Training diary

21-04-09 A new Mongolian 3dan is now studying with us. I played with her right after breakfast to see how strong she really was. It turned out to be quite a lot difference between us, I would say maybe two stones now. After that I mainly solved Tsumego and played an league A game which I won. At 15:00 o'clock Kim-sabomnim (the 9p) played a teaching game with me. I won by three points at three handicap stones and ten points reverse komi. It is amazing that my opponent won or lost every game he played with us in the last two days by exactly three points. Way to go for me!

25-04-09 Today's event was a team-match between our school and some older Baduk-players Kingsfield invited to the school. I played two matches. One against and CyberOro 4dan which I won and another match against a CyberOro 5dan which I lost.

29-04-09 Yesterday my scholarship for the next three months has been confirmed. It is such a relief to be able to stay here for at least another three months. There are quite a few things to organize, especially having my parents to agree with my longer stay, but I think that it should be possible. I have been growing stronger and I want to reach the very top now.

Training diary

20-04-09 Today was a rather quiet day, no test or heavy duty tsumego solving. In the morning I played some blitz games with Pavol and did tsumego until lunch, after that some more tsumego and in the end a league game with Klara which I won. Kim Sung Ryong-sabomnim came back to ou school again and played several teaching games. I did not get a game today so I hope I will get one tomorrow. In the evening I played my Cyberoro games very slowly progressing up to 5dan. I should go a little faster I think but I keep making quite some serious errors.

21-04-09 A new Mongolian 3dan is now studying with us. I played with her right after breakfast to see how strong she really was. It turned out to be quite a lot difference between us, I would say maybe two stones now. After that I mainly solved Tsumego and played an league A game which I won. At 15:00 o'clock Kim-sabomnim (the 9p) played a teaching game with me. I won by three points at three handicap stones and ten points reverse komi. It is amazing that my opponent won or lost every game he played with us in the last two days by exactly three points. Way to go for me!

- adorable plum

Training diary plus photos

18.04.09 There was an unexpected turn of things today as we returned to KBC already Saturday evening but as always the trip to Seoul has been totally inspiring for my Baduk. Despite watching the LG Cup premiliaries live I played 4 games with non-KBC players. I won against Tatu a Finnish 1-2dan at the IBA playing white in a no-komi game and against Pascal from Cannada, a 3dan, in an even game at the IBA where we stayed from Thursday until Friday. On Friday we were visiting a Baduk-English class where actually only high-dan ex-insei attend usually so the median of level there is Korean 7dan or TYGEM 9dan. I got to play an ex-insei at 4 handicap stones and in the end I won by 5 points! This means my current score is: Me 2 - Korean 7dan 0!!! After the game my opponent commented on my play estimating my current level to Korean 4dan. Yay!
On Saturday we visited a Baduk school which is run by a friend of Kim-sabomnim where we played a competition between both schools. Thirteen players vs thirteen players. Sounds like a fair match... but the crux is that every student there, even the elementary school kids are at least Cyberoro 7dan... Needless to say we lost all games but 1 which Gabriel won. He is CyberOro 7dan to. Apparrantly I lost my game to and that by 9,5 points in the end. I could not recover from a blunt mistake giving my opponent a 20 point lead right in the beginning. In the end Kim-sabomnim had to pay the price of our defeat and had to treat all the kids to icecream. We of course asked for a rematch in a couple of weeks!

Here are some more photos I made up to now:
http://picasaweb.google.com/s.rieche/SecondBatch?authkey=Gv1sRgCKGQrsb7voTaew

Training diary

13.04.09 Monday has passed. I barely made it for the homework, my head was spinning after the last page but I made it! The test today went well to I think even thought I messed up one variation so I will not get full points it seems. I played two league games today.... both I had easily won but then two oversights let me lose these games. How can I lose such games I keep asking myself.... really annoying.... My CyberOro games are going better these days I have won 16 out of the last 17 games and only a few more wins and I will level-up once more.
Today Kim-sabomnim told us we are leaving for Seoul on Thursday and stay until Sunday. Yay!

- adorable plum

Training diary

12-04-09 Sunday has been a busily lazy day. I have updated my blog's appeareance and reissued my teaching offers. Other than that I am working on my homework for tomorrow. It consists out of 15 pages in my tesuji-problem book and the study for the test tomorrow. They will be testing the mini-Chinese opening so I have been studying it today. I am a little lucky that before I had a time were I used to play it, so the basics are still here and I only need to refresh. It seems that this week will be intensive mini-Chinese-opening study as the three opening and joseki books we have all have a chapter on that and Kim-sabomnim already told us which things to study.
My CyberOro winning streak was broken today as I lost one game due to some obvious mistakes but I am still going up!

Well then I am off to get my homework done.

- adorable plum

Short notice

Just a short notice.

I am working on more posts and stuff.

I have been looking into ways to earn money in order to support my stay in Korea. For once I will be asking Kim-sabomnim to help me finding a job as German teacher or as something working for the KBC. Probably tomorrow I will ask him.

The other things are that I installed Google AdSense on my blog, that's why there are ads on the side and bottom of my posts. On the other hand I offer offline game reviews again. Basically you send me a game, I will review it and then send it back.

For more info on that mail me at s.rieche@googlemail.com.

- adorable plum

"All for the money............ hahahaha"

Training diary 2

03-04-09 - 05-04-09 Two and a half day in Seoul. Friday afternoon until Sunday evening. In the morning we studied for the test and after that was written Kim-sabomnim announced that if we wanted could go to Seoul in the afternoon. Needless to say that despite a few exceptions we instantly agreed on going. It was decided that five of us ten who would go could stay at the International Baduk Academy. So naturally our first stop was there. We met a few students of the IBA and a few of their teachers along with Professor Lee Kibong. The others engaged playing or chatting with the other students quite fast my the group I arrived with first set out for dinner first. Up on returning I tried to chat with that one Korean girl who just had finished beating Pedro soundly. After a few minutes of more or less unsuccessful conversatio n in Korean, as she could not speak Korean I asked: "Baduk dubsida?" I challenged her to a game. She, Park Ji Young, 20 years old vs me, same age. After telling me that she was KGS 6dan and others telling me she was really strong we settled on a 2 stone handicap I felt comfortable to win with. However... how fooled I was.
After seeing the most gentle moves I have ever seen, I was left puzzled. Such kind moves and yet I resigned the game.

I had a slow talk with her and another Korean boy after reviewing the game just talking in Baduk which worked much better than trying to do casual conversation. The boy however could speak English quite well so we got along quite well. So I got to know that she very very very rarely plays on KGS and only with other Korean insei. She smilingly told me that she was a star. And indeed she is. One of the famous TYGEM 9dans Jiyoung.... No wonder I was defeated with just a smile. But be asured next time I will win. :)

06-04-09 Monday has passed by now and I practiced more again than in the last days. Tsumego and learning for the test today were primary in the morning hours and after lunch I played 3 league games. Won two and lost one. One of those wins concludes my B league with a result of 7-1 and for now my A league result is 1-2. I need to work on more consistency in my play. In the evening I played my mandatory Cyberoro games which ended in another 2-1 score for today. All in all a good day even though I did not solve enough Tsumego.

- adorable plum

Start of the training diary

Training diary

02-04-09 Today I played two league games after working on my Tesuji book. I am on page 12 now. I lost both of the games, which I should not have lost. But no excuses a loss is a loss. Mr. Kim gave the usual common mistakes review of our Cyberoro games. There was not much study today because the weather was very good and Mr. Chun and Ilya Shikshin were leaving so we played more Volleysoccer than studying Baduk in the afternoon. In the evening we talked about our personal Baduk in general and what each of us lacks. For myself generally? In short everything and a little bit longer escpecially reading plus talking with the board.