nachtrabe
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About Me!
Member of the Cranes Nest/Bayou Go Club. I play with them every Wed. and try to play at least 1 rated game online per day (though that hasn't been happening recently).
Since New Orleans has at least temporarily been renamed to "New Atlantis" I've relocated to Fort Worth, Texas. Among the things I managed to grab on my way out were my board and some baduk books--can't tell I'm obsessed?
Currently ranked around 7k on KGS, though I have not been in a situation where I can play Baduk lately (not to mention my mood has been needing something light), and so that is likely slid somewhat.
Games in my head
- 38th Wangwi Title Match, Round 1. Lee Changho and Lee Sedol
- Round 2,2 16th Fujitsu Cup. Cho HunHyun and O Rissei
- 4th Women's Myeongin, Title Match, Round 1. Rui Naiwei and Cho HyeYeon
- Various others to different degrees. I study one professional game a week and memorize the first 100-150 moves.
Reasons I started memorizing games
- Improve my subconscious understanding of the flow of the game.
- See how joseki are used. How they are applied in a whole-board context.
- Improve my ability to memorize games (first time I saw a player recreate a game he had just played in front of me I went "wow! I want to do that!")
- My theory is that the games will be easier to memorize for me when I understand the way the stones move.
The last two reasons, however, are probably the biggest:
- When I simply watch or replay a professional game, I have a tendency to shut my brain off and just move stones. Memorizing forces me to try and understand the moves and doesn't let me just mindlessly drift.
- It is kind of fun :-)
Mostly for subconscious reasons, and while there may be "better" or "more efficient" ways to learn, I figure it can't hurt me and it has helped so far.
Favorite Players
My Style
My style is ever-evolving as I get more in-depth with the game. Obviously from my favorite players list, however, I like fighting and complicated games.
In terms of fuseki my favorite when I play black (by far) is the Mini-Chinese. When I play white my strategy is a little more variable. I start playing on the parallel point (hoshi if my opponent plays hoshi, komoku if my opponent plays komoku), as a rule, but then things get complicated ^.^
I've never actually played against a mini-chinese opening--only with one.
Strengths
- Aggressive.
- Corner L&D sequences (not as much the sides or center)
- Jeongseok (for my level, of course)
Primary weaknesses I am working on.
- Reading.
- Responding to my opponents moves (I'm getting better at this).
- Direction of Play
- Minor, idiotic, errors.
Contributions to SL
On Sensei's Library I've been contributing by updating pages about professional Korean players, particularly (though not exclusively) female professionals, to include up-to-date information on rank progression, titles, and names written in Hangul. For Korean women's titles I've been including a list of past winners. Nothing major in either case, but this way I can feel like I am actually contributing.
I'm going to list the players here as a quick reference to those I am going to try and update when I hear about promotions, etc.
Players
- Ch'oe Ch'eol-han
- Cho Hye-Yeon
- Ha Ho-Jung
- Han Haewon
- Hyun Mijin
- Kang Seunghee
- Kim Eunsun
- Kim Hyeoimin
- Kim Hyojung
- Kim Min-hee
- Kim Sesil
- Kim Soojin
- Kwon Hyojin
- Lee Dahyeoi
- Lee Hajin
- Lee Jiheon
- Lee Jungwon
- Lee Minjin
- Park Jieun
- Park SoHyun
- Yi Yeong-sin
- Yi Ta-hye
- Yoon YeongSun
- Yun Youngmin
Tournaments/Titles
Systematic Joseki
I've been helping out with the Systematic Joseki project and wrote a generator program to help with generating pages for the library.
How I Study
- The bulk of my Baduk study time is devoted to the study of amateur games--mainly my own and people around my rank (usually past opponents, but not always).
- I play games, of course.
- Reading books and working out positions.
- Studying professional games.
- Studying Life and Death, etc problems.
Preferred Games
Time settings
I like games that give at least 10-15 minutes of thinking time, plus at least two 30-second byo-yomi periods. I rarely play Canadian time games, as I lack experience with how to gauge what is too fast.
I do not play rated blitz games, or games with one byo-yomi period and no thinking time. I rarely play games without time limits after some bad experiences with my opponent taking over an hour of thinking time, and never play with an absolute time limit though.
Rules
Japanese, AGA, Chinese, etc I'm fairly impartial between. I prefer Japanese, but it is a very mild preference.
What I offer
On KGS I generally offer a byo-yomi-system game with 30 minutes thinking time, and 3-5 30 second byo-yomi periods. This is towards the upper limit of the games I will accept, but I like it for most games.
Baduk Bloggy Thing
I moved this to a separate page.
Non-Go Related Stuffs:
I am a 25 year old with a B.Sc. in the Mathematical and Computer Sciences, attending additional classes while trying to get into Graduate School.
I maintain a website with my thoughts and musings that have absolutely nothing to do with Go, and am also a
medieval recreationist, with an emphasis in Calligraphy and Rapier Fighting (odd a pairing as that may be), and have helped with publicizing a
rapier training manual as well as a manual for
Small Unit Tactics for Light Weapons (PDF, also available in
HTML).
Tamsin: My love and hopes for you and all people in the New Orleans area. Glad that you're okay, nachtrabe.
nachtrabe: Thanks Tamsin ^.^
Alex: Okay, I'm about ready to start sending copies of the first draft of my book to people for proofreading. Email me at "alex at omniheurist dot net" if you're still interested.