If there are sentient beings on other planets, then they play Go.
—Emanuel Lasker, chess grandmaster
As you may know, I am a Go fanatic. I have a floor board on tatami mats and everything. I was very much a beginner for a fairly long time, until we moved to the PNW where there are actually Go players within driving distance! In fact, there’s even a Seattle Go Center. So when we moved here, I started playing there, and almost instantly got much better.
I think mostly it was due to having the chance to player people who were much better than me. Online, pretty much the only people willing to play you are the ones your own rank. I think it’s hard to learn a lot that way, because they’re making the same sort of mistakes you’re making, so you don’t have an example of really great play to emulate. Once I started playing at the Go center, I was playing professional-level players (at least on occasion), which made a huge difference. I almost instantly jumped several stones in rank, and my progress has been pretty steady since then.
So tonight, I played three games on-line. I figured I’m about an 8 kyu, since that’s what I’ve been on KGS for a while now. But all three games I played tonight were against 8k, and I won all three of them! The first two games I played as white with no komi, because KGS thought I was “7k?” (the question mark meaning it wasn’t sure because I hadn’t played many ranked games recently).
The first I won by 30 points. The second I won by 20 points, so KGS automatically bumped me up to a 6k! But the crazy thing is that in the third game, I gave my opponent two handicap stones (because he was an 8k, just like the previous two players) and I still won by over 30 points! I think I really am getting better. It’s amazing to think I’m in the single-digit kyus, whereas once I thought that was such an astounding strength. Adde parvum parvo magnus acervus erit.
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