Qiuping!

And the competition ends...

it's been 4 years, 4 times.

Secondary 1:
Got a 3rd for junior with Hong Bo and Keng Yong. Not bad considering we were all sec 1s. Senior grabbed a 2nd position.

Secondary 2:
2nd for junior with hong bo, me and ernest. 3rd for yi heng, alan and shi hao if im not wrong.

anyway, i just read through my reflection of qiuping in sec 2... here is part of it (still quite long though. haha. used to like to use dots)

The biggest takeaway... Determination and persistence... This was shown by me in the Goh Bin match when I knew I had to persist to be able to win him... And I could tell that he didn’t persist from his face as he didn’t really think before moving... He did try thinking but I could tell he didn’t really cared to count... I thought that match... I won him not by my skills, but by my determination to win... and that is what I have taken away from this Qiuping... Winning in Weiqi is not all about skills... It’s about the determination and patience to sit down and think... This is what I really think the sec1s should learn... I know that for the last 4 matches, I was always the last to finish... I know my brain was about to explode... But, I persisted... I knew, if i thought more, I would win somehow... Like in Ernest’s match... I knew it was going to be hard to beat him... But after his 1 wrong move... I took the opportunity, got as much land as I could... and won... Like in goh Bin’s match, I knew I had more determination and persistence than him... I knew I could win... I was thinking for 10 min and he was staring at other ppl’s matches... I knew that I could beat him through determination even if my skills were not as gd as him... and yes I did... the biggest takeaway from Qiuping... determination, persistence, patience, and the willingness to sit down and think of your every move... That’s what I’ve taken away and I hope the Sec 1s will also learn this... This after seeing them playing at such quick speeds during training sessions... It’s not about the no. of matches you play which make you better in weiqi, its the amount of time you take to think about it... thinking about the possible moves, the possible attacks, the possible defences, the biggest place on the board... Even guan zi... Its about the willingness to sit down and calculate the value of each one of them, whether you will get a xian shou from it, whether your opponent will get a xian shou from it... Its about that... The skills I think we already have enough... Now is the time to start sitting down and thinking about your every move... I hope the Sec 1s will really learn this... Because it was with this that I won Ernest and Goh Bin... Even though I have to admit my Weiqi skills are definitely not as gd as them both... Not trying to say that Goh Bin and Ernest do not have persistence and determination... I think that Ernest definitely has both... Even more than me... I’m also not trying to say that I have a lot of persistence and determination... I’m just trying to suggest that now that we know we have enough skills, its time we sit down and think of every move we play, and not just get it over and done with like what I sometimes do during Weiqi training... Just anyhow play and see what happens... Because I dont think that that’s what Weiqi is about... Weiqi is about the thinking process... Thinking about each and every move you play... whether there is a better move... which move is more important or carries a highr value etc... Its this which makes up the beauty of Weiqi... I suggest that from now on, we play Weiqi not with a limited amount of time, but with a minimal amount of time to think of every move... Though this may not seem logical, I surely think its the way to go...

ok. u didn't have to read that. but the thing about time is true. i used it to my fullest this time too this time! (:

ok anyway...

secondary 3:
first double silver for RI in this competition. i didn't do well individually though...

This is bad. Won only 4/7 games. ahh... First time in history I have not won 5 or more. at least in secondary school. The onli other time i won only 4 was when i was P3 and P5 i think. 2 times b4 this and repeated this year again. And what's more, out of the 4 games i won, onli 1 (against Ernest) was a big challenge or at least a close game, the other 3 I won were rather expected cuz my the opponent was much less strong. that technically makes it onli 1 win out of 4 instead of the normal 2 wins out of 4 or sometimes even 3. sigh.

And to add to that, 2 of them that I lost were rather close, especially the third game. and the last game, I was leading and I threw my lead away in a manner too easy for my opponent. haix. The last game should have been a comfortable victory. I thought I made a good start to the game. actly i did, but my mid game was crap so ya.

ok that was another part of a reflection i did in sec 3.

hmm. so on to the main point. SECONDARY 4!

hmm so it started yesterday. let's go match by match.

1st match: against some pei cai sec guy
hmm. usually the 1st opponent is quite unpredicatable so i was quite happy not to get a hci guy on the 1st round. however, after a few moves, could see that this guy was quite good as well. so anyway, the match was rather even until i was losing by a little. panicked a bit and attacked! his turn to panic and his whole jiao died. was winning from den on so that wasn't much of a problem. still, a small scare for me...

2nd match: HCI GUY!
lol ok. mm this guy from qi hui whom i've played against. i guess his standard was a little lower than me and im guessing that's why he kept using pian zhao. and guess what! I FELL FOR IT! omg. so i was losing like mad at the start. hong bo finished his game fast and came over to look. one look, shake head, walks away. LOL! it was really that bad. but i persevered like xiao. just made sure that i moved everything correctly. den, there was a point when he ate me a da tou gui in which case i confirm lose, luckily, i unknowingly ate a da tou gui too! LOL! i didn't even know. so a datougui eats a datougui. ok funny. anyway, persevered to the end, used up much time, thought i was losing... until... count... WHITE 178! i went YES like immediately. though his standard was lower than mine it was very satisfying to beat him. the fact that i was losing like crazy from the start showed it all. I was soooo happy and everyone who saw the match at the start and saw it later were all quite shocked. haha. the sec 2 reflection on perseverence came in handy! (:

3rd match: Woodsbroth sec guy.
ok. nothing to say. he's just pro. evidence? he beats feng cheng cheng. i didn't know he was so pro at the start but after the start i knew i was trailing and from then on there was no looking back. one of the few times that i actually tou zi.

so that was sat...

SUNDAY!

4th match: mm. not sure who.
errr one pointer whose point came from a lun kong. nothing much to say. but i shouldn't have clear boarded her luh. quite bad haha. but she just kept moving so i had no choice. haix.

5th match: HCI guy again!
another guy from qi hui, another guy whose standard is a little lower than mine. but wth. at first i thought i played quite well, den suddenly i started to lose it and from then on, i was losing like mad again. once again hb comes along, takes one look, says "Shit, patrick lose liao", walks away. i was panicking like xiao. time wasn't on my side either. every move i had to think for at least a min or so before i moved cuz i was in deep shit. in the end, pulled through but i was still losing very badly. and my time showed 4 mins left. CRAP. lol. although i was losing both on board and on time, i just kept playing. played very fast and surprisingly my opponent did too. he had soooo much time! omg... haha. ok reminds me of the match against the other guy whom i was losing all the way on board and on time. he moved so fast even though he had so much time (think he wanted to clock me) but in the end didn't realize i da chi him and i won... ><) this was the case here again. a corner which should have had no problem living at all suddenly just died lol. so i once again fan pan from a match which everyone thought i was losing to one which i won by a lot. YES! (:

6th match: against yu xiang of HCI
ok. pro guy. nothing much to say. lost on time but not like i was winning. quite happy that i got a 159 for white in the end though. it's still a thrashing and i think he gave me chance but still... haha. and my guan zi anyhow play so could have been like i guess 169? LOL. anyhow play cuz i was clocked already...

7th match: wu di of HCI
omg. another HCI. i was hoping i didn't face a HCI on the last round. well, at least it's not one of the pro-er ones. i was winning by a little all the way until i suddenly killed his piece (without realizing actually lol) and won by a lot. he white 155 i think so that's quite a big thrashing. YAY! (:

ok. so in the end, here are the results.

JUNIOR:
ling tian: individual 8th
ling tian, zexi, xuewen: team 2nd

OPEN:
CHING HAO (sec 1!!!): individual 5th
Me: individual 7th
HB: individual 8th
Ching Hao, Me, HB: team 2nd

LOL! not bad seh... haha.

so double silver for the 2nd year in a row. at least the trend didn't have to stop in the year that i am vice chair.

feel so happy for everyone esp ching hao. omg. sec 1 gets 5th in open division. ownage. even shi hao only got 3rd i think when he was sec 4.

hmm so looking back, what did i learn?

well, once again perseverence. i could easily have tou zi for the two HCI games and i bet 9 out of 10 people would do that. but it just happened that i just played along and somehow i managed to turn the match around to my favour. (: a lot of people always say that i use a lot of time in a match and my match is usually one of the longest around. but im proud of that. in fact, i think it's because of this that i have won what i've won. i can think of sooo many matches that i was losing like mad but caught up in the end.

hmm. got to know a lot more friends as well. ok all from RI haha. but yeah. and got to tell my jokes again. i think jokers are funny just like minjian and jon chow haha... but yeah. i've got quite a long list of jokes now. YAY! (: started collecting them around march this year. i think i make a rather nice senior. (:

oh and one must be daring enough to stand up for what is rightfully his. haha. sounds like some national day message stuff. but it's true. we were supposed to have 3 people in senior in RI until we realize that one of them put his school wrongly and his school was actually Chua Chu Kang Sec. >< so we only had 2 in open which wouldn't be enough to form a team. the time for changing over from junior to open was already over but we just went over to tell them what happened and with my brilliant persuasion skills, i managed to persuade them to let us change. haha. so ego right? ok no luh i mean we didn't know that guy's from chua chu kang sec so it isn't really our fault bah... mm.

so i guess that's all. had much fun playing weiqi and a bit of cards haha. quite happy that i faced 4 HCI people and won 3. feels like some achievement. yay. and the 2 people i lost to are 2nd and 3rd so i guess i've done my best.

RIweiqi isn't really a big CCA in RI unlike in hwa chong and we even have difficulties getting enough players due to differing commitments. but we always do our best whenever we are playing and i guess that's what matters most. i guess it's going to be my last weiqi comp im playing for RI or maybe my 2nd last. just want to wish my juniors luck in the future. you all didn't let me down today and in fact, i was quite surprised by how you all performed! (: dont let RIweiqi down when you all become seniors and make sure you are as nice as me! haha. ok nvm. maybe not. but yeah. As much as we are not a big CCA, it's 2 years running that we've gotten a double silver. as hb pointed out and i agree, a silver in weiqi is a gold as long as you're not HCI. not very good for goal setting but i guess it would be long before we can get close to HCI. the pesta sukan one was the closest but we missed it by a point. a seed actually. but as long as we continuing doing our best, i'm happy.

Qiuping's over. next year will be lanke. there will be many more pros there and it won't be as easy as qiuping. i'll just train and hope for the best! (:

To Hongbo, Xuewen, John, Ching Hao, Ling Tian, Zexi: Good job!

Patrick