Alejo's Tenuki

Last week I happened to lose a game, I was totally beaten. Even I could count the points I had on the board… In order to practise yose a little bit, I asked my opponent if he would mind playing the game till the end, though assuming I had lost.

After a short while, he accepted my request and so we went on playing. We went on playing and I was shown a couple of tesujis I hadn’t realised. In the end, my opponent made a invasion in a 4×3 corner, killed my group and shortened my score by a bunch of points. We held a nice conversation about the life-and-death situation of some groups and the whole game. A couple of minutes later, my opponent confessed he had been impressed by my petition and thus, he happily accepted.

I regard that game as the most didactic one in the whole month.

Mental note: Noone is polite, if you are polite, people are more willing to teach you.

As easy as it seems, very few people are following this rule. Though KGS still retains a friendly atmosphere, usually only 5 words take place during the games: hi, gg (stansds for good game), good luck, thx  and bye; going somewhat deeper within the game may come back as a nice reward.