Overview

As this is my first week back since my vacation, it has been a relatively light week that has consisted of me trying to get my feet wet again in the world of go. Like I mentioned before in a previous post, I’m working on hard on really gaining a better understanding of what I’m capable of maintaining consistently without burnout.

Playing ranked games has been a little weird and disappointing since I can’t seem to hold my own at the moment, but I’m trying not to let it bother me too much since I am a bit rusty and loss through very clear and obvious mistakes. So as long as I work hard to become more disciplined about how I play each move, my games should improve without much effort.

Games

• KGS - 6 games ( 2 wins : 4 losses )
• DGS - 2 ongoing games
• Nova - 4 ongoing games

Training

• 20 tsumego problems each day.
• Worked on Mastering the Basics: 501 Tesuji Problems.
• Started on Mastering the Basics: The Basics of Go Strategy.

Lessons Learned

1. Avoid blitz games and games 25 minutes or less since I am a thinker. Fast games will come when my fundamentals are more solid.
2. Really need to stop the bad habit of “Let’s play here and see what happens.”
3. Got to keep working on thinking of games as if I’m playing myself.

Games

• DGS - 2 ongoing games
• Nova - 5 ongoing games

Tsumego

• Life and Death - 40 Problems

Thoughts

It only seems appropriate that my training has been winding down as I prepare to completely vacate from go for a whole week. Although I thought it would be rather difficult to break the habit of obsessing over go constantly, I have found that simply decreasing my exposure to go as already begun to lift a burden off of my shoulder. In that regard, it seems that the prospects of this vacation doing me some good are looking pretty good.

As you might guess, there will be no Friday Go Forward next week since I won’t be doing anything; but you can still look forward to Monday Go Meditation! Meanwhile, I wish you all the best of luck with your own games! Till then!

Games

• DGS - 2 ongoing games
• Nova - 6 ongoing games

Tsumego

• Life and Death - 100 Problems
• Five Hundred and One Opening Problems - Finished
• Five Hundred and One Tesuji Problems - Page 1 - 39

Other

• Studying one professional game from Lee Sedol’s book.

Thoughts

I’m still trying to figure out a way out of my funk, but I spent this week trying to reinvigorate my studies and gain some perspective on the game. As you can see, one of the new elements I added to my studies is starting to study professional games. As a friend mentioned to me, this is usually difficult for most players (even at the high dan level). I’m not sure how beneficial it will be, but we’ll see how it goes. If anyone ever wants to discuss the pro game I’m studying with me, let me know and we can meet up online to talk about it. Till next week!

Games

• DGS - 3 ongoing games
• Nova - 8 ongoing games

Tsumego

• General Practice (SmartGo Kifu) - 100 Problems
• Life and Death - 60 Problems
• Five Hundred and One Opening Problems - Page 162 - 225

Thoughts

Feeling pretty out of it this week. I’ll be taking the weekend to think about everything. Trying desperately hard not to burn out.

Games

• KGS - 5 games ( 3 win : 2 loss )
• DGS - 5 ongoing games
• Nova - 9 ongoing games

Tsumego

• Five Hundred and One Opening Problems - Page 91 - 161

Other

• The Chi­nese Open­ing — Page 87 - 90

Thoughts

Biggest concern: Way too many turn based games going on. I know it works for some people, but I get overly focused on them and then everything else around me falls to the wayside. No no no… so as I wrote yesterday, no more games with strangers. Haha. And to be honest, I’m feeling the studying is a little too light, so hopefully I can find a better balance for myself next week!

Games

• KGS - 5 games ( 1 win : 4 losses )
• DGS - 5 ongoing games

Tsumego

• Go Game - Life and Death (iPad App) - Practice Phase 2 ( Class 18 - 20 )
• Five Hundred and One Opening Problems - Page 55 - 90

Other

• The Chi­nese Open­ing — Page 63 - 87

Thoughts

I’m happy to announce that the StudyGroupKyu site went live this week! There are still some enhancements to be made, and that will continue to take up my time; but it’s been fun to combine my love for design with go. Definitely hoping to do more of that as time goes on.

With that being said, this week has a decently studious week combined with sporadic blitz go. Now although none of the game time settings will indicate that, I generally didn’t spend more than 30 seconds on a move. This is probably due to my lack of time and newly acquired ability to not be attached to winning or losing a game. I’ve been more obsessed with trying out new things and experimenting with what I’ve been learning. And to be honest, it’s quite refreshing.

Games

• KGS - 2 games ( 1 win : 1 loss )
• DGS - 6 ongoing games

Tsumego

• Go Game - Life and Death (iPad App) - Practice Phase 2 ( Class 11 - 17 )

Other

• Five Hundred and One Opening Problems - Page 1 - 54

Thoughts

It’s been a rather light week in terms of playing and studying, but hopefully the Study Group Kyu website will be up and running soon! In addition, starting tomorrow I will be releasing updates and revisions on previous equipment reviews and integrating new reviews as time goes on! So it was still a productive go week even though I didn’t get to play as much as I would’ve liked. Here’s to hoping my schedule will stabilize next week so I can play more ranked games!

Games

• KGS - 8 game ( 6 win : 2 loss )
• DGS - 7 ongoing games

Tsumego

• Go Game - Life and Death (iPad App) - Practice Phase 2 ( Class 6 - 10 )

Other

• Elementary Go Series, Volume 5 - Attack and Defense - Page 21-57

Thoughts

Although it doesn’t feel like it, this week has actually been pretty active in regards to playing. As you can see, I have seven ongoing games on Dragon Go Server! And although this isn’t final or solid quite yet, my KGS account did manage to hit 5k this week! So we’ll see whether or not it sticks around. Haha.

Meanwhile, I find myself actually taking even more time to play games than I used to. I’m in this weird place where 30 minutes feels a bit too short but anything longer than that takes a long time and can be very tiring. Oh well, looks like I have two more things I need to improve: (1) Stamina & (2) My Brain’s Processing Speed. After all, I need to get myself competition ready! MD Open 2013 is only two months away!

Many thanks to the following people for taking the time to find me and play with me on DGS: Paul, Tilwen, Devin, Tyler, Andrew, Todd, and Gurujeet! I’m looking forward to seeing what you all play next!

Games

• KGS - 1 game ( 1 win : 0 loss )

Tsumego

• Essential Life & Death (Vol. 2) - Complete
• Go Game - Life and Death (iPad App) - Practice Phase 2 (Class 3 - 5)

Other

• Elementary Go Series, Volume 5 - Attack and Defense - Page 1 - 20
• Dictionary of Basic Joseki: Volume 1 - Page 16 - 32
• The Chinese Opening - Pages 50 - 63
• 36 Stratagems Applied to Go - Pages 1 - 9

Thoughts

Overall, it’s been a rather quiet week in terms of games. In the meanwhile though, I’ve had lots of little bits of free time that have allowed me to peruse various topics that I’ve had my eye on for some time. So in terms of learning new things, it’s been a rather enriching week. I still have a lot to sort through regarding lessons that I’ve had from frozensoul, zyoda, and Myung, but I’m hoping to get to them next week so I can really solidify what they’ve taught me.

Games

• KGS - 2 games ( 2 win : 0 loss )

Tsumego

• Essential Life & Death (Vol. 2) - Pages 87 - 110
• Go Game - Life and Death (iPad App) - Practice Phase 1 (Class 1-3) & Phase 2 (Class 1-2)

Other

• Elementary Go Series, Volume 3 - Tesuji - Pages 23 - 60
• The Chinese Opening - Pages 1 - 50

Thoughts

Although it seems like a rather light week in terms of playing, I’ve had a number of teaching games that have been quite eye opening. I haven’t yet processed a lot of what has been passed onto me this week, but I hope to take the weekend to look over the kifus and reinforce anything that I learned. On the upside, I’ve found some really interesting go books that I’m hell bent on trying to finish as soon as possible. More on this next week!