I know I have not updated this blog for very long. For the past one month, I have been out of control of my own life. I got involved with a lot of people in many activities, and as such, I had trouble keeping my usual routine. I did not blog, study, play Go etc.

The fact that I have started focusing more on my work instead of side activities was the major factor.

Tomorrow, I will leave for Jeonju, Korea to attend the Prime Minister Cup (KPMC). It is one of the major international amateur Go tournaments, the other prominent one being World Amateur Go Championship (WAGC) which I attended in 2008.

Honestly, I still have not recovered from the trauma of performing very badly in previous WAGC. I got 46th place. So large was the number, it was even larger than the answer to the universe. That time, I could still forgive myself for being the nervous newbie to competitive tournaments.

I was quite looking forward to KPMC tournament until I saw the schedule below.

3 matches on Saturday, 4 on Sunday? Are you kidding me? I cannot play more that two matches per day! I almost fell sick during SEA Games 2007 after playing three matches on the first day. Had to rest myself at the massage and therapy centre.

Way long before that when I attended Malaysia Chess Championship, I vomited after playing three matches on the first day. I suppose I’m just not cut out to bear intense pressure from tournament. I’m not a mind sport athlete, just a hobbyist.

I attended the first day of Daicon at Multimedia University in Cyberjaya today. Daicon, for those who dont know, is a celebration of modern Japanese visual culture. Well, I actually dont know much about the purpose or message of Daicon, but I sure did enjoy the presence of cute university students in anime-like appearance or cosplay.

Reminds me of the old time when I was so infatuated with everything Japanese. I do envy the current generation a bit, for being very brave at expressing themselves. I realise now that I did not really spend my youth in the most fun and satisfying way. Regrets creeping in.

Anyway, I was actually there to promote Go, under the name of Malaysia Weiqi Association. We did get quite a lot of people interested in the game, and at one point, I nearly lost my voice. It was hard explaining the game to the beginners while fighting to be audible against the background singing. Ah, the singing … some were really bad although their courage probably should be commended.

Some of the pictures below. Hopefully I could get more from Yi Zheng later.

I got another three wins for the League against Philip, Mr Tiong and Jimmy today. Overall, I’m not doing too badly in this League, with only one 0.5 moku loss against Ho out of eight matches.

The game against Mr Tiong today was especially intense. I started the game with slight inferiority, because I lost to him rather badly in the previous league encounter. That was the game where I started behind in fuseki due to mistakenly choosing double hane variation to a 3-3 invasion which did not fit into my overall sanrensei strategy.

Note : This particular post is to record my thought during the game against Mr Tiong today for my own future reference. It should be a very dull read to everyone else.

Despite my loss to Mr Tiong in previous league, I got a higher rating and our rating difference dictated that I should play white and and give him 4 moku reverse komi. I knew from the very beginning that I had to attack hard, because Mr Tiong was so much superior in fuseki knowledge that plainly aiming for territory would be a sure fail strategy for me.

Mr Tiong started with a Hoshi and a 6-4, where as I had double hoshis on the opposite site. He did not rush to make shimari but methodically extends to the sides and I followed similarly. I would not make shimari from 6-4 as well, as there seems to be no good move to make shimari from a 6-4.

After having extended to the sides, it came to a point where I had to do something about the 6-4 corner. From experience, playing hoshi against 6-4 will subject myself to double kakari and I would not like any outcome of that. Whereas, playing 3-3 would give him a nice influence and greater control of the centre for some territory points. That option was out of consideration as well. I needed influence and centre, to perhaps have the option to play moyo later if I came out behind in fuseki as normally the case against this particular opponent. Play normal, with moyo as fallback strategy. That was my mindset.

So I invaded at 3-4 point, in the direction that threatens to slide into Mr Tiong’s more valueable framework. He strangely attached to my corner stone to protect that, and let me nobi to 4-4. This is too good for me, I thought for a while. But then another strange move followed.

I found the marked move strange but not without merit. It appeared to me that he planned to play a tight game, with small territories everywhere. Anyway, the followup from here was bad from me. I really should get better result than what actually happened in the game.

I took chances with the marked move. In retrospect, I was probably too eager to start attacking immediately. It’s plain clear that black could easily counter attack, but I wanted a fight to start immediately, whether advantageous or disadvantageous to me. Yea, that was foolish

For that corner, I settled with worse result. Not only my opponent got the whole corner, but I ended up with an unsettled group. Luckily I got the last fuseki big point (marked), with potential to play moyo. At least the game was not over yet for me. Some might argue it was over though, but this was an amateur game with plenty of mistakes to hope for

The game continued to be bad for me after I responded wrongly to Mr Tiong’s invasion at the bottom. I hardly had any moyo, there were so many points that black could invade and live prosperously. It was a wonder that I had any will to continue the game at all. I was not so keen on playing moyo anymore, so I invaded top.

Wedge and sacrifice variation. I figured letting my opponent having ponnuki was justified as his top territory was already solid anyway. But Mr Tiong took this chance of sente to invade my moyo at the weakest point, 3-3. In the spirit of doing things the weird way, I did not respond the normal way, and the following resulted.

Nothing hurt more than having gote at the moment Anyone could easily guess where black was going to play next.

Yes, black invaded the right side. I was so behind in the game that it was not funny! Somehow later, I won this match and was pleased with myself, but right now in reviewing mode, I am just puzzled as to how on earth did I play so badly. Anyway, back to the game, I invaded at sansan, but pushing at E9 first because I was quite concerned with the safety on the top left group. Spending another move on the right was too expensive, so I decided against it.

I managed to live small in the corner. Some exchanges then happened on the right and finally black decided to attack the weak group! The following sequence occured. I tried to attach against his stones to find a way to settle myself.

Black had just missed a large scale attack by playing the marked move. Of course, there was possibility of white playing there, and save the H5 group with sequence White F7, Black G6, White E6, Black D7 and White G5. But understandably, large scale attack was not needed at all. Wrapping up game quickly would be better.

By this time, I have started eyeing the opponent’s right side group. I wanted to have a double attack against black’s right side and middle groups. I was hoping for my opponent to cut at J10, and voila, it came The response to J10 was White J9 and sequence followed Black K11, White K9, Black J7 and White L12.

OK, I forgot the the fighting details that followed It has been more than 6 hours after the game and my memory is not that good to remember a whole Go game. But what happened was, I managed to kill right side group, while my own left side group could still be saved with a ko. Mr Tiong played a ko threat to bring back the right group to life, which I ignored and chose to save my left group. But unlucky for Mr Tiong, the ko threat he played did not guarantee his group an unconditional life. Another complicated fight followed, and finally his group could only live with a 2-step ko. In the end, I let go part of my left side group to settle the ko and thus cleanly kill the right side group. Left group, right group, that was a bad commentary

Reviewing this game, I realise how weak I am at fuseki. I made so many mistakes in the beginning, but luckily Mr Tiong made some very costly mistakes at the end. I rely too much on big mistakes by my opponents, that has to change !

Okay, I failed to meet the weekend targets although I had been careful not to overaim. I didn’t send my car for service, and I have only reviewed one game of Shusaku, the Go master of the Edo period ( 1600 – 1868 ). Nevertheless, I would not be too hard to myself to consider the weekend had been wasted. I did achieve a few things afterall.

Firstly, I managed to install Windows 7 Ultimate on my nearly 4 year old laptop. I kept the old Windows XP operating system though by installing Windows 7 on different hard disk partition. So, now I could boot with either one, XP or Windows 7 although I dont really know what to do with the latter. I mean, XP serves me well already. But I have not played with Windows 7 long enough to even have a glimpse of its real power.

At first, the sound card would not work, so I downloaded the Realtek driver and it worked well, despite the warning saying that the driver was not compatible with the system. I like the new feel of the taskbar but not so much the Start Menu and how cluttered it is with so many things. But of course, I know they are customizable to meet whatever my preference is.

Ooops, a cockroach just drop dead suddenly in my room. Weird, but won’t waste brain cells over it.

Regarding Go, the league had started again. This time, I will try to play as many league games as earliest possible, because last time I had to forfeit deposit RM50 for not finishing my games. Alex, the tournament director, sure knows how to do business But this time, the league will be much harder for stronger player because the handicap system is applied. At the moment, I have two wins against Song Sang and Wynes, and 1 loss against Ho.

I played a lot, which left me less time to meet my other Go target which was to review 3 games of Shusaku. As I said, I only managed one review. Sure, Shusaku was a genius, but like Shakespeare, one might fall asleep while going over his masterpiece.

Also, just now I was in the cinema watching Angels and Demons. It was superb! I love it a lot, especially the suspense, the plot and how the whole story concluded. My sister didn’t rate it too highly though, saying that the movie did not follow the book and missed one key character, the CERN director. Well, I completed the book too but I dont mind the minor changes.

I hope other books from Dan Brown, Deception Point and Digital Fortress will also be made into movies.

It’s already half-past midnight and I should retire to bed anytime soon. I’m delaying that, because weekend would end as soon as I close my eyes And Monday with all dullness that it brings will instantly begin!

I have been waiting for this day. The day that 30th World Amateur Go Championship commences. Technically, it began yesterday with the opening ceremony, but the actual tournament starts today with the first round.

I know some of the participants in this tournament, some personally, some just simply have heard of them. I definitely want to know how well they perform in this tournament.

Below is my 30th WAGC watchlist.

1. Teng Boon Ping (Malaysia) – Malaysia representative, of course must give support
2. Tan Jia Cheng (Singapore) – recently promoted to 6d by Singapore Weiqi Association. Has always been on my watchlist on KGS as anyway, with his name “supertjc”.
3. Fatih Sulak (Turkey) - Last time I saw, he was 3d on KGS. Was one of my opponents in last year’s WAGC.
4. Yu Qinghu (China) – China representative, who had won this same tournament before. Definitely one of the strongest amateurs in the world.
5. Shin-Hwan Yoo (Korea) - Korea, of course!
6. Ondrej Silt (Czech) - Was my opponent during one of the rounds in WMSG, China last year. Of course he trashed me. So I’m keeping an eye on him until I trash him back, hehe
7. Robert Jasiek (Germany) - More popularly known as “sum” on KGS, with a rather distinctive (weird?) style of play. Would love to see how far his style will go in actual world-level tournament.
8. Nai San Chai (Hong Kong) - This kid from Hong Kong was placed 4th last year. Will he do even better this year? Can the youthful force be stopped? Hehe…

Anyway, to get the update of the tournament, please visit Ranka Online.

I can sleep well tonight. Relief in the knowledge that my Go is NOT dead yet.

Today, MWA held a selection tournament to choose representatives to go to Asia Amateur Baduk Championship and Korean Prime Minister Cup (KPMC), in Changwon City and Jeongju respectively. Both are in Korea.

I’m happy to mention here that I have won the selection tournament after winning all four rounds, first against Alex, then Mr Lee Choon Huat, then Philip and finally Jimmy. The game against Alex was especially hard as it was full of fighting. In fact, a rather big corner group of mine was killed in the middle game. But then, I started attacking hard one of his group, and managed to make a ko to kill. My dead corner group was an excellent source of ko threats, and finally Alex had to allow this group to be brought back to life to save his own.

Against Mr Lee, I had early advantage after killing a rather large group of his just after fuseki. What follows is just a real solid play from my part to wrap up the game quickly.

Whereas against Philip, I got an advantage after killing his group in the middle game. Which was rather lucky as I was behind in territory following his 4-corner strategy with black.

In the final match against Jimmy, I started behind in fuseki, due to having a weak group and no potential growth. However, as the game proceeded, I started making few gains here and there and finally managed to gain lead just before macroendgame. Anyway, unfortunately the game could not be finished as Jimmy’s time had run out.

Final result:

Champion: Mohd Zaid Waqiyuddin
2nd: Philips Cher Wei Ching
3rd: Alex Chan Hong Guan
4th: Jimmy Chen Khai Yong
5th: Waynes Leong

The prize for winning was being able to choose which tournament to go to, AABC or KPMC. I have not made my mind yet, and not going to soon, as my brain is already too tired. I just want sleep well tonight. Yesterday, I did not sleep at all to play Go on KGS for some instant training. Felt really horrible in the morning, but I guess it all paid off now

Interestingly, we had a small boy joining our activity today, although he was not part of the tournament. The boy seems to be promising, currently at single digit kyu as estimated by Dennis. More interestingly, the boy is also said to be a very strong chess player with rating in the 2000+ range ! That’s much stronger than I ever was in chess.

Selection tournament is coming. I thought it would be held on 16th May, as I thought I had seen somewhere, but according to forum post, it will be held on 23rd May. If it’s on 16th, I would not be able to attend!

These are very nice tournaments. Going to Korea requires no visa, and being able to go there in a group, makes it a very fun trip. But oversea Go tournaments are not about “having trip fun”. They are about “playing Go fun”, “improving Go fun” and “knowing other Go players fun”.

The only problem is, I dont think I know how to play Go anymore. The board is getting more confusing, and for every move, I am finding my self searching for meaning more and more, and receive no answer.

This move is useless, as I consider a hane. This move is also useless, as I consider a jump. Peep is similarly useless, atari too and even honte as well. Aaarrrghhh.

♦ Sept 18-22: 3rd AABC at Changwon City, Korea, 2 males 2 females 1 leader
♦ Oct 22-27: 4th KPMC at Jeongju City, Korea, 1 Player

Selection will be held to select 3 males and 2 females players to represent Malaysia.

Mr. Ho Hock Doong is the temporarily selected leader for ABBC, to be confirmed with the president and other EXCO members.

Date & Time: 23rd May 2009, 3.00 p.m.
Venue: FUJI Room, Japan Club of Kuala Lumpur
Registration Fees: RM 10

Rules will be determined later after we confirm the amount of players that participate.
New members are encourage to join the selection to gain experience.

If you are in Kuala Lumpur (or nearby) and interested to learn Go, you can attend weekly classes provided one of Malaysia Weiqi Association regular player, Hock Doong. The classes are held in Japan Club, Taman Seputeh which is within walking distance from Midvalley Megamall. Visit MWA website for more information.

Hock Doong is a respected instructor, and dan-ranked player himself and had represented Malaysia in many tournaments, including recent World Mind Sport Games in Beijing, China.

The schedule are as follows:

18 April: Life and Death (Multiple eyes and basic corner shapes)

25 April: Basic tactics (Ladders, Nets and some basic tesuji)

2 May: More Life and Death (a few more shapes and capturing races)

9 May: Opening Made Easy

16 May: After the opening (relationship and combination of stones)

23 May: Joseki and how to use them

30 May: A bit more on joseki and how to use them

6 June: Basic Invasion and Reduction

13 June: Basic Attack and Defense

The flow of the class will be as follows:

3.30pm Start Class. Handout answers to last week’s home work. Go through some problems from last week’s homework.

3.45pm Start main lesson for the week (as per the plan above)

4.30pm End of main lesson. Start Q&A session. Handout this week’s lesson. Class Ends.

Yesterday wasn’t my best day. I lost in Shogi twice to Ryou Takehito and had to bear with his “I was just playing around”, “I was just experimenting.” ; .. those should be my words!

Also lost a league game against Mr Tiong, the MWA president by 4.5 moku. I started bad, after playing double hane variation to a 3-3 invasion in a san-ren-sei formation. Well, Mr Tiong showed me why I shouldn’t have done that.

Anyway, that’s one day gone from the scarce amount of time I have to finish my thesis. Minusing today, only 3 days left to write another 40 pages. Can I make it? It’s extremely important that I succeed, or I will have to extend my course for another 6 months. Yucks.

By the way, I have cancelled my plan to move to R&D. Too lazy to explain why. I think .. I’m changing.

Yesterday was the first time I went to Hock Doong’s place. It was quite far from Japan Club, and I had real trouble tailing Mr Tiong’s car. Especially since we had to go through a number of tolls, and he had Touch ‘N’ Go while I had to queue in the cash lane. Anyway, all’s well that ends well (or something like that *shrug* )..

I was extremely jealous of his book collection. While I certainly win in computing and IT department, he trample me in every other element. History, philosophy, language, management, religion and also Go. I feel lucky to have a very well-read friend. No wonder he writes very well on his blog too.

Anyway, I had a number of games there. I played with Hock Doong first, then with Philip. Then all of us played triple-Go where me, Alex and Dennis played against Mr Tiong, Philip and Hock Doong. Numerous mistakes were there, even as early as 15th move, resulting from my decision to choose an Avalanche line.

Curiously enough, mistakes from both sides balanced out and we had a fairly balance game. In the end, our team lost to Mr Tiong’s by 2.5 moku.

Prior to that, we had dinner in Japan Club where I had my usual Chirashi Sushi. Felt bad a little because I was not in someplace dark to express support for Earth Hour.

Oh, I won another 2 league games against Shu Wen and Xin Wen (they aren’t siblings). Remaining league games will be tough. I still haven’t played Suzanne, Mr Tiong, Lao Zhuang and Billy. I have to congratulate my friend Alex for directing this league. It will be good for me to learn to deal with pressure of serious games.

p/s: I wore cap nearly the whole day to push my hair down. The hairstylist made it spiky! How can I go to office tomorrow like this