Sorry about the lack of inactivity lately

Sorry about the lack of inactivity lately, I've been a bit busy doing various things. One of the more fun things I've been done lately was having my first game of Dungeons and Dragons last night! It was very successful! Lots of fun, more fun than I thought it would be actually!

A game of mine. I won, but shouldn't have!

I don't really like how I played in this game. I really wasn't thinking, just clicking. But I figured it'd be nice to show you guys what a full game of Go looks like.

(;GM[1]FF[4]CA[UTF-8]AP[CGoban:3]ST[2]
RU[Japanese]SZ[19]KM[0.50]TM[1500]OT[5x30 byo-yomi]
PW[MurkyMick]PB[ccmike9]WR[10k]BR[11k]DT[2010-09-27]PC[The KGS Go Server at http://www.gokgs.com/]C[MurkyMick [10k\]: Hi
ccmike9 [11k\]: hello
]RE[W+9.50]
;B[qd]BL[1496.915]
;W[dq]WL[1494.979]
;B[pq]BL[1494.545]
;W[dc]WL[1491.868]
;B[nc]BL[1492.267]
;W[jp]WL[1488.146]
;B[dj]BL[1489.461]
;W[qj]WL[1482.819]
;B[qm]BL[1484.769]
;W[qg]WL[1479.762]
;B[de]BL[1479.759]
;W[fd]WL[1477.111]
;B[cg]BL[1478.335]
;W[cd]WL[1474.295]
;B[do]BL[1475.512]
;W[fp]WL[1471.575]
;B[hq]BL[1471.776]
;W[iq]WL[1468.011]
;B[hp]BL[1470.296]
;W[ho]WL[1466.53]
;B[fq]BL[1466.202]
;W[eq]WL[1464.124]
;B[gp]BL[1462.778]
;W[go]WL[1462.248]
;B[hr]BL[1446.187]
;W[ir]WL[1459.718]
;B[ip]BL[1434.008]
;W[io]WL[1457.257]
;B[jq]BL[1432.786]
;W[jr]WL[1455.739]
;B[kq]BL[1430.387]
;W[kr]WL[1454.278]
;B[lq]BL[1427.867]
;W[lr]WL[1452.196]
;B[mq]BL[1422.594]
;W[hs]WL[1448.408]
;B[gs]BL[1416.429]
;W[gr]WL[1443.79]
;B[is]BL[1414.756]
;W[fr]WL[1442.063]
;B[mr]BL[1403.276]
;W[gq]WL[1438.981]
;B[ls]BL[1389.453]
;W[hs]WL[1434.008]
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;W[od]WL[1427.021]
;B[oc]BL[1379.227]
;W[nd]WL[1424.518]
;B[md]BL[1377.974]
;W[pd]WL[1422.08]
;B[pc]BL[1376.334]
;W[of]WL[1419.792]
;B[cm]BL[1372.982]
;W[hc]WL[1415.729]
;B[jb]BL[1368.78]
;W[qp]WL[1411.606]
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;W[qq]WL[1409.35]
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;W[pr]WL[1407.438]
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;W[qr]WL[1405.885]
;B[rp]BL[1359.571]
;W[po]WL[1403.739]
;B[oo]BL[1355.566]
;W[ro]WL[1402.105]
;B[pn]BL[1347.669]
;W[rq]WL[1399.982]
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;W[bo]WL[1379.938]
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;W[nm]WL[1366.363]
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;W[hf]WL[1339.82]
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;W[ce]WL[1334.388]
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;W[dh]WL[1331.322]
;B[bf]BL[1287.46]
;W[dg]WL[1328.05]
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;W[ef]WL[1324.196]
;B[fe]BL[1283.954]
;W[ff]WL[1321.075]
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;W[he]WL[1319.569]
;B[gf]BL[1281.899]
;W[gg]WL[1318.166]
;B[gd]BL[1276.062]
;W[hd]WL[1315.303]
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;W[gh]WL[1303.92]
;B[fh]BL[1262.426]
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;B[ei]BL[1255.619]
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;W[ec]WL[1234.951]
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;W[rl]WL[1223.828]
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;W[rj]WL[1222.118]
;B[sj]BL[1180.809]
;W[si]WL[1220.79]
;B[rk]BL[1179.2]
;W[qk]WL[1215.497]
;B[sn]BL[1177.634]
;W[pm]WL[1213.583]
;B[qn]BL[1175.598]
;W[om]WL[1210.219]
;B[on]BL[1173.7]
;W[ml]WL[1141.715]
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;W[le]WL[1138.679]
;B[ld]BL[1150.391]
;W[ke]WL[1136.042]
;B[me]BL[1148.452]
;W[ne]WL[1134.139]
;B[mg]BL[1145.825]
;W[nf]WL[1132.567]
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;W[kg]WL[1130.769]
;B[kf]BL[1143.42]
;W[jf]WL[1128.81]
;B[je]BL[1142.34]
;W[mh]WL[1125.79]
;B[kd]BL[1139.55]
;W[kh]WL[1122.34]
;B[mj]BL[1132.585]
;W[mk]WL[1118.883]
;B[ll]BL[1128.507]
;W[dm]WL[1109.322]
;B[cl]BL[1124.772]
;W[en]WL[1106.198]
;B[eo]BL[1122.986]
;W[fo]WL[1104.022]
;B[lk]BL[1118.075]
;W[nk]WL[1101.092]
;B[km]BL[1114.199]
;W[jm]WL[1098.467]
;B[ki]BL[1108.94]
;W[jh]WL[1093.424]
;B[ji]BL[1107.026]
;W[ic]WL[1090.937]
;B[jc]BL[1104.918]
;W[ib]WL[1088.484]
;B[ia]BL[1102.172]
;W[ha]WL[1085.61]
;B[ja]BL[1101.262]
;W[sd]WL[1083.898]
;B[sc]BL[1095.781]
;W[rc]WL[1074.577]
;B[qc]BL[1091.345]
;W[sb]WL[1072.513]
;B[rb]BL[1090.694]
;W[qb]WL[1067.802]
;B[sc]BL[1088.96]
;W[bm]WL[1055.855]
;B[bl]BL[1085.052]
;W[rc]WL[1053.08]
;B[li]BL[1048.588]
;W[jg]WL[1046.565]
;B[sc]BL[1044.94]
;W[al]WL[1020.032]
;B[ak]BL[1025.496]
;W[rc]WL[1017.373]
;B[jn]BL[949.129]
;W[ra]WL[1008.72]
;B[jo]BL[946.971]
;W[in]WL[1005.816]
;B[ip]BL[943.515]
;W[hp]WL[1003.992]
;B[pb]BL[941.572]
;W[pa]WL[1000.315]
;B[oa]BL[929.953]
;W[qa]WL[991.528]
;B[nb]BL[924.288]
;W[af]WL[980.156]
;B[ag]BL[918.073]
;W[ae]WL[978.651]
;B[ie]BL[915.687]
;W[oh]WL[973.176]
;B[ng]BL[905.029]
;W[og]WL[970.374]
;B[if]BL[881.411]
;W[gb]WL[944.122]
;B[ks]BL[860.354]
;W[js]WL[939.099]
;B[ms]BL[859.142]
;W[fd]WL[851.226]
;B[dd]BL[851.221]
;W[fc]WL[843.559]
;B[cc]BL[849.502]
;W[bc]WL[841.898]
;B[cb]BL[848.692]
;W[bb]WL[840.135]
;B[ac]BL[841.718]
;W[ca]WL[833.82]
;B[bd]BL[835.884]
;W[db]WL[831.156]
;B[jp]BL[827.41]
;W[so]WL[821.35]
;B[rh]BL[821.871]
;W[ri]WL[817.546]
;B[]BL[821.87]
;W[]WL[817.545]TW[aa][ba][da][ea][fa][ga][sa][ab][cb][eb][hb][rb][ac][cc][sc][ad][bd][oe][pe][se][pf][qf][rf][sf][pg][rg][sg][qh][rh][sh][ok][nl][pl][fn][gn][hn][ap][gp][rp][aq][bq][cq][fq][hq][sq][ar][br][cr][dr][er][hr][rr][as][bs][cs][ds][es][fs][gs][is][ss]TB[ka][la][ma][na][kb][lb][mb][ob][kc][lc][mc][ke][le][df][ef][ff][bg][dg][ah][ch][dh][ai][bi][fi][aj][bj][cj][fj][kj][bk][ik][jk][al][kl][bm][kn][mn][ko][mo][no][po][lp][mp][np][op][nq][oq][nr][ns]C[MurkyMick [10k\]: thanks for th egame
])

Arg! A giant Slope! Taisha Joseki

The taisha joseki has thousands of variations, all of them complex and aggressive. If you want to use the Taisha, start studying now! Also, learn to love the fight.

Here's an SGF with the start of the Taisha Joseki for those of you who don't know it, and a way to get out of it =]

(;GM[1]FF[4]CA[UTF-8]AP[CGoban:3]ST[2]
RU[Japanese]SZ[19]KM[0.00]
PW[White]PB[Black]
;B[qe]
;W[pc]
;B[nd]
(;W[pe]C[Oh noes. Here comes the evil!]
;B[pd]
;W[od]
;B[qd]
;W[oc]
;B[oe]C[This is where the Taisha can split off into many different variants. If you're going to play this Joseki, you better have lots of confidence in your fighting skills. ])
(;W[oc]C[This is a move that avoids the complications of the Taisha entirely. ]
;B[oe]
;W[mc]C[Apparently it's a little better for black. And it should be, if white didn't want to play the taisha, he shouldn't of played q17

]))

Go Terms 2!

Ok, today I'll be bring you  more terribly useful knowledge about go terms! Todays two are Tesuji and Tsumego!

We'll start off with Tesuji. Tesuji is a collective term for a clever and correct, yet not always obvious, local play. There are many different tesuji, from the simple things like Nets (geta in Japanese) and Ladders (Shishio) to more complex and harder things like playing under the stones and Squeeze tesuji. Apparently to get beyond a certain level a good foundation in Tesuji is necessary. I'm not sure what it is, but at any level learning a few Tesuji will help you out!

Tsumego is something that every Go player needs to learn about, as it is of vital importance to your progression as a Go player. Tsumego are Life and Death problems. They train your reading skill, your ability to spot shape moves, and generally make Go easier. For a long time I focused on strategic concepts of Go and, whilst I improved, it was very slow. I would suggest to everyone out there that if you want to play Go and get better, you should set aside a few minutes a day for Tsumego. A great site for this is http://gochild2009.appspot.com/
 it's free and if you sign up it will save your progress. I suggest you turn the sound down, as it gets a bit annoying after awhile.

Coming soon: Hopefully I'll find a way to show go games to you guys from this blog. Then i'll get some problems and nifty things to show you guys!

Go terms!

Ok, when I first started playing Go/baduk/Weiqi I was constantly trying to find out the meanings of all these weird words people throw around! So every day or so I'll be posting a word or two here for my readers! If you know it good, if you don't it's even better!

First one is something most people over 15 years old have heard before.

Atari! Atari, said just how you think if you're an old school geek gamer, is the state of a stone, or group of stones, only have one liberty and thus is in risk on getting captured with one additional move.

The next word is Joseki!

Joseki is a set sequence of stones played by both opponents that give an equal result. The trouble is, it's only an equal result on an empty board. Picking the right joseki for your current board is the hard part, especially when there is well over 30000 common joseki's! But knowing about 10-15 will really help, so get learning them, but more importantly learn why the moves are played!

A bit about me!

Ok, so. My name is Mick. I'm 20 and I live in Australia. I've been playing go for a bit under a year, but I have had many breaks which has made my progress pretty slow. I'm currently around the 10kyu level.

I think one of the main things holding my Go back is that I am a very bad reader, and up until yesterday, really hated doing tsumego (Go problems) however that has changed. Well, not really. I still don't like doing them, but I am doing them. A bit of pain for a lot of gain hopefully!

Other than that there's really not much more to know.

If anyone plays Go and is reading this, hit up MurkyMick on KGS and we can chat =]

Just what the hell is this about?

Good question! But I don't know precisely!

I think this will mostly be a blog about Go. Go, for those of you who don't know, is a Game that's very old. You can google it. Wikipedia is pretty cool.

Also, I'm going to use this site to generally express some of my ideas and random thoughts that pop into my head a lot. So, I'll be writing something a little better than this quite shortly, so stay tuned!