Hey everyone! Just wanted to drop in and let you all know about a brand new go server that is currently in beta: Bitcoin Go! Though currently still undergoing development and being in beta, one of the unique factors about them is that they will be using bit coins (aka digital currency) as prizes for the tournaments! Isn’t that awesome?

So since it won’t cost you a thing, be sure to get on over to Bitcoin Go and sign up for an account and become a beta tester with them! And if you have any suggestions or notice any bugs, feel free to contact the developers. I’ve had the pleasure of meeting and playing with Steven and he was really responsive and friendly. So don’t delay, go check it out! =)

Friday Go Forward: Week 48

Overview

Happy Chinese New Year everyone! It’s the Year of the Horse and with that I think the theme for this new (lunar) year will be charging forward full speed!

I’ve been a little quieter this week than I would have liked, but I’ve started on some new ventures that I think will greatly enhance my life and I’ll be sure to report on them once I feel I’ve settled down and gotten in a good rhythm with it. But meanwhile, I’ve been working hard on figuring out how to do game reviews effectively without consuming a lot of time. It seems as if I’m constantly trying to catch up on creating game reviews no matter how hard I try. I think the plan is to try and review the games immediately after in order to speed up the process.

Second, I have been much more active on KGS that I have been in the past. In particular, I have actually started playing longer games again (i.e., 30 minutes main time each person). Many thanks goes out to my friend Nate for helping me get back on track. I will write a post on his advice to me later, so be looking out for that later.

The other focus of mine has been to get the rest of my reviews finished within the next week or so. I still have a couple of product and book reviews to finish and they’ve been hanging over my head. So hopefully I’ll be able to get those done ASAP so I can alleviate that weight off my back.

Finally, you’ll probably notice that I but the training regimen in half. This is due to the fact that I was actually having a hard time simply doing 10 a day. It’s not so much that I “couldn’t,” but more along the lines of I was unable to be consistent since the 10 problems felt like a lot more when you also have like 30 other things that need your attention that day. So I’m dropping it down to 5 to see if that can get me to a perfectly consistent level.

Training Regimen

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

Games

• KGS - 2 games
• DGS - 1 ongoing game
• OGS - 7 ongoing games

Books

• Worked 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.
• Worked on Fighting Fundamentals by Robert Jasiek.

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Friday Go Forward: Week 47

Overview

This week is all about playing catchup and getting back to where I was prior to my trip. While it was fun, I have to say that it threw me more out of sync than I would have liked. No matter. Content is back up and running and I’ll do my best to prevent it from stopping again.

In terms of overall, the highlight of the week is definitely finding out about Kaz’s Online Go School. If you haven’t heard about it, go check out my post and I definitely recommend that you sign up! Even if you can’t make all the classes, Kaz will send you the game record from the lesson and it will include his written comments (since he won’t be using a mic). Isn’t that great?

Other than that, I’ve been doing my best to actually start playing again. Trying to not put so much pressure on myself before each game. I still get a bit anxious before playing, but I’m hoping that will get better over time. See you all next week!

Training Regimen

• Step #1: Do 10 go problems a day. (Estimated time: 10 minutes) - My California trip totally threw off my training regimen. So this training has been lacking lately. Trying to get back on track this week. Hopefully it’ll be back to normal by next week.

Games

• KGS - 1 game
• DGS - 1 ongoing game
• OGS - 7 ongoing games

Books

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

Videos

• None this week. Been super swamped in California. Haha.

Tiny Habit

1. Every time I use the restroom, I will do 5 tsumego problems.

In case you weren’t aware, there is about to be an epic clash between two titans of our time: Gu Li and Lee Sedol! They have perhaps the most well known rivalry in the professional scene and will be starting their jubango (i.e., ten game series) to determine who is the strongest this weekend!

And for those who are curious to see the epicness and excitement captured in a video, you’re in luck! Thanks to Nate for sharing this so I could discover it!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=huGtJCjsQ5I

The game will be broadcasted live on KGS starting at 8:30 pm EST / 5:30 pm PST. The commentary by Myungwan Kim and others will start at 10 pm EST and 7 pm PST. Be there if you can! I know I will try my best to!

Kaz’s Online Go School is finally here! For those who don’t know about Kaz, I discovered him from his site (http://www.kazsensei.com) a couple of years ago and have been waiting for his website to become fully live and functional. The website is a bit hard to navigate, but after going through it, I thought that it would be great if I ever got a chance to learn from him. So after waiting for a couple of years, I am psyched to tell you that the opportunity is finally here!

So for those curious about this online go school, let me start with this: The first session of Kaz’s Online Go School is 8 classes for only $6 USD. Now that I have your attention, here’s my elevator pitch for the school.

1. His teaching style emphasizes teaching amateur players who are adults which is quite unique! In fact, he states in his ad that the range of players he normally teaches is 30 to 70+ years old and talks about how teaching children is very different from teaching adults! So in other words, it sounds like he has a lot of experience working with amateur players (which is precisely what many of us need).

2. Kaz will generate a text for student’s to study after each lesson. It’s great to get online reviews and such, but I think it’s great that Kaz will also be generating offline content for students to study as well in order to reinforce the concepts learned from the last lesson.

3. You get 8 two-hour group lessons with Kaz for only $6 USD. This is such an incredible value and such a great deal if anyone has done even the slightest bit of research on the other online schools available. For those who haven’t, one of the most popular online go schools charges about $135 a month. So yeah. ‘Nuff said.

Bottom line: I think any player who has even been remotely interested in participating in an online go school needs to do this. There is just no reason for why you shouldn’t give this a shot for $6 USD. It’s seriously an incredible deal.

For more details on his school, you can find it in his Kaz’s Online Go School (PDF). I took the liberty of taking his email and updating some of the language and structure in order to make it easier to find the information you need. And for those interested in the free problems set that he attached to his email, be sure to reach out to him!

And just in case it isn’t clear, I have already paid my $6 and will definitely be participating in this. Let me know if you guys have any other questions and I’ll do my best to answer them. Hope to see you in class!

Hey everyone. Sorry that I have been a little MIA over the past week. I was out of town for a little over a week and have just been incredibly swamped. Haha. I was ready for being kind of busy, but nothing like what the trip held for me. As a result, everything got thrown out of sync and content is on break this week until I can recalibrate my brain and get back on track. Hope all is well with everyone!

Friday Go Forward: Week 46

Overview

This week has got increasingly crazy with work and such, but I’m proud to say that I’ve managed to keep up with all that I’ve wanted to do in regards to go so far. I still have a bit to go before my habits become a lot easier to execute without it feeling slightly laborious, but it’s nice to feel like I’m making some real and steady progress. Hope you all are doing well!

Training Regimen

• Step #1: Do 10 go problems a day. (Estimated time: 10-15 minutes) Though the recommended problem set would obviously be life and death, other problems like tesuji and endgame are more than adequate. Be sure to pick problems that are around or even slightly below your level. Remember, your goal is just a bit of exposure to go everyday. And if you think it’s not that much, that is the entire point. Because it’s only a small mouthful, there is little excuse for not doing it everyday.

Games

• KGS - 0 games
• DGS - 3 ongoing games
• OGS - 10 ongoing games

Books

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

Videos

• None this week. =(

Tiny Habit

1. Every time I use the restroom, I will do 5 tsumego problems.