weiqi competition 2

2dae was the second day of the weiqi competition. Here was how it went:

1036: I arrive at Bishan CC. Comp supposed to start at 1030. Im late by 6 min and if i am 4 more min late, i would have to forego my first match (Players who are late by 10 min automatically loses their match). Well, im lucky the bus wasnt a bit later, or i would have lost.

1st match: Against Yi Feng from HCI. Yi Feng is quite pro although i have won him the last 2 times we played at SWA (Singapore Weiqi Association). He is suppossed to be one of the pro-er ones in HCI. So, it was a rather close match. At the start, i think it was about the same, too close to call who was leading. Den, during 中盘, i think he made a mistake by attacking my land. He managed to survive, but I got very 厚. So, i think at that point in time, i was leading. Den, Yi Feng did a do or die move. It was a 对杀. In the end, he played one move wrongly and i had one more 气 than him. Thus, i ate his whole piece and i won. I noe it sounds very tyco. But, a win is still a win and it is not like i didnt make any wrong moves, just that he made a bigger mistake and thus, i won. This was the longest match i played, 82 min to be exact. Most of the time, i was the one thinking. So, i estimate that i took 50 min while Feng Yi took 32 min. yup. but, in the end, kang lao shi came and said that i had obviously won so there was no point continuing the game. In fact, i think we could have played until 100 min if we finished the whole game.

2nd match: Against Wei Han also from HCI. Wei Han is also quite pro. In fact, i think we 3 are a threesome. We are all about the same level in terms of ability. Usually, i would win Yi Feng, Wei han would win me and Yi Feng would win Wei Han. That was what happened in SWA. Well, i knew i was at a disadvantage for this game as Wei Han's style of playing was effective against me. The match started normally once again. It was not a really interesting match. None of us had big errors like Yi Feng did. But, in the end, i think he was too greedy as he invaded my land and he became 薄 (weak). His 厚式 (stronghold) from the 一间低夹 became useless. So, in the end, he got 173. He was black and black needs 185 to win. So, it was a rather big loss for him although not as bad as the yi feng match.

3rd match: Against Xun Kang from HCI again. Xun Kang is one of the pro-est in HCI. He's about the same level as FCC in C div and they 2 make the C div in HCI so strong. Well, i expected to lose this match. At the start, i was already losing. Den, he suddenly attacked my land. I attacked his attack and tried to kill him. I had a few chances to kill him but i didnt see it during the match. If i had killed him, i would have won. But that's a very big IF. In the end, he survived and even killed my whole piece. So, I 投子 (Gave up).

4th match: Against Xin Hui from ACS(I). Xin Hui is also rather pro. Flashback to 2 or 3 years ago. I was playing him in another competition (forgot the name of this competition). He won me by quite a lot that time. I was rather stressed that game as I knew I had to win to get into top 4 for individual placing and let RI have a chance of getting 1st in team. The match started off quite well for me. But, during mid game, he caught up and in the end, i onli won by 3 seeds. i was white and white needs 177 to win. I had 180 so i won!! haha... i noe u would think once again that im very tyco. But, a win is still a win and i think i could have won him by a lot more had i not been tired out after the last 3 games against HCI ppl.

That ended that tournament. I set a few records.
1. I won 6/7 matches. (For the last 4-5 tournaments, i onli won 5 matches)
2. I got 3rd position. (The highest i got last time is 5th)
3. I beat SH in terms of position (SH is our chairman and he got 4th in this competition)
4. I played on first board for first time (First board refers to the place/board where the 2 ppl with the highest points meet)
5. I played 2 consequtive matches on first board.
6. I won 5 staright from the start. (Usually, the position u get is higher if u lose later. During the last tournament, i lost on the 3rd match. Flashback to 2 tournaments b4, i lost on the 4th match. This time, i lost onli onli on my 6th match which is quite pro. Hong Bo onli managed to lose on the 4th match this time and it's his personal best. My personal best currently is 6. Wonder if i can make it 7 or 0 (Never lose).

Yup... These are the achievements i have 4 this tournament. Here are the standings that i noe of.

1st placing: Xun Kang (Won all 7 matches)
2nd placing: Yi Feng (Won 6 matches)(I beat him but he won all his other matches and his xiao fen (the total no. of points that the opponents u faced have) was higher than me)
3rd placing: Me (Won 6 matches)
4th placing: Shi Hao (Won 6 matches, could have won 7 if not for that freak loss to Xun Kang)
5th placing Xiao Mo from HCI (Won 5 matches. He onli lost 1 actually to Xun Kang but he was late for his first match and so he had to forfeit)
6th placing:Hong Bo (Won 5 matches)

Yup... not quite sure about 7th and 8th placing.

Team:
1st: HCI (made up of Xun Kang, Yi Feng and Xiao Mo) Total no of points = 7+6+5 = 18
2nd: RI (made up of me, SH and Hong Bo) Total no of points = 6+6+5 = 17

This tournament was quite a gd one for me. The onli bad thing was that RIWeiqi had once again failed to win 1st in team tournament, losing out once again by a point. But, we are getting closer and closer. In the last match, Hong Bo faced Yi Feng and Hong Bo lost by 1 seed (i.e. if Hong Bo had 1 more seed, Hong Bo would have won). If Hong Bo had won, HCI would be 7+5+5=17 and RI would be 6+6+6=18. We would have won team 1st. Well, it wasnt to be the happy ending. In the end, it was that seed which costed me a 2nd place (if hong bo had won the last game, he would have lesser xiao fen than me and i would have got 2nd place), Shi Hao a 3rd place, Hong Bo a 4th place and lastly, RI a 1st place. How costly a seed can be. sigh. Well, at the end of the day, i think we have put in our best and can leave with our heads held high. My reputation within the HCI ppl has risen and i hope to improve. HCI ppl are starting to realise that RI are becoming better and better and at one point during the competition, they were saying that this time, RI will get first. Well, we didnt cuz of that one seed. However, one day, RI would get first for team tournament. One day, we will triumph over HCI. One day. When would that day come? That, I do not noe. However, what i do noe is that we are getting closer and closer to that goal.

Yup, and so let us all rally together and work hard. I really hope that that one day will come when I'm still in RI. Xu Dong has failed. So has Shi Hao. But we are drawing closer and closer. Last time, there was no talk about who was going to be first, just who was going to be second. Well, now it's starting to change. RI is onli losing out by a bit and if we work hard, i believe that we will overtake HCI and become the champs and remain the champs, just like how HCI is now.

Patrick