Or in other words, don’t make plans based on uncertain events…

I went over to Bob’s house tonight for my game, last time I won a game after taking a 2 stone handicap. If I beat him again at 2 stones, I was supposed to move ahead and start taking only a single stone per game. I was happy with my victory last time and felt that I was in the right frame of mind for a good game. I’ve been practicing and studying, so I expect to see some improvement in my games, against my previous benchmarks. I know that currently Bob is only playing games with me, so if I appear to be improving against him it is likely real.  I began with my fighting spirit at the ready and resolved to play my best.

Ladder for Black

This position shows me right before I remove the stones I have captured in a ladder. With the influence and prisoner count (unshown here) on the board at this time, I think things were looking pretty solid for me as Black…  Unfortunately, I was a little too taken with it and was disrespectful when I should have been more aware of my total.  Bob demonstrated restraint and good judgement in continuing, despite my offer to let him resign.

I had failed a previous attempt at getting a ladder to work; after placing a ladder breaker carefully in the path, I had sprung my trap. However, it actually didn’t work, certainly not as well as I had hoped since I ended up having to rewind the game a few moves to demonstrate what I had been trying to do. I showed the ladder, but it wasn’t successful at all, I kept up ending being in atari elsewhere. To later make the ladder shown above and get my 4 prisoners, I was feeling pretty full of myself. I have since learned more humility. :-)

IMG_0548
Here is the game at its final position, with the bowls of prisoners shown roughly for estimation. Bob noted that this was the first game in some time in which he appeared to have taken more prisoners than I, so I was worried before we even started counting. I know now that I should have been counting earlier, and thus known that I had been falling behind!

IMG_0549 Here is the game with the prisoners in and the territory established…

White wins by 15 points. There is a seki in the upper left that counts as prisoners or territory for neither player, and thus was left as it was. I won’t be graduating to a single stone handicap, but instead I have the chance to learn more how I could let this game slip away as it did. I am grateful as always for the chance to grow and recognize places for improvement, and I welcome any comments you may have as I welcomed his feedback after the game.

“When one teaches, two learn.” -Robert Half