I haven’t had a chance to really talk about this much, but I’m actually going to be headed to Hong Kong in less than a week! As you might expect, it’s been a busy rush to get all my ducks in line and make sure I don’t have any lingering things to do when I leave.

One of the things I’m pondering about however, is how I’m going to be utilizing my time during those long hours on the plane. I’m debating bringing a magnetic go set so I can use it on the plane, but then I worry that I’ll spill the bowls and all the pieces will go everywhere on the plane. Still a little on the fence about what I’m going to do, but so far it seems like I might just use it to do some serious life and death studying. I’m open to suggestions though!

Most importantly, if ANYONE has any connections to people who play go in Hong Kong (or know a friend of a friend who might be able to help me out), please let me know since I would love to be able to do at least one go related activity while in Hong Kong. It would be awesome if I could play with some locals and have something go-related to commemorate the trip with!

I definitely will be doing a post on my Hong Kong trip after I get back, but I’m really hoping to have some go-related material in there if possible. Although worst case scenario, you’ll just have to endure numerous photos of food and stories instead. Guess that’s not so bad right? But it would definitely be epic if I could have at least one go anecdote in there, here’s to hoping…

Friday Go Forward: Week 53

Overview

As the weeks have gone on, it’s been great to feel a sustainable change happening in regards to my discipline towards blogging along with go itself. In case any of you missed it, Go Congress is coming up soon! So in light of that, I am really aiming to step up my training in preparation for it. My goal is to become a solid dan player before Go Congress. Might be impossible, but I’ll never know till I try. So with that said, here’s to the start of overcoming the monumental hurdle all kyu players are aiming for: climbing over the dan wall and never falling back (aka not jumping between 1k and 1d). Ikuzo!

Training Regimen

• Step #1: Do 10 go problems a day. (Estimated time: 5-10 minutes)

Games

• KGS - 4 games
• DGS - 2 ongoing games
• OGS - 7 ongoing games | 4 completed games

Books

• Finished on Graded Go Problems for Dan Players - Volume One: 300 Life-and-Death Problems.
• Worked on Life and Death Problems 1 - Basics by Robert Jasiek.

Weekly Go Wednesday: Issue #33

As some of you know, Gu Li and Lee Sedol recently had their second game in their jubango. And because the feedback on my review of Gu Li and Lee Sedol’s first jubango game was positive, I am happy to announce that I will continue reviewing every game from this jubango! Before we get into the review itself though, there are a couple of things I wanted to mention.

1. In response to your feedback from my review of Gu Li and Lee Sedol’s first jubango game, this review was created to include more of my reactions and thoughts on the game as opposed to simply trying to “teach people what’s going on.”
2. However, I do want to emphasize that I still believe firmly in providing a thorough breakdown of the game in order to allow players of all strengths to be able to follow the game and gain more enjoyment from it. So continuing with the same format as before, there is commentary for every single move regardless of how “obvious” it might seem.
3. Though frozensoul and I were able to combine forces on the first game, I was unable to get together with him in time for me to release this post. So this game review is solely my doing and therefore all ideas and analyses come from the best I have in my SDK brain. Hopefully in the future I’ll be able to collaborate with him and/or other stronger players as well.
4. For more advanced reviews, be sure to keep an eye out on World Go Online and GoGameGuru since I’m sure they will have their own in the near future.
   I hope that you enjoy the review and improved format. Be sure to leave comments as the format is still a work in progress and I am always trying to make the reading experience a more enjoyable one for you!

Credit for the kifu and some insights go to GoGameGuru

Update: There is a correction to the score I reported in the kifu. Due to Chinese counting, the final score was actually a half point win for Lee Sedol. Though it didn’t change the result of the game, it definitely only adds to the epicness and excitement of the game!

In case anyone doesn’t get the AGA E-Journal, it’s been officially announced that Go Congress will be held in New York this year!

For those wondering why I’m so excited, it’s because even though I have been blogging for a few years now and played for an equal amount of time, I have never been to a Go Congress.

Yep… So anyhow, unless there is some cosmic force at play that I’m not aware of (where I’m destined to never go to a Go Congress), I will move heaven and earth to go this year. And so if you have any interest in going, please check out the link below and start getting ready for it!

U.S. Go Congress Official Site

So excited!!!!!!!!!!

Graded Go Problems for Dan Players: Volume One - 300 Life-and-Death Problems (5-kyu to 3-dan)

Description: This is the first volume of the continuing series to the popular “Graded Go Problems for Beginners.” This first book is focused on providing life-and-death techniques that are foundational to developing stronger reading abilities as players try to climb their way into dan status.

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As I’ve been playing games here and there, I realized something: I’ve completely lost my sense of creativity. And while that might seem slightly odd since I’m talking about a game as opposed to something artistic, it’s not as weird as you may think.

This dawned on me primarily when I was going over Gu Li and Lee Sedol’s second game from their jubango (which is coming next week), and I just realized how rigid my fuseki has been lately. I got so comfortable and expected certain responses that the opening became more of a ritual than anything else.

I remember looking back at my old games and being so surprised at how adventurous I was. In one game when I was a DDK, I even had the audacity to try a 5-4 opening. Hahaha. So with today being the first day of March, I’ve decided that it’s time for a fresh start. I plan on approaching the game from a new perspective and with an open mind and break away from my conventional play! Ikuzo!

Friday Go Forward: Week 52

Overview

Can you believe that this post represents a full year of my Friday Go Forward posts? As I glance through some of my earlier ones, I have to say that it’s interesting to see how the series has changed over time. At one point its as incredibly detailed as to what I was doing, and then got general, and then back to a bit more specific again. I do think that I would like to eventually return to a very detailed weekly update, but I’ve yet to figure out a way to do that in a sustainable fashion, so hopefully you’ll bear with me until then. =)

Overall though, this week has been a good week in terms of building up sustainable change and habits. As some of you might have noticed, there was a post for each day this week! The cool part about that is that it didn’t take too much effort on my part to push out the content. If anything, it was more about simply being disciplined and just taking some time out of my day (that I might have used for some other unproductive activity) to write what’s on my mind. The Weekly Go Wednesday article could probably have used some polishing, but hopefully I’ll have that ironed out as time goes on.

In terms of the game itself, I am still working on a more disciplined life and death training along with trying to play more games. They still cause me some anxiety before I play, but I’m hoping that it goes away after some time.

Finally, best of luck to my friend Nate, Yuki, and anyone else who will be attending the New Jersey Open Go Tournament at Princeton! I’m looking forward to hearing about your games and how the tournament goes. Wish I could be there!

Training Regimen

• Step #1: Do 10 go problems a day. (Estimated time: 5-10 minutes)

Games

• KGS - 3 games
• DGS - 2 ongoing games
• OGS - 6 ongoing games

Books

• Worked on Graded Go Problems for Dan Players - Volume One: 300 Life-and-Death Problems.
• Worked on Life and Death Problems 1 - Basics by Robert Jasiek.

The Dirt Cheap Go Set

Description: “Are you looking for an affordable Go set? Look no further. The Dirt Cheap Go Set is a complete, full size Go game set at an unbeatable price! Each set includes one foldable 19x19 plastic Go board, 180 Go stones of each color (black and white) and two plastic Go bowls. Because the board can be folded and sealed tightly inside one of the bowls (with the stones) this set is also compact and portable.” - GoGameGuru

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