Slaughterfest

Just a short update on the Student Go Oza Preliminaries that took place last weekend.
As I mentioned before, I was very, very nervous. I didn't want to make a fool out of myself (which I totally did in the end), or piss people off by being sucky me (which I didn't, so that's nice).
But actually, as soon as the game started, I wasn't even that nervous anymore. I just wanted to play my best and learn as much as I could.

In total there were 8 people participating (for the category European female that is). One was 6 dan (needless to say, she won), most were around 1-2 dan, there was me and a 9 kyu.
I played against a 2 dan, made some pretty big mistakes in the opening and middle game and end game and lost by more than 40 points. The polite thing would've been to resign half-way through, but really, I just wanted to get as much out of the game as possible and played on till the end.
Afterwards I apologized for playing on, but luckily my opponent didn't mind, and was very nice about it.

It was a straight knock-out tournament, so this was also the only game I played.

I have no clue how to add the actual game in the post, but I managed to upload it to Eidogo so if you want to see the bloodbath you can click here.

Even though it ended as I expected, it is nice to play somebody quite a bit stronger than you, because your mistakes become a lot more obvious. Needless to say, I learned a lot from this game, and I don't regret participating!
And who knows, maybe next year I will stand some sort of chance! Probably not, but let a girl dream!

Jump into the deep

I haven't posted anything in quite a while but not to worry! Go is still part of my life, and this is probably the longest it has ever consecutively been in my life. Time for cake!

On a more serious note, some time ago I said that I was doubting on whether or not to sign up for the World Students Go Oza championship preliminaries. And I said I would make that decision the 23rd of November, which was yesterday. 

I was very, very close to just letting it slip. So close that I didn't sign up yesterday, and procrastinated the decision until the very last moment, which was today.

But guess what? This scaredy cat just signed up!

I am not confident at all, and I know that I will be utterly destroyed, but the main reason as to why I decided to sign up is not even with go.

Without getting into too much detail (this would become a very, very long post if I would), my 20th birthday was last week and it kind of made me depressed that I'm not a teenager anymore (not a popular opinion, I know). Anyway, I decided that I need an attitude change and that I will stop procrastinating/never doing anything/being a lazy ass. So singing up is kind of my first step to that.

All philosophy aside, I still suck quite badly at go and I won't improve much within two weeks, so I am a nervous wreck. I really hope I am not the only sucky player that signed up, and that people won't think I am wasting their time. But the only way to find that out is to play, so from now on:


*Also, I hardly ever play on IGS, and my old account is still a provisional 15 kyu. Now, I'm not strong at all, but that is just not accurate anymore, so I made a random new account for the tournament that is 5 kyu. I have no clue what the rankings at IGS are like, and my own strength is all over the place so this is quite literally a wild guess. 

** Did I mention that this the first ever 'tournament' kind of thing I have entered? Because it is. Hahahaha. I will go cry my nerves out in a corner now.

Unrealistic goals

I am seriously considering signing up for the ‘World Student Go Oza’ championship preliminaries.

Technically I meet all of the requirements to participate, so why am I doubting?

Because I obviously don’t stand  a chance.

The thing is, I don’t mind not standing a chance, but wouldn’t I be wasting somebody else’s time?

I am not even a high kyu, so it would be weird for me to participate in something like this, right?

On the other hand, they don’t mention an indication of a minimum strength anywhere, so maybe they don’t mind?

I’m probably just over thinking this.

Anyway, I have given myself time until the 23^rd of November to decide whether or not I will sign up, since registration closes the 24^th.

Until then, I am going to do some ‘semi-intense’ studying, and if this is effective,  I will sign up. If not, I probably won’t sign up either. No matter what the outcome, at least I'll be motivated to study.

As for my studying, I want to do at least one hour of problems every day, watch one lecture of ‘Becoming 5 kyu’ (GoGameGuru’s Baduk TV English service) every day, play one game (including review) every day, spend about half an hour on go theory.

That should total to about 3 and a half hours of go studying a day.

This does not include things that I do for enjoyment (e.g. watching Baduk TV reviews, replaying pro games, watching high dans play online), because I honestly don’t think that actually helps me improve, but I’ll keep doing it because it is fun J.