Sunday, January 8, 2017

MGA Handicap Tournament -- In Memoriam, Roland Crowl

I played in a tournament today for the first time since the Canadian Open this summer!  It was our Winter MGA Handicap tournament.  (We have 4 each year.)  This one was in memory of Roland Crowl, a long time MGA member who passed away recently.

I only played the first 3 rounds (out of 4), since I find 4 games to be a bit too much for me.  Instead, I went for a walk in the park on this beautiful, sunny, post-snowstorm day -- definitely better for my mental and physical health than sitting hunched over a Go board for a fourth game.

My overall result was 2-1, playing at 2 dan.  I lost my first game against Mr. Cho.  This was the only one I managed to record:

(;GM[1]FF[4]CA[UTF-8]AP[CGoban:3]ST[2] RU[Japanese]SZ[19]HA[2]KM[0.50] GN[2017-01-08a]PW[Mr. Cho]PB[Becci]WR[4d]DT[2017-01-08]EV[MGA Handicap Tournament]PC[Cambridge]AB[pd][dp]C[White+Res.]PL[W] ;W[pp] ;B[dd] ;W[qf] ;B[nc] ;W[fq] ;B[cn] ;W[qn] ;B[dj] ;W[jp] ;B[qh] ;W[qj] ;B[pg] ;W[fc] ;B[hc] ;W[cc] ;B[cd] ;W[dc] ;B[ed] ;W[fb] ;B[ge] ;W[fj] ;B[hj] ;W[fo] ;B[or] ;W[pq] ;B[pr] ;W[qr] ;B[lq] ;W[kr] ;B[lr] ;W[kq] ;B[lp] ;W[ln] ;B[no] ;W[np]C[This was not a good situation for me...] ;B[nq] ;W[op] ;B[mo] ;W[mr] ;B[mq] ;W[ls] ;B[kp] ;W[iq] ;B[nm] ;W[nk] ;B[lm] ;W[kn] ;B[mm] ;W[jl] ;B[lk] ;W[jj] ;B[em] ;W[li] ;B[mj] ;W[oi] ;B[mi] ;W[mh] ;B[nh] ;W[ni] ;B[lh] ;W[mg] ;B[ki] ;W[lg] ;B[kh] ;W[kj] ;B[lj] ;W[og] ;B[pf] ;W[ph] ;B[qg] ;W[jf] ;B[ih] ;W[lc] ;B[dr] ;W[gd] ;B[he] ;W[hd] ;B[ie] ;W[id] ;B[je] ;W[dk] (;B[ck] ;W[cj] ;B[cl] ;W[di] ;B[ej] ;W[ei] ;B[ek] ;W[fk] ;B[el] ;W[gi]C[Game over.] ;B[fh] ;W[fi] ;B[jc] ;W[jd] ;B[kc] ;W[kd] ;B[lb] ;W[fe] ;B[fd] ;W[ff] ;B[ch] ;W[ci] ;B[bc] ;W[bb] ;B[bd] ;W[gf] ;B[bh] ;W[bk] ;B[df] ;W[jg] ;B[ii] ;W[kl] ;B[nj] ;W[oj] ;B[pm] ;W[ol] ;B[pn] ;W[qo] ;B[qm] ;W[ll]C[Oops...] ;B[rm] ;W[rq] ;B[mk] ;W[ml] ;B[nl] ;W[ok] ;B[pi] ;W[oh] ;B[rj] ;W[rk]) (;B[cj]C[I think I need to simply descend here. Should be an ok game.]))


We used Fischer time for the first time. I had been practicing this past week or so to get used to it, but Mr. Cho played much faster than me, so basically the whole game was on my clock. I got pretty flustered and made a huge mistake. But it's always fun to play Mr. Cho. He was 3-0 when I left. I hope he won his last game.

In my second game, I gave four stones to John Aspinall. He played well, cutting off some stones of mine to take back some territory I thought I had reduced. But I managed to get enough to win the game. My third game was an even game against Ed Gillis, which I also won. He played so fast that he had more time on his clock at the end of the game than when he started!

It's good to be back. I've got to get in shape (Go-wise) for Japan!