So i'm reactivating this thread. *vacuums dust*
Two years is a long time. If you read the last page you will see that i did a lot go-related stuff in 2014 and beginning of 2015. I kept track of how many games i played and was a member of yunguseng. The payoff from all that was ranking up to 1k.
The downside however was that i did too much go. After the go camp in osaka in summer 2015 i stopped playing go. Playing go wasn't fun anymore and i did the obvious thing, i stopped playing. Now i was still member of our Bundesliga team and i played the occasional game and also participated in a handfull of tournaments but that's about it.
In fact i was so fed up with the game, that i didn't know if i were ever going to enjoy it again.
Then came this years EGC in Oberhof. Since the EGC moved to germany it was obvious to my my wife and i that we would attend. Looking back on my history with the game these past two years i was a bit scared how i would handle such a big go-event but in the end everything turned out fine.
The congress itself wasn't such a great success, i played 3-7 in the main tournament and 0-4 in the weekend (i skipped one round). But still some things make me very happy about it.
First of all, playing go is fun again
. I want to play and maybe even read the occasional book, but no strict study schedule like in 2014. This also showed in the number of games i played, i think i played more games these last two weeks, than i played in the last two years before the congress.
Second i played most of my later games in the main tournament against stronger players, usually 1ds. And in nearly all games i felt good about my play, even getting a lead during the opening/early middle game. Even though i blew it somewhere later and lost the games, people with a rating in the 2000 - 2100 range aren't scary anymore - i'm confident i can beat them.
Actually the last game in the main tournament was my strongest opponent a japanese 2d with a 2079 rating. And i only lost that game by 1 point (well 2 since he defended at the end where it wasn't necessary).
So what can you expect in this thread? Certainly no regularity, i'm terrible with that. Instead i will probably treat it as some kind of go diary or blog, posting interesseting stuff about my game.
Maybe i will reach 1d at some point, maybe i won't, but i will have fun along the way.