Weekly Go Wednesday, Issue #32

One of the things I’ve been dealing with lately is the narrow sightedness at seeing the fruits of my efforts as soon as possible. And as time has gone on, I felt more and more like my ability to play go deteriorated as each move became more rushed and every failure to gain easily recognizable profit (i.e., a large dead group in your moyo) only resulted in dismay and frustration with the game.

To be honest, I think a lot of this has to do with the culture that we are living in today. Everything is now now now! And in the case of most entertainment, such as video games, the results of what you do can usually be seen within a few minutes or even seconds. For example, in League of Legends, the moment you engage an opponent, there will be a clear outcome of whether your play was a good or bad one (i.e., you kill your opponent, your opponent harasses you more than you anticipated and you have lower health, you overextend and get ganked by the enemy jungler, etc.). However, with go, it’s the complete reverse.

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Though I’ve never explicitly stated this, one of my goals with this blog is to bring the most exciting and interesting stories about go that I think anyone with even only the slightest interest in go would enjoy while documenting my own journey. I try not to replicate the amazing work done by GoGameGuru and others who document the details of the professional world and serve as a better source for those intricacies of the go world.

So in light of that, I am really excited to introduce the very first guest post on this blog! For those who don’t know, there’s an active forum on go called Life in 19x19, and I came across a magnificent post on a tour of the shop of Mr. Kuroki (who owns the Kuroki Goishi Ten shop which sells high quality equipment). It reminded me of ChiyoDad’s post on yunzi manufacturing, so I immediately contacted the author and requested his permission to repost his post here on the blog in order to further spread word of his awesome trip. And since you’re reading this, it shouldn’t surprise you to hear that I got permission! So without further delay, hope you enjoy Erythen’s virtual tour through Mr. Kuroki’s shop!

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Friday Go Forward: Week 51

Overview

This week has been a little lax in terms of playing actual games, but I’ve been giving a lot of thought to my goals and have really started to slowly come to terms with matching my drive to get better at go with some of my other goals in life. So in other words, instead of the brilliant flash of energy and vigor that I used to put out (which was then followed by an equally tragic burnout), it feels as if the energy is brewing in a slower but much more sustainable way this time. Not sure how this translates into tasks and such yet, but only time will tell.

Training Regimen

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

  • Note: I’ve been trying to do 10 problems a day from the Graded Go Problems for Dan Players - Volume 1, but I have to admit that it’s been more of a skimming style where I try for a little bit and then look at the solution to see if my instincts were correct. This has not been terribly beneficial for my reading skills as a whole, and I have plans to approach this differently once I’m done with the book.

Games

• KGS - 0 games
• DGS - 1 ongoing game || 1 finished game
• OGS - 6 ongoing games || 7 finished 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.

Fighting Fundamentals

Description: When it comes to fighting, many players are often confused with the principles behind fighting. In this book, Jasiek tries to answer all the essential questions about fighting. This book covers a wide array of material that is more suited for the very studious players.

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Friday Go Forward: Week 50

Overview

It’s been great getting to slowly have go pick up in my life again. Starting with the go workshop I volunteered at the mall last weekend, it’s been a little tumultuous since I’m dealing with old habits that have plagued me for quite some time; however, I’m glad to be back into it and trying to work through it. Just taking it one move at a time…

Training Regimen

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

Games

• KGS - 0 games
• DGS - 2 ongoing games
• OGS - 5 ongoing games + 3 finished 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.

Weekly Go Wednesday: Issue #31

For those who didn’t know, Gu Li and Lee Sedol had their first epic match of their ten match series jubango. And though many of you might have watched the game or checked out the game record later on, I wouldn’t be surprised if a number of weaker players like myself were left in bewilderment most of the time. After all, even though it was really exciting, it’s hard to learn from a game where so much is going on at once!

So I came up with the idea to team up with my sensei, frozensoul, and do a review together in order to provide a step-by-step review of every move in the game. Now granted, I’m sure that many strong dan players might refute some of my comments or argue that there is so much more to what I reviewed, but my goal is simply this: To provide a game record that would allow kyu players to easily follow the game and understand some of the most significant moments of the game. As a result, it should be no surprise that complicated variations and advanced theoretical discussions are intentionally avoided and left to other people who are much more qualified to speak to those things than I am (i.e., World Go Online and GoGameGuru). The following is the result of our efforts:

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I’ve been making a more active effort lately to play more. Although it has been good to play real games once again, I have been on a bit of a losing streak.

As most people might think, it’s been a bit frustrating and I almost thought about stopping again for a while; but then it dawned on me, I was caught up in being overly aggressive and trying to kill everything once again. Should an opponent play something I deemed “incorrect” or “improper,” I felt like it was my mission to punish them. However, it wasn’t enough to simply gain profit. No no, each time I would try to dominate my opponent and kill a group or two.

Sigh. This bloodlust is definitely taking a toll on my enjoyment of the game. That combined with the losing streak is not helping since I’m on tilt; but alas, this is part of the journey to getting another stone stronger. I’m sure there’s just a critical mistake I keep making in my games that keeps costing me the game (along with a poor mental state of mind). Anyhow, hope your games are going better than mine.

PS. Be sure to be on the lookout for tomorrow’s Weekly Go Wednesday! I’ll be featuring an exclusive duo review by frozensoul and I on the recent Gu Li vs Lee Sedol Jubango Game 1. In the review, there will be comment on E-V-E-R-Y move. I am hoping that this helps to allow players of all strength levels to appreciate the game. So till then!