There were two short interviews included during the recording as well — when I could, I answered in Japanese, but at times I had to have Tom from the Nihon Ki-in to translate for me.
As for the game, I did my best to go with a flexible, but influence-oriented game plan. I had two handicap stones, but as winning or losing wasn't of especially big importance in the match, I didn't go out to maximize my winning chance, but instead kept on searching for the strongest move. As a result, black had the lead for a long time, but eventually pushed a bit too hard, and white turned the game around. It should be interesting for the readers to see Fujisawa's present-day game (especially after her win against Aoki Kikuyo 8-dan recently), so the kifu is of course included below. Commentary for the game is courtesy of the English class professionals.
Last weeks in Japan, part 1: final insei games with commentaries
Expect a slightly longer series of blog posts describing my final days here in Japan. As you may remember, my flight back to Finland is on May 11, and as such I will be at least participating in some Finnish tournaments this summer, as well as in the European Go Congress. Kidō Cup I will skip, as I feel it'd be too soon after my return — while I like traveling, too much is too much.
Last weekend I scored a perfect 6-0 result, which placed me cleanly on the first place of C class with 19 wins and 5 losses. I didn't happen to take a photo of the final results sheet, but I believe the second place was reached with 15 wins and 9 losses. In this first post of the series, I'll present two of my games from last weekend, one against 藤原 (Fujiwara, who got promoted to B class) and one against 今野 (Konno, who also got promoted to B). Most of the comments are courtesy of the English class attending professionals, but a part of them are my own.
Second to last insei weekend down
As the topic states, I've now exactly one weekend of insei studies left. It's going to be weird once I start having empty weekends again, but on the other hand, I should be in top shape for any European weekend tournament — and luckily, I also know exactly how I'll keep on studying once I'm back in Finland. Tsumego, games, Japanese theory books, Fujisawa kifu collection, several hours a day, rinse and repeat.
Ironically but also logically, it's towards the end of my stay here that my results seem to get up. My first two weekends this month were both four wins to two losses, and this third weekend was five wins to one loss. With 13 wins and five losses, now, I'm currently holding the first place of class C (top three get promoted). There's still the curse of the last day to watch out for, though.
Last weekend I was supposed to have another game with 王 (that's Ō), former B class insei, but he was again absent. I thus played another game with Kamimura Haruo 9 dan, and again made it a good fight until I lost control in the early endgame. Once I was losing by about seven points with no way to turn the game, I resigned. Kamimura-sensei, as usual, reviewed the game, and also gave me some general advice on what I should pay attention to in my games and studies (according to him as well, my style is "outside-oriented", that is, influence-oriented — that is fine, but I have to work more on my attention towards territory). Seeing the timing of this advice, it's actually likely that that was for now the last time I receive teaching from him.
There was a positive side to my staying in C class, too: I got to play again with my self-proclaimed nemesis, 藤原 (that's Fujiwara), after a few month's break. We've played two games now, and are 1-1, with one more game ahead next weekend. In terms of the total score, I'm for now some four wins better off. I thought it might be interesting for the readers to see my return win against 藤原, so here goes, along with my commentary.
Teaching game and review with Kamimura Haruo, 9 dan
This is a game I played last weekend while at insei training. Whenever insei don't come to play their games (they have to inform the instructors beforehand about not coming), they get forfeit losses. Their opponents, who then don't get to play a league game, end up playing an instructor instead — that's also what happened to me last weekend. It has now been three times that I missed out on playing 王, who used to be in B class two months ago, but dropped to C and started missing out on some of the game days. In a sense, not getting to play a league game is bad, but I think a free win and a teaching game with a 9 dan professional somewhat makes up for it!
Some of the commentary included in the sgf is my own, but a big portion is what Kamimura-sensei said while reviewing the game. The game has some unconventional opening game choices, which should be of interest to lower dan level readers.
Vernal Equinox Day and Tengen go salon tournament
Yesterday was the Vernal Equinox Day, meaning the day in spring when the day and night are equally long. That'd mean now we are on the better side again, with the day lasting longer than the night! The Vernal Equinox Day is a national holiday in Japan, meaning that people (generally) have a free day from work, and as such most shops are closed as well. While outside, I spotted an incredible number of families taking a walk together with their children — something that you totally don't see on a normal working day.
Photo down the street right next to where I'm staying. It's not quite summer yet, but the temperature is already in the range of 10°-15° C during the day!
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