For this week’s bonus review, we will be going over my third game from the Canada Go League where I suffer a one-sided defeat. There is no excuse for the mistakes I made (both strategically and tactically), but the only thing I will say in my defense is that I tried out a lot of new experiments this game. And the thing to realize about experiments is that they often blow up in your face. This is a great example of one of them. Haha. xD Enjoy!

Over the past weekend, I decided to ramp up my activity on Nova.gs for a few reasons:

1. I want to support the developers by helping improve their user base and become a part of the founding community.
2. I was not playing enough games (in real time) and needed some outlet for me to practice applying things I am learning while trying new things out. By doing so, I’m hoping that my in real time games will become stronger.
3. As much as correspondence games are harder for me to play since I feel like my thoughts are constantly disjointed, I figured it would help me with practicing constant whole board thinking and positional judgment before each move.
   In terms of my overall emotions though, I’m in this weird limbo with go. Normally when people are conflicted on their journey, most might describe it as being at a fork in the road. Recently for me however, I feel as if I’m standing in a forest while surrounded by a dense fog. There is this sense of stumbling one step at a time without quite knowing where I’m headed. I’m trying a lot of different things, but I’m feeling rather lost in terms of what is holding me back.

To be clear though, this emotion is different from feeling burned out. I still enjoy all the time I spend on go, but I’m starting to wonder whether any of it is helping me get stronger. But no matter, I just have to have faith in my training regimen and move forward with what I enjoy. As long as I do that, I believe that I’ll be able to make more sense of this when I finally emerge from this haze.

Perceiving the Direction of Play

Description: In the first volume of The Heart of Go Series, Kobayashi Satoru 9P focuses on an important concept many players are unfamiliar with: the direction of play. As a critical component in any game, Satoru familiarizes the reader with direction of play though positions of his own games to illustrate direction of play in regards to fuseki, joseki, and fighting. This is an advanced book that should be read after one already has a basic understanding of direction of play.

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Friday Go Forward: Week 36

Overview

This week has been a continuation of trying to really dig deep when it comes to being consistent about maximizing my quality of training in a set amount of time. There has been a couple of days where I ended up slacking off, but I feel like it’s been good progress and that it should get better over time. I will admit that I do miss playing live games, but I know that it has been unrealistic of me to do so since it really consumes a lot of time whenever I do. So as of late, I have decided to increase my activity on Nova.gs* in order to ensure that I don’t get rusty. I hope that more of you will join me over there so that we can play more games!

*And just in case anyone is wondering, Nova.gs allows you to play both live games in real time along with correspondence games. It’s pretty sweet!

Games

• KGS - 1 game
• DGS - 3 ongoing games
• Nova - 6 games (3 finished : 3 ongoing)

Training Menu

• 20 minutes of Reading Training (i.e., Life & Death, Tesuji, etc.)
• 20 minutes of Go Theory Study (i.e., Joseki, Direction of Play, etc.)
• 20 minutes of Experience Training (i.e., Play or review a game)

Reading Material

• Finished Jump Level Up 3.
• Finished_ __Perceiving the Direction of Play_.
• Started and finished Master Play: The Style of Lee Changho.
• Started working on Jump Level Up 4.
• Started working on The 1971 Honinbo Tournament.

Video Lessons

• Becoming a 5 Kyu - Lesson 6
• Becoming a 5 Kyu - Lesson 7
• Becoming a 5 Kyu - Lesson 8
• Becoming a 5 Kyu - Lesson 9
• Becoming a 5 Kyu - Lesson 10
• Becoming a 5 Kyu - Lesson 11

Master Play: The Style of Lee Changho

Description: In the first volume of Yuan Zhou’s series “Master Play,” Zhou provides amateur players with insight into the legendary Lee Changho. Zhou provides two in-depth commentaries on two of Lee Changho’s games to illustrate Lee Changho’s brilliance and why his famous “calm and solid” style it is so effective. Very useful for kyu players who find themselves consistently in violent games.

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For your second bonus game review, we will be continuing with my second game from the Canada Go League! Similar to what I mentioned in last week’s game, though my opponent was supposed to be in the 5-6 kyu range, I was not going to be underestimate my opponent.

Overall, this game is a good illustration of recognizing when to tenuki and how it is important not to let your opponent seal you in without good reason. In addition, I hope that this game will help you see my decision process when trying to figure out whether something is worth responding to or not. Hope you enjoy!

A couple of nights ago, frozensoul mentioned something to me that really struck me.

My mind is my greatest opponent.

Yup. You read that right. Instead of being trounced by opponents better than me or making dumb mistakes, I often end up out-reading myself.

What do I mean by this? I’m talking about being fearful of potential aji in X area and adding unnecessary moves “just in case.” Now this might sound reasonable, but let’s think about this one moment. If you are adding a move to an area that doesn’t require it, are you not essentially passing your turn?

To further illustrate my point, take the following problem:

Is there anyone out there who would suggest that Black capture the White stones “just to in case?” Absolutely not. Because any player above 12 kyu would know that it would be completely absurd to do anything but tenuki.

“But wait Ben! Not all positions are as clear cut as the problem you presented! What happens if you’re wrong and then you lose because you think you can tenuki when in fact you really can’t?!”

Well, to that I have only one question: Are you trying to get stronger or simply keep winning against opponents of the same strength?

Yes. It would suck if you tenuki when you actually needed a move and then lost a game; but guess what, that is part of growing and learning so that we can get stronger. We make mistakes. We fall. We get back up. We learn. We grow. We get stronger. And the cycle goes on and on…

So the next time you feel like you’re in a questionable position, do your best with the reading ability you have and then have faith in your moves. You will make quite a few mistakes along the road, but I assure you that it will be a heck of a lot better than defending against imaginary aji.

Jump Level Up 3

Description: Jump Level Up 3 is the third volume of the intermediate counterpart of the Level Up! Series that serves as a workbook in private go schools in Korea. Though designed for children, the content and practice provided is invaluable for adults and children alike.

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