Second game of October. I lost this one by 3.5 points, and to tell you the truth, it was a really darn fun game. Unlike the previous round, I felt like I held my own against an opponent rated a couple stones of stronger than myself. Once again I played the Chinese across the top though I made a mistake this time around by not just kicking my opponent’s approach stone in the upper left. Still, I was able to pressure the white invasion stones and build a comfortable framework.

The game proceeded with some heavy fighting in the lower part of the board that ended more or less settling my left side territory. I was happy that I didn’t submit to white 108. I feel like I may have made a strategic error at move 127 - that was probably the moment to play my sente plays against white’s bottom right and then come back and reinforce the top. I think I was concerned about the center but white needed at least a couple moves to convert it into something substantial.

As far as what I’ve been doing the past week between rounds, I’m still working through my second pass at Cho Hun-hyeon’s first technique book. It’s amazing how quickly you can forget something you literally just read. It’d also been a while since I’d cracked open Graded Go Problems For Beginners Volume 3 (GGPFB3) so I’ve been running through it the past couple of days. I now find these problems considerably simpler and faster to solve than the fifth volume of Jump Level Up! The one place where I do seem to consistently make mistakes in GGPFB3 still are the joseki problems. Unsurprising given my experience in Yunguseng so far, patterns are one of my biggest weaknesses. I did review In-seong’s video on the Kobayashi opening and I feel like I understand the basics now though there are an incredible number of variations.

I’ve also played 2 regular rated games against 5 kyus on KGS both of which I lost. However, I’m starting to get a tingling feeling these opponents are no longer that far out of my reach.