My GoGameGuru order came in!!! Woot woot!!! You can see everything I got in the picture (except the glass stones which are inside the bowls). There is so much to write about and review. Haha. However, since I do need a little bit of time to put the reviews together, the one thing I want to recommend right away is the Foldable Go Board. The quality is incredible for the price and it’s definitely my favorite item of my entire order. So if you’re in the market for a foldable go board, don’t wait!

On a more journalistic note, I’ve been on a losing streak lately. Interestingly enough however, I’m actually okay with it. The training to try and maintain zen in high pressure situations or even after losing has been tough; but I think it’s been doing me some good. In fact, I was even able to resign a game that I was winning (against a 5 kyu) since I had more pressing matters to attend to. And if you’re wondering why I think it’s an accomplishment, it’s because I never would have been able to do that in the past. I would have saw the game as rightfully mine to win and probably have been unable to walk away from it.

As one might expect, my rank has been dropping left and right; but surprisingly enough, I’m actually okay with it. I’m not worried about whether or not the server thinks I’m stronger or not. I am taking on my weaknesses head on. It might make me lose a stone or two for now, but I think the benefit I will gain from this approach will be worth it. =)

Weekly Go Wednesday, Issue #26

A couple months ago, I had a request put in by fellow go player DecimoKing for an article on my advice on playing as White. This is the first part to a series of posts geared to provide some guidance to players who find themselves feeling burdened when playing White. Although this is definitely geared more for beginner/intermediate players, I would appreciate any additional insight from stronger players below to supplement my thoughts here. With that said, let’s get started with the first scenario as White: even games.

Concern #1: “Black is one move ahead! I feel like I’m behind when I’m playing White.”

The first thing to do is to breathe. Inhale. Exhale. Now, what you have to remember is that this is exactly why the komi system was created in the first place. It’s always very easy to forget that you have komi. In other words, you already start with points when Black starts with none! So if anyone should feel behind, it’s Black! xD

Concern #2: “Black always gets these awesome moyos (i.e., frameworks) that are gigantic and fearsome!”

What you have to remember here is that you always have a choice of being more aggressive and breaking up Black’s formation early on in the game.* Will the game get more complicated? Yes. Will it involve a lot more fighting. Absolutely. However, what you have to determine for yourself is which situation do you hate more: a large moyo where you find yourself needing to invade and live or lose, or a game full of fighting that’s quite complicated.

*The only framework that White can’t truly stop without ending up in a disadvantageous position is the sanrensei; but if that is what you hate playing against, then the issue is more about learning a counter strategy to sanrensei as opposed to worried about playing White.

In summary, here are a few things to remember when playing White in even games:

1. Be patient. Remember that the komi system was designed to compensate for the first move advantage. If you let yourself get caught up in the illusion of being behind, you’ll find yourself rushing into dangerous situations that will put you at a disadvantage early in the game.
2. You can always steer the game in a different direction. If you really hate frameworks like the Chinese Opening and don’t know any counter strategies to them, go ahead and interrupt the formation before it materializes (aka approach the corner instead of taking a corner for yourself).
3. Feel honored to play as White. Don’t forget that in go, playing as White usually signifies that who is the stronger player. After all, what color do you play if you give your opponent handicap stones? =) So if your intention is to become the strongest player you can possibly be, shouldn’t White stones become your best friend? xD
   I hope that this helps and please be sure to leave a comment below if you have any questions or comments!

I’ve been thinking a lot about life lately something about myself. For those who know me in real life, it’s probably safe to say that I can get a little overly excited about something most people would consider mundane. It’s not because I was deprived as a child or anything; but I believe that each day should be lived to the fullest and that every moment we have is something to be excited about.

The downside, however, is that while I am able to keep my emotions and mental state very positive for a majority of the time, one wrong misstep can throw me into a weird limbo where I kind of just fall off the deep end. And whether I like it or not, this is clearly reflected in my go. So in order to try and train my ability to be calm and collected, I decided to do the one thing I generally advise against: playing blitz games.

With the time pressure and the fact that I tend to take my losses in blitz pretty hard (due to the fact that I often lose due to a stupid mistake as opposed to actually being weaker than my opponent), this approach is essentially the equivalent of trying to achieve enlightenment in the middle of a war zone. It’s not that it’s impossible, but it’s pretty risky and could be dangerous for my go. However, I know that trying to take any other route will probably delay my ability to overcome this hurdle.

See you on the other side.

Basic Techniques of Go

Description: This book can be considered a broad coverage of the following: opening principles, lots of handicap go advice, brief survey of tesujis, and a brief survey of endgame. The material is quite dense and contrary to what many descriptions say about this book, I vehemently disagree with the recommending this book for beginners. It is suited for intermediate to advanced players. Beginners steer clear of this book!

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Otake’s Secrets of Strategy

Description: In the third volume of The Heart of Go Series, Hideo Otake 9P illustrates 10 fundamental strategic principles. Afterwards, there is a set of problems to apply what you learned. This is the followed up by a set of amateur game reviews and professional game reviews.

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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

• Becoming a 5 Kyu - Lesson 26
• Becoming a 5 Kyu - Lesson 27
• Becoming a 5 Kyu - Lesson 28
• Becoming a 5 Kyu - Lesson 29
• Becoming a 5 Kyu - Lesson 30
• Level Up to 3 Kyu - Lesson 1

Happy Halloween!!!

So over the last week or so, there has been quite a bit development in regards to exciting things like GoGameGuru releasing new affordable go equipment along with a bit of realization on my part on how to continue improving the blog. Out of all that thinking and such, I am happy to announce the following:

1. Weekly Go Wednesdays (WGW) is coming back! - Although I love just rambling on about my thoughts and emotions, I’m sure that it would be appreciated if there were more go-related advice on this blog. As a result, I decided to bring back WGW. However, in order to prevent the series from going on hiatus again, I’m changing up the format to reflect an informal advice column as opposed to a structured and well edited articles (that are incredibly time consuming to produce). I’m hoping that you all will find this series to be a welcome addition back into the blog.

2. Equipment Review Updates and Redesign! - I had talked about this a few times in the past, but it’s really happening this time around since I have purchased a ton of new products from GoGameGuru and want the review layout to be more useful. So be on the lookout for new reviews along with a new layout!

Hope you all have an awesome and fun Halloween!

For your final October Bonus Game Review, you will have the opportunity to witness another one of my Tygem games against a 3d! In all honesty, I was quite surprised at some of the moves I made when I was reviewing it again. Some were quite innovative, while some were quite idiotic. Haha. Hopefully this game will be full of fun and surprises for you as you prepare for your own Halloween celebrations. I hope you have enjoyed this bonus series and hope you have a great Halloween tomorrow!

For those who haven’t heard the news, I am super excited to inform you about GoGameGuru’s announcement on introducing new and affordable go equipment!! As an avid go enthusiast who is constantly checking local stores and online retailers for go equipment, it is really exciting to see GoGameGuru fill a niche of go equipment that I think is desperately lacking right now. Here are the featured products that are coming to GoGameGuru:

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