Tsumego #070

(;GM[1]FF[4]AP[Drago:4.21]SZ[19]CA[UTF-8]AB[bq][bp][cp][dp][eq][ep][er]AW[cq][dq][ap][bo][bn][co][do][eo][fo][fp][fq][fr][fs])

★★
White to kill.

Quite a famous problem.

Monotone

Recently these is this new group called the "Monotone" in Japan.

They are formed 3 Japanese professional players, namely the famous female champion Shieh Yi-Min (6P), Takanashi Seiken (8P) who is famous for his advice on love, and the handsome and young Seto Taiki (7P).

The name of the song is called "i★GO" and it is being released today (17/12).

They even shot a promotional video and you can find it here:

The video is actually a short drama and their acting is surprisingly good.

The scene from 4.42 onwards especially is very well made, even though it is a bit exaggerating.

Having real pros to act out playing a game certainly looks different from using actors who don't know Baduk at all.

I believe the song that runs at the end of the video is their song, but I can't find a better sample of it anywhere else so I do not know whether it is nice.

But I think this is really a good way to promote Baduk/Go.

The song can extend to people who don't know Go and instill their interest.

According to my knowledge this is the first time professional players actually got together to make an official music release.

If I were in Japan I would definitely buy this single to support them.

This is their official website.

You can find them on facebook and twitter as well.

Do check them out and support them if you can!

First Post

"This is sente because black is Lee Sedol" -An Younggil

Best explanation of a move I've ever seen. XD


The whole commentary can be found here.

Tumblr.

Ok, I've decided to move all my personal posts and non-baduk stuffs to my new tumblr. blog:

http://sadaharu89.tumblr.com

Just realised tumblr is really clean and simple.

Just my style.

I will not delete the posts here since they will be part of my memories.

But from now on, all personal grumblings and other random stuff will be posted on my tumblr.

And this blog would mainly be on posts related to Go/Baduk.

Maybe I would create a language blog in the future... Who knows.

I also removed the background music because I know some people (like myself) would find it annoying to hear music whenever you enter somebody's blog.

I'm not sure when will my next post here be.

Probably it will be about my recent competitions.

Until then, goodbye.

Transition Day

Just came back from KPMC yesterday.

I have like about 3 competitions to update now.

25 more days to exam.

Study like mad.



PS I'm thinking of changing this blog into a Go/Baduk blog, since I write stuff about Go most of the time. I prefer to move my grumblings and complaints elsewhere and put all the stuff separately from Go... Maybe tumblr?

Stress Venting Post - The 3P Incident and IGS

Firstly I need to apologise for all the unhappy posts so far.



I was a actually a more emotional person than I thought I was.



And this one will be another one of them.



I just felt really stressed after coming back from Singapore.



I really need to vent it out somewhere.



And here it goes...









So far I've had 3 major incidents involving my passport.



Once, a few years ago, right before going to the airport to board the plane for Thai U-Go, I couldn't find my passport anywhere.



In the end I found my passport in my other house, but by that time it was already too late.



To make it to the competition, I had to buy another ticket to Chiang Mai myself.



Second incident happened last year, when I actually brought my mother's passport by mistake to the airport.



I only realised it when checking in.



Luckily there was still a lot of time left, so my parents drove and passed me my own passport.



3rd incident happened just yesterday.



I was almost in front of customs, when I realised I left my passport on the plane.



I had the habit to keep my passport in the seat pocket.



By the time I ran back, the door was already closed.



I talked to the information counter, and they called the tiger airlines staff.



They say they will check the airplane and pass me my passport if it's found.



I waited for almost 1 hour, but still nothing.



In the end I managed to came out using my IC.



They called me a few hours later after I reached home, and they said they found my passport.



I'm going to collect it later.



I was so upset I didn't have the appetite to eat anything after I reached home and I just slept.



Got a lot of scolding from my mum.



She was right, I didn't learn from my lessons.



1st incident: Always check your passport early.



2nd incident: Always check whether it's your own passport.



3rd incident: Always keep your passport in your bag.



I listed down all my mistakes.



Basically, I didn't treat the passport an an important thing.



From now on, I will never make the same mistakes again.



Just when I thought I could have a happy day after managing to get back my passport, some other incident happened...








I had a competition on IGS on Tuesday.



If I keep winning in the competition, I will get to go for Sports Accord World Mind Games in China at the end of the year and play with the pros.



The first game was an easy opponent.



But on Tuesday, I had to fly back from Thailand to Singapore, hence I couldn't play.



Therefore, I found a friend, YF to help me play.



His Go Strength is about my level.



After reaching Thailand, the organisers sent me an email telling me the details of the competition.



They said if the time is not suitable, I could discuss with my opponent to change the time.



We must finish the game by Wednesday.



Which means, I could have changed to time of the competition to Wednesday night instead.



However, I wasn't sure whether the opponent would read the message if I sent him.



I also found it troublesome to communicate through the IGS portal, hence I decided to just let things go according to what I planned and let YF play for me on the stipulated time.



In the end, after I returned, they sent me an email saying I lost by default because I didn't log in at that time but my opponent did.



That's totally the opposite story of what YF told me.



He told me he logged in and waited for the opponent for 1 hour but he didn't appear.



The organisers sent me my accounts log in details.



I was not online at the time of the competition.



What exactly happened?



I don't know.



All I know is that I lost the game without even playing it.



Because I made a serious mistake once again.



I should have at least tried to negotiate with my opponent to change the time.



Because it's always better for me myself to play rather than someone who has never used IGS before.



If my opponent didn't agree, then there was nothing else I could do, but I should have at least tried.



I was confident that I would at least win the first 2 rounds of the competition.



But now I already lost in the 1st round to someone I could've won by default.



Which made my 100+ games I played in the preliminary useless.



Just because of 1 wrong move.



This kind of makes me want to feel like laughing at myself.



I always underestimate things and think everything will be ok.



I should try to change things myself.



I should stop waiting.



This Thai U-Go also had a lot of waiting, but I won't talk about it this time.



Now I'm really more sad about this than my 3P incident.



Not because I can't go meet the pros anymore, because I knew it will be difficult.



But it's because I lost by default because of such a stupid mistake.



That's so much more painful then losing a game by 100 points.




Assignments and tests coming up, but somehow I don't feel like studying...



Stress venting post done.... Hopefully I can make a happy post next time...

4th and 2nd Time

Going for my 4th Thai U-Go tomorrow.



After coming back from Thailand and 1 week of rest, I will be flying off to Korea for KPMC.



Why did I choose to do this?



Well initially I wanted to see whether I can go KPMC before choosing to go Thai U-Go, because that has always been my priority.



However, this year, the Thai U-Go selection was held first, and I had no choice but to make a choice.



Not knowing whether I could go KPMC, I chose to sign up for Thai U-Go because it's almost certain that I will get to go for it if I sign up.



So I thought I might as well sign up for one since it will eliminate the possibility of me not being able to go for both.



In the end I won Yuxiang in KPMC selection and got to go for both.



What will happen to my studies?



Honestly speaking, I believe if I study hard, I can do well.



Or at least improve my grades.



Or at least pass.



It's just a matter of whether I will study or not.



Studies aside, actually now I don't really feel like going Thai U-Go anymore.



Reasons are written in my previous post.



I don't feel that Thai U-Go this year will be that much of a happy trip.



Oh well, maybe I will just try to enjoy the Baduk part.



I should aim to get 4 wins out of 6, so that I will have an excuse not to go again next year.



But then I haven't been playing serious games lately, so I don't know what will happen.



Good luck to myself.

Shock

Received a very shocking news yesterday.

Until now, I still don't know how to react to it.

I don't know how I should face it.

All I can say is I was really very shocked.

Shocked until I don't know what to say.

This means that one of my dreams has been shattered.

Mostly, if not completely.

Why did it end up this way?

Honestly, I have no idea.

But I can conclude that what I have been thinking all along was wrong.

I was too stupid and innocent.

And what I have done wasn't enough.

If it even mattered in the first place.

This news destroyed so many of my thoughts and plans.

And all of a sudden I don't know what to do.

I question myself, "What is the meaning of life?"

Before this I didn't know the answer but I could still live happily.

Now, I'm not sure whether I can still do that.

Another lesson learnt is, I need to stop living in my own world.

Waiting for things to happen.

Waiting for things to come to me.

Nothing is going to come to me if I just sit here and wait.

Nobody is going to talk to me if I just sit here and keep quiet.

Activeness is what I lacked all along.

I thought I was active enough, but I was wrong.

I hope to see a more active side of me next time.

But for now, I'll just sit at home, and think about life.

Tsumego #069

(;GM[1]FF[4]AP[Drago:4.21]SZ[19]CA[UTF-8]AW[rs][rr][qq][pq][oq][ro][po][no][lp][ko][jq][jr][ir]AB[sr][sq][pr][or][kr][lr][mq][nq]C[White to kill.])

An easy one for the kyu players.

Tsumego #068

(;GM[1]FF[4]AP[Drago:4.21]SZ[19]CA[UTF-8]AB[cq][cp][dp][ep][cm][bl][dl][el][fl][fm][gn][go][gp][gq][fr][er] [gr]AW[br][cr][dr][dq][eq][fq][fp][fo][fn][en][em][dm])

Don't think too much.

Tsumego #067

(;GM[1]FF[4]AP[Drago:4.21]SZ[19]CA[UTF-8]AB[br][cr][aq][dq][dp][cp][gp][gq][hr]AW[iq][ir][go][ho][eo][en][co][bo][bp][bq][cq][ap][kr])

A problem given to me by Lee Sung Jie 9p when he came to WMSG in France. I think I've seen it somewhere before though.

Going Out

Recently I've been going out more often.

And I actually prefer this kind of life-style.

I think the main reason I didn't enjoy my life in school last time was the lack of social life.

I was stuck in school or home and didn't go out most of the time.

Furthermore I was so obsessed with my laptop that I couldn't bring myself to study at all.

I think now I am able to enjoy life a little bit better.

Though I don't mind a little more. :)



Anyway, recently a friend whom I knew in France during the World Mind Sports Games came to visit Singapore. (I will write a post on WMSG next time :p)

So naturally, trying to be good guy, I brought her around.

It was hard to think of places actually, because Singapore is really so small.

But it was also fun to go to places I also never visited before myself. (What have I been doing in Singapore all these years? :p)

The Garden by the Bay was really pretty. The huge 'trees' (are those real trees?) outside and all the flowers inside the domes. And the huge fountain and the tall pathways. It's really a very good place to walk around and relax. It's a pity we missed the light performance at night though. But at least we managed to see the Helix Bridge. :)

We also went to Clarke Quay and walked down all the way to Esplanade. (Why are all the nice places at central? lol) Honestly I didn't know that there was a Merlion kid there until I went there. But the view from the Merlion area was really very nice. I could even see the floating platform from there.

Saturday night was also Karen's farewell party at SWA, so I also brought her there. Just nice Karen was going London for PHD and she is studying at UK currently, so I could introduce them to each other as well.

I realised that there were many things I could learn from this friend of mine. She leads a very organised lifestyle, with fixed time for studies and Baduk everyday. Because her studies always end very late, she takes the effort to wake up earlier everyday to study Baduk. Even during holidays she also spends fixed hours each day to study. And from the way she reviews her games I can see that she is really very serious into Baduk. As a result? She gets good grades, and is also very strong in Baduk. Her dream is to be a Professional Baduk Player and a doctor. :)

I was really stunned when she told me all these. But I also realised that if you want to achieve something, you really need to put in time and effort. And it must be CONSISTENT. If only I could be as disciplined as her. If only I could manage my time as well as her. If only I could be as consistent in my efforts as her. I think my Baduk will improve by at least 1 or 2 stones and my grades will get better too.

Anyway enough with envy. I believe with her consistent efforts she will definitely become a pro soon. :) And I also should start doing things for myself from now, instead of spending everyday like it's nobody's business.

Another event. On Friday night, I went to this Korean Learners' Meet-Up Session at Talent Cafe at Tanjong Pagar, organised by Shanna Tan. Shanna is a very famous blogger (you can find her blog address on the right) who speaks Korean and Japanese very well. I knew her long time ago from Xingwei but Friday was the first time I saw her in person. She looked quite different from her photos. :p

It was actually my first time going to such a meet-up where I don't know most of the people. I went with Alvin and Xingwei, and in the end we both sat at different tables with new people. There were many Koreans there as well, and it was very fun as everybody was very friendly. I think my ability to talk to new people improved a little bit as well. :p

After the meet-up we went to Tom and Toms Cafe to get a drink with Shanna and some of the people remaining. Shanna was really a good Korean speaker. She has no difficulties at all communicating with Koreans, and her pronunciation is just like that of a Korean. She finished TOPIK 5! She has interned in Korea before and also went to Korea for exchange once. I wish I could have just half of her Korean fluency.

In fact many of the people who turned up went to Korea for an exchange once. Why didn't I fight for a chance like that? No point regretting now though. I can only do my best now and hope such a chance will come again.



That's all for this week. Tomorrow is Monday. Back to another week of lesson and mugging. But I also hope it will be different. 화이팅!!!

2012 Ing Cup University Go Tournament in Chengdu, China

Before I embark on my next trip, I guess I should update a bit about my previous one.

(Full photo album can be found here:)

15th July

We boarded the plan at 2 am. I really hate this kind of plane because 1 thing I can never do is sleep properly on the plane. I have experienced it so many times. In the end I just feel so shack and worn out when I reach my destination.

We reached Chengdu airport at around 6 in the morning. A girl called Nelly came to pick us up and bring us to the university, 西南财经大学(South Western University of Finance). It was kind of funny because Xingwei only communicated with her through sms so we were discussing whether "Nelly" was a guy or a girl.

The school was quite big and beautiful. Upon reaching the school we had to immediately attend the opening ceremony. And it was a shock that we had to play the first round at 2pm on the same day!!! We were so tired that we thought we would all lose the first game... Well at least we got to see famous faces like Nie Weiping and Wang Yuan during the opening ceremony.

The place where we stayed was kind of a let-down... It was just like a normal school hostel, just that there was no air-con, the bed was a hard one, and most importantly, there was NO mirror!!! Yes, can you imagine how you live in a place without a mirror?? There are just simply so many things you cannot do!!!! Omg, I don't know how we managed to stay at that place for 7 days...

First game I played with this guy called Kang Ji Moon from Seoul University. I was really very tired but somehow he made quite a few mistakes and I managed to win him. Xingwei also won his first opponent. The other two of us lost the first game.

We also met up with the Koreans after the opening ceremony. They came one day before us and they couldn't take the hostel anymore, so they decided to move to a hotel nearby. It was only near the end that we realised many other schools did the same too. We decided to stay in the hostel because it was free for us, but now I regret doing so...



16th - 17th July

2nd and 3rd day was just normal competition day with 2 games per day. Nothing much happened, except for the drinking with the Koreans at night. Very interesting to see many famous faces in the competition including the pros. Because me and Xingwei won the 1st game, so for the 2nd game we miraculously sat at the first two tables, and I played with the super strong pro called Lan Tian (literally means blue sky). In the end he got the individual champion! What an honour to have played him.

Lan Tian in action

 For the drinking, we learnt a lot of new drinking games. Last time I only knew "I love you game"(사랑해, 병신), but this time we learnt so many more~ It was really very fun~ I think I'll make a list of drinking games next time~



18th July

4th day was a rest day. I went to many competitions but it was very rare to have a rest day in between games, haha. So we decided to go to Chengdu city with the Koreans, and went to this very big shopping place that looked like 王府井(wang fu jing) in Beijing. Didn't really have much time so only bought some shirt at Uniqlo. I think at least we were better than some people who only went there to buy coffee and bread, haha.

19th - 21st July

Another 3 days of continuous games. Honestly I can't remember much what happened during the competition games. I think my condition wasn't that good also. In the end my result was only 5 wins out of 11 games. I lost to 4 pros and 2 amateurs. I had chance in both the amateur games, but I didn't catch the chance and lost. Out of the 5 games I won, I won 3 games by 3 points exactly. Coincidence? And one game was winning my own team mate... The only game I can say I won by my own strength was the first game against Kang Ji Moon, but in the end he managed to get 6 wins, one more than me...

Our teammate Alvin with his dream girl, Wang Xiang Ru Pro

All I could say is my Baduk really still sucks... Looking back on the games and reviewing them, I didn't play a lot of good moves. Sometimes I didn't even know what I was doing, and was at a losing mindset from the set. Especially the games against the pros. I think I don't have enough fighting spirit... God of Fighting, please help me!!



22nd July

Once again, we went out with the Koreans to the city. This time we went to this place park where they displayed many things related to the Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Well I'm not really a history person so it was kind of boring, but it was fun to walk around.

One thing I realised is that Koreans really like Scissors, Paper, Stone. Wherever they go, they will play this to decide who will buy ice cream, food or drinks for everybody. And the sad thing is I lost 3 times in total... Somebody told me if you lose once, you will never lose again. But in the end I lost 3 times... What kind of bad luck is this? Or is it just because my Scissors, Paper, Stone is so lousy??

We went to a Korean restaurant for dinner. It was kind of funny to eat Korean food in China, but I guess it was even weirder to bring them to a Chinese restaurant because they wouldn't be able to eat anything. The taste was really not bad, especially after eating so many days of Chinese food. But of course, the taste in Korea itself was much better.



23rd July

The Koreans were leaving at night, so we went out with them to a nearby area to do some shopping in the day. Had dinner with them at a nearby steamboat restaurant, and sent them off after that. It was really fun knowing them and playing with them. They are really a bunch of nice people, and 1 thing I realised that they always like go in groups. They are a Group Creature. No matter what they do, they will think of every person. And they will always the respect the decisions of the most senior person. I think it is a very good culture.



24th July

So the last day we were left on our own. We decided to go walk around the city and look for books that Mervyn was looking for at the same time. Went to 2 book stores but couldn't find the books that he was looking for. Instead, we bought some books to learn Korean. I never thought I would buy those in China, but I think since they are cheap no harm buying. And I could practise my Chinese that way also, haha.

And yup, that's the end of our 10 day trip in Chengdu. Actually there's more stuff to write but I don't have much time right now, so I'll just end here. On the whole it was really a nice and fun trip! It could have been much better if there was more interaction between the players though.

Venture

Currently I'm working on a job.

2 jobs actually.

One temporary one.

One more permanent.

Of course the jobs come with money.

And I do want to earn more money.

But, I also want to be greedy, and get more out of them.

I want to use this opportunity, to change myself.

To change who I used to be.

To say goodbye to the myself, which I disliked.

To get to know more people.

To be able to talk to people.

To be able to be CONFIDENT.

Is it possible?

I don't know.

But I am willing to try.

And I believe that I can do it.

Yes.

Dreams

(;GM[1]FF[4]AP[Drago:4.21]SZ[19]CA[UTF-8]AB[pd][pe][qe][re][ob][nb][ne][qg]AW[pb][pa][qd][rd]C[White to live.])

Sorry this picture doesn't really have anything to do with the content of this post.

Do you have a dream?

Recently I have been asking myself this question.

What is my dream?

I remember when I was still in Japan, I was told to announce my dream to the whole class every once a year.

The first time I said I wanted to be a soccer player. Because it looked really cool.

The second year onwards I don't really remember.

Dream may not be what you want to be in the future.

It may simply be what you want to do.

What you want to achieve in life.

So, I tried to list down 100 things that I want to do if I had the time and money.

And I could only write 22.

Is that too little?

Maybe.

I'm not really an ambitious person, so I couldn't think of anymore.

I was even surprised that I could think of 22. It was too many to me.

But the problem is, why is that when I have so many things I want to do, I haven't been doing them?

Is it because I'm lazy?

Is it because I don't have time?

I'm not a person who plays a lot of games.

In fact I stopped playing computer games after NS.

So why is it that I haven't achieved anything that I want to achieve?

Of course laziness and procrastination plays a part too.

But I think, the most important thing is, I simply don't BELIEVE that I can achieve these stuffs.

Yes, the POWER to BELIEVE is important.

I must BELIEVE in myself.

I must BELIEVE that I can achieve those things.

If I don't BELIEVE in myself, nobody will.

BELIEVING yourself, is the first step to achieving all your dreams.

That is what I BELIEVE.

Doesn't mean all those problems like laziness, procrastination, and time management will go away if you BELIEVE.

But if you don't BELIEVE, you'll never be able to solve all those problems.

If you don't BELIEVE, all the negative thoughts will come in and you'll never get your stuff done.

Therefore, I think I want to start by BELIEVING myself.