One evening each week, more or less, I get together with my friend Vox for several games of Go. We’ve been battling over the Go board since some time back in the 80s and along the way we’ve played thousands of games. In recent months, Vox has gained strength and forced me to accept a handicap of three stones, a situation I’m working on fixing as quickly as possible.

Last night we played five games and I won four. They were good, intense games, involving many tough life and death battles. Vox has been successful recently by reducing my potential, playing closer to my strength than I think he ought to be able to get away with. If I can’t punish him for the over-play, I’m unable to find enough territory to win. Last night, I was able to keep Vox’s groups under a great deal of pressure by making splitting attacks, keeping his groups heavy and surrounding his stones on a large scale. A number of his groups fell, including some very large groups in the centre of the board.

I know that to win, I have to play aggressively from the outset, to be defiant really, and not let Vox do the things he wants to do. When he is able to stabilize his groups comfortably, he’s really good at erasing potential, as I’ve found out many times. Last night I was successful, but I’m sure that by next time Vox will have some adjustments in his game waiting for me.