Lately I’ve been spending my time at King’s Baduk Center. I study go (it is called baduk in Korean).

When I manage, I get up at 6:30 and go running (this is becoming increasingly difficult with temperatures getting lower and lower). Then I go to my computer, hang around on KGS, chat with Europeans who are staying up late, postprocess my pictures, and generally have fun.

At 8:00 we have breakfast. It usually includes toasts, meat, eggs and jam, which is pretty good. Recently we had a week in which we only got rice for breakfast. Half of Westerners just couldn’t manage and decided to skip breakfast alltogether. After breakfast we have a little more free time and at 9:00 we start studying.

Morning is devoted to solving problems. I’ve taken a few problems from our collections and put them here for your enjoyment:

You can click those 1’s to see the problems. No solutions are provided because life is tough (we also have no solutions, but our teachers sometimes look at our books and draw stars next to problems with wrong solution, needless to say, our books are full of stars).

Lately we have tests at 10. It starts with a joseki test (we learn one chapter from “21st Century New Openings” every day) after which there’s “speed test”, mostly not too hard tsumego in large quantities. Like 72 problems in half an hour. When you mess up badly, you have to run. Also, after few days/weeks, we get the same speed test again, which is pretty evil, as it shows how little we learn.

At noon there’s lunch (rice, why are you asking?), and at 1pm we start our league games. I’ve uploaded a few league games that I’ve recorded. Please note that these were played with the time limits of 30 minutes main time plus 3 times 30 seconds byoyomi (which is pretty tough, in my opinion).

Right after I came to KBC, I lost the biggest group I’ve ever lost in what had been a comfortable game until move 87 in which I forgot to protect my corner. One of my next games against Mateusz was a rather interesting fight of influence against territory, but instead of an easy kill (move 110 push down from two stones), I let Mati live and died myself. Then a funny game against Tunga, which I won by an accident.

Here’s a game against Pierre that we played right after he came to KBC:

(you can use arrow keys on your keyboard to move around the game)

I had a bad start, which changed to amazing game after his 32, which gave me plenty of points in return for nothing. The game proceeded well until I got to byoyomi (move 83), where it quickly went downhill as I lost my cutting stones, but Pierre unexpectedly decided to die with his huge corner, which suddenly ended the game.

About a week later I played against Him, and after his overplay at move 56, I managed to keep an edge in the fight and ultimately killed his group. In a game against Ben I forgot to create territory but got a lucky win after he overplayed and died. The I gotbeaten by Seolki in a 3-handicap.

I had a promising game against Him after he forgot to secure his corner, but I died because of utter lack of global insight at one point (move 83, also at 63 we both missed a simple geta :-|). You can see the game here:

You can also see Seolki’s one man show – I started a fight which was bad in the first place and then played it wrong. Tungalag Tunga is direct descendant of Genghis Khan and so she tries to kill everything (but fails). Oooops, Pierre forgot to connect his stones (but he would have lost anyway).

Next is a typical Mateusz game, which went very good for me until I started a completely unreasonable fight when I didn’t need it. Luckily, Mateusz blundered few times and let me win. Several failed attacks cost me the next game against Him. Some of the higher handicaps can also get pretty rough (though I usually win those).

I had a very interesting game against Pierre today:

The start was better for him, then he ataried 68 without hesitation (“my teacher told me not to think about that”), and we made an interesting exchange. In my opinion, it would have been about even had he killed the corner. I made a bad trade while escaping with my group (move 97) but more than made up for it when I surprised Pierre with easy life of my supposedly dead corner.

The last game is perhaps more interesting than any of the ones before, as it contains commentary by KBC teacher, Kim sabomnim.

(it might be more comfortable to view the game with fullsize interface on eidogo.com)

If you look at the commentary carefully, you will be rewarded. There is one standard situation which happens very often and is played wrong by any European between 5kyu and 7dan (players worse than 5kyu don’t know the trick, and those better than 7dan know that the trick in fact isn’t that good).

After the games and commentary there’s dinner (yay, rice!), and after that a lecture with Seolki or free time, which we invariably spend at the computers (except when we go drinking).

I’m being kicked out of here so I don’t even have the time to read it after myself. I hope at least short fragments make sense. If not, just enjoy the tesuji problems and games (although those don’t make sense either :))!

PS: It is pure coincidence that of the four games displayed here, two are against Pierre and I won both, and the other two are against Him and I lost both. In fact, I lose to Pierre quite often, and I certainly beat Him more often than never. 8-)

PPS: Brought to you by EidoGo. EidoGo rocks. Takes a minute to set up and works like a charm.

[This article contains Korean text. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Hangul or hanja.]

On Thursday, we left 킹스바둑 early in the morning. 김성래 took us to 서울. We did some shopping in 한국기원, and then went to a baduk club, which was rather empty because of holiday. In the evening, we went to IBA, where we were accomodated (thanks to Mr. 이기봉).

On Friday, we got up rather late, and went to 동대문시장. It was quite crowded, not too clean, and I didn’t feel like shopping. I left our undecisive group behind and went for a walk along 청계천. I was unpleasantly surprised to find the famous 남대문 hidden in a building (when Koreans repair a building, they build another building wrapped around it). Fortunately, 남대문 시장 was open and living. I bought a bulb blower (yes, I already succesfully cleaned my sensor!) and got wonderful 김밥 for just 2000. After that, I spent some time wandering the amazingly crowded and cozy streets of Namdaemun and finally emerged by 한국은행 화폐금융박물관. Then I went to visit 덕수궁, a small but nice palace with well groomed gardens and various tourist attractions. It was getting dark, and after watching an outside musical performance (horrible pop music, but so wonderfully Korean that I just had to stop and listen), I found 경복궁 closed. After buying some rice-based sweets (huge bag for 5k), I finished the day taking pics of random passersby in a random nightlife area. A cute girl who studies dancing helped me resolve a problem with subway (the line bifurcates, some trains go to 상일 and some to 마천, I didn’t know which one I was in).

Side note on Hangul (aka Korean letters): I’ve been in Korea for well over a month, and I couldn’t read anything. I didn’t even bother trying. I knew Korean letters were complicated. When the frogeater told me that there were just 14 consonants and 10 vowels (grand total of 24 letters), I was very surprised. Well, I learned Hangul in about 15 minutes, because – behold – the letters are not only very few, they are also logical (Hangul is artificial alphabet!) and easy to remember. I’m angry at myself for not having done this a long time ago.

Saturday, right. Having experienced the immobility of our group the day before, me and the frogeater set out to visit the royal shrine. What was our surprise when we stumbled upon a park full of baduk players! It wasn’t too easy to get a game at first, but once I started playing, observers came (a white guy playing baduk, w00t), and after I killed my opponent all over the board (I gave him 5 stones, he was like european 8kyu) everyone was suddenly interested in playing me. I still won most of my games, as these guys lacked any sense of style, but they fought relentlessly. I quickly lost frogeater somewhere in the crowd (obviously, everyone wanted to play him as well).

Several games and one lunch later I decided that was it, and finally went to see 종묘. There I met a group of European girls (1 Slovak, 3 French) who had a Korean guide that spoke fluent English. I’m still not sure whether the guide was paid or free for all, but I was invited to join them, so I didn’t refuse ;). I proceeded with the girls (one of them even pretended to be interested in go!) to visit 창경궁 and its vast gardens. Then I made a mistake, I parted with the girls, intending to visit the other palace – 창덕궁. This palace had only one open entrance with a hostile guard who didn’t want to let me in and refused to speak English. Finally, one tourist gave me some paper with info on how to get in – there’s a guided tour just thrice a day, otherwise tough luck. Can’t recommend this palace.

I read a lot of praise about 북촌한옥마을, so was looking forward to it. I felt I was close, but couldn’t quite locate it exactly. After asking the locals about 북촌, they said that I was already there. Turns out, there are historical houses, but they amount for about 5% of randomly placed houses in this quarter. However, I got lucky and met friendly westerners who gave me a nice map of the broader center with pictures of interesting stuff. That map is really good. All maps should have pictures. Well anyway, then I continued on my way only to find out that the museums have mostly been closed already (it was about 6pm), but at least I visited 경복궁. After wandering around aimlessly for a while, a nice middle aged American lady asked me whether I needed help. She’d moved to 서울 recently, but already knows her way around pretty well. We went for a nice Chinese dinner. Then I headed for 인사동 where I bought traditional Korean sweets consisting of nuts wrapped in strings of sugar, which the American lady recommended. Again finished the day shooting random people in the streets, this time in the infamous 명동 nightlife area. This time it rained. Rain is always good for photos. I was lucky enough to catch the last subway.

Sunday was the last day for sightseeing. I got up early (well, half past eight) and headed for the museums. First I went to 국립고궁박물관, which has free entry in 2009, as a celebration of 100 years of its history. It was pretty cool, they even allowed photography (“no flash and no tripod”). Then I went to nearby 국립민속박물관, which had nice outside part showing how people lived in various times in Korean history, and inside part with several expositions. After watching traditional dance (there was some sort of EOS 5d users meeting, there were at least 20 ppl, lenses ranging from tiny primes to huge zooms, all with the impossible-to-overlook red stripe). Then I went to the baduk park again. On my way I met a friendly Korean engineering student looking for some English practice. He walked me to the park and gave me a lot of valuable info about 한국. After playing few games in the park, I got cold, so I went to find some food. I happened to stumble upon a baduk club, where I stayed for just 3k. I got to play many people, one was really strong (beat me two times easily) but the rest were pretty weak. Although I was rather tired and my back hurt pretty bad from the hours of slow walking during the last three days, I went for one more walk along 청계천, and didn’t regret it.

All in all, I’m pretty satisfied with how the trip turned out, I have just two complaints:

• complete lack of waste bins; I was told it’s because of the threat of terrorism (typical Korean overreaction)
• annoying notices about H1N1 and various countermeasures (overreaction again, Mexico, where H1N1 originated and which was hit worst, has only 33000 cases (0.02% of population), and 350 deaths (1% of the infected people die))

[Edit:] You can (and should!) see my photos from Seoul!

After my arrival to Incheon International Airport (“A WORLD BEST AIRPORT”, as they proudly write everywhere), I had to fill in and sign a few papers. Although I messed up several times, the personnel were very friendly and extremely helpful (even the security guys, unlike the security hag in Schiphol who made me throw all my stuff from my bag, and then felt the need to doublecheck my umbrella (it’s an effin umbrella, what did you expect?)).

After a while of free airport wifi, Kim-sabomnim arrived to pick me up and brought me to Hanguk Kiwon, the Korean go center, where I had the pleasure to watch woman pro-tournament. I was surprised that most participants were girls apparently younger than me. I was expecting them to be extremely skillful players, but I was still completely taken aback by their complete and utter concentration combined with calmness. Also, some of them were very pretty (yes I took photos, yes they will be online, just you wait).

To me, Korea is full of contrasts. A lot of stuff is simply the other way around. All the Koreans drive Jaguars, SUVs and business-class cars. It never ceases to amaze me to see a farmer living in a small, falling-apart hut, next to which his brand new hyunday genesis is parked. Which leads me to accomodation…

There are no family houses in Korea (actually, that is a mild exaggeration, as in the villages you can find family houses, because that is practically the only way to live there). But it appears to me that in Seoul, everyone lives in appartments.

Koreans work hard and they apparently enjoy their work. I haven’t seen anyone slacking off here (Czech builders spend 90% of their time just looking around).

Korea smells. I’m no sewer expert, but I think they are doing it wrong.

Korea is covered by wonderful hills/mountains, which all look about the same: spiky and steep, rising few hundred meters above the valleys, completely covered with forest. The forests are sort of normal, with similar to European vegetation, but they are a little more dense, which (in combination with the steepness of the hills) makes them practically impassable. Hiking is difficult, I haven’t found a single tourist path yet.

Korean food. I can’t say I like it. It’s basically rice + something so spicy that you can’t taste anything but fire (often, that “something” is kimchi). Although I’m not a huge fan of rice, I have to say that Asian rice can’t be even compared to European. It is simply something different – in Europe, it’s either overcooked slimy thing, or undercooked hard pieces. Here rice is slightly sticky, solid, and tastes ten times better.

Korea is mostly cheap, you can get a nicely sized dinner for about 3€.

I believe there is no single bakery in whole Korea. Chocolate is hard to find, expensive, and it sucks.

Koreans drink water, you can get free potable water practically everywhere. It’s awesome.

The weather is mostly rainy, but the last few days were surprisingly sunny. I heard that winters are real cold around here.

Stay tuned – the next post is going to be about KBC and why it is much harder to study here than you might think.

[EDIT:]
One thing I forgot to write – Koreans don’t speak English. But they speak Korean. And I speak English. So we usually understand each other pretty well.

My blog is dead. Long live my blog!

My plans have changed. I am going to Korea for three months to study go. Then I’m going back to Amsterdam, almost moneyless, to begin the new life.

You can have a look at amazing amounts of new photos.

The EGC was mostly eneventful. After a promising first week, second week was a small disaster.

I am in Amsterdam now. I love Amsterdam.

Tomorrow, I’m flying to Korea. I was urged (by several people!) to put some info from Korea here – I will try not to disappoint you.

Good night.

LSG has ended. It was too short but a lot of fun. I’ve made about two bazzilion photographs, which I’ve managed to reduce to just 212. You are invited to see pictures from LSG 2009. They are mostly portraits, as I’m still in love with my Samyang 85/1.4 and I mostly refuse to use the kit 18-55mm lens.

You might be also interested in my gallery from Warsaw go tournament, or more generally in my pictures from the year 2009.

Again, I have no time to write much more, but hopefully all the pictures will keep you interested for a while. European Go Congress is coming up shortly, so I’m not getting a break in go nor in photography… And then – well, there’s time to slack off, travel, play go, make pics, drink vodka, and have fun, and then there’s time to work. Time to work is getting close, and to my own surprise, I’m sort of looking forward to it. :)

I just finished reading Gödel, Escher, Bach by Douglas R. Hofstadter. I’ll wait for you to at least read the wikipedia description of the book.

Done? Ok… The main surprise for me was how many seemingly unrelated topics the book touches. Logic (Gödel), graphic art (Escher), music (Bach) to start with. But also mathematics, molecular biology, genetics, philosophy, zen buddhism, formal systems, artificial intelligence, programming, recursion and self-reference, various paradoxes, and much much more.

It is easily the best book I’ve ever read, although I can’t claim to have understood everything. If you want to borrow my copy, I’d be glad to help (the book is sort of expensive and really hard to get in Czechia).

I’ve wanted a DSLR for a while. At first, I wanted to buy an entry level camera like Canon 1000D, but after I found out that the price of a used Canon 20D (semiprofessional camera, about five years old model) was considerably lower than price of 1000D, I just had to buy it.

1000D has more megapixels, but that’s about where the advantages end. 20D is more sturdy, has better handling and controls, rubberized grip, bigger viewfinder, higher frameburst rate (5 shots per second) and better high iso performance.

I decided to buy two lenses (neither money nor space for more :-)). The first one was the kit 18-55mm with IS (maybe buying used lenses isn’t such a good idea… but hey – it was cheap). As the second one, I originally wanted to buy Canon 50mm f/1.8, but I wanted also a little longer lens (I already have 50mm covered by the kit lens) and after finding the new Samyang 85mm f/1.4 with manual focus, it was an easy decision. That said, I’m still fighting with getting the focus right (it is very very hard, as almost everything appears in focus in the viewfinder… I wish I had live view and could zoom in to get preview of focus).

I am really happy with the high iso performance. With Canon 20D at ISO 3200, the noise is somewhere between ISO 200 and 400 on my point & shoot Canon A590. Five shots per second is very useful whenever you are shooting something moving unpredictably (kittens!).

I hope I haven’t become an equipment-theoretician freak yet. :)

The good:

• Polish people are extremely hospitable and helpful.
• Either there is a very low amount of thieves or I am really lucky.
• Food (cheese, bread, yoghurt, chocolate) in shops is quite a bit cheaper here than in Czechia (though restaurants aren’t cheaper at all).
• Krakow rocks. Especially the shores of Wisła river next to the Wawel castle.

The bad:

• Car drivers drive like assholes. When you’re going by bike, they drive way closer than what I find comfortable (I thought I was used to this from Czechia, but in Poland it’s even a little worse). When you, as a walker, get to a zebra crossing, in Western Europe the drivers will do everything they can to stop and let you pass. In Czechia, they usually let you pass, but not always (not when they’re going fast and don’t want to halt). In Poland, drivers almost never stop at a zebra crossing. You can see them slowing down, so you step into the street thinking “finally a decent driver” and the next thing you know is that you are jumping back onto the pavement as the driver was just slowing down to take a right turn. Similar on red lights – just because there’s red lights shining 50 meters ahead of the passing car doesn’t mean that the driver will let you pass.
• No discounts for lunch menu in restaurants. Eating out is quite expensive compared to cooking yourself.

Yeah, both lists are incomplete. Does it look like I post this just because I haven’t posted anything in April yet?

I was thoroughly bored with the previous theme, and although I tried to revive it with the new header image, it was still bugging me. So I created a new one.

I had a draft of a new theme lying around for quite a long time, so I made few adjustments to it: made the code much longer and much less clean. But it seems to work.

Features of the new design include, but are not limited to:

• big letters in headings (big letters rock)
• even less images (none, except the two links to flickriver, smilies and images in posts)
• half-fixed-width half-fluid design (the design is fixed width, but the sidebar is fluid – works well for many different widths of browser (800px – the sidebar isn’t displayed, it’s accessible through scrolling; 1024px – sidebar in one column, 1280px – two columns, more px – more columns (it is capped at three columns)))
• emphasis on typography (lists, blockquotes, etc. are styled properly)
• lines vertically in synch (left column, middle column and sidebar)
• the old color scheme, I mostly like it and more importantly – couldn’t find a better one at the moment :)
• justified text (I’m still very unsure here – justified looks way better, but left-aligned is more readable)

Bugs of the new design include, but are not limited to:

• IE6 sometimes messes up the sidebar, not quite sure why
• Opera doesn’t keep lines in synch when there are smileys (and I thought I had the solution, sigh…)
• IE doesn’t align the comment date in the comment list (will look into that later)

Also, I spent ages dealing with various bugs in IE that caused things to disappear.
One such bug caused the sidebar not to appear (it was an absolutely positioned element next to a floated element – don’t ever do that), another sometimes caused titles to disappear (they were relatively positioned, now that they are static it seems ok, but I have no idea why). When repairing the sidebar, I had to move it in front of the actual content in the markup, which is wrong and I know it. I am sorry to all lynx/links users out there.

Bug reports, remarks and suggestions are welcome! ;-)

Almost everyone, myself included, underestimates the basics.

If you want to be an expert in any field, you need very strong basics. When you don’t know the basics, you tend to make many mistakes which are hard to get rid of. We are ambitious so we dive deep into all sorts of advanced stuff, leaving the basics for later, perhaps thinking we will somehow figure the basics out along the way. This sometimes works, but more often it doesn’t.

So, back to the basics for me! (in what, you ask? – in everything!)