Stockholm Open 2010 - Second day

The second day started quite good for me. I played my first game against a KGS player on his first tournament in real life. He played the tournament as a 5 kyu but I felt he was actually much stronger than that. He played some moves a bit strange and I felt I got an advantage. If he learns some fundamentals and josekis he will be 2 kyu in no time.

He used a lot of thinking time and soon he was in byo-yomi and he used one period and then another. Then suddenly the last period expired and I won on time. Girlwing looked at the board and said it was very close and anyone could win. The strongest endgame would decide the winner.

My opponent believed he had another byo-yomi period when the Ing clock said 1:30, but that is actually the last period. I actually made the same mistake in a tournament a couple of years ago. It's a hard lesson to learn, but you will never forget it.

During lunch a whole bunch of us go players went to the local fast food place Daisy's. Girlwing ordered a disgusting looking fish and chips and I took a greasy plate of kebab. The food was not the best but we had interesting discussions about the Swedish go world and old players that we seldom see any longer. We imagined how interesting it would be if all the strong players started go to the tournaments again.

After dinner Girlwing I and jpyllman went to the bicycle dealer next doors. I need a new tyre for my bike so I fell for this deal with two brand tires. When I got home I fitted one of them on my bicycle but then I got the problem of filling it with air. So now I have to go buy myself a pump. Or I have to carry the wheel to some place where I can fill it with air. Hmmm... I need a car...

After lunch it was time for a second game. Another 5 kyu for me to play against. It is always a little scary to play the lower ranked players because I feel pressure to beat them. Still they have a good chance to win over me but it feels better to get beaten of a higher ranked player. Probably because that if a stronger player wins over me it is because he is better, but if a weaker players wins over me it is because I played bad. This is of course not true but this is a common way of thinking.

Anyway... The game started off good and I had a nice moyo. Then I made a bad judgement and I got myself a running group and a not yet alive group on the side to worry about. It ended with my running group with 21 stones died and a big dent in my moyo. I played to the end anyway and I lost by 35 points.

So to sum it all up I won two games and lost three. I am not very happy with this result and I really need to study. So Girlwing bought me a book and I will study it this summer. Hopfully I will come back to the next tournament as a 3 kyu player.

Girlwing won all five games and the first price. She also gave a free lecture as a price to one of the 9 kyu players. This lecture will be held online in English on KGS. Hopefully it will be a public lecture so we all can watch a learn something valuable.

On the way home we stopped in Kista for some sushi. At the same time there was some performance by Magnus Carlsson the singer. He is actually good live. I only wish he sang some other songs....

Now it is time for bed and another week of hard work. I will dream of becoming stronger and beat all my opponents in the next tournament... Sweet dreams... :)

Read about the first day.