During the weekend I participated in the ”China Town” Weiqi Cup. The games were slightly shorter than in the main tournament, with 45 minutes basic time (instead of 80), and with 15 seconds increment.

I was quite worried about getting into time trouble, so I started by playing very fast in the first round, and after fifty moves I had almost all my basic time left while my opponent was down to increments. My position was bad, and there is no kind way to describe my play in this game, but in the end my opponent’s time trouble took its toll, and he blundered. It was possibly my least deserved win in a tournament game. Afterwards I was happy to have survived the time pressure, but I asked myself if I really want to play games like this one, and realized that the answer is ”no”. I am here to think, to analyze, and to try to play good games.

So, in the second game I allowed myself to think a bit more and played a decent game:

Both sides have ended up with a lot of dead stones (marked with ”x”), and if I just play the marked point at the bottom, I have a solid lead. Instead, because of time pressure, I played ”A”, and a few moves later, my opponent was back in the lead (although I was completely unaware of that). But then I laid a trap:

Because of my stone at A, I was able to play 9, which threates to live in the corner. My opponent – who was in time trouble too – went for the kill with 10, and then I played the triangled point, killing White’s stones (although I misplayed the next move and only lived in the corner). Making the corner alive made me win by a safe margin. A very sharp and entertaining game for me.

In the third round I played an elderly gentleman, and the game started out well for me. However, my opponent played very, very fast, and well. I was ahead around move 100, but not with much, and the shapes were strange and unfamiliar to me. At a critical moment I played it wrong:

Black is trying to make a live group at the bottom, and I decided to put maximum pressure on it by invading… which is a very bad idea. I should just have played te marked point furthers to the left and then closed the center on Black’s stones. I blame the time for this, but it is a good example of how my intuition is rather slow, and how I make moves that go against my better judgement if I just take half a minute to consider the position. After this exchange the game slowly turned into his favour, and the game ended rather abruptly when he killed one of my groups:

Connecting at 22 was quite a horrible move, but I wanted to protect against ”A”. However, it is very ugly shape, and soon he cut at the triangled point in the center, which eventually lead to all my marked stones dying.

My position might seem quite awful here, but I am only behind with a little if I start the ko in the upper left corner (playing the top triangle – threatening to live in the corner, and when Black answers, play the other triangle, thus starting a ko).

Saturday evening ended with even more go and a few beers.

Round 4, Sunday morning, against Mikko Nevala ( who runs a very instructive go channel together with Jeff Su: https://youtube.com/@mikkgo9526?si=62xVdCvZ7jVF6tkr ) was my most ambitious game so far:

(A lot of comments there. Just to show how I normally analyze my games)

It was our third game, and hopefully not our last. Later that evening we went through the game together with some other players, and many of my comments are built upon what we discussed.

In the fifth round I played another Finn, and it was another long and tense struggle. The game looked good for me for a long time, but at the end I messed up a bit, and it was only when I got in a rather devilish tesuji, just before the end, that my lead became clear.

So, 3/2 in the weekend tournament. Considering the time limit, I am quite happy with the result.

As I mentioned before, the time in the open has been severely reduced in the last few years. It is speculated that it has to do with that they want people to have time to play both main and rapid. This might be the case, but it is still not a good decision. The games are even shorter than a game in an international chess open, and it is basically impossible to go to the toilets during the games. I wish they will take a decision in the future that reverse this… situation.

In round four I lost deservedly. My opponent knew what he was doing in the opening stages, but I did not. I tried to emulate the style of Fredrik Blomback (playing seemlingly slow, poking at every weak shape, and then attack ferociously). My attemt at playing ”seemlingly slow”, turned out to be just slow. After spending the first part of the game on my back foot, I finally pressed the chaos button around move 125, and the game became very messy. He was always in the lead, but it was tense and quite possible (in a low-odds sense) that I would turn it around:

In round five I finally managed to win a game with White. At the end I got my eyes on a big group, and finally managed to kill it. Very exciting game:

Sadly, for me, neither Fredrik Blomback, nor Ben 0 made it to the semifinals in the Championship.

Today the weekend tournament starts, with 45 minutes base time. It is a bit fast for my liking, but I am playing anyway. Three games today, and two tomorrow. Perhaps there is one person reading this, or – optimistically – two, and that you will wish me good luck. I will need some.

In round three I played against a young woman representing China. The game was going my way for most of the time, but neither of us had a great lead until things fell apart for her, just at the end.

Today I played better, but blundered in a hugely advantageous position.

They have changed the time settings for the main tournament compared to earlier years, and it will probably make me struggle a bit. I am not fast, and there is a stage in the games, when the opening stages have passed, when I find that I do not know wjat to do. A lot of time helps a lot then, but today I had only twenty minutes left of my ”main” time when that stage was reached.

The games started out well for me, and eventually we ended up with a fight on my right side. At this stage I spent almost twenty minutes trying to find the best sequence, and while reading some pretty deep lines, I was unable to find a really good one.

After the game Fredrik Blomback – Sweden’s star player who is in a realm of his own – invited me to show my game. I showed this position and said that I expected that a + 5 dan would immediately know what to do in this position, and ideed; Fredrik showed me the right sequence:

The marked points are miai, and White will at least be able to get a good squeeze on the outside. The game would be balanced, but very slightly in my favour.

Some moves later my sympathetic opponent played 77, and I fell back into a bad mind-set, ”protecting” the corner instead of either leaning on the stone, or just jumping out in the center, making Black’s three floating stones weaker. Still the game was ok for me.

The critical moment came here:

I was short on time here, and did not have the time to read out the important stuff. Black’s marked stones in the center are close to dead if I get to play the marked points are at the left, but I was worried about ”A”, and played a bad forcing move at the top. Still, after this bad exchange I was ahead by almost 20 points. Any sensible move should win the game. Instead I mishandled Black’s peep at ”A” in the worst possible manner and lost all my stones at the top. (I missed a tricky move that my opponent had not missed…)

I was not too happy with myself after the game. I do not mind losing games that are hard fought and balanced, but yet another loss of a game where I had such a huge lead made me feel stupid.

Going through the game afterwards, in the company of players like Fredrik Blomback, and Ben-0, made my mood change once again, from rather annoyed at myself, to feeling absolutely priviledged. ”I learnt a lot” sometimes feels like an excuse, but today I make it my finishing words without bending the truth.