围棋.我

Today was suppose to be a day of celebration for me. While I played 小林老师 this morning, I decided not to flinch and stare right straight into 小林老师's gun barrels. I chose to battle and challenge 小林老师 on his strongest part of game - 功夫棋, a marathon type of game essentially competing on players' 基本功 and 内力. I managed to hit the wire first and won by 1.5 points.



黑: 小林光一 (3586) 白: 夏衔誉 (phil1578) 6.5 komi 白+1.5目

黑13 = R13 白48 = S6 白74 = 84 黑77 = Q13


白118 = 170 黑123 = A

白188 = 194 黑191 = 248

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After the victory, I had a rush of emotions. I was very proud that I still have what I used to have - guts of a warrior to stare right into opponent's eyes and put myself through the test on opponent's strongest turf. My adrenaline still rushes in excitement when I face strong opponents. But the initial excitement quickly washed away, I became deeply reflective on the journey I had with weiqi.

Because of weiqi, I left my parents at age of seven and only allowed to visit my parents once a year. I often cried in streams of tears. In my sorrow and sadness, I found comfort and numbness by getting myself lost in the world of intersections and black & white seeds. I remember when I was in primary 1 I stole money from my god-mother's piggy bank. I used the money to buy a box of toy and gave it to a random student on the bus. I thought the gift will make him accept me and take me in as his friend. In my few months as a p1 student, I thought of many antics and did many many silly things; for example, used color markers to draw on my face during the nap period, to attract peers' attentions. I wishfully thought by doing those silly things they will accept me and be friend with me. My interactions with similar age kids were short-lived. Soon I dropped out of school as weiqi gradually took over the whole of my life.

I began training weiqi 10-12 hours a day everyday of the year. I started to have frequent dreams about weiqi and many sleepwalks with weiqi embedded in my subconsciousness. While other similar age kids grew up with their Gundam toys or toy soldiers, black and white seeds were my only companion and the only world that I know. Slowly I isolated myself further and further away from others and retracted deeper and deeper into myself. In my years of pursuit for weiqi pinnacle, I lost myself and lost too many precious people and things that are so dear to my heart. Because of weiqi training in China, I didn't get to talk to my father for the last time as he laid ill on the dying bed from terminal cancer. I rushed home overnight and only able to see his body laid cold before he was to be sealed into the coffin. Upon seeing me, my father cried. Streams of liquor poured out from his eyes. I was shocked and felt numb. I didn't know what to think or how to react because I don't understand this part of the world. My emotions had become so numb and so dulled from years of isolation and gruelling training. I really don't understand the complexity of people. I really can't act or express out my emotions like a normal person. Over years I had built a thick wall around me shielding myself from the rest of the world.

For so many years, I buried my unfathomable sadness and loneliness deep down inside of me as I pursue my dream of weiqi pinnacle. I dreamt of one day face my one and only childhood idol 小林光一老师 in 棋聖戦 七番棋挑战赛. I want to face 小林老师 in his prime and on the biggest stage. I want to stare straight right into his gun barrels. No flinching. Nothing but raw battles of life and death. I wanted to battle out my heart and soul and leave absolutely no regrets or doubts. That was the way I wanted it to be. That was my weiqi dream.

To be continue...

Opening analysis

Due to 小目 (triangle), black usually defends with 黑33. 白34 is not in rush to split at 35 (see pro game below for more explainations) because after 黑35 links 白36 is an ideal move:

1) contain right side black's moyo potential

2) expand left side white's moyo potential

黑: 周鹤洋 白: 李康

After white splits with 白34, 黑37 invade is used to settle the shape and gain sente. As black takes 黑45, black's opening is successful because black can get either one of the two attractive 大场 A or B. One of the keys to opening is to calculate how 大场 is being splitted between black and white. For black, on your next move you want to have two equally attractive 大场 to choose from. For white, you want to grab the last remaining 大场 and leave no choice for black.

Continue with previous opening, 黑37 invasion is very urgent; otherwise, white defends at 39 is huge. After 黑45 settles down, white faces dilemma to choose between 大场 A or B.

黑: 周鹤洋 白: 王檄

White chooses to expand with 46 and 48. But 黑49 gets the critical mutual expansion point. White's attempt to recoup losses from attack wasn't successful; black settles down easily.

黑: 周鹤洋 白: 胡耀宇

This game played about two months after the previous game.
Not satisfied with the previous result, 白46 invades then follow common sequence up to 黑63. 白64 decides to break away from the norm (join at 67) to grab the last remaining 大场. 白64 works because as the board shrinks in size the value of thickness reduces; hence, the value of 黑67 cuts is not so big now.


To be continue.....

Have faith in Yourself

Life does not fail you; only you give up and fail yourself.

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...

黑：依田紀基 白：夏衔誉

白52 妙手! 白 can tighten black corner liberties with A. Plus after white joins at B white can save three triangle white seeds with K4.

黑53 extended the liberties but 依田老师 might have overlooked 白66 pull out. 白72 concludes this battle: white has a possible force out at A and overall white has a good lead on black.

If black cuts at 黑67 then white can 白68 and 白70 captures 4 black seeds.

白78 force out is very severe. Variation to 白96 is 一本道. After 白96, black finds it very difficult to escape outward. Black's first instinct is to jump at A.

After black jumps out, 白98 removes black group's eye. If black forces to capture white seeds with 黑99 then 白100-108 black crumbles.

Actual game. After 白102, white still can run at A to capture black seeds.

Overall the game was difficult for me in the opening. I was fortunate that 依田老师 had crucial misread in the lower right battle. I was able to close out the game in the end.

黑：依田紀基 (tenho-) 白：夏衔誉

Since 黑17 deviates from the usual extension at A (see pro game below), white has no mood to defend at B otherwise the position of 黑17 is better than extension at A.

黑：羽根直樹 白：尹俊相

白16 extension forces black to defend at 黑17 and gains sente to press at 白18. The downside of 白16 is black can peek at 黑23 and exchange with 白24.

This discussion will analyze how severe if white tenuki after P2 and black blocks at triangle.

Cramming in the corner is quite tough for white to 忍; 白20 counter is the 心情. Variation up to 白26 is 一本道. 黑27 can play either A or B.

If black extends at 27 then white can live comfortably in the corner. After 白28, black's exterior has flaws around O3 area. 黑29 direct attacking is not so severe; white can defend lightly with 白30 and 白32.

黑27 puts more pressure on corner white group. If white is not careful and blocks at 白28 then the result is disastrous.

Correct response is to tenuki and play 白28. Corner white group is ko live no matter how black plays.