Introduction

Before this game, I had been getting white in most of my even games and had trouble playing properly. Games were often very rushed and I could hardly play a good game as White. However, after listening to Inseong talk about his views on playing White, I gave it a lot of thought and tried to get in a similar mindset.

This game is the first game that I felt successful when playing White. Not only was my game not rushed and ill-conceived, but I felt like I was able to maintain control for most of the game. Hopefully you’ll agree! Enjoy the game.

Game Summary

no,Category,Good,Bad
1,Opening,Move 20 - I liked this extension in regards to the whole board since it seems like a proactive move., Move 9 - I am unfamiliar with this position. Need to learn more about it in the future.
2,Middle Game, Move 44 - The cap started a sequence that allowed me to take the initiative in the middle game.,Move 104 - Bad move that could have cost me the game.
3,Fighting, Move 112 - Ignoring Black to play here showed good fighting spirit., Can’t say that any of the fighting was bad for me this game. Correct me if I’m wrong though!
4,Endgame, Not Applicable, Not Applicable
5,Overall Reading, “Move 106 - Though the reading is relatively simple, I was happy that I could read it out instantly with no doubt in my mind.”,Move 104 - Worth mentioning twice. This was an overplay. I am lucky Black let me off the hook and made life instead.

Weekly Go Wednesday: Issue #43

For Game 5 of this epic jubango between Lee Sedol (9P) and Gu Li (9P), we are at an exciting point in this match as the record stands at 2-2! So for this fifth game, this will serve as the tiebreaker for who takes the lead into the second half of the jubango!

In case you don’t follow the professional scene, up to this point, Gu Li (9p) has been doing very well against Lee Sedol (9p) and was considered the favorite to win this match since he also won the last two jubango matches as well.

With that said, buckle in for one of the most exciting games they’ve played to date! Hope you enjoy the review!

For more advanced reviews, be sure to keep an eye out on World Go Online and GoGameGuru since I’m sure they will have their own in the near future.

Fun Trivia: This game was played in Shangri-La, Yunnan, China which is 10,000 ft above the sea! As a result, oxygen was rather thin and both players had to deal with having less oxygen than normal which may have affected their performance more than anticipated.

Part I - Part II - Part III

Overview

_Prelude: Out of respect to Sabum-nim (i.e., In-seong), the lessons learned are kept to a minimum since it is paid content and I do not want to infringe on that in any way, shape, or form. The game reviews also only contain highlights of concise highlights instead of my normal detailed reviews since I would inadvertently write about what Sabum-nim taught in the review (which would essentially replicate his lecture). _

As a new member to the Yunguseng Dojang (YSD) during Season 9 of 2014, I was assigned to League A as my starting league (this is the highest league possible in the American division). I wasn’t sure what I was to expect, but I was excited at the prospect at being part of a formal training program.

Read More

As most of you know, I’ve spent my fair share of money on this game. Perhaps one of my craziest purchases as a beginner was The Complete Game Records of Go Seigen. Yup. I bought it in September 2010 when I was a mere 15k. And though it may have seemed like the biggest waste of money at the time, I can only smile as I think about how funny the world works sometimes.

Since my first step onto the endless path of go, I have come to learn of many different professionals along with their various styles. And though I’ve come and gone between the various ones and learned from them, none of them ever really stuck with me. It’s not that I don’t admire their strength or am not a fan of them, but there was never one that stuck with me more than another.

Read More

Overview

As some of you may have noticed, I decided to return to the KGS scene to play some ranked games again. If you’re wondering why I decided to do so, you can blame frozensoul for challenging me to do so. And the results have been pretty bad since I’m on a losing streak at the moment.

Though I’d normally feel more frustrated by this, I am actually in a decent place compared to my typical “on tilt“ mood. So while it sucks that I have been losing, I’m trying hard to take it in stride and not put myself in a position where I have to win in order to reset my emotional stability. Not an easy task, but I’d like to think it’s a step further towards the path of my zen go.

This week also marks the start of a new way of viewing acquiring skills. In this week’s Weekly Go Wednesday post, you can read about my little epiphany and new view on approaching my study of the game. So there’s starting to be some change in regards to that.

Finally, I was unable to win my last game and thus will drop to League B next month. Oh well. It is somewhat disappointing, but life goes on.

Hope you all had a good week and have a great weekend.

Training Regimen

• Spend about 50% of your time playing games.
• Complete 1 section of Level Up Review 2 per day.

Games

• Tygem - 6 games
• KGS - 6 games
• DGS - 5 ongoing games
• OGS - 4 ongoing games

Books

• Level Up Review 2
• Essential Life and Death 1

Lessons Learned

• Just because you are struggling to learn something doesn’t mean you don’t have talent for it, it just means your brain is working hard to make that new skill more instinctive. Don’t give up.
• I’ve stated this more than once on the blog, but seriously: don’t underestimate your opponent just because his rank is lower than yours. It usually leads to overconfidence that can allow for a rather tragic loss.
• Don’t make any big decisions or any decisive evaluations about yourself when you’re feeling down. Your head is just not in the right place to do so.

Though there was a small chance that I would be able to stay in League A for Yunguseng Dojang, unfortunately I was unable to rise to the occasion and will receive my first demotion to League B.

Before Sabumnim’s* Review**

I always thought that getting demoted would feel similar to seeing my rank drop, but I have to say that this feels worse. Maybe I’ll change my mind after the fact, but this feels worse. And if I were to give a reason why, it’s probably because I spent time and effort over an entire month only to be shown my inadequacy.

I would be lying if I said that I’m cool with it and feeling whatever about it. A large part of me is frustrated and disappointed with myself.

As I sulk in this aura of frustration and angst, it is causing a lot of doubt to spread. Doubt as to whether or not I actually got any stronger over this last month. Doubt as to whether I have any talent at all since my games were nothing to be proud of (as evident in the past reviews). Doubt as to what the hell I’ve been doing this entire month since I’ve been so unstable (especially towards the end of the month).

It’s stupid and childish to think such thoughts. I know. I guess I’m just really feeling at a loss for what is going on with me. While part of it might be mental, another part of me feel like there is something wrong with my go. I just feel like I can’t make sense of what I’m doing anymore.

After Sabumim’s Review

When I started writing this post, my self-pity almost caused me to skip the review since I wasn’t sure if I could handle hearing that my game was awful or anything that could further my self-doubt. So as I wrote the first section of this post, I thought that I was doomed to feeling awful for the rest of the night. Thankfully though, against my feelings of self-doubt, I decided to go ahead and stay for the review.

To my surprise, I was happy to find out that my game was actually not a bad game at all. In fact, though I have been in a weird funk lately (in regards to the games I’ve been playing), this final game was probably one of most inspired ones so far. It’s kind of odd writing that because I ended up losing a rather important match, but I really feel that it was one of my most creative games I’ve played to date.***

Part of me still carries some of the frustration from earlier, but I’m in a better place now. Though getting demoted to League B is a bit disappointing, it simply means that I’ll need to work hard next month to get back to League A. Challenge accepted.

*Note: Sabumnim is the Korean equivalent of sensei when it comes to how to address your teacher. And in case it wasn’t obvious, sabumnim refers to Inseong.

**Part of me debated deleting this section to shelter you from my whining and self-pity, but I felt it would be wrong to try and hide it. As much as it might be pathetic and childish, this is part of my journey to gaining that next stone. The frustration, the self-doubt, and the feeling of wanting to just throw in the towel are all obstacles that I deal with and I don’t want to sugarcoat it at all. So for that reason, I hope you’ll understand why I left it in.

_***I’m sure many of you will want to see the game, but I promise I’ll be releasing a full post on my first month in Yunguseng Dojang next week so you can see all of my games along with my thoughts on each of them as well. _

Introduction

I recently had a conversation regarding the importance of ladders. And while the topic of ladders will probably cause many people to roll their eyes at the topic time and time again, it’s simply one of those things that you keep having a deeper and deeper respect for as you dive into the abyss of go. Today’s game is short, but it illustrates the severity of not being able to perfectly read out a ladder.

So whether you like it or not, you need to make your peace with ladders and make them your best friend. It’s the only way to climb to the top!

Game Summary

no,Category,Good,Bad
1,Opening, Move 10 - I’m proud of experimenting with a new joseki move I learned., Move 34 - This seems questionable to me; but perhaps it was a necessary defense.
2,Middle Game, Move 36 - The sequence around here worked out really well in my favor., Move 52 - This was rather small in regards to the whole board.
3,Fighting, Move 48 - My confidence in believing I could figure out the upper right corner was a good sign of healthy kiai., “Move 54 - Though I was successful locally, this was small in regards to the whole board.”
4,Endgame, Not Applicable, Not Applicable
5,Overall Reading, Move 74 - Being able to confidently read out this ladder was awesome., Move 58 - The sequence around here didn’t quite work out the way I expected. Didn’t realize I needed a ladder to be able to really gain a foothold in this area.

Weekly Go Wednesday, Issue #42

For most of the time I studied go, I was always focused on getting the right answer. Perhaps this is a result of being conditioned from school and being obsessed with answering the question correctly, but nonetheless it showed up in my approach to studying go. So more often than not, if I managed to guess what the correct answer was for a particular problem, that would be the end of it and I would move on to the next problem. After all, I got the right answer and that’s what’s important isn’t it?

Of course, the next question is what happened if I got the answer wrong. Well, since I got the answer wrong, the logical choice would be to see what the correct answer is and try to memorize it. In other words, I would focus on understanding why the correct answer was correct and was less concerned with why my answer was wrong. Standard studying mechanism for taking any test in a class right?

Unfortunately, while that sounds okay in theory and may have helped me get through school rather easily, it turns out I have been barking up the wrong tree this entire time.

Read More

The first month of Yunguseng Dojang (YSD) is almost over and you know what that means: top two players get promoted while the bottom two players get demoted. And as you might have guessed from the title of the post, I am on thin ice this month.

Based on my calculations of how the rest of the players in my league will do, everything hinges on my final game this Thursday. My opponent is already guaranteed a spot in League A, so for some reason I feel even more pressure since he holds the key to my fate next month.

To my surprise, I am more worried and stressed out about this than I would have imagined. Perhaps it’s due to sheer ego and desire to remain in the top class, but I do feel pressure to stay in League A next month.

Ah well. No point sitting here dreading and worrying about it. Off to prepare what I can before the game.