My very first Yunguseng game! There will be many others but only this one will be my first. Even though I came out ahead in some of the early scuffles I felt pretty tense most of the game because of black’s nice framework in the upper half of the board. I wasn’t really confident about any kind of invasion there, so I settled for a simple reduction. Black didn’t defend as aggressively as I expected and I was able to push through. I also felt pretty lucky that black didn’t try to invade the upper left at the 3-3. My white formation there seemed very weakened at least to me after black 45.

After white 92 I started feeling more confident about the flow of the game. Still I’ve lost similar games where I felt I had the lead so I wasn’t about to get cocky.

Fortunately, with 40 minutes of main time I never felt particularly rushed. This is a new feeling for me on KGS where I usually play with 25 minutes or less of main time. It’s not quite as leisurely as the US Open but it’s long enough to prevent purely impulsive moves that are impossible to recall the rationale for later.

Again what I’m really looking forward to is In-seong’s criticisms on Thursday. Winning is nice but improving is better.