During my game review for the first match of the month, I had a disturbing revelation. As Inseong was talking about my mistakes, he then commented on how attacking was one of the most pleasurable aspects of go. Suddenly, a lightbulb went off in my head as I realized what had been missing from my games all this time: I had forgotten how to attack.

As I sat there, I thought, “Me? Not attacking properly? Not enjoying the attack? How far have I fallen?”

Needless to say, it got me wondering if this was what was wrong with me over these past couple of weeks; but what’s funny is that life had something else in store for me as well. Though I didn’t know it at the time, something that I had volunteered to help out at was happening the same weekend: the Smithsonian Folklife Festival was about to give me the wake-up call that I needed.

At first, with me being down lately, I have to admit that I was a bit reluctant to go as the day crept up. Before I knew it though, Saturday was upon me and I was sitting down and teaching person after person. And with each person that sat down, seeing their eyes light up as they learned the rules and enjoyed their time was really heart-warming for me. Out of all the ones I taught though, there was one in particular that I want to mention here.

A young girl (probably around 6-8 years old) and her mother decided to stop by to learn the game. As I taught the rules to the girl and proceeded through my own curriculum of how I believe go should be taught, she picked it up with relative ease. And with each new milestone in learning the game, her eyes lit up and a smile spread across her face that I can only describe as absolutely adorable.

Fast forward a bit, and I decide that she’s ready to try an actual game of go. I had commandeered the big 9x9 magnetic board (with huge pieces) that is used for demonstration at the time. So as one can expect, there was a bit of a crowd around us by the time our game started. I gave her 7 stones as a handicap and we started playing.

To my utter surprise, she ignored most of my overplays and played such calm and beautiful moves! If I tried to hane on one stone, she would ignore me and just connect her stones together only to leave me in dismay. And before I knew it, she killed my entire group and owned the entire board.

Now, while another person might have found it to be embarrassing, I thought it was the perfect opportunity to demonstrate to the crowd what it looked like to get demolished and to explain that resigning was an honorable thing to do in this game. This got quite a big laugh of course. And as I turned to the girl and her mom to tell her how she did an incredible job crushing me, she beamed with happiness and pride that made the entire spectacle entirely worth it.

The reason I’m writing this is because it’s really easy to get caught up in the competitive aspects of go. After all, most players who end up playing this game long term are usually playing to become the strongest player they can possibly be. But after my experiences these last few days, I’m reminded of the fact that there is far more to go than simply gaining that next stone.

Though it’s easy to forget, finding happiness and fun in go is just as important (if not the most) when taking that next step in your journey as a go player. I’m not quite out of the woods yet in regards to my own slump, but I can tell you that this weekend was the ray of light that I needed as I start to make my way toward the end of the tunnel.

Friday Go Forward: Week 55

Overview

Ever since getting back from Hong Kong, this week has been consumed with getting back on track with life and not to mention getting readjusted from a 12 hour jet lag. (Yes it was quite painful to switch back and forth.) However, in the process of picking things back up, I have had the opportunity to start fine tuning a number of my daily processes in order to maximize my output with minimal input. For example, I’ve actually managed to start becoming more efficient and accustomed to doing a set of go problems every day now. In fact, if I go most of the day without doing any problems, I usually find myself itching to grab my phone and practice some before bed.

In addition, I’ve had a bit of a self-revelation in regards to my destructive habit of overthinking things. Since that post, I have really been trying to streamline my mental processes so that I am not hindered by any self-doubt or overly cumbersome obstacles that I create for myself. And even though it’s only been a couple of days since that post, I feel that it has had a rather large impact on my life.

Anyhow, I also wanted to take the opportunity to mention an event going on in DC on April 12th, 2014 - 10:30am to 6:00pm - 54th Annual Sakura Matsuri Japanese Street Festival. I had the pleasure of volunteering to teach go there last year, but failed to ever get around to writing about it. Long story short though, I had a great time and it was a fantastic experience. So if you’re in the DC area and have some time to come out for it, I’d highly recommend it and you will probably find me teaching go at the go kiosk. Hope to see you there!

Training Regimen

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

  • Work on go problems for 30 minutes.
  • Work on 300 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 300 (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 - 1 game
• DGS - 3 ongoing games
• OGS - 5 ongoing games | 1 completed games

Books

• Worked on Life and Death Problems 1 - Basics by Robert Jasiek.
• Worked on 1001 Life and Death Problems from Kiseido.