Overview

As many of you probably noticed, I have been pretty consumed with studying go and releasing book reviews as fast as I can. My progress with the Level Up series has been great! I’ve been averaging about 1.5 days for each volume. Not as fast as I wish I was, but not bad in the scheme of things. It’s been really great to see what kids in Korea have been learning and realizing how unstable my fundamentals were in comparison. I’m hoping that I will be finished with the Level Up series by next week so that I can find out what’s in store for me in the Jump Level Up series.

Also, many thanks to Malcolm for setting me on the path to finally working out the kinks in the email subscriptions. As some of you might have noticed, email newsletters are going to be looking a lot different! The design is far from finished, but I wanted to at least release the initial version of the email layout so that you wouldn’t have to deal with the horrendous layout that Jetpack was sending at one point. Hope it makes for a better reading experience!

**Update: It seems that Jetpack was still turned on this morning so the email newsletter might have been sent twice. Sorry to anyone on the subscriber list! I am working to iron out all the kinks with the new email subscription plugin.

Games

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

Education & Training

• Finished Modern Master Games, Vol. 1.
• Finished Elementary Go Series, Vol 5 - Attack and Defense.
• Finished Level Up 2.
• Started and finished Level Up 3, 4 and 5.
• Started working on Level Up Review 1.
• Started working on Mastering the Basics, Vol. 8 - Fight Like a Pro.
• Started working on Elementary Go Series, Vol 6 - The Endgame.
• Worked on Whole Board Thinking of Joseki, Vol. 1.
• Worked on Essential Life & Death 3.

Friday Go Forward: Week 22

Overview

As I’m sure you all are aware, this week marks the start of my Korean Training Reboot! I am having the time of life as I’m going over the basics of all basics for the first time ever. Now I know it probably sounds stupid to some of you that I’m spending my time on books intended for 30 kyus, but I feel like I am getting a lot of value just drilling basics such as “can my stone escape from atari.” It’s not so much that I’m learning something “new,” but instead I am really trying to polish the fundamentals of my reading ability. Here’s to hoping I know what I’m doing!

Games

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

Education & Training

• Finished Attacking and Defending Moyos.
• Finished on Elementary Go Series, Vol 4 - Life and Death.
• Started and finished Level Up 1.
• Started working on Level Up 2.
• Worked on Modern Master Games, Vol. 1.
• Worked on Elementary Go Series, Vol 5 - Attack and Defense.
• Worked on Whole Board Thinking of Joseki, Vol. 1.
• Worked on Essential Life & Death 3.

It’s only Day 2 of my Korean Training Reboot and I’m happy to report that I am really enjoying this series. Although I could theoretically fly through most of the beginning books, I have been taking more time to be very thorough with the content. I’m hoping that this will help to reveal any inconsistencies with my basics as I work my way through the series.

In terms of progress though, I’m almost done with _Level Up! - Volume 1 _and plan to post the review in the near future. For my preliminary findings though, I’m 99% sure that this series will be awarded the best introductory series to go in my book. Although it might be written and designed for kids, I have a feeling that any adult who goes through this entire series will rise through the ranks much faster than by studying any other book.

This is just a preliminary analysis though, so I will let you know if my opinion changes when I’m done with the series. =D

Normally I try not to post twice in a day, but being as it is the first of July, I didn’t want to miss the opportunity to go ahead and post about my new training program: Korean Style Reboot!

Starting today, I will be faithfully following the Korean texts you see above everyday until I finish them all. (I’m still missing the answer book from the Jump Level Up series and the Train Like a Pro series, but I I have more than enough to start with. =D) In the meantime, I have also created a new account on Tygem (zenlotus) that will start from 18k and go as far as I can take it. I’ll still be on the other servers, but my primary focus will be on Tygem when I have the time.

And to clarify, it’s not that I won’t study any of the other books I have, it’s just that I will be making sure to spend a dedicated amount of time each day to the Korean baduk books.

Korean training reboot initiate!

Since I started reviewing books back in 2010, I have been updating the book review template as time has gone on. Categories were added and removed based on whether or not I felt it was relevant anymore. As some of you might have noticed, the book review format changed recently; but I’m already feeling dissatisfied with it even though I just updated it recently. On top of it all, I’m not sure my opinion is enough to validate whether a category is relevant or not.

I posted this question to the reddit baduk community and got some interesting responses regarding some things that they would like to see. In addition, one user brought a great topic to my attention that I thought deserves some time here on this post: reduplication of effort.

For those who aren’t aware, there are already quite a few resources out there when it comes to go book reviews:

1. GoBooks.info
2. GoBooks Nemir
3. Sensei’s Library
   In my experience so far though, many of the sites tend to be outdated (in regards to user interface and design layout). In addition, while the content is still relevant, I always found it difficult to really determine whether or not I should purchase the book or not. In addition, the reviews are often simply huge blobs of text that can be difficult and tedious to navigate for the average user. Most of the time, due to sheer curiosity, I buy the book anyways; but this defeats the whole purpose of a book review.

My goal is to provide the best user experience for people interested in providing go books. This means designing the most intuitive user interface along with providing information in the most concise and useful manner possible. By doing so, casual players who would otherwise be discouraged by the lengthy reviews (since they aren’t as committed to the game as some of us are) can easily navigate the reviews I post and purchase the appropriate book for themselves!

So, to try and provide the best book review format in existence, I’m asking for your help to make this a reality! If you could leave a comment with things that you would find useful (or not useful) in book reviews, it would be greatly appreciated!

Here is a list of some items to get you started:

• [ ]Author’s Teaching Style
• My background as a reviewer before reading the book
• General pros and cons
• My expectations of the book
• What I liked about it
• What makes the book unique
• Relationship with similar books
  As always, please be as honest and blunt as you would like to be. If you like or dislike the things I mentioned above or currently use in my reviews, say so! The more vocal and opinionated you are, the more useful the book reviews will be to you. I’m looking forward to seeing your feedback!

Friday Go Forward: Week 21

Overview

If it isn’t apparent, my studying sessions have gotten pretty crazy. I know that it would be better for me to focus on one book at a time, but my attention span just can’t handle too much of one topic. As much as I’d love to fully absorb everything I’m reading, my goal is to absorb as much as possible with the least amount of time and effort. Therefore, if I am getting bored and not really paying attention anymore, I move on to another topic.

I know it’s not the most thorough method, but I have a lot of books that I’d love to read and different explanations to be exposed to. Once I’ve reviewed every book that I own, you can be sure that I will be returning to the ones that I want to really gain a mastery over. So for now, I’m okay with being a jack of all trades and master of none. xD

Games

• KGS - 0 games (0 wins : 0 losses)
• DGS - 3 ongoing games
• Nova - 3 ongoing games

Education & Training

• Finished Essential Life & Death,__ Vol. 2.
• Finished The Direction of Play.
• Finished Elementary Go Series - Tesuji.
• Worked on Attacking and Defending Moyos.
• Worked on Modern Master Games, Vol. 1.
• Started working on Elementary Go Series, Vol 4 - Life and Death.
• Started working on Elementary Go Series, Vol 5 - Attack and Defense.
• Started working on Whole Board Thinking of Joseki, Vol. 1.
• Started working on Essential Life & Death, Vol. 3.

If you’re wondering whether or not that’s my personal collection of Level Up/Jump Up books, it’s not. It’s just a sneak peak of the shipment that will be coming in the near future. xD

That’s right… As if I didn’t have enough books to work on already, the chance to study Korean school texts firsthand was too much to resist. So you will be seeing firsthand as I work my way through the entire series what I think of the books and whether or not you should give it a shot.

Although this purchase would probably qualify enough for the blog post’s title, there was a go classified ad for books on sale and I ended up picking up a couple out of print books along with another Korean series called Train Like a Pro. (I know… what is wrong with me…)

My credit card might be slightly melted, but I hope it’ll forgive me because the rest of the year is looking awesome!

Overview

It seems I’m on a trend of not playing as many games anymore, but I’m okay with that for now since I’m currently in a big study mode. I have over 100+ books in my collection (and that’s physical books mind you) and I have barely made a dent. In addition, I have another plan to immerse myself in studying Korean style go books. It will involve buying lots of new books and changing my regimen, but before I do that I want to finish all the Kiseido series that I have started. So, be on the lookout for lots more book reviews!

Games

• KGS - 3 games (2 wins : 1 loss)
• DGS - 2 ongoing games
• Nova - 2 ongoing games

Training

• Worked on _Essential Life & Death,__ Vol. 2 _everyday.
• Worked a little bit on Attacking and Defending Moyos.
• Worked through Modern Master Games, Vol. 1.
• Finished Positional Judgment.
• Started and finished The Direction of Play.
• Started Elementary Go Series - Tesuji.

Lessons Learned

1. I am not vigilant when it comes to reading out sequences properly.
2. I still play “wishful go” and think that my opponents will respond to things that I myself would never respond to.
3. To help remedy my problem of playing moves without thinking, I’m trying to take one deep breath before each move to try and slow down.

Recently, I have been trying to figure out how to resolve my problem of being undisciplined when it comes to reading out sequences or figuring out what move to play next.

One of the first solutions I came up with was to simply try and practice more problems, but it didn’t really seem to help much. So the next thing I tried was reading more theoretical go books in hopes of having something click inside me that would all of a sudden fix my problem. That didn’t work out too well either.

After some thought, I realized that my problem is actually multidimensional.

1. Physical Energy - I have been a lot more tired than I would like to admit lately. Though I didn’t recognize it at the time, it was playing a major role in my being nonchalant about what or where I played next.
2. Multiple Points of Focus - Those who know me personally will attest to the fact that I am the type who is constantly trying to multi-task and can jump from one thing to another in a blink of an eye. While that can be useful in certain contexts, it is actually becoming detrimental to my go in the long run (along with other things, but let’s face it, go is the first priority here. =P).
3. Overload / Burnout - As a result of the previous two points, it is only natural that my brain would eventually become overloaded and simply burnout.
   It’s clear that I need a reboot on my system and approach to things. To start though, I’ve resolved to achieve two goals: (1) Simplify & Focus and (2) Gain back the physical energy that I once had.

Overview

This has been an interesting week that was fraught with frustration, but paired with deep introspection that yielded something valuable for me as a whole. Although it took me some time to realize, there was a growing tendency for me to rush in both Go and my life in general. So, I am grateful that go has once again provided an avenue for me to improve my life as a whole once again. Beginning the path back to zen will have a number of butterfly effects, but I have a feeling they will be far from regrettable. =)

Games

• KGS - 4 games (2 wins : 2 losses)
• DGS - 1 ongoing game
• Nova - 2 ongoing games

Training

• Finished _Essential Life & Death: Vol. 1 and started Vol. 2_.
• Finished reading The Chinese Opening by Yuan Zhou.
• Started working on _Attacking and Defending Moyos _by Zeijst and Bozulich.
• Started reading _Modern Master Games, Vol. 1 _by Zeijst and Bozulich.
• Started working on _Positional Judgment _by Cho Chikun.

Lessons Learned

1. If I feel like I am strapped for time or rushed before I even start a game, it’s probably best to not even bother playing.
2. To refrain from kyu tunnel vision, I need to look at the board with fresh eyes after every move.