Pine Board is Flawed

The pine board I was planning on using to make my first goban turned out to be irredeemably flawed on the bottom side. So I guess it’s back the attic floor with that one, and I’ll start with trying to make a goban from cherry! Maybe the value of the wood will drive me to do a good job, lol.

Opening Game Study

One thing I’ve noticed in my play against SmartGo is that my closed moyo tend to develop too early. So, although I securely capture some area, I allow SmartGo to capture large segments of the remaining board and so I get crushed.

My game is too “chunky” and lacks the “integrated” look one sees in most games.

At first I wondered whether this was because of the computer style of play vs. a human style of play; was I learning bad habits? However, I decided it must be because I was not fully developing the opening game before proceeding to closed moyo.

To that end (or beginning, lol), I bought “In the Beginning” by Ikuro Ishigure. I have to say that with just one day of reading, it has solved a lot of the problems I was having with the opening. The example here, though riddled with mistakes and lacking good joseki, does show more of an integrated pattern. And, though I got stomped in mid game, I did do significantly better through the opening game than I have been (based on computer analysis of the game).

-Neil

p.s. And I retrieved the pine board for goban number 1 from the attic flooring (yes, I did replace it with other boards, lol). I still need to mark it for size and decide on how to cut it for minimal warping.