APRIL FOOLS!!!!! xD

To be honest, I had no intentions of pranking anyone or anything; but then I started drafting a post for today and then the idea just came to me. So… bursts of laughing you’ll have to forgive me for trolling you a little bit. (By the way, got to love that GIF. Captures how I’m feeling perfectly. Cracks me up.)

Anyways… on a more serious note, today marks the beginning of April and thus a chance to start fresh as the official countdown to Go Congress begins. Yup… I’ve registered. I haven’t paid yet since I want to make sure that nothing on the schedule alters my plans, but it’s practically set in stone.

Since this is my first Go Congress, I’m really hoping to go there with a bang. In order to really reinvigorate my training in preparation for Go Congress, I’ve started:

1. Re-watching Hikaru No Go - It’s always good to start back with one of the most inspiring stories of all go stories.
2. Joined Yunguseng Dojang - This is essentially an online insei program (from what I understand). My friend Diego has told me good things about it, so I’ve decided to give it a shot!
3. Becoming super-disciplined about my tsumego training - In my last few games I’ve played on KGS, I’ve been reminded just how important reading is and how it can completely change the tide of the game when you’re able to read just one step further than your opponent.
4. Working a lot harder on the blog - I know this might seem totally unrelated to my growth. And to some, it’ll hinder my progress as a player. However, the blog is something that I’ve come to really enjoy and has helped me be accountable for my own journey as a go player. Definitely do not regret any of the time I’ve spent on it!

With that said, I also wanted to give a quick shoutout to Maaike and her April Challenge! Her April Challenge is to “get our of your comfort zone.” So, for this month, my challenge will be to play a territorial style and avoid a moyo style! I think that should be a good one right? (If you have a better one for me, please let me know!)

Hope you all are doing well and don’t get pranked too much today!

PS. I haven’t forgotten about my Hong Kong posts. They are just taking a lot longer than anticipated.

PPS. One last thing, I’ll be releasing another combo review with frozensoul on the third jubango game next Wednesday (4/9), so be sure to be on a lookout for it!

Friday Go Forward: Week 55

Overview

Ever since getting back from Hong Kong, this week has been consumed with getting back on track with life and not to mention getting readjusted from a 12 hour jet lag. (Yes it was quite painful to switch back and forth.) However, in the process of picking things back up, I have had the opportunity to start fine tuning a number of my daily processes in order to maximize my output with minimal input. For example, I’ve actually managed to start becoming more efficient and accustomed to doing a set of go problems every day now. In fact, if I go most of the day without doing any problems, I usually find myself itching to grab my phone and practice some before bed.

In addition, I’ve had a bit of a self-revelation in regards to my destructive habit of overthinking things. Since that post, I have really been trying to streamline my mental processes so that I am not hindered by any self-doubt or overly cumbersome obstacles that I create for myself. And even though it’s only been a couple of days since that post, I feel that it has had a rather large impact on my life.

Anyhow, I also wanted to take the opportunity to mention an event going on in DC on April 12th, 2014 - 10:30am to 6:00pm - 54th Annual Sakura Matsuri Japanese Street Festival. I had the pleasure of volunteering to teach go there last year, but failed to ever get around to writing about it. Long story short though, I had a great time and it was a fantastic experience. So if you’re in the DC area and have some time to come out for it, I’d highly recommend it and you will probably find me teaching go at the go kiosk. Hope to see you there!

Training Regimen

• Reading Ability - Work on the tasks below until whichever comes first.*

  • Work on go problems for 30 minutes.
  • Work on 300 go problems.
    *This is a way to split the difference between task based versus time based training. If you work faster than normal, and can get through 300 (or whichever number you decide on) problems. Kudos to you. But in the event you’re having trouble and need more time to work on the problems, just keep at it until 30 minutes is up (or whatever time you think it best for you).

Games

• KGS - 1 game
• DGS - 3 ongoing games
• OGS - 5 ongoing games | 1 completed games

Books

• Worked on Life and Death Problems 1 - Basics by Robert Jasiek.
• Worked on 1001 Life and Death Problems from Kiseido.

Weekly Go Wednesday: Issue #35

Lately I’ve been piling up topics that I want to write about, but I found myself constantly pushing them off as I wanted to write the perfect article for each and every topic. Similarly, I’ve also realized that when it comes to playing games, I often find myself sitting there thinking about the multiple factors that go into whether or not I’m “ready” to play a game (i.e., how much time do I have, what if my opponent takes forever in byoyomi, what if I have to resign early, what if I’m not actually ready to play and make silly mistakes, etc. etc. etc.).

Today’s topic is kind of counter-intuitive since after all, go is a thinking game. However, I think that especially when it comes to amateur players, it’s actually really important not to overthink things. Because even though we make plenty of stupid moves from the lack of thinking, I think there are a large number of occurrences where players end up making bad moves or not enjoying the game as much as they should due to overthinking.

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Hey everyone. I just got back from Hong Kong yesterday. So while I’d love to write all about my Hong Kong trip, I’ll need to finish catching up before doing so. But overall, the trip went well and I got to spend a bit of time really fine tuning my approach to go along with having the pleasure of visiting the Hong Kong Go Association. More on that later though. Hope you all are doing well!

Friday Go Forward: Week 54

Overview

This week marks the start of my race towards the dan wall that all kyu players are striving to overcome. I’ve tried playing more recently, and I’ve completely ramped up my training regimen. In the past, I’ve tried alternating between time-based training versus task-based training and kept finding something lacking about each. As a result, I’ve decided to do a fusion this time around to really get the ball rolling. I’m really hoping that it will gain some traction this time.

Secondly, I wanted to give a shoutout to a fellow go player Lizardfish (aka Eulerstotle for those who knew him before) who started a new go site called Lizardfish’s GO Notes. He approaches the notion of explaining go topics through PDF’s as opposed to SGF’s (which can be quite confusing if designed poorly). Be sure to check it out! Definitely looking forward to seeing more of his work.

Finally, in case you missed it, I am going to be heading out to Hong Kong this week and will be pretty MIA for the next week. However, I am happy to announce that none of the weekly articles (i.e., Monday Go Meditation) will be taking a hiatus. I’m not sure what my internet connection will be like, but I’ll be sure to try and update as best as I can. So if I don’t get a chance to get online next week, I’ll see you all after I get back!

Training Regimen

• Reading Ability - Work on the tasks below until whichever comes first.*

  • Work on go problems for 30 minutes.
  • Work on 200 go problems.
    *This is a way to split the difference between task based versus time based training. If you work faster than normal, and can get through 200 (or whichever number you decide on) problems. Kudos to you. But in the event you’re having trouble and need more time to work on the problems, just keep at it until 30 minutes is up (or whatever time you think it best for you).

Games

• KGS - 2 games
• DGS - 3 ongoing games
• OGS - 6 ongoing games | 1 completed games

Books

• Worked on Life and Death Problems 1 - Basics by Robert Jasiek.

It’s that time of year again! The 41st Maryland Open Go Tournament is upon us once again! So if you live in the DC Metro Area or simply don’t mind making the trip down to Baltimore, Maryland, be sure to check out the flier below for more information.

41st Maryland Go Open Official Site

And as always, let me know if you plan on going so we can meet up! I should be going unless something serious comes up. Hope to see you some of you at the tournament!

Weekly Go Wednesday: Issue #34

As most of you know, I own a majority of the English go literature that exists out in the market. And in conjunction with that notion, I’ve also reviewed quite a few books as I’ve progressed throughout my journey. What some of you may not realize however, is that one of the downsides to me trying to review books in quick succession means that I am unable to spend a lot of time absorbing the material. As a result, my growth as a player is not necessarily correlated with the number of books I’ve read.

Lately I’ve been really starting to see the detrimental effect of my poor reading abilities. I have found myself in numerous positions where I may have made strategically sound decisions and had aims that should have worked in actuality, but due to my weak reading skills I was unable to follow through or execute my plan properly. So after numerous frustrating games and irritation with my own growth, I’ve decided to take a step back in my studies.

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