Results

The first round of National Team Tournament ended on last Sunday. My result: 4 wins out of 7.

One loss was because I couldn't play the game. (As I had to go and watch Madagascar 3!)

So in total I lost 2 games.

One to JC, and one to YX.

I would say it's still a satisfiable result, given the fact that I wasn't in a good condition.

Somehow I felt better on the second Sunday than on the first.

I played both YX and JC on the first Sunday.

Against YX, my game was still ok until middle game but as the game progressed my big group was in danger, but I still had some chance even if I sacrifice the group. However I made a fatal mistake and got my keystones eaten and I couldn't even talk about sacrifice anymore. The game ended in less than 100 moves.

Against JC, I was actually leading until late in the middle game, but after that I don't know why I started playing strange moves that didn't make a single sense to me. Opponent's territory kept increasing while mine kept decreasing. It won't be overboard to say that I lost almost 30 points in end-game. It was really a badly played game.

I'm happy with the other games that I played. Maybe I'm slowing getting back my form!

I also played with a former Japanese Insei on Saturday. He was from the Insei C Group.

The game wasn't good for me at first as I encountered a joseki which I didn't know.

But as the game progressed, he suddenly had a weak group and I managed to bring the game to my advantage.

When end-game started I think I was leading my at least 10 points, but that's where the difference in strength started to appear.

I started making mistakes here and there, and lost about 5 points in end-game, even when I had enough time to think.

In the end I was only leading by 5 points on the board and I lost by  1.5 points.

It was really a pity.

End-game has always been a problem.

The fact that I didn't play my end-game well even when I had time to think shows that my basics are really not there.

If I have the time I would definitely want to properly train myself in end-game.

Maybe in the middle of learning, I would also make some posts on end-game here and there.


I think the key is really to play more games, and to have a clear mind.

A CLEAR MIND is really important.

I myself often let my thoughts run wild, and waste a lot of my time. (Both on the board and in life)

Therefore it is important to be CLEAR about what you want and what you need to do to achieve it (Both in life and on the board)

I guess I'll start working on that now.