Very few people are chatting on this forum lately. Let me break the ice by sharing with you all an anecdote related to an amateur Go player.

Let us call him S. He was a very strong amateur player in Taiwan. An unwritten rule was such that any talented child, deemed promising in the future, must defeat S first, in order to qualify for being sponsored to Japan to further his Go study.

And S thought himself to be great, too. One day, Chen Zu3 De2, the first Chinese Go pro who defeated a Japanese 9 dan in 1960s, visited Hongkong. S happened to be in HK, too. Chen and S agreed to play a game. Chen thought S should have placed 3 handicap stones. But S insisted laying down only 2. Somehow S managed to win the game (the fact was that Chen was ill that day, had to go back to his hotel room to rest frequently, leaving S to ponder over the moves with unlimited time).

So, S’s confidence soared to the sky. After he returned to Taiwan, he ranted and raved about his game, published it in a few newspapers, and even commented on the moves.

Then, some time later, another Chinese Go pro, Nie Wei Ping who defeated many Japanese 9-dans in 1970s, visited HK. S immediately challenged Nie with a 2-stone game. He also requested an umpire, a game recorder, and a clock to make the match very official. Some spectators even did the betting on the game.

The result? Nie won the game overwhelmingly. He donated the winning money to the club. :)

Usually, there is very little chance for an amateur player to defeat a 9-dan pro with 2 handicap stones.

Thanks for sharing. I know of a guy who defeated a Korean 8 dan pro with 3 handicaps, but he didn't tell me wether the Korean professional was weak/ill at the moment of the game :-)

Ah, two reasons:

\* That 8-dan player was not paying too much attention to the game.

\* It is highly possible for an amateur player to defeat a not-so-top pro if the number of handicap stones increases to THREE.

Let me add that, even with 3 stones, it is difficult to defeat a TOP active pro, though. When I say this, we must be careful about the definition of amateur players.

If a player does not have a job, and immerses himself all day all night in Go playing, then he is not an amateur player in my mind. He will be called a Go addict. Yes, a Go addict can be quite strong, especially when he plays against weaker players. He may know how to swindle better than pros may. But he may also fall apart when playing even (no handicap) with a pro.

Actually the difference in strenght between amateurs and pros is smaller and smaller with every year. I think the spreading of go and Internet have something to do with this.

Look at Fernando Aguilar results in World Oza. This gives me hope.

Hi, Crelo, could you tell us a bit more about what you are doing in Japan? (if it is not too personal to ask :) ) Are you becoming a Go pro, or just studying Go for fun?

No Tim, now I'm back in Romania. I just went to Japan for playing in the World Amateur Go Championship, in Kurashiki, ten days. My results are nothing special though not very bad either :-)

Well. Now I could say who was the little golem's player on World championship! ;-)

Btw. If u have 5. dan u have to be go addicted, are'nt u?

:-)))

What do u think Tim? He has to be, right? ;)

So, Tim, I note your title is in plural form. Do you want more anecdotes?

Come on David!

Okay, I'll tell you about the one interesting thing that ever happened to me-

my island of adrenalin in a sea of boredom.

I call it

The Potomac River Affair,

or

The day I met Benazir Bhutto,

former Prime Minister of Pakistan.

It all began one beautiful spring day in 1989. I was standing on the North bank of the Potomac River, a few miles downstream from Washington D.C. I was at Fort Washington, situated on a strategic bend in the river, built back in the days when the British had this unpleasant habit of burning D.C. to the ground. Nowadays it is maintained by the Park Service. I was on the shoreline, standing on a rock which was the absolute furthest promontory of land. The river was almost a mile wide at that point, and I could see it widen considerably just downstream.

So, there I was, gazing out over this vast expanse, the water lapping at my feet, when I notice a motorboat tooling down the river, about 100 to 150 yards away from me. In the back of the boat I could see several men in suits and a woman in a colorful sari. I didn't realize who she was at the time, but I realized later that she was almost certainly Benazir Bhutto, who was in town at that time to tell then president George Bush (the elder) "No, I don't want to give up The Bomb just now, thank you very much."

I waved to her, and all the people in the boat looked at me. I waved again, and she waved back. Then I turned to my left, and I saw this Apache helicopter, flying about 20 feet off the water, using me as a benchmark. I was struck by how quiet it was, and how skinny the fuselage was when viewed head on. But the most impressive feature for me at the time was the machine gun cannon hanging from the bottom. I knew, from watching the Discovery Channel, that a laser system tracked the gunner's eyeballs, so that wherever the gunner was looking, the gun was pointing. I could tell the gunner was looking at me.

I suppose, if I had done something incredibly stupid, such as pretend I had a weapon, I could have been chopped in half. Fortunately, no such suicidal thought crossed my mind. I just stood there, with a- uh- stupid grin on my face, and the chopper passed right over top of me, like it was on rails, about 15 feet over my head.

Now. Do you be lieve that?

So, David, move back to live in the Washington D. C. area quickly. Perhaps next time, it will be Bush who will wave to you. And try to just wave, do not fetch your hand into your pocket. :)

and liso, maybe I should use the term, "Go enthusiast", or "Go zealot", instead of "Go addict". :) Let us be respectful to high-dan players.

More anecdotes! Summer days are long. We need more.

:), liso, now you figured it! Yes, Crelo is our current champion, and he had a good performance in Japan, but maybe next time will be better against asiatic players :)

One anecdote, I heard it from a friend and the story beeing so short, I reconsider it a joke, anyway :).

"I was driving through Victoria Plaza (next to the Govern building) at a very low speed (it was rush-hour) ~15 km/h (switching between 1&2 gear), with my window down. Suddenly, a police agent was near my window and he's started to speak, with a very low voice:

- Have you heard, it was announced at the radio, a terrorist squad has kidnapped mr. A. Nastase (the prime-minister) and demanded 10 Million $ for ransom. If we don't pay this amount till noon tomorrow, they'll burn him to death. Could you be so kind to give us your support?

- How much did you collect, already?

- 50 liters of oil!!!

:)"

Eduard :-))) I hope it is not so bad with your prime minister! :)

As I said before, it was only a joke, it's a habit in Romania to make such jokes in elections :)

This is what I just read from www.flygo.net, recommended by Crelo (thanks).

Ms. Kobayashi(? not so sure if this is her last name. Where can I find Go jargon, translations of names and moves, etc. ) has two tough men in her household. Her newly wed husband is a 9 dan (born in Taiwan) and her father is also a 9 dan.

Once, she was asked by a newspaper reporter,

"Whom are you going to wish to win if they play against each other in a match?"

If I were her, I would not have known what to answer. But, hey, Tim Shih is just an unknown nobody-will-take-a-2nd-look amateur player. Ms. Kobayashi herself is 6 dan, and the very top female player in Japan. Her mind works much faster.

She then wittily replied,

"Ah, I will let my hustand feel that I am behind him. At the same time, I will let my father feel that I am behind him." :)

The story should be about Kobayashi Izumi 6 dan (27 years old), the current female Meijin and Honinbo in Japan. She is the daughter of Kobayashi Koichi 9 dan (honorary Kisei) and Kobayashi Reiko 6 dan (daughter of the great Kitani Minoru 9 dan). She also recently maried Cho U (Zhang Xu) 9 dan, the current Honinbo, who is born in Taiwan. :-)

Let me see.... a simple arithmetic:

9 dan -- Kitani Minoru (who already passed away)

6 dan -- his daughter (Reiko)

9 dan -- son in law (Kobayashi Koichi)

6 dan -- grand daughter (Kobayashi Izumi)

9 dan -- grand son-in-law (Zhang Xu)

total: 39 dans

Did I miss any one in his family? Can any other families beat that record? :)

Pawn & Finger

"About 40 players were watching an online broadcast of a major match. One of the players was a pawn down, and there was some argument as to how much compensation the other had. One of the masters present quoted Fine, 'As Reuben Fine said, I'd rather have a pawn than a finger.'"

[According to one version of this story, Grandmaster Roman Dzindzichashvili replied: "It all depends: which pawn and which finger?"]

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