Norman Richards

I ended up 9th in the February B group, meaning demotion to C group for March.  I'm a little upset because I beat one of the two players ahead of me, and the other player is a game that I had won but literally lost by misreading an endgame move on the very last move of the game.  If I had simply given him the two stones he put in atari, I would have won the game by a narrow margin.  I accept the loss, but it's difficult to accept that that silly mistake cost me my place in B group.  It shouldn't have, but unfortunately the two players above me only played a small number of games, so their percentages were higher than mine.  Had they played enough games to meet the league minimum, I have no doubt that one or both of them would have ended with lower percentages than me, allowing me to stay in B group.

That being said, the league is growing, and there are several mid-dan players in B group.  At 2kyu, I'm clearly not a much for them.  While I think that technically I ought to have been able to remain in B group, I have no doubt that given the competition in B group I would almost certainly end up being demoted at the end up the month.  It's possible that I would beat all 4 players promoted from C group this month, but most likely I would simply use the chance to play as many of the stronger players as I could, leaving myself at the bottom of the group.

In any event C group should be interesting.  There are many players who I know I can beat, and there are no players who I think clearly outclass me.  If I don't at least end winning 2/3 of my games, I think I'll clearly have underperformed for the month.  My goals are to end higher than 66%, and to end in the top 4 earning my spot back in B group.  

The other interesting thing about C group is that now I will play the simultaneous games with breakfast and roln111 at 3 stones.  I'm eager to see if I can use that extra stone and finally get a win against one of the teachers.  We'll see...