Overview

In case it wasn’t apparent to everyone, this week has been entirely centered around boxing analogies along with handicap go. There hasn’t been as many ranked games as I might have liked, but the amount of go I’ve been playing/studying seems to be harmonizing much better with the rest of my life. Still fine tuning a number of things, but just glad to not feel overwhelemed by go anymore.

Games

• KGS - 2 games (2 wins : 0 losses)
• DGS - 2 ongoing games
• Nova - 3 ongoing games

Training

• 20 tsumego problems each day.
• Worked Mastering the Basics: The Basics of Go Strategy.
• Started reading Kage’s Secret Chronicles of Handicap Go.

Lessons Learned

1. When attacking, strike at the vital points while maintaining strength and not overextending yourself.
2. It’s okay to let things live or give your opponents points, as long as you are getting more in return.
3. Don’t over think your moves in turn based go. Rather than spend hours staring at the screen trying to make the perfect move, you will learn and gain more by playing more games and learning from your mistakes.

I just finished the arc in Hajime no Ippo where Takamura fights for his second world title. In an effort not to spoil it for anyone who plans on reading or watching the show, all I will say is that his faithfulness to his fundamentals was incredibly moving. No matter what the situation, people’s faith in the fundamentals is what allow them to pull themselves out of the most difficult situations.

Aside from that though, I’ve had one of the most eye opening lessons to date. My whole perspective on moyos and just go in general has completely changed. Granted, integrating this new perspective into my play will probably be terribly exhausting for awhile; but ho ho ho…. this could change everything…

Lately I have been on a Hajime no Ippo kick and can’t seem to put it down. With each match that I read, I’m severely reminded of how much they endure in order to be crowned the victor at the end of each match. Of course, some of their battles are won in a one round KO; but for the most part, the victor rarely comes out unscathed and is often sweating profusely and breathing heavily when holding is victory pose.

Being the go player that I am, I couldn’t help but draw connections between the two sports (albeit physical vs. mental, but you get my point). Too often, I have found that players are often looking for the easy win. The one-sided match where only a miracle might possibly save the opponent. And I’ll be honest, I have been and still am (to some degree) guilty of that. After all, it feels good when you’re knocking your opponent around and in full control of the game.

However, the pursuit of that type of dominating game is unhealthy for a go player. More often than not, the constant attempt at trying to throw that KO punch will be met with a timely counter that reverses the position and knocks you out before you know it. It is a terrible mindset that will only corrode your go as time goes on.

Instead, we must strive to be patient. Use your strengths and strike while maintaining a manageable level of risk. Endure your opponents attacks and the dips that will inevitably come with most games. All you need to remember, as you parry the board against your opponent, is that you don’t need to win by KO or by 30 points. You only need half a point to be the victor.

Over the last few days, something that has been bothering me is the fact that my rank graph has completely plateaued. While I know that I can match stronger opponents in even games sometimes, it was bothering me that I did not have the rank to show for it.

After some thought though, I have realized that my anxiety at letting KGS define my strength is rather stupid. First of all, I just don’t have enough time to play the ranked games required to possibly show whatever improvements that I may have gained. On top of that, it’s not as if KGS’ ranking equation is the best in the world. So with that in mind, what am I worried about?

In addition, I’ve also come to terms that my style has always been more of a wild fighting style. It’s not that I was never interested in the calculated wins where the win margin was 10 points or less; but my style always led to games that would be decided by 30 points or more. In fact, I think I continued playing that way in order to avoid actually counting since the advantage would be so clear there would be no need to count.

And so, regardless of the fact that I may be a KGS 5k for some time, I have decided to play all of my opponents with my weakest style from now on: calm and calculated. (Don’t get me wrong. If the opponent offers an opportunity for me to strike, I will unleash a tornado of fury upon them.) I will lose a lot, but I have a feeling that this is my biggest obstacle before I leave the world of kyus.

Watch out shodans. I’ll be knocking at your door before you know it.

Over the last couple months, one of the things I’ve been really wrestling with is my aversion to handicap games: regardless of which side I was on. I can’t really pinpoint the reason for this fear of playing handicap games, but it was leading me down a path where I was starting to avoid playing handicap games all together.

There’s a quote that my brother has on his phone: “Life begins where your comfort zone ends.” Although I was not thinking of go when he first showed it to me, it recently dawned upon me that “getting stronger in go begins where your comfort zone ends.”

At that moment, any negative emotions I had about handicap go was instead replaced by excitement for the possibilities that lay beyond the world of handicap go. It’s not such much that I want to become an expert in handicap go, but there is so much to be learned through playing it that it could mean wonders for my growth. Oh the possibilities…

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.

Earlier today, I thought it would be a good idea to get back in the groove of things by playing a quick 10 minute game. I think it was going okay, until my time ran short and then I made a blunder and lost a big group. That might have been okay, but then I thought that it would be an even better idea to play a blitz game with 10 seconds on the clock. Worst. Idea. Ever.

As I was bombarded by the painstaking beeping of the clock reminding me I’m running out of time, my opponents would just play any crazy invasion they could think of just to burn time and hope for me to make an error. Fortunately for them, the strategy worked quite well and I made more than my fair share of blunders. Sigh.

So once again, I am painfully reminded of how I need to remember my own advice and stick with longer games. Short games are fun when it’s casual and with friends, but blitz games against strangers leaves a rather bitter taste in my mouth that I would like to avoid from now on.

What a terrible way to come back to ranked games on KGS. And to top it off, since I haven’t played a ranked game in so long, the two losses caused me to drop a rank. Whomp whomp… But no matter, I know that I am not a 6k anymore. It’s just a temporary blip on the radar that will be insignificant once I get back in the groove of things.

While I already miss the awesome weather, incredible scenery (aka awesome beaches with super clear water), and not to mention amazing food, I am glad to be back!

When I first left for my vacation, I thought that I would be itching to get back into go. To my surprise, it is still taking me awhile to really get back into my routine. I’m still feeling a little apprehensive; but on the upside, I am starting to feel excited at the prospect of playing again! So, good news on that end!

In the past, I used to come off of these breaks with an intent on studying like there was no tomorrow. This time though, I intend on taking it one step at a time and really figuring out where my groove is with studying and playing. My goal is to become the strongest player I can possibly be. If these last couple years have taught me anything, it is that consistency is the best route to doing so. So I’m hoping that I can avoid burnout with this slower, but hopefully more solid approach.

I apologize for not having a Monday Go Meditation ready for this week, but it seems that it may be a little bit before I get that back up and running since I’m out of games that have good material for a review. Just more motivation for me to finally start playing ranked games on KGS again. =)

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!

I had an interesting conversation with frozensoul today. For all my efforts at figuring out what’s wrong with me, something I had not considered is that my head is filled to the brim with go material. I am constantly playing and trying to cram more information, but it may be time for me to just completely stop playing and studying.

Hold your keimas and relax. I’m not going to disappear from the go world. It’s just that I am coincidentally going on vacation next week.

I originally planned to bring a few go books and then study the hell out of them, but it seems that this may be the prime opportunity for me to completely vacate and recover. No playing. No studying. If anything, I’ll be meditating on everything and planning to come back with a fresh mind and a new perspective.

Like an addict, it makes me cringe at the thought of not doing anything go related for a whole week; but I think that frozensoul’s prescription may just be the medicine I need to get back in the game.