What does this mean exactly?
It’s not perfect, but it’s a hell a lot better than before when I would get discouraged from starting the blog up again cause I couldn’t keep up the pace I used to. After all, as many go players will tell you, this journey is an endless one. So if you remember anything, it’s that that the name of the game is progress and nothing else.
]]>So what you’ll probably notice first is that my rank in this game is a lot lower than you might expect. This is because my OGS rank is super outdated as I never played many games and lost a few games due to time around the time I took a break.
That said, it was a blitz game and man I forgot how antsy those made me. I played one previous to this with 10 seconds time and that was one full of mistakes. This one was 30 seconds and also pretty bad, but I thought I would post it nonetheless since there are still things to learn from it. Enjoy!
In blitz go, be prepared to prove you know what you’re doing because your opponent will test you time and time again…
]]>I have to say that if you asked me two weeks ago whether or not I’d be in the midst of getting the go blog back and running, I would have told you that you were crazy because I was in the middle of five other things. Nonetheless, here we are and I’m very happy to be back in the thick of things.
This week has been focused on simply getting reacquainted with everything again. That means figuring out the apps I’m using to train, books to read, styles to study, trends I missed, and other things as well. That said, it’s been wonderful seeing familiar faces in the community again and I can’t wait to settle into another step towards gaining that next stone.
To be honest, I didn’t expect to release a Monday Go Meditation so quickly; but it seems that the universe had something else in mind. I happened to run across a tweet from @TheGoMovie regarding the Go World Championship final between Park Jeong-Hwan (9p) and Iyama Yuta (9p) that I couldn’t resist clicking on. Next thing I know, I’m watching the game and deciding I might as well take the opportunity to comment on it as I watched. Enjoy!
Treating stones lightly in order to develop whole board strategy is key to getting stronger.
]]>I wanted to start by apologizing for leaving the blog in the state that it was before I left. In my previous attempt to leave the WordPress ecosystem, I ended up breaking a lot of old functionality and caused a bit of a mess. I’m not quite sure how I’ll be going about fixing it at this time, but know that it’s a priority of mine to do so in the coming months.
To be honest, I’ve always been keeping an eye on the go world from afar. So it never really left my mind, but part of me always wondered when it would be time to return to the game.
For all those who have read my blog and commented while I was gone, thank you for those little reminders of how much I enjoyed running this blog. Each question and comment certainly helped to slowly pull me back.
That said, I think the straw that broke the camel’s back was seeing the announcement for Go Congress 2018. As it just so happens, it’s happening pretty close to where I live. So I couldn’t help but look back at my old Go Congress posts and it brought back a wave of nostalgia that made me consider whether I would try to attend it this year.
As you might guess, I’m most likely going to be attending it this year. Haha.
My plan for now is to start fixing the infrastructure that made it difficult for me to blog at the time of the redesign. I’ll try to and post as often as I can, but until the infrastructure is fixed, I know that will serve as a pretty major impediment for me.
Until then, hope everyone has been well and I look forward to talking and playing with you all again! And if you have any pressing features that you think I should fix sooner rather than later, please let me know!
]]>When I first started this blog, I saw it as a way to track my progress and as a journal for people to read. Over time, I tested out different ideas: Monday Go Meditation, Thursday Go Tygem, Friday Go Forward, etc. And not to mention, I was in graduate school and had way more free time on my hands than I do now.
There is and always will be a part of me that wishes I could devote all my time and energy to go. Upon reflection, that idealistic desire of being all or nothing has been my problem all along. And this not only applies to go, but other things in my life as well.
If life is the 19x19 board we are all so familiar with, I realized that the boundaries are not static nor permanent. It would be much simpler if things would stay the same, but that’s not how my life is. As someone who always seeks new experiences, it’s only natural that my interests are diverse. What was once a corner I thought I had complete control over can become center territory with an exposed side ready to come under attack at any point.
To clarify though, I’m not saying that my weekly posts will never return; but they’ll be on hiatus for a while. Or well, at least while I’m putting back the foundation of this blog together.
So until then, look forward to a return of organic posts that sprout from random thoughts and encounters in go!
]]>This week has been a little haphazard as far as training goes. I am happy to report that I did manage to play three games this week, so yay for that! I haven’t been as diligent as far as studying books, but that will come in due time. My main focus has been drilling tsuemgo for my “instinctive tsumego reading” ability. More to come on this idea next Wednesday!
Over the last few weeks, I’ve been “rewatching”* Hikaru no Go so many times I’m pretty sure I’m on double digits of the number of iterations I’ve gone through the anime. Don’t even get me started on how many times I’ve read the manga.
In the scene above, there is this poignant moment that I must have missed at some point; but it resonated with me in one of the recent iterations that I was watching it. In a lot of ways, it is a pivotal moment in Hikaru’s first steps on his journey as he is deeply intrigued by Akira’s intensity and passion for the game.
Looking back at my origin story, I can’t help but laugh as I am reminded the lofty ambitions of aiming to be a professional and taking on the world. And yet, even though I’ve taken many detours along the way, here I am six years later still playing this game.
And it made me ask myself the very same question: “What is go to me?”
* Note: When I say rewatching, it’s typically running in the background when I’m studying or sometimes I just play the audio when driving around. Haha.
Call me a masochist, but I have found I tend to gravitate toward seemingly impossible challenges. And unlike many games where there is a clear beginning and end to your journey as a player (i.e., campaign mode in a game), there is no end to the journey of a go player. As any true go player will tell you, the quest to gain an additional stone is a never ending one.
As most of you know, one of the aspects of go that I find particularly appealing is the atmosphere of zen that it carried. And while I have had numerous games into bloody battles where my blood boiled over captured stones, I have had also had the good fortune of experiencing glimpses of the calm serenity go can offer when all of that simply melts away.
While my second point regarding the peace you can find within the game can be said about numerous hobbies, the aspect of go where stones are placed on a blank board one by one reminds me of an art canvas. Almost as if we were to add individual pixels that grow into a beautiful work of art. Yet, even though each battle will be etched into your experience as a player, it is just as quickly erased to make room for the next one.
This quote from William Pinckard is one I referenced a long time ago, but it’s just as relevant to me today as it was before:
Backgammon is a “man vs. fate” contest, with chance playing a strong role in determining the outcome. Chess, with rows of soldiers marching forward to capture each other, embodies the conflict of “man vs. man”. Because the handicap system tells Go players where they stand relative to other players, an honestly ranked player can expect to lose about half of their games; therefore, Go can be seen as embodying the quest for self-improvement, “man vs. self.”
And say what you want about the metaphors, but I love the concept of “go… embodying the quest for self-improvement.” Because after all, what ultimately matters if your growth and nothing else.
So all in all, I would say that go represents self-improvement and clarity to me. And though I have struggled with that immensely throughout my journey, I like to think that every struggle has been important in progressing me one step further.
With that said, I now pose the same question to you:
]]>What is go to you?
Kiai is great to have, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t defend areas you already have worked to sketch out. That just leads to trouble…
]]>After much thought, I’ve decided to bring back weekly progress reports since they provide some insight into what I’ve been up to. And while I used to use the Friday Go Forward series format in order to provide updates, that proved to be difficult since Friday is often very hectic and a lot can happen between Friday and Saturday. So these will now be released on Sunday for more comprehensive coverage of last week.
And as always, feedback from you is always great since it will help me to improve this report’s usefuless for everyone. So don’t hesitate to request anything!