Hey everyone. As I’m sure you’ve noticed, the weekly posts have not gotten to the point where they are coming out weekly just yet. And to be honest, while I found that initially discouraging, I had to remind myself that the important thing to remember is that go is now a part of my regular life.

What does this mean exactly?

• I’m doing tsumego daily. The amount varies from time to time, but it’s usually a small batch of ten to twenty-five at a time
• Much to the chagrin of my good friend Nate, I’m playing correspondence games which allows me to going a long time without playing a game.
• I walk by my go board that I set up by my desk and occasionally play out a professional game when I need to get out of my head a bit.

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.

Introduction

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 This is because my OGS rank is super outdated as I never played many games and lost a few games due to time around the time I took a break.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!

One Point Lesson

In blitz go, be prepared to prove you know what you’re doing because your opponent will test you time and time again…

Overview

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.

Training Regimen

• Review a professional game every one to two days
• Practice about 20-30 basic / easy go problems every day
• Studying with []

Games

• OGS - 3 ongoing games

Currently Reading

• Commented Games by Lee Sedol, Vol. 3 by Lee Sedol 9P and Lee Sena
• Positional Judgment by Cho-Chikun 9P

Reflections

• With the incredible development in AI, it’s fascinating to see the entire world of go now being thrown into a new exploration of creativity as things once deemed “bad moves” are now being seen in a new light.

Introduction

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!

One Point Lesson

Treating stones lightly in order to develop whole board strategy is key to getting stronger.

It’s been well over fifteen months, but it seems it was time for me to come back from the abyss. And I have to say, it feels good to be back.

Read More

As some of you may have heard, GoGameGuru published a post today that talks about going back to its roots. And while I’d never compare my work to the accomplishments of David and his team, the post resonated with me.

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Overview

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!

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Weekly Go Wednesday, Issue #48

Introduction

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?”

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Overview

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.

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