In case this isn’t apparent, this is a 2-D drawing. And also, do you spot what I see? xD

Late last night, I had written about the fact that my go has become a race to the finish line. I realize that I was probably not the most articulate since I was about to pass out, but upon further reflection this morning, I realized that my problem actually is rooted in the fact that I have lost sight of my zen (aka my center of calm).

Whenever I play a move, I realized that I am always in a hurry to see what my opponent plays next. In fact, it’s almost as if I’m trying to play a blitz game in a game that’s supposed to have a main time of 20 minutes or more. As a result, autopilot moves show up and failure to consider global effects arise again and again.

Bottom line: I need find my center again. Otherwise, this will quickly spiral out of control and my go will become a reckless monster beyond saving. This ends today.

I’ve been losing quite a bit lately. Whenever I played a live game against a person of relatively equal strength, I seem to do alright for awhile and then completely fall apart at the end. It’s been rather frustrating, but I think I may have discovered my problem: I’ve gotten to a point in my go where I am constantly trying to rush to the finish line.

What do I mean by that?

Well, in short, it seems that I’ve stopped appreciating the game as each move progresses. My head is so focused on the end result of winning or losing that the ability to simply enjoy each step of every game has become obsolete to me. In addition, I’m rarely devoting my attention to a game anymore. I’m always trying to multitask and respond instinctually to my opponents. It’s gotten so bad that I don’t even try to properly read out life and death sequences anymore. I just play what appears to work at first glance.

And as if that wasn’t bad enough, I seem to have forgotten the whole concept of “playing against myself.” Just today, I made multiple careless errors where I assumed my opponent would play in one area. When in actuality, I would never have expected myself to play there to begin with. So I ended up essentially passing the turn to my opponent time after time.

I’ve gotten myself into quite a bind haven’t I? Haha…

As of late, I have been finding it difficult to really get my head in the game. I’m not sure if it’s due to the busy schedule of having relatives from out of town, or whether my mind is undergoing some new twists and turns that is changing the way I see the game.

For those who have been keeping up with my progress, you probably remember that I mentioned a recently gained ability to estimate territory. Unfortunately though, it seems like my mind is once again becoming adverse to doing it and it’s causing me to just play moves on a local scale (which is turning out terribly might I add). And as if that wasn’t bad enough, I’ve gotten into a bad habit of not fully reading moves out before I play. This is ends up causing a vicious cycle of where I end up playing regrettable moves because of laziness as opposed to not seeing a particular sequence. Oy vey…

To counter these bad habits, I’m going back to the basics and doing life and death problems the old fashioned way: Read it till you figure it out. No more exposure to new material. Just a good ol’ fashioned tsumego drills. In addition, I’ve started Cho Chikun’s book on Positional Judgment to hopefully get myself more comfortable with evaluating the whole board. We’ll see how it goes…

Also, for those who enjoy game commentaries, you should definitely check out my long time friend and rival’s new post on a game he played recently at Yuan Zhou‘s Workshop! It is a fun exciting game that shows an excellent command of play by Black and numerous examples of how overplays are supposed to be punished. Definitely worth checking out!

For those who were expecting a Monday Go Meditation post, I apologize for not being able to have a kifu in time for this week. I have relatives visiting from out of the country and the past week has been pretty crazy. I promise that there will definitely be a game for you next week. On a separate note, I feel that I am obligated to record the fact that my journey has hit a little bump on the road.

After many years of resisting the urge to join my friends and family in League of Legends (LoL), I finally gave in and have officially become part of the LoL community. xD Haha. I’m trying really hard not to become an addict and let everything go to the wayside, so there is no need to fret that I will suddenly stop playing go in lieu of playing LoL. My goal is to play in moderation to alleviate any possibility of burning out when it comes to studying and playing go. I have full confidence I will be able to achieve this. =D

For those who are curious about my summoner name, you can find me on sentecrosscut. (If you’re looking for the account referral name, sentenobi is probably what you need.)

Overview

This week seems to have been dwindling down in terms of playing. Part of it is due to the fact that I know that I’ve been in more aggressive mood lately (which usually leads to me going on tilt), but I think the other part is that I am getting in a study groove again. I’ve gotten an urge to try and read as many books as I can possibly can before needing to burning out from studying, by which of course then it’ll be time to play more games again. On top of that, I’m also trying to really create a robust Book Review section for this blog so that players can really get a sense of what they’re buying when selecting a book.

Games

• KGS - 1 game (0 wins : 1 loss)
• DGS - 1 ongoing game
• Nova - 1 ongoing game

Training

• Started the Essential Life & Death series again.
• Finished the theory section and some problems in Mastering the Basics: Ko.
• Finished my first reading of Kage’s Secret Chronicles of Handicap Go.
• Started reading The Chinese Opening by Yuan Zhou.

Lessons Learned

1. If I can’t give 100% of my attention to a game of go, I should refrain from playing with strangers.
2. I need to re-discipline my reading abilities so that I feel certain about what might happen instead of playing a move because it “looks like it’ll work.”

I am excited to announce that a new Book Review landing page has been launched and can now be found in the top menu. In addition, for those who have been checking out the book reviews, you will probably notice that the format has been changed as well for the more recent reviews.

After looking over the old reviews, I realized that a lot of my attempts to be more descriptive regarding aspects like “Content Quality” or “Readability” did not always deliver the correct message I wanted and could cause some confusion. So, in order to ensure that you are getting the most out of my reviews, I thought it would be more helpful if I simply gave the following:

1. What I Expected - As the category suggests, these are some of my thoughts and hopes prior to reading the book.

2. What You Can Expect - After reading the book, I aim to highlight important areas that I think people would want to know before buying the book.

3. My Thoughts as a X Kyu/Dan - This section is for those who have time for a little more in depth analysis as I ramble and/or elaborate about other aspects that I think will be helpful at the time of my current rank. The reason for putting my rank down is that when I inevitably reread the book again (since I never absorb everything the first time around), I thought people would be interested to see if my perspective has changed at all.

Now of course, I can only do so much anticipating in regards to what readers find helpful. So, if you have any ideas or requests for things you would like to see in my reviews that would help you make a better decision, please comment below or contact me so that I can help make the reviews even better!

UPDATE: There’s a small change to the third category since I thought people would find it helpful to see my thoughts on the books as I grow in strength instead of deleting what I previously thought at a weaker rank. And in addition, all the book reviews will eventually match the format listed above.

It was a beautiful Saturday morning when I pulled up to the Maryland Open in Catonsville, Maryland. Though I was a little nervous for what was waiting for me at this tournament, I was excited at the prospect of seeing friends and having a day filled with go.

Read More

Overview

This week has been a little light in regards to playing, but I got a chance to participate in the MD Open (which I will post about tomorrow) and gain some really valuable insight from my sensei frozensoul. Some of the ideas are still sort of jumbled and not clearly integrated in my play yet; but this week has felt like a big shift for me in terms of my perspective of the game in addition to taking one step closer to sharpening my blade.

Games

• Tournament - 2 games (2 wins: 0 losses)
• KGS - 1 game (0 wins : 1 loss)
• DGS - 2 ongoing games
• Nova - 2 ongoing games

Training

• 20 tsumego problems each day.
• Finished Mastering the Basics: The Basics of Go Strategy.
• Started and working on Mastering the Basics: Ko.
• Working on Kage’s Secret Chronicles of Handicap Go.

Lessons Learned

1. Being able to treat forcing moves as light stones has made a world of difference in my play.
2. I am starting to understand how to exploit aji in conjunction with forcing moves and probes.
3. Being able to estimate territory (even to only some accuracy) has really helped me figure out what I need to do to possibly win the game.

As an addendum to my post on Tuesday, I realized yesterday that in addition to seeing the board in more of a global perspective than ever before, I have actually acquired a rather moderate level of counting / estimating territory.

I know it might seem rather mundane to most of you, but counting and estimating territory has always been one of the things I have dreaded and avoided at all costs. Granted, my counting and estimating is far from anything praise worthy; but if I set my mind to it, I am now able to estimate territory within a reasonable standard deviance of error.

On top of that, I was also opened up to the whole concept of how a board is considered “an even position.” It’s always baffled me as to how a position could be considered “even,” but my lesson with frozensoul definitely helped to shed some light on why certain moves that are normally considered slow are actually good moves strategically when the whole board is considered.

Hopefully I’ll be able to explain these ideas and concepts better in the future; but for now, hopefully that helps to shed some insight into my new paradigm shift. =)

In the past, the go board was fragmented in my mind. Depending on the tide of the battle or how certain frameworks were developing, my brain would divide the board into various areas of focus. As a result, I very quickly lost sight of the bigger picture and had a difficult time figuring out what to do next or executing any particular strategy well. In fact, the only time I believe I was able to strategically dominate my opponent is when they jumped head first into a framework I was familiar in utilizing (e.g., the Chinese opening).

To say that I’ve never experienced the zen of seeing the whole board at once would be untrue, but it wasn’t until my most recent lesson with frozensoul that I had a shocking awakening that would cause my world to dramatically shift. Games no longer seem like isolated battles that gradually add up to a greater theme. Instead, every move now seems to contribute to the entire picture.

For those who are wondering, this mindset of true “whole board thinking” is rather taxing for me. It is far from being instinctively engraved in my brain. I still fall victim to kyu tunnel vision from time to time; but deep down, I can already tell that I have crossed into a new world where there is no turning back.