After a 15-game winning streak 'snoopdog' - new KGS 8d - lost his first game

'snoopdog' is an emerging star on KGS who just registered today. (It seems that the username 'snoopdogg' was already taken... (-:) He uses the Chinese-language Client.

He started off as a 12 kyu, but he soon moved up to higher ranks (most of his games are quite fast, with short time-controls). He almost reached 9-dan before playing 'kghin', by beating 'Kishihara' 7d twice in a row in even games (in the last game they played, 'snoopdog' won by 36,5 points). He could not, nevertheless, overcome the 'guardian'.

'kghin' 8d is in very good shape. Today he even beat 'Korondo' 9d, just before playing against 'snoopdog'. In the game that you can see here, he crushed 'snoopdog' (in the end he was winning by 40 points!) and the time-controls were not so short (3x20 sec per move). In part this is due to the players' misinterpretation of the status of White's right side group, which ended up being captured by Black.

Anyway, it was a fun game to watch. It is also interesting to notice that 'kghin' is trying out new ideas in the Fuseki (O Meien style!) - it will be exciting if he keeps up this playing style.

I am not sure what 'snoopdog''s real strength is, but I believe that he must be about KGS 7d - maybe stronger. We will certainly keep following his progress.