heading backwards

Over the past month, I have been reading Kagemaya's Fundamentals of Go, Breakthrough to Shodan, and my new copy of Graded Go Problems for Beginners, Vol. 4.

What is interesting (and frustrating) is that as I attempt to make sense of the material, and to integrate it into my play, my ability is suffering greatly.

Recently I felt I had a breakthrough, and was winning game after game. But now I find that my play has deteriorated. I lose capturing races, misplay fuseki and joseki, and generally muck up.

I played my first game of Rengo last night, and I absolutely ruined my team's play. I feel like my sense of direction has been completely upset.

So I'm playing a lot of free games until the world stops spinning.

Some fun games

Tonight I actually managed to go to the local go club meeting down at ASU. It was great to be able to actually play a couple of games with the stones in hand instead of on the computer. There's a different feeling about it. More personable, I suppose.

Which makes sense.

In any case, I was pleasantly surprised. Although you wouldn't know it by my steady KGS rating of 11kyu, apparently all the reading and playing I have been doing has been helping. I played two games, and won them both.

In the first game, I played a 5kyu at four stones, and won. It was a bloody game with groups dying off left and right. We used practically every stone he had in his set, and at the end black had won. I built a beautiful moyo and he had no choice but to invade. And I killed the invasion. Quite proud am I.

The second game was against an 8kyu with two stones, and we played very quickly. The game was over in less than half an hour. White resigned - again, due to a huge unassailable moyo.

Something about Wilcox's Sector Fights must be clicking.

Of course, as soon as I play my next two games, I'll be brought down to earth. But for now, I'm happy!