A learning game

Well, yesterday was the Go club meeting. My daughter came and she played me a game of 9x9 and crushed me (with 4 HC stones). She then proceeded to promptly fall asleep on my lap, and there she remained while I played a game against the person who gave me my first Go book. I played him with a 7stone handicap, and while he wasn't concentrating fully on the game, he never has when he plays me, and therefore my winning is a measure of my improving ability. I won by about 8 points. It is very exciting to actually play face to face and to be able to do better than you have in the past.

I then played the 5-dan I invited, with my daughter still sleeping on my lap.

Although he really didn't use much of his strength, he did compliment me and say that he thought I was stronger than 19kyu. I also saw exactly how really strong players can move the stones to create patterns that they see "miles" before someone of my strength will. We had a great discussion about a cut that turned on it's dwindling importance as stones were placed around it during the course of the game, and then he showed me how one final placement of a stone by white suddenly negated the cut as useful at all. I also had a great lesson in direction of play, and learned exactly how to handle a specific kind of corner invasion against 4-4. I made the wrong choice, and lost the entire side as a result.

In short, a great afternoon, and very instructive.