Hello everyone! Hope you all had a Happy Halloween and enjoyed yourself sat the Chicago Rapid this year! This was a crazy year for sure! For one thing, it was our club’s debut under our new name, the Fox Valley Go Club! We still meet at the same place, but under a more brand worthy name. Gavin even managed to make new stickers for us that highlighted our new name change - a fox that lives on the intersection of Kirk and Butterfield road where we meet! They were apart of a special event where we get postcards and try to collect stickers from any of the other clubs that came to the Rapid this year! Not many people brought stickers, but hopefully that can change for next time. Evanston Go Club and Wicker park had stickers though. Speaking of fewer people, there was a slight lack of attendance this year. 74 people in total signed up this year, with a few even taking byes later in the day. The crazy part was there were more stronger players that day than weaker ones. It made ranking for awards later in the day quite interesting, as I ended up winning second place in the 15-16 kyu division. You wouldn’t know it from my gameplay that day, however. Nevertheless, we still managed to have a great event with a lot of memories forged along the way. I managed to take quite a beating not felt since my first ever tournament. I managed to lose every match I had that day. Round 1 was a rematch against my friend Bob Pociask (15 kyu) who is also from the Fox Valley Go Club. I once again managed to lose to him, although I think I did better than before. The major mistake I made of not seeing a false eye in one of my groups was the thing that ultimately ended me. Game 2 was another rematch with Timothy Biel, and it was pretty intense. We both managed to cause some pretty big fights, though ultimately it was another resignation after I lost that fight. It wasn’t too upsetting, as we both walked away exhilarated from how fun they were. But that didn’t begin to compare to the insanity of Game 3. My opponent Rory Graman and I ended up in something I can’t even begin to explain. I lost that game by only half a point. There was a group in the bottom left that I could have saved but didn’t because I didn’t read the moves right. While trying to make territory in the upper right, I lost four stones that would have cost me the game. However, my opponent managed to leave an opening in the white group that had formed in the center. I exploited it and managed to kill the entire group. It was truly an exchange I will never forget. Game 4 against the winner in my division (Daniel Park) is a different matter, so I won’t talk much about that one. Once I saw the standings late in the day and realized what would happen, I knew I was going into Game 5 without any expectations. Win or lose I would play the best game I could. And I couldn’t have asked for a better opponent. Alex Erlich, the girl I had beaten by half a point nearly a year ago, was a fearsome opponent. Most times I don’t look in my opponent’s eyes and just see the board, but the entire time I was playing I couldn’t stop being amazed by the intensity in her eyes. A girl not much older than my oldest niece was able to play such a solid game of Go. There was no fighting in this particular game. She actually reminded me of my friend Bowen with her style. It was an immensely memorable game in my eyes, and I can't wait for our next matchup. A lot of other interesting things happened as well: 1.There were a bunch of free Go books that we all got to take home with us. I was barely able to for them all in my bag. 2. Saw a bunch of people playing in the tournament for the first time, including a 2 dan who ended up winning his division (Daniel Dowell) and my good friend Ryan Simeone from the Fox Valley Go Club who also ended up winning second in his division. He narrowly beat my other friend Alcia Seifrid from the same club to do it. This along with Bowen winning his division meant it was a very good day for the Fox Valley Go Club as a whole. 3. Gavin wasn't able to play, but he did bring his daughter Erin to play in the youth tournament! Was really glad to see she had a good time, and she even won a neat prize as well! 4. Before the tournament started I got in a nice practice game with Andy Wong. We didn't finish, but it was a pretty good warmup! 5. Albert Yen, our wonderful organizer, got to compete as well. Wish I could have seen some of his games… 6. Had some fun games where we had to guess certain moves or what the levels of players were in games being shown to us just by looking at the boards. 7. I learned that the reason the non Asian world knows about the Japanese terms in Go and thinks about it in those terms is because of the British. As if they didn't have enough of this world and its culture/fine arts in their hands… Well, that’s all I have this time around. There’s probably more I want to get out there, but I’d rather use my spare time trying to learn more tsumego problems. I love playing and all, but it might be better trying to actually win a few of these things. Or at least not lose by much! See you guys at the next tournament! In addition, since I’ve been quite shameless about this so far, the Fox Valley Go Club meets every Saturday on the intersection of Kirk and Butterfield road in Aurora, IL. We meet at Panera Bread there from 2-5pm, usually at the big table there. If you’re in the area visiting or live nearby, come check us out and have a good time.
