A Calm Plateau

Over the last few days, something that has been bothering me is the fact that my rank graph has completely plateaued. While I know that I can match stronger opponents in even games sometimes, it was bothering me that I did not have the rank to show for it.

After some thought though, I have realized that my anxiety at letting KGS define my strength is rather stupid. First of all, I just don’t have enough time to play the ranked games required to possibly show whatever improvements that I may have gained. On top of that, it’s not as if KGS’ ranking equation is the best in the world. So with that in mind, what am I worried about?

In addition, I’ve also come to terms that my style has always been more of a wild fighting style. It’s not that I was never interested in the calculated wins where the win margin was 10 points or less; but my style always led to games that would be decided by 30 points or more. In fact, I think I continued playing that way in order to avoid actually counting since the advantage would be so clear there would be no need to count.

And so, regardless of the fact that I may be a KGS 5k for some time, I have decided to play all of my opponents with my weakest style from now on: calm and calculated. (Don’t get me wrong. If the opponent offers an opportunity for me to strike, I will unleash a tornado of fury upon them.) I will lose a lot, but I have a feeling that this is my biggest obstacle before I leave the world of kyus.

Watch out shodans. I’ll be knocking at your door before you know it.