Stupid Hard Game

saccade This is what I say when I'm reading something out or thinking deeply about my move and then without warning, all of my thinking goes -pop- and I can't remember any of it. I also use it when someone pulls an annoying tesuji on me. I don't remember who I learned this from, but I like it.

It sounds best muttered under the breath and strung together like one long word.

"Stupidhardgame..."

SnotNose: This is nice. It is important to face your limitations with a bit of humor (humour--sorry Charles :).

Parody of Commented Pro Game Record

"After seeing , XXX (insert your favorite pro's name here) muttered under his breath 'stupidhardgame', smirked for just a moment, and then plunged his mind deep into thought for 1 hour 47 minutes. His opponent, QQQ, left to relax in the anteroom after 32 minutes. He was heard to say ' does it. It was the only move, the vital point of the whole board.'

"After the game XXX said that at this point he read out the next 987 moves and saw he would lose by a half-point due to lack of ko threats. XXX is usually an intuitive player and well-known for lightning fast analysis (in last year's AAA game 5 title match he beat LLL in 147 moves only using 51 minutes of his own time). His mind was particularly sharp this day.

". Several spectators in the press room gasped when this move was played. ZZZ (9 dan) thought for a moment and then exclaimed 'An exquisite move! What a brilliancy!!' But BBB (8 dan), XXX's childhood teacher, seemed to disagree. 'After ,' said BBB, 'a wave of nausea sweaped through my body. is a hideous and cruel move that goes against the principles of professional Go.' BBB stormed out, though he returned for the afternoon session seeming more at peace.

With , XXX was pinning his chances on the chaotic battle that followed. Note that the intuitive White a is bad due to the ladder. White b, normally joseki in this situation, leads either to a seki (if Black c through White t) or an approach-move ko (if Black f, White k, Black d, White u, Black v through White y). Either prospect would be uninteresting for White since he ends in gote and there is still a big move at z. Moreover, there is the aji of to worry about.

"Remaining 812 moves omitted. White wins by 0.5."

...stupidhardgame indeed!

Reminds me with my favorite bit of game commentary in an old Go World. The format of the commentary was 9-dan pro commenting (Kobayashi Satoru Kisei) and a Go reporter (Akiyama Kenji) is asking the questions. The game the 3rd of the 20th Meijin title and is between Kobayashi Koichi and Takemiya Masaki. This blurb appears amidst discussion of a position.

While the Meijin was thinking about White 38, Takemiya suddenly appeared in the press room. Kobayashi Kisei, in a panic, messed up the stones, destroying the position he was discussing. They chatted for a while. When Takemiya saw White 38 on the TV monitor, he muttered to himself, 'Huh, what kind of move is that!?' and went back to the game room.

A: We should be careful. If he accidentally saw what we were discussing, it could have a bad affect on this game.

K: Yes, that could certainly generate bad aji.

Naustin- In a club I used to play in there was a chinese gentelman who was by far the strongest player in our club. 5 dan or so. When playing and his opponent would make a move sometimes he would just start saying "Big Trouble" over and over again softly and sometimes drawing the words out. My friend and I used to repeat that sometimes (always away from the club) whenever anything didn't go as expected or whatever.