Monday, December 31, 2007

2007-12-31:
My schedule was changed. Saturday was my free day; I slept a lot, made in an easy going way some reading exercises and then in the evening I was invited for dinner. A former classmate of An Yan's wife is in town what needed to be celebrated.

We went to a "hotel-restaurant". Why do I say hotel-restaurant? Well, if you go out you usually imagine some kind of restaurant where you book a table. Not here. At this place you book a room (usually). There are also a few tables, and there is a BIG hall downstairs where BIG parties are celebrated, like weddings. But the main business are rooms for dining. Different sizes. I didnt count how many rooms this hotel-restaurant has, but I guess at least 100. Our room was for 14 people. In China round tables are quite common. And usually you dont order "your" dish but many different things are ordered that are put on another rotating table. That means that everybody can taste everything.

One word about fish: Fish is served with bones and everything ("Look into my eyes, baby"). It is an adventure to poke with the chopsticks the fish, to try to get some fish-meat, but to try not to get the bones. Forks, knives? No way!

Food in China plays an important role. Three warm dishes per day are not rejected. A normal person is unable to perform that kind of daily cooking-marathon, so there is a huge food-industry. At each corner you can get some kind of noodles, rice or any other delicious dish. "Wuhan-noodles", a speciality here in Wuhan you get for roughly 0.20 - 0.30 EUR. You can eat it for breakfast, in-between, as a snack.

Yesterday and today I have played against kids in the school; and today I have had a very annoying and unpleasant experience. I played against a kid - maybe 10 or 11 - I havent played against so far. During the game he started suddenly to read in a go-magazine, to play with his drinking bottle etc. I have some hope that this has been the first and also the last time. I noticed that after the game An Yan had a serious discussion with this boy.


Breakfast:














The big hall:















The entrance to a room:















The dining table:















The dining table:














Fish served in customer oriented way:
Without comments...:

Friday, December 28, 2007

2007-12-28:
I had the opportunity to visit the DSC-cup in Wuhan that has taken place from Dec. 25th until 27th. I sat at each round next to one one player and recorded the game.

24 professional teenagers + 6 strong dan-players participated. The teams are from different cities. Each team consists of 4 pros + 1 dan-player. Altogether 5 rounds. 1 hour + 5*1min for the pros, 1,5 hours sudden death for the dans.
Prize: Altogether 10,000 EUR. 5 TEUR for the 1st, 3 TEUR for the 2nd, 2 TEUR for the 3rd.

It started on Tuesday afternoon. "Hot" atmosphere, and of course a lot of prestige.

One game that offered everything but to be boring. HUGE ko-fight, using existing ko-threats, creating new ones - out of the blue so to say -, capturing race and all this in byoyomi. The players showed poker-face, but you could sense how tensed they were under the mask.


It surprised me how "cool" the players were. Most of them had during the entire game just poker-face; no emotions; no hint if they judge the game, a certain position as good or bad. Amazing!

The second round started on Wednesday morning at 8.30 o'clock. It seemed to be quite early for some of the players. I sat next to Li He, 1p (w) and Zhang Ce, 3p (b). After move 88 main time is used, and only one quarter of the board is played. Move 137, last byoyomi for the players. Move 320, Li He resigned. The game totalled 4 hours, meaning the players played 2 hours in byoyomi...

Position after move 88:















Position after move 137:















Game over:















In the evening I was so tired, so exhausted; unbelievable! I would have never imagined that recording games can be SO exhausting. It is quite stressful to get all the moves, especially in the later stage of the game. The board is full, you need to catch the move, find the same position on your pocket PC, but be careful that you dont miss the opponent's immediate answer. You easily can get lost...

Nevertheless, after dinner teachers and students from the go-school and I go through some of the games, play some on our own, do some exercises and fall asleep like a stone.

Thursday, final day with round 4 and 5. Some of the players are sick, running nose. Yawning everywhere. If I am already tired as non-participant, how do the players feel?

After the forth round theoretically 4 teams still have chances. 2 teams scored 3-1, 2 teams 2-2. And in the last round the two teams that scored 3-1 play against the ones with the 2-2 score. At the end of the day the team Beijing-1 wins the cup with 4-1. Congratulations! And many thanks for the opportunity to watch fantastic games and fights.

I learnt a lot.

The winner:













Monday, December 24, 2007

Go-studies in China

2007-12-24:
I have just set up this website. I am thinking how to summarize the first 4.5 weeks I have been here in Wuhan (Hubei province/ China) so far.
I started with Go a year ago, at the 2007 EGC I played with 7k, and when I came here I had - best guess - 4k or 5k. The contact to this go-school I got via Juan Guo's go-school (http://www.guojuangoschool.com/). I also considered other options, eg to apply at the Baduk-university in Seoul.


I arrived here in Wuhan on Nov. 20th to study Go for 3 months in a Chinese go-school. Besides me there were 5 other foreign students, 2 from Sweden, 1 from Norway, 1 from France, and 1 from Morocco who actually lives in China.

Flat, food, driving etc is completely organized. The environment is designed in such a way that you can focus on Go. At the beginning I shared the flat with two other students. The remaining 3 wanted to stay in a hotel. Nevertheless, lunch and dinner we all have together at our "home".

4 out of the other 5 students have stayed here for a shorter period, 1 month; the fifth one who stays in China for a full year has moved to another city. That means that I am now the only foreign student.

Our (or shall I now say: My?) weekly schedule:
At two days studies and then in the afternoon I play against An Yan, 7p, my teacher.
At two days studies and then in the afternoon I play in the go-school against teachers, 5D.
At the weekend I play in the go-school each day two games against opponents from my group.
In the evenings game analysis and afterwards studies and/ or playing on KGS; all games - including the ones I play on KGS - are reviewed by An Yan.
The seventh day is free.

An Yan decided that I play in the school's top-group, 4D+. This has pros and cons. These kids play more seriously, you learn a lot about defence and shapes what - at a later stage - you can use when you need to attack. The main disadvantage is of course that I do not play even games. I compensate this by playing on KGS in the evening.

In the meantime I have "officially" improved by two stones.

The go-school:
Here in Wuhan are several go-schools. An Yan's has 9 groups, each one of about 10 children. A kid can improve to the higher group by winning within its group, and of course vice versa. Besides the kids coming to the go-school, there are a lot of activities in "normal" schools. The kids' age range from 4,5 to 13. One teenager has already participated twice at the qualification tournament to become professional. A second one, 12, is going to do so in January. One of the challenges is if course to play against kids. BUT: during the game they are just opponents who have a "whole-board-killing-vision"! The school's equipment is rather pragmatic.

The flat:
The flat is ok. There are two bedrooms, and due to the fact that I am now alone I have the pleasure to stay in the "master" bedroom. Shower, toilet, washing machine, notebook with webcam (-> communication via Skype) are available. The third room is the study room where I play against An Yan or study. There is one lady who cooks and keeps the flat clean. Her way of cooking - the other students' and my impression - is adopted to "European" stomaghs. Changing, delicious, spicy.

"Life":
It's different (from a European point of point)!
Culture, traffic, shopping, food, everything. Traffic is just chaotic, it seems to me even that there are no rules - at least no one seems to follow any - but still somehow careful compared to eg Moscow where they are extremely aggressive. Forget coffee - or bring your own one. Unless you like "Nescafe" and that kind of. But if you like tea, you feel like in paradise. The average salary is said to be 200 - 250 EUR here in Wuhan. I was told that this is even exaggerated. Whether true or not you spot a huge discrepancy between poverty and luxurious life. Beggars everywhere. On one of the main streets here you see a public haircutter, next to a hotel, next to a shop where they trade old and rusty metal stuff, next to a beauty-saloon (including plastic surgery). There are several shopping centers where the top 5 or 10% can buy quite exclusive labels. Mac-Index: BigMc-Menue (including small portion of french fries and one small drink) is 1.65 EUR. A haircut (by the way: good one) is 1.50 EUR. The weather has changed. When I arrived it was quite warm and sunny. Now, it is often grey, depressive, cold; it rains more often.

Studies:
When I arrived An Yan told me: "You lack basic technique. Your reading is bad." A lot of players in Europe read a lot of books and learn a lot about strategy and theory; but their reading skills are not at the same level as their theory. So me.
It meant that I started with reading exercises. I did them whenever I could, even in the car on the way to the go-school I solved life-and-death or tesuji-problems. This intensive problem-solving has paid off. An Yan made me a kind compliment when he said some days ago that my reading skills are now on the level of roughly 1/2 Dan. To increase my reading speed I am now to solve a certain amount of problems - within given time frames. At the same time you should score as good as possible. Once you solve 9 out of 10 correctly the available time is decreased. In parallel I started to study joseki and endgame. Fuseki is covered with game reviews. What lacks now is a lot of playing experience...

Fotos:
to be added soon