Helcio Alexandre
Greetings from Brazil!!!
I'm a low kyu player (4 kyu IGS, 1 dan KGS and 5 kyu Dashn) trying hard to improve to make it to Shodan. Any help with this is welcome!
This week (November 12, 2003) I was promoted to 4 kyu at IGS. In 26 games, I won 17 and lost 9 against mostly 3 and 4 kyu players. Pretty hard to get up! I hope to hold or even improve on it in the next weeks.
My aproach to the game is to understand the ideas behind the moves and became a stronger player.
I live in São Paulo, a city with many strong go players. Unfortunately, most of them don't teach :(.
I'm Ka on IGS, WayaBr on KGS and Helcio on Dashn.
Go games in my head:
1) GoSeigen (white) vs. FujisawaHosai
2) KobayashiKoichi (white) vs TakemiyaMasaki
3) GoSeigen (white) - KitaniMinoru 9p (B), 1957 1st Japan?s Strongest
4) Yi Ch'ang-Ho (white) - Cho Hun-hyeon (black), 2003 - 34th Myungin title, 3rd game match.
Pages I created:
1) GoWikiWiki
My Go Web Log:
20 May 2004: VI Campeonato IberoAmericano do Go na Internet finished last week. I ended with an unexpected 7/8!!! Fernando Aguilar won the tournament after beating Eduardo Lopez on time. The final position was:
1) Fernando Aguilar 7 dan with 8/8 2) Eduardo Lopez 6 dan with 7/8 3) Wang Seng Feng 5 dan with 7/8 4) Paco Garcia de La Banda 3 dan with 7/8 5) Helcio Alexandre Pacheco 4 kyu with 7/8
The great beneath of this tournament for iberoamrican community was that it brought both Aguilar and Wang to play and teach on KGS. Wang has been particulary very impressed by KGS features and is helping us brazilians on Sala Brasil/Portugal almost everyday. I already got some really good game reviews from him there.
4 May 2004: We are in the 7th round of VI Campeonato IberoAmericano? de Go na Internet ( a Go tournament that puts together the portuguese and spanish community of go players). So far I lost only one game to Eduardo Lopez Herrero (6 dan) and I am with 5/6. Although it looks a good score (and it is indead) it was a result of my underrated rank (4 kyu IGS), the pairing system and a bit of lucky. But the most important thing about this tournament is not the result itself, but the oportunity to join strong and weak players together to play a game without handicap. Usually, after the game, the weaker player can ask for a review and get a great lesson. Unfurnetly, none of the weak players I played asked for a review, but, when I lost to Eduardo, I got a really great lesson about Go. It changed my thoughts about atsumi and wariuchi and showed how weak I am at fuseki (I was lost in only 30 moves...). I feel that my go is somewhat stronger and after a long time, I started to win games against 1st dan KGS with confidence again. But also, my friends are also comming up from this tournament stronger. And more good news: Wang Seng Feng (6 dan) is teaching once per month a group of "Wannabe 7dan" brasilian players group on Nihon Kiin South America with the help of Uyama (7 dan player).
17 March 2004: I played 3 games yesterday against 3k* on IGS. I lost the first by about 15 points after losing a corner (I could never come back from it.) Than I won the next 2 playing the same opponent. Tomorrow also starts the VI Campeonato IberoAmericano? de Go na Internet to be played on IGS and KGS. It is probably the most traditional Go Tournament on Internet and some strong players will be playing, as Fernando Aguilar and Eduardo Lopez Herrero from Argentina and Wang Seng Feng from Brazil. It will be 8 rounds. I expect to do something around +6 -2 improving over +5 -3 of last year.
15 March 2004: It's been a long time since I last wrote something on Sensei. On these days I had the oportunity to review some of my games with someone really stronger than I. I felt like 1 in very 2 moves I make is wrong! And I understood it :) I made mistake in a very complicated joseki, than I choosed the wrong shimari to make in the fuseki ( a very interesting problem). By the way, the reviewer was Eduardo Lopez Herrero, 7d on KGS. Every Saturday, 8 pm. he gives free lesson in Sala Andina on KGS. Since there haven't been so many people there, I've been lucky to get 2 great reviews from him. I see an even long road in my path to Kami No Ite :)
19 January 2004: I created a new account on KGS to play speed go. I've been having a lot of fun playing so many fast games. I even played many handicap games, something that is unusual for me. It also exposed some flaws in my games that I need to patch up :). The account is WayaBr2 (1 kyu now) and anyone is invited for a speed go match.
13 January 2004: I'm feeling stronger these days. I was able to break my losing streak. I'm playing better at fuseki, choosing the moves more carefully, trying to feel the flow of the stones. Yet, an KGS 3 dan is too strong to play without handicap. I am reading "Opening Theory Made Easy"by Hideo Otake, 9 dan. The book seems simple, but its ideas are very deep. I like chapter 2 because it talks about mistakes that I see on dan games, like "family feud". I'm trying to avoid this mistakes :) Also, I feel better at contact fight as I am reading them better, counting stones liberty.
3 January 2004: The hard life of a KGS 1 dan. I´ve bem losing many more games on KGS as a 1 dan than o IGS as 4 kyu ( I´m probably underrated at IGS...). The fuseki goes all wrong and I´m falling behind very often. I am missing something, but I still don´t know what. Playing with white is also very hard. I lose most of my games. I´m looking know at the way Lee ChangHo plays with white to get some idea :)
22 December 2003: Well, I'm turning 28 today :) Am I too old to be a Go Professional? Yeah, perhaps... But I'll keep trying to improve as far as I can go. I got a stable 1 dan account on KGS and my IGS account is aproaching 3k* I hope to get sometime to play on IGS on these holidays.
19 December 2003: My account at KGS is now 1d? (a not stablished Shodan). I hope to have time to make it a stablished account again soon. On IGS I keep playing but not as many games since I need another notebook to play (the one I had only God now where it is now...). Yet, I keep my winning streak there (easy when you don't play ...).
9 December 2003: I started to memorize games again. I picked up Kato Masao vs Shuko, 1979 that can be found well comented by many pros in GoWinds volume 7 issue 3. It's a nice comeback from Kato.
8 December 2003: I've been playing a lot on IGS recently. I'm starting to get upset because there are so many escapers! I played 2 in only one week. On the other hand, I played a nice guy there in a very close game. The scoring system was giving a 0.5 point win for him at the end, when it should be 0.5 point win for me. He agreed to adjust the score. Very nice!
After losing yesterday once more against my rival I decided to push my playing level. I'm going to work harder and harder. I hope to be able to beat him again :)
KGS Graph: