Journal►Progress Reports►Friday Go Forward

Friday Go Forward: Week 40

Overview

Quite a bit has happened over the past week. First off, my training menu is completely thrown off now. Due to other pursuits in my life (i.e., design, boxing, etc.), it seems I lost track of time and could not be consistent about my study. In addition, I am also pretty swamped with trying to get my reviews for my GoGameGuru items up and online asap. So I’ve definitely lost a little bit momentum this week, but hopefully I’ll be able to regain my footing soon and resume my research into the ideal training menu. Anyhow, lots of work to do. See you next week!

Games

KGS - 3 game
DGS - 2 ongoing games
Nova - 4 games

Reading Material

Worked on Getting Strong at Endgame.
Worked on Changing One’s Conceptions: Awaji’s Aphorisms.
Finished Master Play: The Fighting Styles of Kato Masao & Seo Bong Soo.
Started working on Getting Strong at Attacking.

Journal►Progress Reports►Friday Go Forward

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

Journal►Progress Reports►Friday Go Forward

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

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

Journal►Progress Reports►Friday Go Forward

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

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

Journal►Progress Reports►Friday Go Forward

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)

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

Journal►Progress Reports►Friday Go Forward

Friday Go Forward: Week 35

Overview

This week has been quite an interesting one for me. I made the decision to switch from task based productivity to time based productivity and have found it to be a much more manageable method to keeping consistent about the things that are important to me. In addition, now that I have been shifting my focus to increase the quality of my training, I am feeling a lot more at peace with my progress and don’t feel like I will be burning out anytime soon. So while my training menu might seem very simple, the key factor I’m aiming for is consistency. And if I have additional time in the day, then I’m welcome to pile on any additional training that I’m in the mood for. =)

Games

KGS - 4 games
DGS - 3 ongoing games
Nova - 3 ongoing games

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

Working on Jump Level Up 3.
Working on Get Strong at Endgame.
Working on_ __Perceiving the Direction of Play_.

Video Lessons

Journal►Progress Reports►Friday Go Forward

Friday Go Forward: Week 34

Overview

The theme of this week seems to be “Revisions and Updates.” After attempting the aggressive tsumego regimen I had set last week, I realized that I was once again just starting to blow through problems instead of trying to practice reading variations. So it’s been changed again to try and find a better balance between quality and intensity. In addition, I am sad to report that I won’t be getting on Tygem any time soon since it seems that the resignation button causes the iPad app to crash all the time. It just really sucks because I enjoy Tygem as a server but their software is just SOOOO crappy. People might complain about KGS being outdated, but it generally works like a charm.

On a more progress-based note, getting a chance to finally see Go Seigen’s brilliance shine on the board has been incredibly eye-opening for me. It’s not so much that other professionals are not brilliant in their own way, but perhaps what I’m talking about is the fact that Go Seigen’s play constantly reminds players just how much freedom they really have on the board. Forget joseki or proper sequences, if you want to play somewhere else because you have a grand plan in mind. Go for it!

Otherwise though, it was a pretty productive week and I look forward to what challenges the next week has for me. Till next week!

Games

KGS - 8 games
DGS - 2 ongoing games
Nova - 3 ongoing games

Daily Training

Life & Death Routine (Magic Baduk Go on iPhone)
- 300 Beginner Problems
- 50 Intermediate Problems
30 Pages of Jump Level Up 2
50 Problems from the Get Strong at Go Series.
Play or review at least one game per day.

Reading Material

Finished Commented Games by Lee Sedol - Volume 2.
Finished Get Strong at Invading.
Finished Jump Level Up 2.
Finished Get Strong at Tesuji.
Started and finished Master Play: The Style of Go Seigen.
Started and working on Jump Level Up 3.
Started and working on Get Strong at Endgame.
Started and working on_ __Perceiving the Direction of Play_.

Journal►Progress Reports►Friday Go Forward

Friday Go Forward: Week 33

Overview

This has been pretty hectic in regards to work and life in general; but for some reason I still managed to convince myself that I needed to increase the scope of my training to be far more vigorous. So as you’ll notice below, the regimen has spiked quite significantly. And the fun part of all of this is that the training regimen is still far from complete. xD Anyhow, for now I think it will be enough if I manage to survive my training regimen without burning out. Once I’ve gotten acclimated to it, then I will be looking for ways to improve it once again. Hope you all have had a good week!

Games

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

Daily Training

Life & Death Routine (Magic Baduk Go on iPhone)
- 300 Beginner Problems -
- 50 Intermediate Problems
- 25 Advanced Problems
- 10 Expert Problems
10 Pages of Jump Level Up 2
25 Problems from the Get Strong at Go Series.
Play at least one game per day.

Reading Material

Working on Commented Games by Lee Sedol - Volume 2.
Working on Get Strong at Invading.
Working on Jump Level Up 2.
Started working on Get Strong at Tesuji.

Journal►Progress Reports►Friday Go Forward

Friday Go Forward: Week 32

Overview

It’s been a rather busy week, but I think it would be fair to say it’s been pretty productive! I think the biggest accomplishment is my goal to simply play at least one game a day. Though this would have seemed impossible in the past, I have been toggling back between KGS and Tygem to fulfill that discipline. In addition, I’ve increased my training menu to really push myself and attempt to increase my reading ability. The training menu is still far from complete, but I am definitely feeling like I have gotten one step closer to unlocking the key behind designing training menus. Very exciting!

Games

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

Daily Training

100 Beginner Life & Death Problems - Magic Baduk Go (iPhone)
20 Intermediate Life & Death Problems - Magic Baduk Go (iPhone)
10 Pages of Jump Level Up 1
25 Problems from the Get Strong at Go Series.

Reading Material

Finished on Get Strong at Joseki 3.
Finished Commented Games by Lee Sedol - Volume 1.
Started working on Commented Games by Lee Sedol - Volume 2.
Started working on Get Strong at Invading.
Working on Jump Level Up 2.

Journal►Progress Reports►Friday Go Forward

Friday Go Forward: Week 31

Overview

It’s been another crazy week, but I think I’ve managed to post a bit more than last week. So let’s call that a win shall we? Haha. Otherwise though, it’s been a more studious week that has been focused on trying to gain a better foothold on how I plan on continuing my work on the blog. Though it has come a long way since its beginnings at Blogger, it is still falling short of my expectations and visions as a designer. Although before I get too ahead of myself, I still need to focus on making sure that new content is being pushed out so that there will be something to fill my designs when the time comes. =) Meanwhile, I will bide my time and jot down all of my ideas. Hopefully the day it all comes together will not be too far in the future. One can hope right? xD

Games

KGS - 2 games
DGS - 2 ongoing games
Nova - 2 ongoing games

Daily Training

20 Intermediate Life & Death Problems - Magic Baduk Go (iPhone)
10 Pages of Jump Level Up 1
25 Problems from the Get Strong at Go Series.

Reading Material

Finished Get Strong at Joseki 2.
Finished The Workshop Lectures Volume 6.
Finished Jump Level Up 1.
Finished Fight Like a Pro.
Started working on Get Strong at Joseki 3.
Started working on Commented Games by Lee Sedol 1.
Started working on Jump Level Up 2.

Category: Friday Go Forward