Hey everyone. I just got back from Hong Kong yesterday. So while I’d love to write all about my Hong Kong trip, I’ll need to finish catching up before doing so. But overall, the trip went well and I got to spend a bit of time really fine tuning my approach to go along with having the pleasure of visiting the Hong Kong Go Association. More on that later though. Hope you all are doing well!

Friday Go Forward: Week 54

Overview

This week marks the start of my race towards the dan wall that all kyu players are striving to overcome. I’ve tried playing more recently, and I’ve completely ramped up my training regimen. In the past, I’ve tried alternating between time-based training versus task-based training and kept finding something lacking about each. As a result, I’ve decided to do a fusion this time around to really get the ball rolling. I’m really hoping that it will gain some traction this time.

Secondly, I wanted to give a shoutout to a fellow go player Lizardfish (aka Eulerstotle for those who knew him before) who started a new go site called Lizardfish’s GO Notes. He approaches the notion of explaining go topics through PDF’s as opposed to SGF’s (which can be quite confusing if designed poorly). Be sure to check it out! Definitely looking forward to seeing more of his work.

Finally, in case you missed it, I am going to be heading out to Hong Kong this week and will be pretty MIA for the next week. However, I am happy to announce that none of the weekly articles (i.e., Monday Go Meditation) will be taking a hiatus. I’m not sure what my internet connection will be like, but I’ll be sure to try and update as best as I can. So if I don’t get a chance to get online next week, I’ll see you all after I get back!

Training Regimen

• Reading Ability - Work on the tasks below until whichever comes first.*

  • Work on go problems for 30 minutes.
  • Work on 200 go problems.
    *This is a way to split the difference between task based versus time based training. If you work faster than normal, and can get through 200 (or whichever number you decide on) problems. Kudos to you. But in the event you’re having trouble and need more time to work on the problems, just keep at it until 30 minutes is up (or whatever time you think it best for you).

Games

• KGS - 2 games
• DGS - 3 ongoing games
• OGS - 6 ongoing games | 1 completed games

Books

• Worked on Life and Death Problems 1 - Basics by Robert Jasiek.

It’s that time of year again! The 41st Maryland Open Go Tournament is upon us once again! So if you live in the DC Metro Area or simply don’t mind making the trip down to Baltimore, Maryland, be sure to check out the flier below for more information.

41st Maryland Go Open Official Site

And as always, let me know if you plan on going so we can meet up! I should be going unless something serious comes up. Hope to see you some of you at the tournament!

Weekly Go Wednesday: Issue #34

As most of you know, I own a majority of the English go literature that exists out in the market. And in conjunction with that notion, I’ve also reviewed quite a few books as I’ve progressed throughout my journey. What some of you may not realize however, is that one of the downsides to me trying to review books in quick succession means that I am unable to spend a lot of time absorbing the material. As a result, my growth as a player is not necessarily correlated with the number of books I’ve read.

Lately I’ve been really starting to see the detrimental effect of my poor reading abilities. I have found myself in numerous positions where I may have made strategically sound decisions and had aims that should have worked in actuality, but due to my weak reading skills I was unable to follow through or execute my plan properly. So after numerous frustrating games and irritation with my own growth, I’ve decided to take a step back in my studies.

Read More

I haven’t had a chance to really talk about this much, but I’m actually going to be headed to Hong Kong in less than a week! As you might expect, it’s been a busy rush to get all my ducks in line and make sure I don’t have any lingering things to do when I leave.

One of the things I’m pondering about however, is how I’m going to be utilizing my time during those long hours on the plane. I’m debating bringing a magnetic go set so I can use it on the plane, but then I worry that I’ll spill the bowls and all the pieces will go everywhere on the plane. Still a little on the fence about what I’m going to do, but so far it seems like I might just use it to do some serious life and death studying. I’m open to suggestions though!

Most importantly, if ANYONE has any connections to people who play go in Hong Kong (or know a friend of a friend who might be able to help me out), please let me know since I would love to be able to do at least one go related activity while in Hong Kong. It would be awesome if I could play with some locals and have something go-related to commemorate the trip with!

I definitely will be doing a post on my Hong Kong trip after I get back, but I’m really hoping to have some go-related material in there if possible. Although worst case scenario, you’ll just have to endure numerous photos of food and stories instead. Guess that’s not so bad right? But it would definitely be epic if I could have at least one go anecdote in there, here’s to hoping…

Friday Go Forward: Week 53

Overview

As the weeks have gone on, it’s been great to feel a sustainable change happening in regards to my discipline towards blogging along with go itself. In case any of you missed it, Go Congress is coming up soon! So in light of that, I am really aiming to step up my training in preparation for it. My goal is to become a solid dan player before Go Congress. Might be impossible, but I’ll never know till I try. So with that said, here’s to the start of overcoming the monumental hurdle all kyu players are aiming for: climbing over the dan wall and never falling back (aka not jumping between 1k and 1d). Ikuzo!

Training Regimen

• Step #1: Do 10 go problems a day. (Estimated time: 5-10 minutes)

Games

• KGS - 4 games
• DGS - 2 ongoing games
• OGS - 7 ongoing games | 4 completed games

Books

• Finished on Graded Go Problems for Dan Players - Volume One: 300 Life-and-Death Problems.
• Worked on Life and Death Problems 1 - Basics by Robert Jasiek.

Weekly Go Wednesday: Issue #33

As some of you know, Gu Li and Lee Sedol recently had their second game in their jubango. And because the feedback on my review of Gu Li and Lee Sedol’s first jubango game was positive, I am happy to announce that I will continue reviewing every game from this jubango! Before we get into the review itself though, there are a couple of things I wanted to mention.

1. In response to your feedback from my review of Gu Li and Lee Sedol’s first jubango game, this review was created to include more of my reactions and thoughts on the game as opposed to simply trying to “teach people what’s going on.”
2. However, I do want to emphasize that I still believe firmly in providing a thorough breakdown of the game in order to allow players of all strengths to be able to follow the game and gain more enjoyment from it. So continuing with the same format as before, there is commentary for every single move regardless of how “obvious” it might seem.
3. Though frozensoul and I were able to combine forces on the first game, I was unable to get together with him in time for me to release this post. So this game review is solely my doing and therefore all ideas and analyses come from the best I have in my SDK brain. Hopefully in the future I’ll be able to collaborate with him and/or other stronger players as well.
4. For more advanced reviews, be sure to keep an eye out on World Go Online and GoGameGuru since I’m sure they will have their own in the near future.
   I hope that you enjoy the review and improved format. Be sure to leave comments as the format is still a work in progress and I am always trying to make the reading experience a more enjoyable one for you!

Credit for the kifu and some insights go to GoGameGuru

Update: There is a correction to the score I reported in the kifu. Due to Chinese counting, the final score was actually a half point win for Lee Sedol. Though it didn’t change the result of the game, it definitely only adds to the epicness and excitement of the game!