Introduction

For this week’s meditation, I am featuring the first game I played after coming back from Hong Kong. It had been awhile since I last played, so I was feeling a little nervous about playing poorly. Fortunately for me though, my opponent accepted my challenge before I could chicken out and cancel my challenge.

If there’s one thing I will say about this game though, it is that I was spending a lot less time second guessing myself regarding my reading. Definitely have the trip to thank for that. This game was certainly a testament to how your reading abilities allow you to make better moves easily since it takes much less effort to read out the variations. Thank you once again Hong Kong trip.

Finally, this game’s play style was inspired by my sensei who told me one way to play is to simply ignore your opponent and play what you want. Obviously this should not be taken literally, but you’ll see how it influences this game. Hope that you’ll enjoy this crazy game full of fighting and an opponent who makes the most outrageous overplays in hopes that I will make an epic mistake!



Please enable JavaScript to view this game. Download SGF

[download label=”Download Kifu”]http://bengozen.com//wp-content/uploads/2014/04/2014.04.21-MGM-52.sgf[/download]

One Point Lesson

The only antidote to an opponent who makes overplays in hopes you’ll make a mistake is reading.