I played 4 games of Go with Vox last night, which we split two games a piece. Over the past couple months we’ve managed to split most evenings of play evenly. Last night there were no big kills, unlike the previous time out. There were, as Vox pointed out, some significant kills though. When we say no big kills, we just mean that no huge groups fell.

I felt I didn’t have good focus in the last of the games, which I lost even though the score was close. I  don’t know if this will make sense to people who don’t play the game, but I found myself seduced by the rhythm of play, unable to slow the pace. There is a Go proverb that says “play away from the sound of your opponent’s stones”, but some games that is easier said than done. Perhaps I was just getting tired. It takes a lot of mental energy to maintain good creative focus over a series of games.

Last night was also characterized by a variety of opening approaches. We’ve had long series of games in the past which all stubbornly start out the same way. Last night we were mixing it up. I even tried starting a game playing stones on two 3-3 points with black, something I rarely do. From time to time, I like to mix up the openings and try to create new complications. I like to get involved in battles and one way to do that is to force my opponent to look at new situations and try to force a mistake.

Next time, look out, he’s really in trouble.