In the 바둑 (Baduk) film, The Match, Cho Hun-Hyun, considered one of the greatest players of all time and a beast when it comes to the Korean-style of Go (aggression paired with precision) experience a series of humiliating defeats at the hands of his protege turned rival Lee Chang-Ho or the Stone Buddha. He gets so angry losing one of his matches that his nose starts to bleed. The pained face of his student – though you can’t help but see a glimmer of satisfaction at destroying his “father” who beat him mercilessly in the game for years and year and years leads our very good looking lead -down into what I like to call The GO Abyss.

You just start losing. Every game. And you can’t claw your way out of it by playing because it just gets worse and worse. First your losing to your protege, then to players who you dominated in the past, and finally your drunk every day at the local Go Club crying into your Soju and acting like a whiny middle aged punk ass bitch.

I apologize to the very hot actor who plays Cho; he and could cry in my Soju all day long.

Cho never learned how to lose because he mastered the life and death problems at such an early age just like Lee Chang Ho. Perhaps it speaks to the limits of genius … Skill + talent is better than genius…

I remind myself when I fall into the Go Abyss ( every other week or so ) that the object of the game is to take territory. You don’t have to invent the wheel to do it. Choose a corner build from there avoid battles until the middle game and focus. And master Life and Death…

So the epic battle where the apprentice becomes the master doesn’t end with the master dying. Unlike the force it’s not all strategy and it’s not all influence.

I realize me comparing my Quest to advance to 9Dan before I die to Cho’s and Lee’s battle is the height of hubris.

It’s like Jason Mendoza referencing moral relativism to justify leaving everyone behind to live with Janet. Dang that Jason Mendoza mmmmhmmm

But though I may not have a million Jeromy beromies to master the art of losing, I am sure it will take a million on the 9×9 to stop making stupid moves in this game that makes me want through my phone out of the window.

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