Description: Essential Life & Death 1 is part of the Essential Life & Death Series that is used as workbooks in private go schools in Korea. Though it might be seen as an addendum to the Level Up Series, it certainly can be used as a standalone product for anyone looking to study life and death.

Read More

Overview

This has been an interesting week that was fraught with frustration, but paired with deep introspection that yielded something valuable for me as a whole. Although it took me some time to realize, there was a growing tendency for me to rush in both Go and my life in general. So, I am grateful that go has once again provided an avenue for me to improve my life as a whole once again. Beginning the path back to zen will have a number of butterfly effects, but I have a feeling they will be far from regrettable. =)

Games

• KGS - 4 games (2 wins : 2 losses)
• DGS - 1 ongoing game
• Nova - 2 ongoing games

Training

• Finished _Essential Life & Death: Vol. 1 and started Vol. 2_.
• Finished reading The Chinese Opening by Yuan Zhou.
• Started working on _Attacking and Defending Moyos _by Zeijst and Bozulich.
• Started reading _Modern Master Games, Vol. 1 _by Zeijst and Bozulich.
• Started working on _Positional Judgment _by Cho Chikun.

Lessons Learned

1. If I feel like I am strapped for time or rushed before I even start a game, it’s probably best to not even bother playing.
2. To refrain from kyu tunnel vision, I need to look at the board with fresh eyes after every move.

In case this isn’t apparent, this is a 2-D drawing. And also, do you spot what I see? xD

Late last night, I had written about the fact that my go has become a race to the finish line. I realize that I was probably not the most articulate since I was about to pass out, but upon further reflection this morning, I realized that my problem actually is rooted in the fact that I have lost sight of my zen (aka my center of calm).

Whenever I play a move, I realized that I am always in a hurry to see what my opponent plays next. In fact, it’s almost as if I’m trying to play a blitz game in a game that’s supposed to have a main time of 20 minutes or more. As a result, autopilot moves show up and failure to consider global effects arise again and again.

Bottom line: I need find my center again. Otherwise, this will quickly spiral out of control and my go will become a reckless monster beyond saving. This ends today.

I’ve been losing quite a bit lately. Whenever I played a live game against a person of relatively equal strength, I seem to do alright for awhile and then completely fall apart at the end. It’s been rather frustrating, but I think I may have discovered my problem: I’ve gotten to a point in my go where I am constantly trying to rush to the finish line.

What do I mean by that?

Well, in short, it seems that I’ve stopped appreciating the game as each move progresses. My head is so focused on the end result of winning or losing that the ability to simply enjoy each step of every game has become obsolete to me. In addition, I’m rarely devoting my attention to a game anymore. I’m always trying to multitask and respond instinctually to my opponents. It’s gotten so bad that I don’t even try to properly read out life and death sequences anymore. I just play what appears to work at first glance.

And as if that wasn’t bad enough, I seem to have forgotten the whole concept of “playing against myself.” Just today, I made multiple careless errors where I assumed my opponent would play in one area. When in actuality, I would never have expected myself to play there to begin with. So I ended up essentially passing the turn to my opponent time after time.

I’ve gotten myself into quite a bind haven’t I? Haha…

As of late, I have been finding it difficult to really get my head in the game. I’m not sure if it’s due to the busy schedule of having relatives from out of town, or whether my mind is undergoing some new twists and turns that is changing the way I see the game.

For those who have been keeping up with my progress, you probably remember that I mentioned a recently gained ability to estimate territory. Unfortunately though, it seems like my mind is once again becoming adverse to doing it and it’s causing me to just play moves on a local scale (which is turning out terribly might I add). And as if that wasn’t bad enough, I’ve gotten into a bad habit of not fully reading moves out before I play. This is ends up causing a vicious cycle of where I end up playing regrettable moves because of laziness as opposed to not seeing a particular sequence. Oy vey…

To counter these bad habits, I’m going back to the basics and doing life and death problems the old fashioned way: Read it till you figure it out. No more exposure to new material. Just a good ol’ fashioned tsumego drills. In addition, I’ve started Cho Chikun’s book on Positional Judgment to hopefully get myself more comfortable with evaluating the whole board. We’ll see how it goes…

Also, for those who enjoy game commentaries, you should definitely check out my long time friend and rival’s new post on a game he played recently at Yuan Zhou‘s Workshop! It is a fun exciting game that shows an excellent command of play by Black and numerous examples of how overplays are supposed to be punished. Definitely worth checking out!

For those who were expecting a Monday Go Meditation post, I apologize for not being able to have a kifu in time for this week. I have relatives visiting from out of the country and the past week has been pretty crazy. I promise that there will definitely be a game for you next week. On a separate note, I feel that I am obligated to record the fact that my journey has hit a little bump on the road.

After many years of resisting the urge to join my friends and family in League of Legends (LoL), I finally gave in and have officially become part of the LoL community. xD Haha. I’m trying really hard not to become an addict and let everything go to the wayside, so there is no need to fret that I will suddenly stop playing go in lieu of playing LoL. My goal is to play in moderation to alleviate any possibility of burning out when it comes to studying and playing go. I have full confidence I will be able to achieve this. =D

For those who are curious about my summoner name, you can find me on sentecrosscut. (If you’re looking for the account referral name, sentenobi is probably what you need.)

Overall Rating: 8 / 10 Ponnuki

Basic Information

• Title: Mastering the Basics, Volume 6: All About Ko
• Author: Rob can Zeijst and Richard Bozulich
• Publisher: Kiseido
• Publication Date: September 2007
• Number of Problems: 121 Problems
• Page Length: 250 pages

Synopsis

• A solid book that serves as a great reference on ko while providing problems and example games.
• Appropriate for 1 dan and stronger.
• Recommended for serious players who really want to study ko.

  Read More

Overview

This week seems to have been dwindling down in terms of playing. Part of it is due to the fact that I know that I’ve been in more aggressive mood lately (which usually leads to me going on tilt), but I think the other part is that I am getting in a study groove again. I’ve gotten an urge to try and read as many books as I can possibly can before needing to burning out from studying, by which of course then it’ll be time to play more games again. On top of that, I’m also trying to really create a robust Book Review section for this blog so that players can really get a sense of what they’re buying when selecting a book.

Games

• KGS - 1 game (0 wins : 1 loss)
• DGS - 1 ongoing game
• Nova - 1 ongoing game

Training

• Started the Essential Life & Death series again.
• Finished the theory section and some problems in Mastering the Basics: Ko.
• Finished my first reading of Kage’s Secret Chronicles of Handicap Go.
• Started reading The Chinese Opening by Yuan Zhou.

Lessons Learned

1. If I can’t give 100% of my attention to a game of go, I should refrain from playing with strangers.
2. I need to re-discipline my reading abilities so that I feel certain about what might happen instead of playing a move because it “looks like it’ll work.”

Overall Rating: 8 / 10 Ponnuki

Basic Information

• Title: Kage’s Secret Chronicles of Handicap Go
• Author: Toshiro Kageyama, 6-dan (translated by James Davies)
• Publisher: The Ishi Press, Inc.
• Publication Date: October 1975
• Page Length: 204 pages

Synopsis

• An entertaining book from Kageyama that illustrates handicap go concepts through a conversational style of writing.
• Does not explain handicap go from a traditional textbook like style.
• Appropriate for 5 kyu and stronger.
• Recommended for serious players who already have a foundation on handicap go.

  Read More

Overall Rating: 9 / 10 Ponnuki

Basic Information

• Title: The Chinese Opening: The Sure-Win Strategy
• Author: Masao Kato (translated by Steve Lloyd)
• Publisher: Kiseido
• Publication Date: May 1989
• Page Length: 145 pages

Synopsis

• An in-depth explanation of the Chinese fuseki.
• Covers a lot of various scenarios that players might encounter when trying to play the Chinese fuseki.
• Appropriate for 8 kyu and stronger.
• Recommended for serious players.

  Read More