Hive 54

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I played white in this game, and I haven't been whipped so badly in months.

This emphasizes that rankings aren't that important, the opponent here was 100 points under me in ranking, and tore me a new asshole, and fast, too. He was way ahead of me pretty much the whole game.

To be more fair to myself, I made at least three major blunders the last of which just clinched the game for black. And black made mistakes I didn't capitalize on I'm sure.

Here's the end of the game, and note how much perimeter control I have as white, and what a fat lot of good that did me here:

Hive Game 54

This game is worth working through piecewise. There are situations which should be in my library of personal hive moves. Since it's closing on midnight, not going to do this tonight.

Interesting that the opponent has been on the site for 6 days and played 55 games of Hive so far. That's more than I've played in over 2 years total. The ranking doesn't make sense, this player should rank higher with a 62% win rate.

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What to play next?

Deciding what to play next is always a tough call when faced with a closet full of games, all of which were purchased with intent to play. Here's one I'm dealing with the decision.

  • Something New: this means both something new to me and a game which has been published recently, within the last two or three years.
  • Something Classic: I've acquired a number of games properly considered "classic" which haven't yet been played. The current example would be PanzerGruppe Guderian.
  • Something Again: mastery requires constant practice, which means playing games many, many times to allow nuance to appear.
  • Something Vietnam: as I'm on a Vietnam binge. I don't have all the Vietnam games ever published, but I can say that I have a lot of them, and probably more than most people.
  • Something Obscure: as it's fun to poke around in the dustier corners of game design.
  • Something Different: break away from the same old publishers and try a game from one of the new kids on the block. Or, conversely, dip into legacy with a classic tried and true.
  • Something Light: once in a while it's nice to actually finish a game all the way through in one sitting, in an hour or two.
  • Something Heavy: if possible, it's nice to set up something big and complicated which can be left out for days or weeks or even months, for a leisurely stroll through a very large or long game.

There are surely many more ways to choose, but the above method keeps me busy enough, helps me get both breadth and depth into my play, and provides me with a sense of progress.

The odd man out

When there is an odd man out:

  • Have a solo game ready to play.
  • Keep score or advise on a game in progress.
  • Referee a game in progress.