Encountering My First Chess Advocate

Today at work I was talking to my co-worker and was scoffed at when he found out I played go.

“Who plays go?!” he exclaimed.

I tried to then jump into a mini-speech on its complexity; but he shut me down pretty quickly by dismissing me and saying that chess was much more complex and the only reason why go is as “mysterious” as it seems to be is because it essentially hasn’t had the same exposure here in the Western world. And given enough time, it would be clear that chess was clearly the harder game.

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Hello Again with GoKibitz

Hey everyone. Just wanted to let you know I’m still alive and well. Been getting into some really interesting projects these past few weeks and have been really pondering what I can do with blogging again since I miss doing it. And as someone who hates it when a regular blogger just drops out of the blogosphere, you can rest assured that I won’t ever just leave the blog hanging in the event I need to close up shop for awhile.

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Happy Chinese New Year 2015!

First and foremost, my apologies for disappearing out of the blue like that. Though it would not have been my preference, a number of things came up that forced me to put go on the back burner for a little bit. On the upside though, I will be starting a new job in a couple of weeks and plan to start getting back to go.

Hope everyone is doing well.

Happy Chinese New Year!

Giving DGS Another Shot

I’ve decided to give Dragon Go Server another shot. While I had some issues with it in the past, I’m ready to approach it again from a more calm approach. In other words, I won’t be in a rush to make my move or finish games. Instead, I’ll view each move as a problem for me to solve. No more, no less. So go ahead and send your challenges. I await them in anticipation!

Weekly Status Report: #12

Overview

With 2015 upon us, I wanted to start off right by kicking off the status reports again since they are a great way for me to keep myself accountable to what’s been happening. As you’ll notice, the training regimen has returned to its simplest form. This is primarily due to the desire to stay the course without any wavering. So while this report is a little bare, I’m certainly hoping to grow it in time. Hope you all had a great New Years!

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A Retrospective on 2014

Hey everyone. Sorry that I’ve been MIA for a while. As you might have guessed, I’ve been caught up with work along with the many obligations that come with the holiday season. Lots of late nights, running errands, cooking, cleaning, etc.

While I haven’t been able to blog as much as I would like, I couldn’t bear the thought of ending 2014 without some sort of retrospective.

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Weekly Progress Report: #11

Overview

Hey everyone. Sorry for not updating the weekly status report for the last two weeks. I’ve been doing a bit of introspection and came to the realization that everything had started to become a bit too mundane for my liking. I know that this runs slightly counter to my whole notion of “consistency,” but I feel like there comes a point when it becomes robotic (which is the last thing I want for this blog).

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Stirring the Embers Once Again...

As many of you are aware, the legendary Go Seigen passed away on November 30th. I’ve been wracking my brain for a way to properly honor him, but it is still eluding me. To help the process out, I decided that it would be a good start working through my collection of his games again. As I played through his game (above), I started to feel the embers begin to catch flame again.

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Good at the Opening? Blasphemy!

I’ve had the good fortune of playing with two 5+ dans recently. Though my game crumbled very quickly in the middle game, I received interesting feedback from both players: I have a good sense of the opening.

To say I was surprised was a bit of an understatement. One of the things I always prided myself in was the willingness to fight and dive into complicated situations. So naturally, I always assumed that the strongest part of my game would be the middle game. Apparently I am wrong. Haha.

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