Last evening, I went into our go games thinking I wanted to consciously slow down and fully use my time. Sometimes it’s easy to fall into the rhythm of the game and make hasty decisions without considering all the possibilities. In some of the games, I still found myself playing quickly. Slowing down, I can ask myself, is that move really sente? What’s the biggest place on the board. I know that one of my weaknesses is getting too caught up in local battles without considering the full picture.

I won 3/5 games. One was a blowout and another was by a slim margin of 1.5. It seems giving Vox 2 stones and taking 6.5 komi puts us very close to even. It’s true I’ve been winning more games, but each session I’ve needed the komi to win one or more of the games.