I’ve been thinking a lot about life lately something about myself. For those who know me in real life, it’s probably safe to say that I can get a little overly excited about something most people would consider mundane. It’s not because I was deprived as a child or anything; but I believe that each day should be lived to the fullest and that every moment we have is something to be excited about.

The downside, however, is that while I am able to keep my emotions and mental state very positive for a majority of the time, one wrong misstep can throw me into a weird limbo where I kind of just fall off the deep end. And whether I like it or not, this is clearly reflected in my go. So in order to try and train my ability to be calm and collected, I decided to do the one thing I generally advise against: playing blitz games.

With the time pressure and the fact that I tend to take my losses in blitz pretty hard (due to the fact that I often lose due to a stupid mistake as opposed to actually being weaker than my opponent), this approach is essentially the equivalent of trying to achieve enlightenment in the middle of a war zone. It’s not that it’s impossible, but it’s pretty risky and could be dangerous for my go. However, I know that trying to take any other route will probably delay my ability to overcome this hurdle.

See you on the other side.

Friday Go Forward: Week 39

Overview

Since last week, I’ve been cutting down significantly on turn based games. I found that playing too many at once was really interfering with my ability to play better moves and not to mention takes up more time. And with everything else in my life kicking into gear, my training regimen got completely screwed up so I won’t be reporting on it this week. However, I’ve also come up with a new way to track how I’ve been spending my time on go and will be updating my training menu next week once I’ve gotten a better hang of it.

Another relatively big decision on my part was to finally return to playing live games on KGS. It has been too long and I’ve decided that trying to wait to play a game with the time settings I desired was only hurting me in the long run. So you can definitely look forward to seeing more games being populated in my list of kifu on KGS in the future.

Finally, there’s been a launch for an online go magazine called Formation Magazine. It seems to be a new effort to provide an in-depth online magazine for the world to peruse and read. Though there are some design issues that I have with it, it seems like it could turn into something really valuable for the go community in the long run. So be sure to check it out and see what you think!

Games

• KGS - 1 game
• DGS - 2 ongoing games
• Nova - 5 games

Reading Material

• Finished Otake’s Secrets of Strategy.
• Worked on Jump Level Up 5.
• Worked on Getting Strong at Endgame.
• Started working on Master Play: The Fighting Styles of Kato Masao & Seo Bong Soo.
• Started working on Changing One’s Conceptions: Awaji’s Aphorisms.
• Started and finished Basic Techniques of Go.

Video Lessons

• Becoming a 5 Kyu - Lesson 26
• Becoming a 5 Kyu - Lesson 27
• Becoming a 5 Kyu - Lesson 28
• Becoming a 5 Kyu - Lesson 29
• Becoming a 5 Kyu - Lesson 30
• Level Up to 3 Kyu - Lesson 1

Happy Halloween!!!

So over the last week or so, there has been quite a bit development in regards to exciting things like GoGameGuru releasing new affordable go equipment along with a bit of realization on my part on how to continue improving the blog. Out of all that thinking and such, I am happy to announce the following:

1. Weekly Go Wednesdays (WGW) is coming back! - Although I love just rambling on about my thoughts and emotions, I’m sure that it would be appreciated if there were more go-related advice on this blog. As a result, I decided to bring back WGW. However, in order to prevent the series from going on hiatus again, I’m changing up the format to reflect an informal advice column as opposed to a structured and well edited articles (that are incredibly time consuming to produce). I’m hoping that you all will find this series to be a welcome addition back into the blog.

2. Equipment Review Updates and Redesign! - I had talked about this a few times in the past, but it’s really happening this time around since I have purchased a ton of new products from GoGameGuru and want the review layout to be more useful. So be on the lookout for new reviews along with a new layout!

Hope you all have an awesome and fun Halloween!

Friday Go Forward: Week 38

Overview

Overall, this week has been a continuation of me just trying to figure out what kind of studying works best in the time I have. Though I am far from releasing a user guide of sorts, the one advice that I am sure will not change is this: Start small. Whether it’s only 5 minutes every day to sit down and do a couple tsumego or go over ten moves of a pro game, it will add up over time. That much I can promise you. =)

And by the way, the BadukTV English from GoGamGuru continues to impress me with how little I know even though I’m technically 3-4 kyu KGS. Even though I’m more than halfway through the “Becoming 5 Kyu” series, I am just flabbergated

Games

• KGS - 3 games
• DGS - 3 ongoing games
• Nova - 10+ games

Training Menu

• 20 minutes of Reading Training (i.e., Life & Death, Tesuji, etc.)
• 20 minutes of Go Theory Study (i.e., Joseki, Direction of Play, etc.)
• 20 minutes of Experience Training (i.e., Play or review a game)

Reading Material

• Worked on Otake’s Secrets of Strategy.
• Worked on Jump Level Up 5.
• Started working on Dictionary of Basic Joseki 1.

Video Lessons

• Becoming a 5 Kyu - Lesson 19
• Becoming a 5 Kyu - Lesson 20
• Becoming a 5 Kyu - Lesson 21
• Becoming a 5 Kyu - Lesson 22
• Becoming a 5 Kyu - Lesson 23
• Becoming a 5 Kyu - Lesson 24
• Becoming a 5 Kyu - Lesson 25

Earlier today, I saw that my friend Michael was in the middle of a game and so I decided to pop on in. Upon arrival and scanning the board a bit, it became pretty apparent that it was a one-sided game. Sure enough, it wouldn’t be long before his opponent resigned.

In our post-game discussion, Michael said, “In beginning, I felt like I was behind on territory; but I told myself to be patient and it really paid off.” Though he didn’t know it at the time, I found it interesting that he brought up the notion of being patient since it had been on my mind as of late.

When it comes to playing games, I noticed that I have a tendency to be antsy about what my opponent played so that I could play my next move. Or when I’m reviewing a professional game, I find myself trying to figure out simply find the next move instead of savoring each moment and submerging myself in its meaning and purpose. As a result, I’m pretty sure that I am end up being able to only apply part of what I am really capable of.

In other words, what I think I’m trying to say is that impatience is clearly an obstacle when it comes to my own growth and development. Definitely something I will need to to work on…

As some of you know, I recently ramped up my activity on Online-Go.com (which in case you missed the news, it is a merger of the former Nova.gs community and the Online-Go community) and I have something crazy like 16 games going on at once.

In my last Friday Go Forward post, I mentioned the fact that I was feeling appreciative of the fact that turn based go is allowing me to practice applying concepts. Although that sentiment is still true for the most part, I have come to the conclusion that it’s not quite the same. And while I would love to go on a rant right now about turn-based go and its merits and demerits, I will save that for another time and focus on the reason I’m writing here today: disjointed moves that lack the energy and vigor that comes with playing real time games.

Though some might argue that one (ideally) should be able to identify the best move on the board at any time, I personally believe there is something to said about a person’s ability being pushed to the max when under time pressure and facing your opponent in real time. Sure, you might make mistakes here and there; but each move is made with purpose and with energy that only builds upon itself as the game goes on. I won’t speak for everyone else, but turn based games just don’t carry the same intensity for me.

To be clear though, I am not against turn based games and would still recommend it to those who simply don’t have the time to play games in real time. However, for me personally, I think it is in my best interest to avoid playing turn based games with random strangers (similar to the way one just play anyone on a real time go server like KGS). My moves and thoughts are just too broken for me to really use it as an opportunity to grow my skills and abilities.*

*I am sure that what I am feeling is exacerbated by the fact that I am playing 15+ games at once, but I think that it allowed me to come to this realization faster than I would have otherwise. So though it’s a bit painful at the moment, I am glad that I realized this now rather than later.

Friday Go Forward: Week 37

Overview

After attempting to try and play one real time game every day (and then every other day), the realities finally set in and I decided that the only work around to not going long periods of not playing go was to ramp up my activity on Nova.gs. As much as correspondence games do not hold quite the same value as real time games (since your thoughts are often disjointed and your ideas are constantly changing which means you might not like the plan you came up with 2 days ago), I have found them to be a convenient and effective way to ensure that I’m not rusty when it comes time to play a game in real time. Otherwise, things have been pretty solid and I’m continuing onwards with my training regimen. Till next week!

Games

• KGS - 0 games
• DGS - 3 ongoing games
• Nova - 8+ games

Training Menu

• 20 minutes of Reading Training (i.e., Life & Death, Tesuji, etc.)
• 20 minutes of Go Theory Study (i.e., Joseki, Direction of Play, etc.)
• 20 minutes of Experience Training (i.e., Play or review a game)

Reading Material

• Finished Jump Level Up 4.
• Started and finished Scent of Victory.
• Started working on Otake’s Secrets of Strategy.
• Started working on Jump Level Up 5.
• Worked on The 1971 Honinbo Tournament.

Video Lessons

• Becoming a 5 Kyu - Lesson 12
• Becoming a 5 Kyu - Lesson 13
• Becoming a 5 Kyu - Lesson 14
• Becoming a 5 Kyu - Lesson 15
• Becoming a 5 Kyu - Lesson 16
• Becoming a 5 Kyu - Lesson 17
• Becoming a 5 Kyu - Lesson 18
• Attacking Vitamins: Lesson 1

Earlier today, I was reading Otake’s Secrets of Strategy by Hideo Otake 9P when I stumbled upon an interesting quote:

In the opening there are no predetermined shapes. - Otake 9P
I know that it might seem terribly obvious to some of you, but it struck me as rather profound when I read it.

Otake was discussing the fact that many amateur players play joseki faithfully believing that since they are joseki it can’t be that bad. He considers this a huge flaw with our rationale because joseki are only as good as the position it was meant to be used in. So when he said that “there are no predetermined shapes” in the opening, it opened my eyes as to how unimaginative I have been with my openings lately.

Perhaps this quote will cause me to start playing some very odd experimental games where I lose and drop rank; but if it means that I’m developing my own creative style as I play, I have a feeling it will be an enjoyable journey: win or lose.

Over the past weekend, I decided to ramp up my activity on Nova.gs for a few reasons:

1. I want to support the developers by helping improve their user base and become a part of the founding community.
2. I was not playing enough games (in real time) and needed some outlet for me to practice applying things I am learning while trying new things out. By doing so, I’m hoping that my in real time games will become stronger.
3. As much as correspondence games are harder for me to play since I feel like my thoughts are constantly disjointed, I figured it would help me with practicing constant whole board thinking and positional judgment before each move.
   In terms of my overall emotions though, I’m in this weird limbo with go. Normally when people are conflicted on their journey, most might describe it as being at a fork in the road. Recently for me however, I feel as if I’m standing in a forest while surrounded by a dense fog. There is this sense of stumbling one step at a time without quite knowing where I’m headed. I’m trying a lot of different things, but I’m feeling rather lost in terms of what is holding me back.

To be clear though, this emotion is different from feeling burned out. I still enjoy all the time I spend on go, but I’m starting to wonder whether any of it is helping me get stronger. But no matter, I just have to have faith in my training regimen and move forward with what I enjoy. As long as I do that, I believe that I’ll be able to make more sense of this when I finally emerge from this haze.

Friday Go Forward: Week 36

Overview

This week has been a continuation of trying to really dig deep when it comes to being consistent about maximizing my quality of training in a set amount of time. There has been a couple of days where I ended up slacking off, but I feel like it’s been good progress and that it should get better over time. I will admit that I do miss playing live games, but I know that it has been unrealistic of me to do so since it really consumes a lot of time whenever I do. So as of late, I have decided to increase my activity on Nova.gs* in order to ensure that I don’t get rusty. I hope that more of you will join me over there so that we can play more games!

*And just in case anyone is wondering, Nova.gs allows you to play both live games in real time along with correspondence games. It’s pretty sweet!

Games

• KGS - 1 game
• DGS - 3 ongoing games
• Nova - 6 games (3 finished : 3 ongoing)

Training Menu

• 20 minutes of Reading Training (i.e., Life & Death, Tesuji, etc.)
• 20 minutes of Go Theory Study (i.e., Joseki, Direction of Play, etc.)
• 20 minutes of Experience Training (i.e., Play or review a game)

Reading Material

• Finished Jump Level Up 3.
• Finished_ __Perceiving the Direction of Play_.
• Started and finished Master Play: The Style of Lee Changho.
• Started working on Jump Level Up 4.
• Started working on The 1971 Honinbo Tournament.

Video Lessons

• Becoming a 5 Kyu - Lesson 6
• Becoming a 5 Kyu - Lesson 7
• Becoming a 5 Kyu - Lesson 8
• Becoming a 5 Kyu - Lesson 9
• Becoming a 5 Kyu - Lesson 10
• Becoming a 5 Kyu - Lesson 11