So, instead of going to the SGC as planned, I instead diverted to Bob’s house for a game, and to check up on how his new internet service was doing. It was a beautiful sunny late afternoon, as you can see from the first set of pictures I took of the game. We played with Bob’s bowls and stones on the flexible mat laid out on his low table, a very civilized setup that allowed me to sit properly before the board. Bob agreed upon a 2 stone handicap for me, based on my recent results against him.

sunlight

Here we have a few pictures of the first pause I took, after the initial phase of the game had completed.

first stop shot 2, first stop

Bob and I both commented that the game appeared to focus intently on each corner in turn, we both played relatively close the whole time. I tried to make reasonable or aggressive exchanges every time I achieved sente, and tried not to leave any specific situation unresolved (tenuki too early) unless the amount of points at stake were small…

Here are three shots of the final board position. The picture tries to show that I have a great deal of prisoners, Bob has perhaps half as many or less of mine, but I couldn’t get it all quite in the shot:

endgame 1 end game 2 end game 3

There were definitely some turnovers in this game. I managed to make significant captures three times against Bob’s stones, although I also lost a significant position due to failing to make life. I did not fall prey to the same type of initial mistake I have found myself prone to lately, allowing my initial attack to fail by not securing life. There was a genuinely interesting life and death problem I didn’t work out, but I didn’t capture it fast enough to make a study problem out of it.

I won the match by about 17 stones to 3 for Bob, I was almost suprised the score was not negative due to the amount of prisoners versus space on the board, but it was quite an excellent game. Again, as you can tell by the lighting on the board, it was several hours for the game.

Namaste.