Tanuki no hara tsuzumi!

A total of six players showed up for the last meeting of the year, including a couple new members. Rob and I got to play for the first time in almost a month, and I got skunked pretty badly. There will be no meeting next Sunday (the 27th), but meetings will resume the first Sunday in January (the 3rd).

We also plan on running a tournament in February, probably the second Saturday (the 13th). Check here for updates and confirmation of the date.

In the New Year we’re also going to be scrapping the club ladder, which isn’t quite workable with the range of skill levels we have on a weekly basis at the club. It will be replaced by a point system – the Fort Myers Go Club Grand Prix. You’ll get one point for every game you play at the club (up to two games per week) and any games you play at a Fort Myers Go Club tournament, plus an additional point for each game you win. So if you play two games, and win one of them, you’ll get three points for that week.

The games will be regular 19×19 games with appropriate handicaps. For beginners who aren’t ready for the 19×19 board, you can count games played on a 13×13 board. At the end of six months, there will be a prize and trophy for the top players. Even weaker players can come out on top this way if they attend regularly and show improvement.

I’ve posted the record of the game between Rob and me in the extended entry.

Read the rest of this entry »

Three different difficulty levels this week – elementary (the easiest), novice (pretty easy) and intermediate (a little harder). The intermediate problem comes directly from a real game between myself and Rob.

How many can you get right on the first try?

I’ve updated to the WordPress 2.9 release candidate to test out our plugins and theme. Let me know if you find any glitches.

Here are this week’s problems – the intermediate difficulty problem is one of my favorites. Let me know if you like them. Are they too easy? Too hard? Too lame? Post a comment.

With the everybody doing something for the holidays, the December meeting schedule is going to have a few holes in it. There will be no meeting this Sunday (the 13th), or the Sunday after Christmas (the 27th). There will be a meeting on the 20th if you need to get your go fix, and regular meetings will resume on January 3rd of the new year.

I’m also going to try to start posting problems (like the one on the right) on a regular basis. I’d love to hear your feedback.

If I don’t see you before then, have a nice Christmas!