We of the Feng Yun Summer Camp have been playing go ambitiously in China for a month. We have learned many things in our time here.
We entered a go tournament to qualify for a dan rank, playing nine games in three days. Since I was last rated around 6 kyu in the United States, I entered with the mindset of that I had no chance. Before the tournament, I took a sneak peak into the room where it was being held. The room was larger than my high school gym, and there were over 100 go boards. That’s over 30,000 go stones! I was really nervous staring into that arena, knowing that the next day I would be on this battleground.
On the
first day, somehow, I walked in as calm as I could be, and somehow won my two
games. However, my confidence decreased as I continued. My second round opponent
would have slaughtered me if I had not killed his dragon, and I barely won even
so.
On the second day, I could not keep my cool. I was shaking and I
immediately lost the first three games. I pulled myself together, doing
everything I could to stay calm, and won the last game of the day. Now I had
pulled even with 3 wins and 3 losses.
On the third day, I played against someone named Gao, Tian-Jie. It was awkward playing against someone with the same family name. He also played in the same style as me! We never fought on the board, not a single battle. I just barely got more points in the end for another win. I was lucky in the next round. I played a move where if my opponent had read about 20 moves ahead he could have saved himself and won, but instead he gave up some stones to cut his losses, and I won by 4 1/2 points. Going into the last round, I had 5 wins and 3 losses, which was better than I thought I would do. If I won this game, I would place as a one dan; otherwise, my efforts would be in vain. I created a ko worth around 40 points, but I did not see that one of my opponent's ko threats could kill my entire corner. It was a disaster, but the game was still close enough to finish. However, during the endgame, he accidentally self-ataried one of the walls used to kill my corner, and I got it all back and more. As soon as he played his last move, his face was completely red, and then he resigned. I felt sorry for him, but letting him take his move back would not have been proper during tournament play. Later, when the tournament was over, I went to check the scoreboard, and I realized that he had also stood with 5 wins before our game: his one mistake cost him a place as a dan go player.
This three day tournament was very stressful. We reviewed our games with our 9 dan teacher, Feng, Yun, who analyzed every mistake, reading out every possible variation. Later, when I went back to my dorm, I read over all the basic joseki. The kids in the tournament liked the one-stone low pincer, which frustrated me becauseI did not already know these joseki! Now I have mastered them, and played variations that the other kids did not know. They also play many trick moves. When there is a group that is clearly dead, they will play a seemingly useless move, and if you ignore it, then 10 moves later the group comes back to life! There are many helpful Chinese kids, and their go skills are slick. In the beginning, most of us got our butts kicked, but by the end of the month we were holding our own.
Aside from playing go, just staying in China< is fun enough. You get immersed in the Chinese language and local culture. We went on many field trips around Hangzhou. Hangzhou is famous for the West Lake, a spectacular sight known all around the world. The Three Pools Mirroring Moon, located at the edge of West Lake, is on the 1 RMB bill (Chinese currency). We went on boat rides and bought some very interesting souvenirs like an electronic acrobat monkey, a Hello Kitty fan, and some Chinese umbrellas.
Go camp is a very social environment. We were all there to help each other to become better go players and people. The pillow fights were awesome! Our camp building was thirty-four stories tall, with a helicopter landing pad on the roof. The views of Hangzhou were beautiful, especially after a rainstorm clears the fog. This is a great environment for expanding one's horizon!