Is anybody interested in a thread where L19'ers attending Congress can post their stories, whether they be happy or sad? Game records would be welcome, as well as non-game related adventures. Brevity would be cool. More importantly, are any L19'ers willing to contribute?

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Want to see videos of low-dan mistakes and what to learn from them? Brady's Blunders

I suspect that no L19 members were directly involved, but last year some signs appeared in the men's bathroom in an Asian language about how to use toilets in the US. Apparently someone from a very rural area had some confusion and misused the facilities in a manner that distressed others. I am relived to say that I do not know the details.

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In many parts of Asia squat toilets have been used for centuries, so maybe you’ve seen something like these?

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the toilet posts were kind of a thread killer..

One of the biggest highlights of the congress for me was playing game of 5 min sudden death speed go with Nakano and not running out of time. Of course I lost by a large margin (25+ points I think).

We were hanging out at a nearby coffee shop late Saturday night after the final awards banquet when Nakano and his wife dropped by and joined us for a couple of pick-up games.

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Sorry. I didn't mean to set the standard too high.

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Top memories in no particular order:

3-2 in lightening, beating everyone older than me and one person younger than me (IIRC, the winner of my section of the open!). Winning in the open vs. one half of the winning pairgo team. Winning a 2 stone self-pair vs. a 4d. Pairgo halfway up Mt. Rainier with James Sedgwick, Daniela Trinks, and others (Sedgwick and I lost by a point). Last second pairgo on Thursday. Local beer with old and new friends. Drinking games with a dozen or so (including Takemiya and Maeda). Subsequent well deserved US Open loss (thanks to lindentree). Bowling and staying up all night after the (excessively terrible) awards banquet. (I passed out around 4:30 PM yesterday and did not wake up until this morning.)

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I played a 5 stone game against a 6 dan at that coffee shop which I won that had the ugliest shape I've ever seen in a game. So bad I was laughing through half the game. Squeeze here, squeeze there, tombstone here, play an empty triangle and a 4 stone dumpling to keep it contained...

We taught Maeda how to play lottery go at the cafe. We started with 20 stones each mixed in, but halfway through he insisted on a handicap of 20 more and promptly got crushed. It was fascinating to see him adjust his strategy as the game was going on to account for the chance of playing one of my stones. Lots of attachments, which were severe but not too good for me.

Hiking on Mt Ranier was spectacular.

Meeting people from here that I've played games against in the past, or spoken to.

Bowling Saturday was surprisingly good. I don't think I actually got to sleep until 5 AM, and I know at least one person ended up missing his flight the next morning and had to get it rescheduled.

What's this about?

It's always bad, but this was like previous years, only more so.

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That which can be destroyed by the truth should be.
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My (sadly neglected, but not forgotten) project: http://dailyjoseki.com

I was a little baffled by the decision to have dessert on the table first, and the actual food come only later.

Which one was you?

I'm the one not in the picture (on the left)

I don't know if it's a highlight, but Takemiya Masaki stopped by during one of my U.S. Open games during scoring and helped count the score. Can a pro 9p make better rectangles than I can? The answer is yes. He was very creative.

I knew I had lost the the game anyway, so no objection...

Drinking on a dry campus and spreading cheer wherever I went...I think.
Some amazing US open games - put a little time into your opponents' hands and see what comes out.
Meeting good friends from the past few years, L19 goers, new faces, and pros alike!
Having the opportunity to interpret a series of basic go lectures for the wonderful fans of Maeda-sensei and Sasaki-sensei!

and...

First ride on a boat lock.

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This one guy who was a 4d kept going on a strange talk about the value of a move in the opening to Chen Wei 3p over and over. It was a weird argument that I don't think anybody but he understood, however Chen Wei came up with a brilliant answer about komi that I've never heard anybody talk about.

Also, talking about Yasuhiro Nakano's famous self atari move with Nakano-sensei.

I hope there were only a few who thought it was ok to do that.


As far as new experiences for me, I recorded two bizarre games on Board 3 of the US Open. Both with Ho Son, a strong ex-insei from Korea who is living in Seattle. Both times he had issues with a clock that led to losses.
- In his first game they decided to break for lunch and he didn't understand the sealed move process. He wasted seven minutes off his clock and then hurriedly played his move. After the lunch break, his sealed move ended up leading to the loss of a large group.
- In his second game, he was in byoyomi and ran out of time - he made a move and thought he hit the clock but apparently he did not. He also arrived late to this game and his clock was already running for minutes, which in retrospect led to distress at the end.

Brutal.

Ok, now you just have to say more. I hate cliffhangers.

So the guy had a weird example of saying that if komi was 7.5, then if black passes, then it is like white having a 7.5 advantage, but if white passes again, it is like black having a 15 point advantage.

Which made no sense. At all. (and imagine having to try to translate it to chinese as well)

Chen Wei ended up saying first that it is hard to quantify any kind of move in the opening with points at all.

He didn't accept that response and persisted with some concept of points per move.

So Chen Wei told him to abandon the concept of 7.5 komi as a representation of "opening value" by saying the following.

Komi used to be nothing, then 4.5, then 5.5, then 6.5. The reason for doing so was because of advances within opening theory that necessitated a komi change. As of right now White is winning slightly more b/c of komi but that might change over time. Chen Wei said over time it might be 8.5 or even more if openings keep improving and that 7.5 was rather a current necessity due to openings.

In my stupor i think the guy gave up the argument after hearing that.



I guess, his wife brought it up first and then I tentatively asked him if it was ok to talk about it. He was suprisingly ok with the whole thing.

Another highlight of the congress was walking past a conversation and hearing Shirley Lin 1p say she just moved to my neighborhood here in the Seattle area. I stopped and said, "I live there!". We exchanged phone numbers.

I may have to take professional lessons now