Weekly Go Wednesday: Issue #43

For Game 5 of this epic jubango between Lee Sedol (9P) and Gu Li (9P), we are at an exciting point in this match as the record stands at 2-2! So for this fifth game, this will serve as the tiebreaker for who takes the lead into the second half of the jubango!

In case you don’t follow the professional scene, up to this point, Gu Li (9p) has been doing very well against Lee Sedol (9p) and was considered the favorite to win this match since he also won the last two jubango matches as well.

With that said, buckle in for one of the most exciting games they’ve played to date! Hope you enjoy the review!

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.

Fun Trivia: This game was played in Shangri-La, Yunnan, China which is 10,000 ft above the sea! As a result, oxygen was rather thin and both players had to deal with having less oxygen than normal which may have affected their performance more than anticipated.

Weekly Go Wednesday: Issue #39

For Game 4 of this epic jubango between Lee Sedol (9P) and Gu Li (9P), with the current record being 2-1 in Lee Sedol’s favor, everyone sat in anticipation as they waited to see if Gu Li would be able to even up the record! With Gu Li’s record against Lee Sedol as of late though, many fans were certainly feeling that Gu Li had a great chance to win this game.

I am happy to say that today’s review is forged from the combined efforts of myself and frozensoul (5d) once again! Though I didn’t make this explicitly clear before, please feel free to direct any questions to him on KGS or even leave a comment below for him and he’ll be sure to answer. Hope that you enjoy our game review and let us know if there’s anything we can do to improve it for you!

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.

Weekly Go Wednesday: Issue #36

For Game 3 of the epic jubango between Lee Sedol (9P) and Gu Li (9P), we have arrived at a crucial point. Lee Sedol is already 2-0 (Game 1 and Game 2) and there is concern that the jubango will end earlier than desired. After all, everyone wants to see all 10 games. However, the rules of the jubango is that the first to six victories win. As a result, for this game, even Lee Sedol fans were rooting for Gu Li to turn the tide so that we could see more games.

For those who don’t keep up with the professional scene, Gu Li had managed to beat Lee Sedol in two other tournament matches prior to this game, so even though there was concern that there would be too much pressure on Gu Li, people had high hopes that Gu Li would be able to make a comeback this game.

As with the previous reviews (Game 1 and Game 2), this review continues to be geared towards kyu players who struggle with the advanced analysis and discussion that normally occurs between dan and professional level players. There is commentary for every move so that hopefully you won’t ever feel lost. In addition, I am happy to announce that frozensoul (5d) has joined forces with me again for this game review. Many thanks goes out to him for providing a number of the insights you’ll see throughout the review.

Just like before, please let me know if you notice anything or have any suggestions that I can do to improve the review. I look forward to getting your feedback on this game review. Hope you enjoy it and learn a thing or two through it!

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.

Update: Many thanks to Anders for letting me know that there were some typos in the review. I’ve gone through the SGF and updated it to hopefully eliminate them all and make sure everything is labelled properly. Let me know if I missed anything!

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!

Weekly Go Wednesday: Issue #31

For those who didn’t know, Gu Li and Lee Sedol had their first epic match of their ten match series jubango. And though many of you might have watched the game or checked out the game record later on, I wouldn’t be surprised if a number of weaker players like myself were left in bewilderment most of the time. After all, even though it was really exciting, it’s hard to learn from a game where so much is going on at once!

So I came up with the idea to team up with my sensei, frozensoul, and do a review together in order to provide a step-by-step review of every move in the game. Now granted, I’m sure that many strong dan players might refute some of my comments or argue that there is so much more to what I reviewed, but my goal is simply this: To provide a game record that would allow kyu players to easily follow the game and understand some of the most significant moments of the game. As a result, it should be no surprise that complicated variations and advanced theoretical discussions are intentionally avoided and left to other people who are much more qualified to speak to those things than I am (i.e., World Go Online and GoGameGuru). The following is the result of our efforts:

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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!