Overview

This week has been a great continuation of my new philosophy of gaining experience on the battlefield. I’ve always felt that experience on the battlefield was necessary, but it wasn’t until I really started taking it seriously that I’ve come to understand the depth of that fundamental truth. In fact, as a result of me playing more games (and of course losing more often), I was actually able to win my third round of Yunguseng Dojang! So within a week, I already have some proof of the method working!

As you will notice, my training regimen has been trimmed a bit. Unlike the past however, the reason I’ve decided to trim it down is not because it’s burning me out or anything of the sort, but instead it’s a matter of having some other activities I need to prioritize at the moment. And to be clear, what I write in the “Training Regimen” section is what I am requiring myself to work on everyday. When I have some extra time, then I will be doing other things as well.

Hope that all is well with everyone and that you all have a great Memorial Day weekend!

Training Regimen

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

Games

• Tygem - 8 games
• WBaduk - 2 games
• PandaNet-IGS - 3 games
• KGS - 2 games
• DGS - 5 ongoing games
• OGS - 3 ongoing games

Books

• Level Up Review 2
• The Theory and Practice of Shape

Videos

• YD S9 2nd lecture (1-3-5 opening)
• This week’s Highlight S9 May 1st week
• A,B,C 2nd round 2nd additional review oren vs Sauk
• AYD S9 3rd lecture All about 3-3 invasion

Lessons Learned

• Just because you have a three in a row shape inside your opponent’s group doesn’t mean it’s dead. Seki is possible too. (-_-)
• When you are about to start a fight, make sure that you are not at a disadvantage.
• A ponnuki with an empty triangle is not as efficient early on as you might think.
• Do not underestimate the power of a good extension from your thickness.

Introduction

Before playing this game, I had been studying one of Seo Bong Soo’s games from Master Play: The Fighting Styles of Kato Masao and Seo Bong Soo. And as I was replaying his game against Otake Hideo, I couldn’t help but wonder whether or not I had been wrong about my style of go this entire time. After all, I always thought I had a fighting style; but perhaps that is not really the case.

Anyways, inspired by his game, I decided to try and imitate that same feeling in this game. And though I end up collapsing in on myself with a really basic reading mistake, I hope you’ll still find this game entertaining.

Game Summary

no,Category,Good,Bad
1,Opening,Overall it felt okay considering it was a non-traditional opening; but nothing spectacular.,Move 28: This may have been too slow. Giving Black the initiative on the lower left was rough.
2,Middle Game,It felt more or less in my favor; but a bit risky.,Black got a big left side which sort of forced me to try and kill his group.
3,Fighting,Move 38: I was proud of starting this fight since I had an advantage in this area.,Move 98: This is probably my losing move. Letting my stones get weakened like that was bad.
4,Endgame,Not Applicable,Not Applicable
5,Overall Reading,Move 74-97: Felt proud for being able to continually harass this group / almost killing it.,Move 106: No excuses for this move. Complete misread.

Weekly Go Wednesday, Issue #41

As many of you are aware, I have been known to prioritize studying and have had no qualms sacrificing playing games in order to do so. My rationale at the time was quite simple: Because I felt like I was always on a time crunch, reading books, studying problems, or even watching videos seemed to be better suited to my lifestyle. 15 minutes here… 5 minutes there… That way I could keep “improving” without the huge time commitment. Right?

Well, maybe only half right. While I might have picked up a thing or two along the way, my experience at the 1st Washington Baduk Open Championship was rather traumatic. After getting my butt kicked twice in a row after the first round and deep introspection, I realized I needed to play more. So in light of that realization, I thought it only appropriate to write about the importance of experience on the battlefield.

Read More

In case you’re not involved in the Go Twitter Community, a new movie involving go has been released!!!! There is go and it has kung fu!!! Ahhh!!!!!!

I’ve embedded the trailer below. Stop whatever else you’re doing and check this out!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BvYEhqqemrY

I can’t wait to buy a copy of this. So psyched!!!!

Credit to @goBum for sharing this epic news!

Overview

This week has been a continuation of trying to get used to the new training regimen that I started last week. Believe it or not, I have been rather successful at playing more instead of solely focusing on studying. So in that regard, things are a success.

On the other hand, I lost again in my match this week for Yunguseng Dojang. After some thought and introspection, I have come to the conclusion that my go has become very impatient lately. I try to complicate the game with every move while also experimenting with a territorial style that just ends up not working out for me. Sigh.

Ah well. It has been fun experimenting with the territorial style. And who knows? Maybe this little detour of mine will help to patch up some of my weaknesses from my normal style. Guess we’ll have to see!

Training Regimen

• Spend about 50% of your time playing games.
• Spend 10 minutes/day perusing a new book of go.
• Spend 20 minutes/day diligently working on the Level Up series.

Games

• Tygem - 6 games
• IGS - 2 games
• KGS - 3 games
• DGS - 5 ongoing games
• OGS - 3 ongoing games

Books

• Level Up Review 1
• Level Up Review 2
• The Theory and Practice of Semeai

Lessons Learned

• Patience is an important value when playing go.
• When you have an overwhelming advantage, (1) don’t become overconfident and (2) don’t give your opponent a chance to turn it around.

Introduction

And we’re back for the second week of Thursday Go Tygem! Unfortunately since the last game, I was demoted to 2d. No matter though! The opponents are still dans, so we march onwards!

This game I take White against a 2d. The opening starts out with a terrible exchange on my part, and then a crazy fight for supremacy in the middle game breaks out after he makes a mistake in trying to cut apart my groups. Definitely a game that demonstrates how kiai (i.e., fighting spirit) can make a big difference in a position where you are initially at a disadvantage.

As always, please let me know if there is anything I can do to improve this series for you guys!

Game Summary

no,Category,Good,Bad
1,Opening,Moves 44: Was proud to find this move to resist Black’s attempt to get an overwhelming advantage in the opening.,Move 18+: The push cut exchange made me over-concentrated and in bad position.
2,Middle Game,Overall it felt like the middle game was in my favor and I outplayed my opponent.,Move 168: Avoiding the ko was so indescribably bad because there was no ko. hangs head in shame Could have been such an easy game…
3,Fighting,Move 122+: I was quite proud to be able to fight on even grounds in such close proximity here.,Move 168: So shameful it gets restated twice. Just so bad.
4,Endgame,Move 212: I was proud to find this attachment quickly to reduce Black’s area., Can’t say I was great at identifying the biggest value on the board; but tried to use sente/gote moves as my points of reference.
5,Overall Reading,Move 80: Outreading Black by knowing the cut didn’t work was very satisfying.,Move 188: This should have been at R3 to make life in the corner and would have changed the result of the game.

Weekly Go Wednesday, Issue #40

Recently I have found myself exploring a lot of new ideas and concepts from varying schools of go. A simple example of this is my inability to stick with reviewing one style of go at a time. For example, last week I was very motivated to finally purchase Master Play: The Territorial Styles of Kitani & Cho Chikun and find out what it really meant to have a “territorial style.” It was a fascinating and eye opening read; but once I had read most of the book within a few hours, I was suddenly driven to go back and study Master Play: The Fighting Styles of Kato Masao & Seo Bong Soo as well! Talk about opposing styles!

As you might expect, my games have also started to undergo a change as well. I find myself trying all sorts of weird and new things lately because of all these new ideas floating around my head. So as I was perusing for ideas to write for this week’s Weekly Go Wednesday, the following quotation from Pablo Picasso inspired me to write this post:

“I am always doing that which I cannot do in order that I may learn how to do it.”

Read More

I just finished my second round of Yunguseng Dojang. As the title of the post states explicitly, it was another sound defeat to be added to my battle staff of go.

On one hand, I want to make myself feel better by telling myself that I played well. On the other hand though, I also was playing completely out of my style this game as well.

I don’t know why it is, but lately I’ve been trying really hard to use the territorial style as White. And then on top of that, I’ve been hell bent on making the game as complicated as possible from the start. So that ends up putting me in experimental territory that I’m completely unfamiliar with.

Do I wish I would have managed to win my second round? Yeah. Feeling a bit crummy at the moment. Hopefully the review will shed some light on my mistakes. Ah well. Off to bed I go.