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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Weekly Go Wednesday, Issue #47

While many would probably agree that perhaps the most difficult aspect of go is the seemingly endless variations that arise throughout a game, the one aspect that I have found to be the most obstructive to people’s enjoyment of the game is a lack of “progress.”

Before we dive into this though, I want to present to you a simple question:

In a tournament where the top four contenders have been determined, excluding 1st place, which of the three places is the happiest and most content?

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