From: jzy@casbah.acns.nwu.edu Hi, everyone! Not long ago , in a post, I admitted that I have problem to judge "big" or "small" in real games. I didn't try to be modest. And I have proof right here. Here is a game I played in August, and my opponent happened to be a professional 9 dan... #&^%$&#%%^&@#%@&^%????!!!!!! A PROFESSIONAL 9 DAN!! You are a KYU, and you played a PRO 9 DAN?! So what? Okay, so it's supposed to be something more exciting than I sounded at the beginning? At least, it's supposed to be quite interesting, eh? Yeah right. Sorry, it was so long ago, I almost forgot. :>> Let me restart -- ^_^ Hi, everyone! I played with Jiang 9p, face to face, in the afternoon of August 22, 1992. There is a Go club in downtown Berkeley right across a Chinese restaurant, and tweet invited me for a lunch in that restaurant and then we could take a look at that Go club. Jiang 9p sometimes played there, tweet said. After the lunch, around 1:30, we went into that Go club, and, in a small room, I recognized Jiang immediately. He was talking to a few other people until tweet interrupted him and saying here is a young man who has played Go on computer network. I picked up a piece of paper on a talbe with his name on it, pointing out that his name was incorrectly written , thus began to introduce myself. He said, "That's all right -- people write my name wrong all the time." He said that in English. Then they asked Jiang to play a game, or rather, games. Two players agreed to play him a 3-stone and a 4-stone game at the same time. Tweet rose up and pushed me in front, "Go ahead. I will pay it for you." So I sat down and placed 9 stones on my board. "Don't lose," tweet said to me. "No I am very tight. I am not loose at all." My answer drew some laughters. Actually, I was too nervous to feel nervous. :-> The guy played with 4 stones promptly lost his game, and he even had time to play a second. The Chinese player with 3 stones was tough, and he engaged with Jiang in a close game. On my end, I guess it was more like a teaching game; Jiang didn't try hard to kill my groups, maybe he thought there was no need to do so. Sun Tzu's "to win without fight is the best strategy" must be what in a 9p's mind when he plays a 2k. :-> At the end, indeed, it was an easy win for Jiang. Without fight. Jiang started to replay and comment on our game while continued to play his other two games. The 2nd 4-stone game ended up with Jiang winning by 1 point. That guy was funny and was jesting from time to time. Jiang had a good sense fo humor too, and the air in the small room was lively. In the 3-stone game, however, Jiang lost by 4 points. "I thought I had won." He said in Chinese. On commenting our game, Jiang pointed out that I missed big points serveral times. "You're okay on some small moves, but don't follow White so much." "There are bigger points on the board." "Look carefully, you can find them." I thanked him very much for his teaching and encouragement. We had this conversation in Chinese. "Sounded Russian to me," tweet later joked. At the end, around 4:00, Jiang said he was hungry and needed some food. Thus ended my first meet with Jiang. I certainly will go to that Go club more in the future. I have a book with Nie and Yu Bin's signatures; now I also want Jiang's. Later when we came back, tweet helped me to recall the game. He fell into sleep a couple of times, he said, so I had to work hard to recall the moves. Luckily Jiang needed only 161 moves to force me to surrender. There might be still some mistakes on order of moves, but I believe this is how the game was played. So that was the historical moment in my Go life: Jiang 9p beat me in 161 moves. Incidentally, about less than 20 days later, Kobayashi 9 dan beat Otake 9 dan in 161 moves in the first game of 1992 Meijin Matches . ^_^ Here is the game record, and once again, I would like to dedicate the game to someone. This time, I will dedicate it to a group of people, and they were my group-3 opponents during 1992 IGS World Championship Tournament : ding, tsand, suhyun, nsjoo, Thor, fanl, JohnBate, and bn. They are happened to be some of the finest kyus on IGS. The 8 games were 8 great lessons to me, and I thank them forever. jzy 2k P.S. Note on the game record: some brief comments by Jiang 9p are included. --------------------8<------------------------->8-------------------- ( ; GaMe[1] VieW[] SiZe[19] Comment[Game played with Jiang 9p Black: Jim Z Yu, 2k White: Jujo Jiang, 9p Date : Sat, August 22, 1992 Place: East Bay Go Club, Berkeley, CA] AddBlack[dd][dj][dp][jd][jj][jp][pd][pj][pp] ; White[me] ; Black[mc] ; White[pg] ; Black[qe] ; White[rf] ; Black[dg] ; White[nc] ; Black[nd] ; White[md] ; Black[oc] ; White[nb] ; Black[mb] Comment[Should be M17.] ; White[pm] ; Black[nj] ; White[lj] ; Black[mk] ; White[no] ; Black[nh] Comment[A move at P6 would be more appropriate.] ; White[po] ; Black[op] ; White[np] ; Black[qo] ; White[qn] ; Black[oo] ; White[on] ; Black[qp] ; White[nq] ; Black[rn] Comment[Should cut at O6 right away, then B Q6 would be sente.] ; White[rm] ; Black[pr] Comment[Again, should cut at O6, then B would have a double atari at Q6.] ; White[ro] ; Black[rp] ; White[sn] ; Comment[Late. This cut has lost its power.] Black[nn] ; White[rr] ; Black[rq] Comment[T4.] ; White[qr] ; Black[sr] ; White[oq] ; Black[or] Comment[Should Q3 connect.] ; White[pq] ; Black[qq] ; White[rs] ; Black[nr] ; White[mr] ; Black[mq] ; White[lq] ; Black[mp] ; White[mo] ; Black[lp] ; White[lo] ; Black[kp] ; White[lr] ; Black[ln] Comment[Too small. E17, for example, is much bigger.] ; White[mn] ; Black[mm] ; White[ko] ; Black[jo] ; White[kn] ; Black[jn] ; White[km] ; Black[kk] Comment[Again, M10 stone is small. B should still consider E17 or L17.] ; White[jc] ; Black[kc] ; White[kd] ; Black[kb] ; White[lh] ; Black[ke] ; White[qc] ; Black[ob] ; White[re] ; Black[ne] Comment[Again, small move by B.] ; White[jm] ; Black[lg] ; White[kg] ; Black[mg] ; White[jr] ; Black[iq] ; White[hm] ; Black[dn] ; White[dc] ; Black[ec] ; White[ed] ; Black[fd] Comment[Wrong. D15 or F17 is common sense \(D15 is better here\).] ; White[ee] ; Black[fc] ; White[cd] ; Black[ff] ; White[fe] ; Black[ge] ; White[de] ; Black[gg] Comment[Should protect at H16.] ; White[gd] ; Black[hd] ; White[id] ; Black[je] ; White[gc] ; Black[ie] ; White[gb] Comment[B lost another big corner rather easily, and the game is almost over \(Jiang 9p had no further comments except, at the end, a hint on the lower right corner\). ] ; Black[gp] ; White[hk] ; Black[il] ; White[im] ; Black[hl] ; White[gl] ; Black[ik] ; White[hj] ; Black[gm] ; White[lk] ; Black[ki] ; White[li] ; Black[kh] ; White[jg] ; Black[ih] ; White[jh] ; Black[ji] ; White[ii] ; Black[ig] ; White[jk] ; Black[ij] ; White[hi] ; Black[jf] ; White[fl] ; Black[fj] ; White[dl] ; Black[em] ; White[el] ; Black[ck] ; White[cl] ; Black[cp] ; White[cn] ; Black[fm] ; White[bk] ; Black[bm] ; White[cj] ; Black[dk] ; White[bi] ; Black[cm] ; White[dm] ; Black[do] ; White[bn] ; Black[ci] ; White[bj] ; Black[di] ; White[fi] ; Black[qg] ; White[qf] ; Black[qh] ; White[qd] ; Black[pe] ; White[pf] ; Black[qb] ; White[rb] ; Black[pb] ; White[ir] ; Black[rg] ; White[ra] ; Black[hr] ; White[ho] ; Black[hp] ; White[fo] Comment[White wins by resignation. B surrenders here, but in fact B still has moves at lower right corner: Q5 first, after W O7, B T3. Since W M2 group is not alive, it's a big ko at Q5/Q6. \(This sequence has existed long ago, B simply missed it all the way.\)] ) --------------------8<------------------------->8-------------------- =========================================================================== Quiz #1: (zhuge) | Quiz #2: (tweet) | Please send answers to: | | Black to play... | ---------- ("one") | jzy@casbah.acns.nwu.edu and kill. | | | +------+ + | But not: 6 . . . . . . | | | | 5 . . . . . . | | | ("mouth") | Jim Z Yu 4 O O O O . . | +------+ | 636 Sherman Ave. #3F 3 O # # O . . | | Evanston, IL 60202 2 # . # O . . | Please add *one* standard | 1 . # # O . . | stroke to make a Chinese | Because: + A B C D E F | character out of the above | | figuer. (5 answers; extra | Prizes are only sent One move. | point to get the 6th :-) | through e-mail. ===========================================================================