This isn't necessarily going to be a 'study journal'. Rather, it'll just be a place for me to reflect on whatever happening when I'm in Beijing and getting some free time to play Go. Right now I'm in the Tianjian Go Club, which is amazing. It's cool, comfy, and the Go sets are very nice. There's a nice library of Go books as well as equipment in the back, and I get to drink all the tea I want. Right now there's about 20 people in the club, including a female pro who's going over L&D with someone.

Things that have happened today:

• Lost to some 8-year-old girl by 1 point. Playing against kids is a bit tricky because they play super fast in comparison to most of the other people I've played here.
• Played a few games against an 18-year-old who's from Thailand. We're currently 1-1; I just won the last game by 2 points and he went to the bathroom. Pretty funny guy.
• I learned that the toilets in the restroom are the ones where you squat. It was a nightmare, but I was grateful that the bathroom was very clean.
• Played a (forced) blitz game against a 2d chubby kid. He was adorable and hilarious, saying 'oh my god' when he did something bad and being very expressive. Won by 20 or so.
• A 30-some year old gentleman just came in. We played 3 games together and I'm currently 1-2 against him. I don't know his purported Chinese rank, but I think he said he's TOM 7d.
• Huge thunderstorm outside; I'll probably be stuck here the whole day...not that it's such a bad thing though .

Here's one of the games I played against the 30-some year old gentleman. I lost by 1 point; the endgame in the SGF isn't totally accurate, just wanted to get something close to the final board as possible.

The first move that really sticks out to me is B13 (move 30). My instinct is to try to move out toward the center. I suppose doing that, though, would give black a chance to profit from attacking white, maybe… What are your thoughts on B13?

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I agree with Kirgy, B13 is strange. Sure it live locally with B17, but it give black sente AND a nice moyo, and in the game, black transformated the totality of this moyo in territory. Was the corner points really worth it?

Yesterday I went to the Tianjian Go club as usual and met two guys from Malaysia, one of whom could speak English. I got to know them and found out that they were actually part of the Go program (Experience Go). So naturally I took the subway with them and visited the Go group (for the second time). It was nostalgic getting to meet Sam again, someone I befriended in the Go trip back in 2006 as well as meeting him once more in London the next year. I also met Peter (MilanMilan) and Ben for the first time in 5 years as well. Later in the day I also got to meet Erik, another participant from 2006, as well, so today was all about revisiting 2006. It was kind of sad to see that their program had ended, but I got to make many new friends, visit old ones, and just have a great time with them to take my mind off work.

That said, instead of posting games that I've played today, here's a Go problem I looked at with Sam and a few of the people from Experience Go. Black to live:

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$c
$$ | . . . . . . . . .
$$ | O O O O O . . . .
$$ | . X X X X O . . .
$$ | . . . . X O . . .
$$ | . . X . X O . . .
$$ | . . . X . O . . .
$$ | . O O O O . . . .
$$ | . . . . . . . . .
$$ ------------------[/go]

Yeah, but I felt uncomfortable moving out without a base. However, getting sealed in like that isn't exactly a comfortable situation either. I was hoping I could resolve the corner, then worry about dealing with the moyo later.

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tj86430, what about this refutation?


My solution :

<-- would really enjoy a photo or two of Beijing.

Yeah I'm really sorry about the lack of photos, but I didn't bring a camera with me except my smartphone and I forgot to bring my charger for that . When I buy one, I'll make sure to post photos.

Yesterday at the Tiandijian Go Club, a brigade of children from a Go school came by. One of the employees asked if I wanted to play with them, and despite my utmost desire to finish watching Redline on my laptop to just relax, I paused the movie and went off to play. I got a game against a 14-year-old Chinese 4d:


I got off to a rough start in the game and was behind for about half the game before he made a blunder that allowed me to catch up. At the end, he oversaw a cut problem, giving me the win. The sequences near the end may not be totally accurate as I didn't get to record the game into an SGF until today.

Oh yeah, a few hours before this game a pro was looking over some tsumego and discussing them with some of the stronger Go players. For those interested in what kind of problems pros like to study:





I'll edit them into diagram mode after work. And someone still needs to solve the tsumego I posted earlier .

Anyways, I look forward to visiting the Beijing Go club meetup tomorrow!

So I have been horribly slack in making the time to meet up with you, but I will definitely be at go club tomorrow. Looking forward to meeting you there, and Erik often goes as well. Do you know Carl from Sweden? - he also attends.

Haha it's cool. And yes, I look forward to meeting you there as well. I went last week and yep, I know Carl from Sweden quite well - he was one of the organizers of the 2006 Go program in Beijing that I went to. I met him last week and we played a game, good stuff .

I was there last week. I can't believe I didn't meet you - it's not a particularly large venue

I find "only" a ko

Ah, no worries .

I have to say I'm massively jealous - I didn't know the 2006 reunion was taking place



Are you interested? I have to admit I took one quick glance at them and ... well... I just took one quick glance at them.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

So last night I visited the Beijing Go club for the second time. I had a pretty difficult time finding the place in the alley, but eventually I finally found it. I was about 40 minutes late, but no one was there so I just ordered some coffee and read up on SC2 news. A few people showed up about 20 minutes later, and I introduced myself. Finally met cdybeijing, but he was already playing so I just obs'd a bit until a girl named Fang showed up. I asked her if she wanted to play and we got a game. She was a beginner, so we just played a teaching game. While we were playing, more people began to show up.

After my game against Fang, I looked around and saw about 10 or so players. Went to check out Carl's game, who was playing against a female pro 2p which was pretty cool. Some small talk later, I ran into Bella, who is a Chinese 5d I saw last week playing against Erik. She said she found a picture of me on the Internet playing 1-color Go against the kid from Thailand (see earlier post) at the Tiandijian Go club. I was a bit perplexed by this because I remembered playing that game, but I am certain there were no one taking photographs at the time...o__O. Anyways, I ask her for a game and I get a second game. I decided to just take Black. You can find the game below:



I was pretty disappointed with how I played in this game, but regardless I'll post thoughts on this game and what we discussed/reviewed of it after work. Speaking of after work, I am scheduled to meet a Chinese 6d and perhaps get some lessons from him after a game. Let's see how that goes!

God this trip is going downhill fast. Lot of bad things happened today and yesterday, both Go and non-Go related. Not sure what's going to happen in the next few days as apparently I've violated some Chinese law on foreigners having to register at a police station if they're staying somewhere (the non-Go related bad thing). For the Go-related bad thing, let's just say not everyone who goes to Tiandijian is necessarily the friendliest Go player, especially towards someone who can't speak Chinese. I'm just glad things didn't escalate; I'd rather stick with 1 law violation rather than 2. Sigh...

Seems rather paranoid to me. There is no way that they can develop a modern tourist economy like this.

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Huh, I've never registered with a police station in China. How did you get caught?