NEC Go Tournament - Day 1

Greetings. I just got home from the NEC Cup, which was held in St. Kilda. Before I start telling what happened there, I have some pictures for you. Now, there were 3 games played today, and another 3 tomorrow. During registration, I was rather taken aback to find that I was listed as a 5 kyu (I registered as a 9kyu). Later, I was told that the rank is adjusted to the Australian rank. Anyways, here are the results of the game.

Game 1 = vs. David [3k] - lost
Game 2 = bye
Game 3 = vs. Doug [5k] - won

The organisers of the tournament told me in person that since my Division (Div. 2) has an odd number of participants, for every round one player will get a bye. So, for round 2, I got a bye.

After the games started, the organisers told me that as a compensation for not playing in the second round, I'll get to play Sensei Isamu Haruyama, a 9-Dan Professional from Nihon-Kiin Japan. Man, I was thrilled to get to play a pro player. (the pictures are on the site given earlier). I was so excited about the game, that I screw it big-time. :)

He gave me 9 stones, and half way through the game, I resigned (half of the board was dead). Lol. But it was great experience. My first game against a pro, and he turns out to be a 9-dan! :) Anyways, later after my game, a few other people came over and had a game with him.

After the game with Sensei Isamu, I had a new goal in mind. Haha, this goal is gonna sound rather silly. Rather than becoming a shodan by the end of this year / early next year, I hope to give a good game with the coming pro for next year's NEC Cup. (a good game - with handis, and trying to loose by a small margin - or perhaps a win, if that's possible. haha).

Enough day dreaming for now, I need to look over a few kifus before tomorrow's game.

p/s: the 3rd new mini-picture is a game of me and David. The 4th picture is me playing Shidougo (tutoring game) with Sensei Isamu.