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The day begins early - much earlier than most Sundays. I'm out the door at 8:15, for a tournament that starts at 9:00. I usually sleep in on the weekends; I didn't even know Sundays <strong>had</strong> a 9 o'clock.<br/><br/>The day is rainy and grey, but bright in that clean Spring way where the contrast between everything is sharpened and it feels like you can see forever. I drive in the rain to NC State campus, a twenty minute drive through the odd combination of semi-urban and rural landscape that makes up Raleigh. Once on campus, I'm a bit confused - GPS helps me get to the right general area, but I've lost my GPS signal now and end up parked in a deserted-feeling area in front of a row of buildings. There is no one else walking around here, and as I'm looking around and trying to get my bearings I hear a rumbling noise. On the far side of the road, a train goes rushing by on tracks I hadn't noticed.<br/><br/>The lack of people and the light rain and the sudden noise - suddenly everything feels surreal, just to the left of normal. It's a dizzying experience - this always happens when I am stepping into the unknown, especially when I don't have anyone familiar nearby. It isn't a negative sensation, though; it's pleasant in an "I might be stepping into fairyland and I may never find my way back" sort of way. I check my phone, which has gotten its GPS lock back, and realize I need to drive a block further. I spot a sign for the building I'm looking for, and park.<br/><br/>The surreal feeling persists as I cross the street. I realize I'm at the back of the building, which explains why things feel so deserted. I find the front entrance, and enter to find... a deserted building. No one in the lobby, no signs posted, and no obvious Go-related activity occurring. I check my email (thank the gods for smartphones) and realize I missed a detail - room 404. Great. I'll never find it.<br/><br/>I do find an elevator, though, and while I wait for it several other people arrive, obviously Go players (exactly how this is obvious is lost on me, but it is clear they are Go players). One of them, an older man, smiles at me in greeting, and with that, normalcy returns.<br/><br/><h3>Setup</h3><br/><br/>The tournament takes about an hour to get going. The organizers seem to be having trouble with their <a href="http://vannier.info/jeux/gotournaments/opengotha.htm">tournament software</a>. While we wait, I say hi to the players I know from the <a href="http://www.trianglegoclub.org/">Triangle Go Club</a>, and end up in a conversation with someone who is about my age. We start to play a warm-up game. He <a href="http://senseis.xmp.net/?HandicapGo">gives me 9 stones</a>, and I'm doing pretty well about 50 moves in, when we notice that the tournament organizers have set up a projector and are projecting the first round pairings. We clean up our game, and I grab a bottle of water and head over to my assigned table.<br/><br/><h3>Round 1</h3><br/><br/>My first game is against Andrew, rank 15 <a href="http://senseis.xmp.net/?Kyu">kyu</a>. Andrew is young - probably no older than 12. He is also very polite: He introduces himself and shakes my hand before he sits down.<br/><br/>As I entered at 19 kyu, I have black with 3 handicap stones. I had a chance during my warm-up game to figure out how the <a href="http://senseis.xmp.net/?IngBowls">Ing bowls</a> work, but it takes me a minute to work out how to program and use the game clock<sup>1</sup>. They're pretty intuitive, though, and I am soon hearing an amazingly cheerful voice (it reminds me of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Chobits_characters#Sumomo">Sumomo</a>) telling me my timer has started counting. Since I have handicap stones, my opponent actually goes first, so I immediately press my button to make it white's turn, and hear the same message repeated again, with 'White' in place of 'Black'.<br/><br/>Andrew plays his first move in less than a second. This isn't too surprising - in a 3 stone handicap game, playing the 4th <a href="http://senseis.xmp.net/?StarPoint">hoshi</a> is
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