One week until the European Go Congress 2011

Hi folks.

I got some good news and some bad news. Bad news is that it seems like I didn't get a study place to the universities I applied to ;__; ... Big shock. Well it didn't come out as a complete suprise, but still... what am I going to do now :3?
-I'll probably look for a job and start saving up money!!!
Someone might think I've made a major screw up, but I think maybe it's a blessing that my university studies get delayed by a year. In fact I could learn something about life, save some money and improve my Go.



The good news is that I survived the impact of the "bad" news and came up with some other plans. In addition I've been doing pretty well in my summer hobbies, which are this year bouldering and Go.

I just started out following a new training schedule which goes roughly like this:

Monday: bouldering
Tuesday: Go-training
Wednesday: bouldering
Thursday: Go-training
Friday: bouldering
Saturday and Sunday: Go-training + free time

Here is how the shaolin monks train!

It's a loose schedule to help me keep focused for training Go. I'm hoping to make a good record in EGC this year. Also I intend to keep myself in good shape physically. As some legendary Go-master has said "physical training is also a part of one's playing strenght and tournament endurance".

And here is how I train.

I was thinking I could photoshop this picture and put a huge waterfall and some rainforest on the background to make it look higher :-). Too bad my photoshop skills are quite limited. If someone wants to do it for me I'd appreciate it!

Anyways as you can see from the picture bouldering requiers lots of arm strenght and good climbing technique. I started bouldering maybe 3 weeks ago and now i've started to go climbing 3x a week. I also bought a pair of climbing shoes for 69€. They are pretty cool!

The Idea in bouldering is actually quite similar to solving Go-problems. There are different coloured routes called "puzzles". The routes are also graded based on difficulty with numbers from 4-9?. Currently I've climbed some 5's. Solving these puzzles requiree some planning before hand, good technique and the determinance of a great Go-master! :).


Alright, next I'll give you some insight on my Go-training time.
Recently I started studying Kong Jie's games. He is a Chinese 9dan player who holds several international titles and has occationally been #1 in chinese ranking. In fact we have some things in common. We both like to lose games to weaker players!!! ,but when the time is right, we kick ass against all the top dogs!

Having seen all his official games from 2011-2010, I've come to the conclusion that I love his style. He is a master of Life and Death and has an "All round style", meaning that he is very flexible and does not play only territorywise. His typical game starts with a framework, continues with him attacking his opponent brilliantly, then making some furikawaries and winning/ losing the game.
I've gotten some pretty good pointers from his games and recently I've been OWNING on kgs. Let's hope this keeps up.

TurkuGP2011 and enjoying the summer

Hey guys,

It's been a while again since the last post, but good is something worth waiting for, right?
These days I've been playing mostly Go. It does sound a bit boring in a way, but every game of go tells a different story. I was having some trouble playing good last month. However after my last tournament I'm feeling like I'm getting in really good flow again.



I attended TurkuGP-go tournament last weekend. Turku is a town located in the east coast of finland. We arrived on friday and some fellow go-players already got pretty drunk then. I wasn't really affected by our happy reunion until early morning apart from being slightly tired. The excitement of the upcoming go-tournament kept my concentration good. I had not been in a go tournament for more than 6 months and the games must've been my first live games in weeks =). On saturday round 1 I played against Kalle Timperi 3dan. I made 1 small mistake in the opening but my opponent didn't realize it so I fixed it back on the next move. After this my opponent missed a moyo point which was HUGE. After Opening was somewhat settled I attacked his group and to my suprise he wanted to play some Ko to help his group. After I won the ko he had a big bunch of stones in an ugly shape. During the lunch break I had some kungPo chicken which turned out to be just "ok". I ate some if it there and took the rest in a take-away box.

Next round was already more challenging. I was up against Antti Holappa 4dan. This game was kind of complicated and I made few small mistakes in the opening. Entering the middle game I felt like I was losing with no way to win the game. Then my opponent played a pretty passive move at a critical point and I got some more attacking momentum. On top of this I had used up all my time, I was sort of in byoyomi. My opponent still had 30 minutes left and deviced a sneaky plan. His tactique was to play fast so I would have less thinking time as well, which is usually not a bad idea. I had felt sleepy the first half of the game, but I really woke up in the byoyomi. I spotted insane tesujis in extreme time pressure. And by the time I was trying to kill the 4th group in trouble It finally payed off and my opponent resigned. I guess this game was my awakening for this tournament. I learned that I should feel a little bit nervious through out my games. That way my brain can process variations faster, just like in byoyomi. 3rd round game was against a 2dan. After saturday's games we went to eat to a splendid Indian restaurant. The food was so tasty!!! The owner of the restaurant thought I was 14yo geezuz!!! >.< Ofcourse I was too embarrassed to say that I'm 20...Saturday evening everyone was so tired from partying the last night that everyone went to sleep early.

A peculiar situation arouse in Pempu's game against a 2 dan. Pempu (my 4dan big bro) was losing the game badly and he didn't have any ko-threats apart from 1. Usually pempu plays false ko-threats so his opponents know not to take his ko-threats that seriously. However this time Pempu's plan was genious.As a ko-threat white(pempu) threatened to cut black's group off. Does this really work for white? -Black to play and die.

Sunday morning I felt tired inspite of sleeping 8,5 hours. My 4th round game was against Finland's WAGC representative Mikko Siukola 4dan. The game was intense and interesting. Mikko playing black seemed to get a more favourable opening. After we got into middle game mr.Siukola had a bad idea, which was to cut off my stones. As a result I closed his weak group in and secured my win with the huge wall and some territory I took in the process. 5th Round game against Jesse Savo 4dan was over fast since Jesse got caught in a  sneaky ladder and was forced to resign on move 65.

As a result I won the tournament with a 5/5 result. I got some prize moneys as well ^-^. Finally I'm starting to win some tournaments. It feels good. I haven't really won many tournaments during my go-career so I'm excited :). My rival Antti Törmänen 6dan was accepted as an insei in Japan from september2011-may2012. So It seems to be a good chance to take some 1st places from finnish tournaments while he is away.

Right after the tournament there was a monsoon in Turku :), however we got to the train station safely and headed back to Helsinki. From this tournament I studied all my games in detail by myself and with my secret teacher Mr.X who is a korean professional. Feel free to guess who it is~ I felt like I improved my game significantly and I've been having a winning streak on kgs! I Have a good feeling about the upcoming EGC in Bordeaux, France.

After the last post there were many people applying for the free lessons and the prizes go to Suvi,Boris,Juho,Mo and Pupukani. You can schedule the free lesson through e-mail.

If you like my blog show it to your friends as well. See you!