"My position is worse than yours"

Move 49. I'm white and I don't think I'm ahead.
Black doesn't think he's ahead either.

So I'm playing a correspondence match with xed_over. I had allowed him a double-approach on one of my corner stones and by move 48 I place my stone and comment that I'm beginning to feel the burden of a poor fuseki.

He writes back, "Ha-ha! And I thought I was having trouble catching-up!"

We're always our own harshest critics, aren't we? You could be marching nicely along the fourth line or walling-in your opponent as he or she desperately defends or floats eyeless on the side of the board; but you'll still think that you're on your way to losing the match. Only impartial eyes can discern the truth.

We're at move 72 of this rated game (so no comments on it please) and I think I've gained the initiative. But it's still difficult to tell.

My position still seems worse than his.


Correction: The Tsumego have solutions

A reader pointed out to me that the tsumego on Tom.com do have solutions. One needs only to click on the problem to launch an interactive Java applet that they can play against or use to display the solution sequence.


KGS Rating at 15k and I'm feeling better

Odd similarity.

A couple of losses on KGS brought my rank down to 15k and that actually makes me feel better. Of course, because rank-float had taken me up to 14k much earlier, and because I hadn't played any games for several weeks, my rank chart is looking like a Sedona desert skyline.

I do believe my friends when they tell me that I can play as strong as a KGS 14k but I'd prefer to do that on a consistent basis. Many of my peers have achieved 14k by playing more games and gaining more experience; that's a good way to earn it.


In other news

Contrary to popular speculation, I'm not an IT person, but I am rather sympathetic to my many colleagues who had found their jobs outsourced.

One of them sent me this humorous animation. It has audio so you may want to adjust your speaker volume.