First time playing against my childhood idol - 小林光一 老师

After lunch on Saturday afternoon, my private students Huangqi and Xiyue begged with their cute and innocent eyes to see me play on tygem for them to watch. Unable to refuse their innocent voices, I obliged and absent minded log on to tygem. Initially I thought I just log on to fulfill their request. But as the screen is loading I couldn't believe who is online.... 3586!!! 3586 is the ID known to be played by 小林光一 老师. 小林老师 is known to play on tygem in the early morning hours like around 5:30-7:00 Singapore time. Without hesitation I sent match request button for 3586, my fingers all crossed and head bowing praying hard that he will accept my request but deep down I really didn't think he will accept my challenge. What happened for the next two minutes really made me utterly speechless... 小林老师 accepted my challenge, came into the room and accepted the time setting of 5mins basic/30sec 3x byomi. Even as the game started 小林老师 placed his first move, I couldn't stop the lightning bolts effect in my head. I keep on mutter to myself "oh my god... oh my god... oh my god" I am actually playing and learning from my one and only childhood idol - 小林光一 老师. At this instant, I am awash with complete admiration and adulation for him; I lost my edge of fiery spirit to engage in a competitive match against 小林 老师. Well my two innocent pupils cheered me on with unwavering faith not knowing who am I up against. They shouted "老师 where can I log on to tygem? I want to bet on you!!!" Well no less than millions dots of doubts about myself just crossed my head. I felt bad to pop the wishful bubble they have about me. Below I will introduce some of my thoughts on my first match against 小林老师. Since this match, I have my Sabbatical wake up every morning around 5:30am awaiting 小林老师's arrival. We have since played five games and I only able to win 1.


黑: 小林光一 白: 夏衔誉

White (triangle) approached lower instead higher for two reasons:

1) Upper side is not easy for black to develop in a grand scale as left side joseki has left white many 先手 utilizations.

2) If black pincers loosely then lower approach is better than higher approach for white to shift to the right side (see example below).

黑7 is an interesting opening move experimented many times by 常昊. The idea behind 黑7 is to make C3 corner invasion much more severe. If white defends at D2 then black will either link at L4 or jump at G5. 白8 approach seemingly aggressive but it is intended to shift to the lower side after 黑9 pincer.

After 黑13, white finds it very difficult to directly split in the lower side. Instead 白14 approach lower, black unwilling to defend at P4 and sacrifice territory counters with 黑15. 白16 and 白18 split is much more comfortable.

To be continue...