I’ve been giving Vox 2 stones handicap and taking 6.5 points komi. He’s been able to win some games, but again last night I won more games than he did. As well, my 3 wins were all by a bigger margin than the komi. With the exception of the second game, which got away from Vox, they were all tough, competitive games.

The saying don’t count your chickens until they’re hatched is applicable to the 4th game of the evening. I thought it was all over and I was going to win by a couple points, when Vox found a way to cause trouble and create a ko in the bottom left sector of the board. The problem was I had multiple weaknesses to protect. I had stones I had to defend on the 8/9 lines and holes in my shape on the F line. I could not find a way to prevent Vox from creating the ko you see in the diagram without endangering other stones, and sadly, he had more ko threats than me.

In review Vox suggested a defense I might have tried and when we played the variation through, we demonstrated it would have been successful for me – had I seen it, I could have saved the game. Unfortunately in the heat of battle I failed to find it and the ko was enough to give Vox a half point win.