Mid-Tournament Report II

Another rough day on the Go-ban: 0-2. I like to think of it as a public service--someone has to lose. My opponents were gracious and played well. I used to always play these classically Japanese style games in which critics would complain that nothing happens. Each player takes some territory and then you play the end game. These are often close games with no big groups dying. I seem to have developed a really bad habit lately of wanting to win by a lot. I play overplays and start fights, something I never used to do. The problem is that I'm not good at this style of Go. Maybe I will get better at it, but I don't even like it. I also find that I get jealous of my opponent's territory. I think this comes from my old habit of waiting until it's too late to invade, and they get a ridiculously huge area. Now I am overcompensating and invading too quickly. Or maybe my analysis is totally wrong. (FYI: The decorations you can see on the ceiling in the photo are not for the Go tournament; we had to move all the equipment upstairs for tomorrow because they're going to have a big New Year's Eve party there.)


This morning, before playing, I sat for a few minutes in Regent's Park in this... well, I'm not sure what to call it. It has the purpose and style of a gazebo, but it's rectangular and has a back wall. I had only been sitting there for a few minutes when a spritely older woman entered and deposited a couple of largish bulging plastic bags on the bench. I smiled at her as she came in, but she said nothing, just put down her bags and walked out and then around the side of this structure. Walking around the side might not have been noteworthy, except that to do so, she had to scrape through briars and brambles growing close. I didn't look too closely, but I think that she was meticulously placing bird food in particular predetermined places on the trees and bushes. In addition to the plastic bags, she had with her a stick that didn't seem quite long enough to be a walking stick. She carried it, she didn't lean on it. Perhaps she used it for those hard to reach higher spots. When she came back in to pick up her bags before going on her way, she returned my smile and remarked that, when she had started out at 7 this morning it had been "lashing" rain, and now she felt ridiculous (she gave a generous gesture taking in her big hooded coat and the mocking sunshine). She departed in the direction opposite that from which she came, paused, hit a few bushes that she must have missed, and then carried on purposefully. I guess she had a lot of park left to cover.

Mid-Tournament Report

Yesterday was the second day of the London Open Go Congress. My record thus far is a meagre 1-3. I've made some really atrocious reading errors and in my first game (which I resigned) I self-destructed. In an expolosive chain reaction, I took a situation that was probably good for me (I forgot I had komi...) and proceeded to totally destroy it. My second game was better; I took a lot of points, giving my opponent a big center, but then I lived in the middle, so he resigned. Yesterday I lost twice, though in my first game, I managed to live in sente in my opponent's area, which put me back in the game. Then I played a ridiculously slow endgame move, ensuring my loss. That opponent played the vast majority of his moves in a total of 5 minutes, so, when I was out of time, he still had an hour and a half to count out end game.

The tournament is really nice though. We only play two games per day. Each player has 90 minutes for each game, plus byo yomi. Even more importantly, there's plenty of time between games to review them and record them. You can relax, eat and recover what composure you can summon before the next game starts. These photos are from Regents Park, which is right across the street. It's an excellent place to stroll around and clear your head between games. It amazes me that there are flowers at the end of December.

London stretches, yawns and drags itself from its Christmas slumber

The sleepy enchantment of Christmas continued to hold sway today over England's capital city. The tube reopened and buses were running, but the roads remained so empty that one could saunter across without worry where one usually has to dart between onslaughts of heavy traffic. Some shops and restaurants were open, but many remained shuttered and dark. Though more pedestrians populated the sidewalks than yesterday, the usual impenetrable crowds have yet to emerge.

Christmas in Amsterdam and London

Last night I returned to London after visiting Guo Juan in Amsterdam for the weekend. This is the view from her beautiful apartment. She had a couple of students from France visiting as well, and Siu came up for Saturday night. Siu was in China with me this summer and, since Guo Juan made tons of excellent Chinese food, it felt like we were back in Wuhan. Another student of Guo Juan's, who lives just around the corner, came to spend time with us too. And I got to finally meet Guo Juan's son, Wang Zi. He is now about 3 dan and will also be playing in the London Open this week.

We were tourists this weekend. We took a boat tour through the canals (Guo Juan says she brings everyone on the boat tour, so she's done it many times). Camille (from Paris) said that what they tell you in French is not the same as what they tell you in English. I liked the houseboats along the river. Some even have front porches--rafts with deck chairs. We walked around for a while afterwards, stopping for tea and then meandering through a market where we ate raw herring with onions and pickles, a traditional Dutch delicacy. It was really good, but I'd recommend some sort of breath freshener afterwards. Since we were cold and we still had to go to Chinatown to go shopping for dinner, we stopped in another coffee shop. We ordered hot chocolate which, unbeknownst to us, was served with a small shot of a coffee liqueur. It was the perfect afternoon stop to warm and rejuvenate us.

Inspired by our afternoon stop, we picked up some hazelnut liqueur to bring home. After eating tons of delicious Chinese food for dinner, we had oily balls, another Dutch treat. These were balls of oily dough, served with powdered sugar.

For breakfast yesterday, Guo Juan made a Chinese salad, which was easy to make and delicious.


Chinese Salad

• Chinese cabbage, chopped/sliced


• garlic, minced (optional)


• hot pepper stuff


• vinegar


• sesame oil


• soy sauce


• sesame seeds

Toss everything except the sesame seeds together and then sprinkle the sesame seeds on top. The hot pepper stuff: in Asian food stores you should be able to find something of this sort. It'll be a jar of hot peppers, chopped and stored in oil. The vinegar is Chinese vinegar, which is black (again, you should have no trouble finding this in an Asian food store). There was no measuring going on, so you'll have to just add everything to taste.


I walked up to Chinatown today to pick up some stuff to make dumplings. In the U.S., the Chinese restuarants are usually the only places open on Christmas, but in London, even these close. One of my grocery stores was open, so I was able to get most of what I needed. It was a ghost town out there today though. The tube was closed, and I guess the buses weren't even running, because I certainly didn't see any. There were practically no people on the streets (well, there were still a few with cameras). It was very disorienting. Even though I walk this route all the time, I kept pausing and wondering whether I had made a wrong turn somewhere. This is a picture of Emma with the "I heart London" t-shirt I sent her for Christmas.

I made some pineapple upside-down cake today too. This is one of my favourite recipes, though our oven is not very cooperative, so my cake is still a bit undercooked in the middle.


Pineapple Upside-down Cake

• 1 20 oz can pineapple slices (drained)


• 1/2 Cup (1 stick) butter


• 1 Cup brown sugar


• 1 20 oz can crushed pineapple (drained)


• 1/2 Cup (1 stick) butter


• 1 1/3 Cups milk


• 2 1/2 Cups flour


• 1 1/2 Cups sugar


• 2 1/4 tsp. baking powder


• 1/2 tsp. salt


• 2 eggs


• 1 tsp. vanilla

Pre-heat oven to 350. Grease a 9 x 13 pan. Arrange pineapple slices in pan. Melt 1/2 Cup butter, stir in brown sugar and crushed pineapple, pour over pineapple slices. Melt 1/2 Cup butter, add to milk and beat until "fluffy". (I always have trouble with this. My butter clots and I get worried. Maybe it's better to just barely mix, rather than beating them. Or maybe I don't beat them long enough.) Combine dry ingredients, add to butter/milk mixture, stir. Add eggs and vanilla, stir. Pour cake batter over pineapple mixture. Bake for 30 minutes or until knife comes out clean. Invert and serve.

2People.org

My friend's brother just launched a website called 2People.org to get people to do something about climate change. Something needs to be done. In particular, the U.S. needs to change its habits. Since the current American leadership refuses to recognize the problem, much less do anything about it, the website is designed grassroots style. It's a place for people to find out more about what they can do personally, to organize action with other folks and to raise voter awareness so that future leaders will have to do something about this issue.

Sign up and check it out. He's done an excellent job with the website.

Blitz

I've started doing something I never thought I'd do: play blitz games online. The newest version of KGS has auto-match: you set some preferences, and then it finds an opponent for you, rather than you trying to accept an open game. I think it's great. They have some other new features too, like mouseovers of open games telling you the person's comments and time settings. They have a blitz setting on the auto-match that is 1 minute opening and then three 10-second byo yomi periods. This is ridiculously fast, in my opinion, but it does let you get more games in. I've even been able to actually finish a few of these games now (as opposed to someone losing on time). Though I much prefer a slow, thoughtful game (as anyone who has played me well knows), I think this will really help me because I just don't play enough.

Ice Skating

Here are some photos from our ice skating outing this morning. This is Somerset House, which is on the Strand, right next to the (ugly) building that houses the maths department of King's College.

They make some tickets available every morning for that day, instead of booking in advance. We had to arrive early this morning to buy those tickets, since they were sold out all day. It was a bit rough on Alicia, who doesn't usually arrive at the office until late afternoon.

Here's Alicia, Brenda and Ed. Alicia, who is from Mexico, was rather out of her element on ice. She was a good sport though, and managed, after not very long, to leave the edge and clomp along on her skates without the aid of the handrail.

Ed and I change places. I think the idea here is that you pay £10 to take photos of yourself and your friends or family on ice skates. This we accomplished. Maybe we should have taken pictures in front of the tree though. I guess there's always next year (Alicia did say she would go back and I'll hold her to it).

Brenda in action. Ed left a few minutes early; the rest of us decided to finish out the hour on the ice. We met him for hot beverages in the snack bar afterwards and berated him for not warning us that the reason he had left early was to avoid the long queue to return your skates, while your socks absorb the puddles of melted ice.

It's not Christmas without mulled wine and Cliff Richard

So I'm told, anyway. Of course, I've never before had a Christmas with mulled wine OR Cliff Richard, who has apparently been dubbed the "British Elvis". I'm not sure if that's supposed to be a recommendation or a warning.

A German student made mulled wine at the office party on Friday evening. This involved really cheap alcohol and fire.

Meanwhile, the Santas have taken over London. Last night, as I walked home from the Go club, every few yards there was another group of friends all dressed as Santa. I also saw one court jester and one chicken; I'm not sure what those were about. At Borough Market yesterday morning there was a larger group of Santas shouting, in call-and-response protest style,

"What do we want?"
"Christ-mas!"
"When do we want it?"
"Now!"

No pub night

Brenda and I tried to go out for a beer this evening for our usual Thursday night pub night, but alas, every pub was packed. At least, all those in central London near our office were full and overflowing. Everyone's out for Christmas. It's unbelievable. Tomorrow night, the office next to ours is hosting a party (maths grad students, mince pies and mulled wine... not necessarily one's first idea of a good time, but we'll see). The plan is to go to our local pub afterwards, but I don't know if we'll be able to get in the door.

Shèng dàn kuaì lè

Our Chinese teacher gave us Christmas cards tonight! On the inside, they say "Shèng dàn kuaì lè" (Merry Christmas) and "Xīn nián xìng fú" (Happy New Year). They're written in Chinese of course. She said she started out writing each stroke very carefully so that we would be able to read them more easily, but she soon gave up. So, though the characters look nice, I don't think I'd recognize even the ones I supposedly know. (The only ones I know are "kuaì" and "lè", which we learned from "Happy Birthday".)

London Open

The London Open is coming up! I'm so unprepared. I haven't been playing enough (as usual) and I haven't been doing enough problems. I have still been looking at pro games on Go4Go.net on a daily basis. Plus I'll get to visit Guo Juan just beforehand; there's always hope for osmosis.

The London Open is a big event (92 people have signed up already) that ends the year: it starts on the 28th of December and ends on New Year's Eve. The games are long (1.5 hours each, plus byo yomi), which is great news for me. They'll probably be upset that the tournament will take much longer this year, since I will actually use all of my time.

There's also a pair go event, so I'll be on the lookout for a good partner.

Kobayashi Opening Answer, part 2

Guo Juan sent me some more information on what to do against White 1 (below) in the Kobayashi opening.


Black can respond with 2-10 as above, which Guo Juan says is a "hard fight", but it should be good for Black because Black has more stones around to help.



Answering with Black 2 at P2, as in this diagram, is an "easy way" for Black. The result after 8 is bad for White.



White might respond to Black 2 at P4 instead of O3. Black should play as in this diagram. Note that Black 6 is at R2 (not Q2--this is important for keeping White weak). After Black 8, White might play at A, B or C. If White plays A, Black should cut at O3. If White plays B, Black should play at M3--White is not alive; this is good for Black. If White plays C, Black should respond at S2; White does not have two eyes.

Amsterdam!

In just a couple of weeks, I'm going to visit my Go teacher, Guo Juan, in Amsterdam!

I got duped by Easyjet though. They have lots of tricks, like advertising the cheapest flights, which are at 6 am, and it's impossible to get to their remote airports at those times without paying a fortune or staying in the airport all night. Then they have you pick the outbound and return flights separately, so it looks like the flight is cheaper than it is. It's not until later that they add in the extra £20 of taxes. They even charge an extra £5 to pay by credit card. So, in the end, I could have taken a British Airways flight from Heathrow for the same cost. And then I wouldn't have to pay the extra charge to take Easybus out to Luton.

So, they got me once, but I won't do it again.

Waterloo Bridge

Today I joined the throngs of people taking pictures from Waterloo Bridge, eliciting under-the-breath curses from ducking commuters. I cross this bridge over the Thames every day on my way to and from work. (The bridge I cross, of course, is not actually pictured. The one you can see in the above photo is Blackfriar's Bridge.)

It's not really possible to take a photograph without someone crossing your path. I'm sure my profile is featured in many tourists' slide shows. (The two people walking are actually on Waterloo Bridge; the bridge you can see beyond that is the Golden Jubilee Bridge, which is only for pedestrians. Though I am most certainly a pedestrian, I have yet to actually walk across that one.)

Before I figured out that I could increase the exposure to get more light in the photo...









After I figured out that I could increase the exposure to get more light in the photo.










I apologize for the blurriness. Instead of citing my beginner status as a photographer, I'll blame it on the wind. It was so windy that I could barely hold myself still, much less the camera. (This is true, though the pictures would probably have been blurry anyway.)




At several points along the bridge there are signs with outlines of the skyline, labelled so that you can figure out what all of these landmarks are. Since I live here I never stop to study these, so other than Big Ben, I can't name the buildings.

Not so big after all?

How long does one have to live in London before unexpectedly running into someone you know on the street?

Approximately three months: On Saturday, I saw Shu, an Imperial College number theory postgrad student, in Chinatown.