Eighth game at EGC

For my eighth game I am paired against a French lady of 9 kyu. She won her first six games and then lost a game yesterday. I know for sure that French players are much stronger than their rank so I was expecting 4 kyu competition regardless of her rank.

She started with securing her lower left side and I played one stone under the star point on the left side and on the upper side. That made her the possibility to build a small moyo on the upper left corner before I was able to secure my left side. Directly she approached my stone on my lower right and I played an OK joseki but she was  not aggressive enough and secured her stones in a heavy shape. That gave me the possibility to play a strong shape.

Then she left her stones and approached my upper right corner. There I probably should had played a pincer instead of the kick-jump. But at least I got the chance to jump out with my middle stone and threaten her lower group. Now I got the time to play a sequence to threaten that group until it lived with only two one point eyes. Ending in sente I was able to invade the upper left moyo as well. She played wrong and I got a great result after cutting of a stone and adding that to my left side territory.

About here my phone rang (without a signal) and I hung up directly but when the kifu came back it was totally empty. I then tried to load the autosave-file but that one was empty as well. U guess the autosave had saved the empty board over the one I had entered the moves. So it was totally blank and I turned off my smartphone. So a note to the author of Gobandroid. Please fix that bug! And a note to me, turn the phone in to flight mode when you play tournament games! So all of the kifu is made from memory. There are 100% chance that the moves are in the wrong order.

(;GM[1]FF[4]CA[UTF-8]AP[CGoban:3]ST[2]
RU[Chinese]SZ[19]KM[7.50]TM[5400]OT[3x30 byo-yomi]
GN[EGC Round 8]PW[Boywing]PB[French lady]WR[4k]BR[9k]DT[2011-08-04]EV[EGC Main Tournament]RO[Round 8]PC[Bordeaux, France]WT[Sweden]BT[France]RE[W+22.50]
;B[cp]
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;W[mq])

Anyway, soon she invaded my upper side. I did my best to defend and I should be able to kill her stones but I let her connect with some of them to her upper left side. I managed to seal off the middle and got a lot of points there. In the end my opponent invaded my middle and I have a lot of weakness and cutting points and it is absolutely possible to capture some of my stones. I had to give up some of them and I chose the four at B7. It was still not enough for her and I won in the end by 22.5. So that was my second win so far and tomorrow I'll meet a Korean 7k. Expect a lot of fighting and bad shape!

Girlwing played another 4 dan and she won. Tomorrow she will play against a Japanese 6 dan. Lets hope she wins so she can continue to play strong players. 4 dans she can play against in Sweden. :)

After our games we went in to town for some leisure time and sightseeing. Girlwing was very close to buying a Lancel handbag for €400. I told her not to because she already have a fancy handbag that is only one year old. She painfully left the handbag and cursed me for several blocks while we was walking. Women... ;)

We went in to a big church called Cathédrale st.Andre. I was not able to walk very far in to the church before I was told to take of my cap. I think only women and the priests are allowed to wear anything on their heads. I am not sure what the practical reason for that is. But I didn't mind, there was no sun in there anyway.

 A really nice big church.

 This is where the priest usually stands and brainwash the simple people.

The great church organ.

The Great Dune of Pyla

 Today is another day of rest and sightseeing. The organizers of EGC are arranging a trip to a vineyard and another one to la dune du Pyla. We already went to the vineyard and Saint Emilion so this time we chose the great dune.

The dune is now 107 meters high but not so long ago it was 117 meters high. There was a storm in 2009 that damaged the dune quite a lot.

The dune is made entirely of really fine beach sand and it is a tough job to climb the dune by foot. The sand is flowing away almost like heavy water and every step you take only takes you half a step ahead. But of course we had to climb all the way to the top, then down to the sea to wet our feet and then climb all the way to the top again.

If you have good legs you must try to run/jump down the steepest parts of the dune. It is almost like flying or jumping on clouds. A really nice feeling!

And another thing... when you climb up again, use your toes like claws to get a good grip. If you let the sand flow between your toes it will take you much more work to climb up.

The path from the parking to the dune is crowded with small shops packed with souvenirs. The most interesting stuff are decorations made of the sand from the dune, but I didn't buy any.

Nice shadows from the trees on the path to the dune.

There we first see the dune!

The stairs were easier to use than to climb the dune. It is quite a steep angle. Some people walked on the side where the angle is less.

A view from the top of the stairs.

The dune is 3 km long and 500 meters wide.

There is a lot of sand here... About 60,000,000 m³.

Most of the people gathered along the top.

It is a popular place for paragliding.

The beach. The dark things in the water are rocks.

You can not see the top of the dune from the water.

After the dune we went to a small cute city named Arcachon. Mostly so the Japanese players could taste the local oysters. Girlwing ate as well but I went for a walk along the beach.

A view of the beach.

On the base of a pier they have this carousel.

The beach from one of the piers.

Another view of the beach.

The local casino.

They have cute houses all around the small city.

Bordeaux sightseeing

During the weekend we didn't have any games. In EGC 2008 we also played the weekend tournament, but it is a bit tiresome to play so many games and we wanted to rest and see some more of Bordeaux.

Girlwing and I looked at the Bordeaux city map and discussed what we should do. We decided to focus on the old parts of the town and to see a couple of churches.

First we took the tram to Place des Quinconces. It is a large open area where it used to be a defense building for the city. When it was no longer needed they tore it down and this large empty space was left.

At Place des Quinconces they also erected a huge pillar with interesting bronze statues on the sides.

This is outside Place de la Bourse where they have an interesting fountain where people play in the water. It is a lot of fun for kids and even adults.

 The theatre.

 Outside the theatre.

 A crowded shopping street.

Cathédrale Saint-André de Bordeaux.

 Carousel

View down a street.

We went to a fancy restaurant for dinner. We drank this wine with our food. It is a wine from Saint Emilion where we went earlier in the week.

Église Notre-Dame de Bordeaux.

The fancy shopping street after closing hours.

The Bordeaux tram.

Might be a small triumphal arch.

Cathédrale Saint-André de Bordeaux.

Église Notre-Dame de Bordeaux.

Chateaux Soutard et Saint Emilion

On wednesdays we have no games to play so instead we went with the tourist trip that the EGC organizers arranged for us. We payed €30 each and got on a bus that took us to Saint Emilion and the vineyard Chateuax Soutard. We had a guided tour and got filled with both information and wine. We looked at the plants in the fields and tasted the almost ripe grapes. They are very tasty and a little bit sour because they are not ripe yet. Then we got to see the huge barrels where the grapes get fermented and the more normal sized where the wine age and get its complex flavour. Last we got to try three different kinds of wine. The first one none seemed to like. The wine was sour and bitter and is supposed to fit well with fat food. The second wine was a bit boring but maybe mu mouth was shocked by the first wine. The last wine was quite good and also the most expensive. But you are supposed to save it for ten years before it is worth drinking so we tasted one from 2002. I think the first wine was the most interesting. The wines cost €13, €29 and €32.

After the vineyard we went to see Saint Emilion which is a very cute old town. We bought the town speciality almond macorons filled with chocolate paste. Very tasty! Even better was the canelés! But I guess you can buy those everywhere in France, and I will.

 Our guide is explaining that there are only women working on the vineyard.

 Everybody are tasting the grapes and looking at the leaves to see what kind of wine they make here.

 The huge barrels used for fermentation.

 This is how it looks like when you are sitting inside an empty barrel tinted by red grape juice.

 Here they let the wine age to taste well.

 Inside this secret chamber they keep the really old wines.

 We get told how to taste wine in a professional way.

I took some extra grapes on my way out. 

One of the many macaron factories.

 One of the many wine shops.

 The small town have many steep alleys.

 Inside one of the macaron factories.

 Another steep alley.

 Yet another steep alley. Getting boored?

 Many cute corners to find.

 People was panting hard after climbing the steep and narrow roads.

 At the top I found this baby vineyard. There are 800 in the region around the town.

 The view from the top.

 Porte de la Cadène

 I was very tempted to buy myself a merlot plant to take home. But I am not sure the Swedish customs would approve.

On the road at the top I found this little crab friend. There is no ocean in sight so I guess he escaped from a restaurant and to become someone's food. I guess he will not survive much longer poor fellow.