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.

Overall Rating: 5 / 5 Ponnuki

Basic Information

• Title: Mastering the Basics, Volume 2 - One Thousand and One Life-and-Death Problems
• Authors: Compiled and edited by Richard Bozulich
• Publisher: Kiseido
• Publication Date: February 2002
• Page Length: 244 pages
• Number of Problems: 1001 problems (what else did you expect? =D)

Synopsis

• New and refreshing approach to teaching life and death.
• Appropriate for 12 kyu and stronger.
• Recommended for casual players.

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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.

Overall Rating: 4 / 5 Ponnuki

Basic Information

• Title: Mastering the Basics, Volume 1 - Five Hundred and One Opening Problems
• Authors: Richard Bozulich in collaboration with Rob van Zeijst
• Publisher: Kiseido
• Publication Date: August 2002
• Page Length: 256 pages
• Number of Problems: 501

Synopsis

• A great basic book about opening problems that utilizes proverbs as directions instead of vague statements.
• Appropriate for 10 kyu and stronger.
• Recommended for serious players.

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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!