Go Go 囲碁! So I can beat someone who has no idea what they're doing
I have started going to the local go club. The club president is an amateur 4-dan. I've played a couple of games with him. He gives me a 9-stone handicap and then utterly destroys me. I've played a couple of games against a 6-kyu player, each time with a 6-stone handicap, and lost both of those (mostly due to making stupid errors).
So today there were a bunch of new players, and the president asked me to teach one of them.
Who me, teach? Okay. So one of the newbies was the older sister of that 12-year-old kid. She already knew how to play, she just didn't have much experience. Her brother told me to give her 9 stones. I was like... o...O Have you seen me play?
So, we played and against a 9-stone handicap, and even after pointing out to her a few times when she made some serious errors and letting her take back some moves, I beat her pretty soundly.
Lest the feat of beating a total beginner with a 9-stone handicap sound too impressive, the rest of the club was gathered around us as we finished our game, and then they pointed out all the places that I should have not just beaten her, but utterly and completely destroyed her if I'd even been paying attention, and places where I would have lost entire corners if she'd known what she was doing.
Go is a long, hard learning curve. She and her brother will probably be cleaning me off the board in a few months.
So today there were a bunch of new players, and the president asked me to teach one of them.
Who me, teach? Okay. So one of the newbies was the older sister of that 12-year-old kid. She already knew how to play, she just didn't have much experience. Her brother told me to give her 9 stones. I was like... o...O Have you seen me play?
So, we played and against a 9-stone handicap, and even after pointing out to her a few times when she made some serious errors and letting her take back some moves, I beat her pretty soundly.
Lest the feat of beating a total beginner with a 9-stone handicap sound too impressive, the rest of the club was gathered around us as we finished our game, and then they pointed out all the places that I should have not just beaten her, but utterly and completely destroyed her if I'd even been paying attention, and places where I would have lost entire corners if she'd known what she was doing.
Go is a long, hard learning curve. She and her brother will probably be cleaning me off the board in a few months.