Happy 2013!!!!

For my first post of 2013, I’m happy to inform you all that I will now be on Tygem as well as KGS! My username is still bengozen, so be sure to request a game if you ever see me on! (If you’re wondering what my thoughts are on the server, be on the lookout for the review in the near future!)

When I asked frozensoul what his thoughts were about me getting on Tygem, he told me that I should set my rank at 18k and then fight my way up. I really liked the idea, except I realized that I had already registered my account as 8-9k (a few months ago) and it seems I cannot change it anymore. So even though I am missing out on the DDK fighting, it’ll still be nice to see if I can climb up to my KGS rank this way.

Thus far, the opponents I have played on have a completely different style from what I’m used to on KGS. Lots and lots of fighting….

Case and point: see my first game record for 2013 below!

Well everyone, looks like this will be my final post for 2012. As I look back at 2012 and all the craziness that has come with it, I am definitely glad that go is once again an important part of my life. It’s been a fun year with me getting back into go and then bringing the go blog back full force.

In terms of how my progress, here’s my rank graph for 2012.

Note: I did not play a single ranked game in December though. So the graph seems a little weird… haha.

In terms of my big accomplishment, it would have to be that I made it into mid-SDK range. I must admit though, it seems like just yesterday when I was playing as a 10k. Not sure I feel much stronger though. =D

For next year, my goal is to reach a solid dan status on KGS. Ambitious? Yes. Impossible? Don’t know till I try. =D

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Life is funny sometimes. Just when I thought I had a breakthrough in my go, I went ahead and played one of the worst games I’ve played in awhile. For those who have experienced the ups and downs of go, you know what I’m talking about: reckless go. For those who don’t know what it is, it consists of the following:

1. Follow my opponent around the board.
2. Try to kill everything possible.
3. Fail to notice any of my own weak groups.
4. Have little to no legitimate purpose behind my moves.
5. Play locally and hope it works out on the entire board.

Fortunately, I was not given the chance to slink away in shame and got promptly reamed out for my play. So, as instructed, I will be taking tonight to retreat into solitary and repent for my miserable play by writing down “The List” 50 times. (Proof will be posted tomorrow.) In addition, I want to thank my opponent for not letting me get away with my overplays. I will give you a better game next time!

Below is the game record for your laughter and entertainment. =)

I normally try not to post two games in one day, but tonight I just played a game that blew my mind. I literally went into this game expecting to lose and toy with an idea here or there. Before I knew it though… everything just kind of came together…. It was completely surreal…..

There’s only one comment for the entire SGF due to how late it is, but this is perhaps one of the most controlled games I’ve played to date…

As always, comments and insights would be appreciated!

When I decided to go on a ranked game sabbatical, I will tell you right now that I doubted my own abilities to follow through on it. If I could relate it to a person’s diet, it is as if a carnivore tries to go vegetarian for a month. For most people, the thought is incredibly daunting and seemingly impossible. Just like ranked games, I wasn’t sure whether it was entirely possible to go a whole month without playing a single ranked game; but here I am, Day 17, and the differentiation between ranked and free games has become a faint blur. I will be the first to admit that this will not be permanent, but I think this new perspective has allowed my go to be far more creative than before.

The other benefit to playing these free games is that the obsession with winning and losing has also begun to diminish. Most of my games are even games against players that are at least 3 stones stronger, so getting demolished constantly seems to have been good for my go soul. =) On top of it all, when winning and losing becomes more of an afterthought, I find that my games are far more interesting and expand on my current abilities.

Still not convinced? Well, then let me direct your attention to a game I played with a 3k. Hope you enjoy!

Weekly Go Wednesday, Issue #10

In almost every game in the universe, as Yogi Berra once said, “It’s not over till it’s over!” Players are always forced to play it out till the end regardless of the how poorly they are doing. Granted, players can always quit in the middle of the game; but this is generally considered to be poor taste. While every game of go can theoretically be played out to the end, the ability to resign as an honorable method of admitting defeat brings about a critical component of a player’s success in the game: fighting spirit.

If you remember a few posts back, I was in a miserable slump where I was on a losing streak and playing one reckless games after another. With each progressing game, every move became less about the fight for victory and more about mercilessly trying to kill groups while weakening my own. It is the worst form of go possible:_ emotional go that hopes the opponent will make a mistake_. shakes head side to side

While the games I played were not necessarily eye-gouge worthy, it ultimately culminated into the shipwreck that is the game below:

Without any context, the game looks as if White resigned a won game for the sake of sandbagging his rank or helping Black gain rank. Yet, the truth is that my vision had become so clouded with defeat that losing the small group in the lower right corner caused me to feel as if I had lost the entire game. I didn’t even bother to estimate territory, which would have clearly told me not to resign. As you can see, my fighting spirit was not only broken; but there was practically nothing left.

If you’ve ever seen, read or watched anything of the epic genre, you’ll notice that no matter how strong, smart, or talented they are, the critical element that always allow them to triumph at the end is their fighting spirit. In other words, when things get tough, their fighting spirit is what allows them to find a way out and ultimately succeed. The same can be said of go: no matter how good you are at the various aspects of go (e.g., life and death, tesuji, endgame, etc.), it is all irrelevant if you do not have the fighting spirit to back it up.

Taking a page from the esoteric school of energy, we are all born with different levels of spiritual energy. With that in mind, it would not be far fetched to believe that the same can be said of our fighting spirits. There are some who are born with an excess of fighting spirit, and others who are extremely meek. Fear not though, this is something that you can change. It will require a great deal of deep introspection and the help of those close to you, but I assure you it can be done.

The key concept to keep in mind is that your fighting spirit is intricately tied to your personality and perspective on life. In other words, you are essentially trying to change yourself. On the upside though, the reward you will gain from this endeavor is one that will not only impact your ability and enjoyment of go; but it is one that will have a profound impact on the rest of your life.

Weekly Go Wednesday was built on the idea of weekly articles to help players improve and understand various aspects about the go. After much thought and consideration however, I realized that most players have little interest in what a low SDK has to say in regards to improving at go. As a result, until I have proven that my methods work and gain a the respected dan rank, this will be the final issue of Weekly Go Wednesday for now. Till next time!

After many months of almost going and then not being able to, I am happy to report that I finally made it out to one of Yuan Zhou‘s monthly workshops. This post is slightly overdue since I went to the November one; but it comes at a right time since the December workshop is right around the corner!

For those who have never been to a go workshop, here’s a high level overview of what you might find:

• In depth review of a game (usually a professional one)
• One round of games (with a main time around 45 minutes)
• Game reviews for the games that were just played

As I arrived at Yuan Zhou’s house, I nostalgically recalled the two lessons that I had taken with him in the past. They seemed so long ago, but I was glad that I was finally back to seriously study the game. As I walked towards the entrance, I felt a little apprehensive as I wondered whether I would be able to gain anything from this workshop since I am so weak; but before I could have any serious doubts, I was greeted by Yuan Zhou and welcomed inside.

I was happy to see that Nate had already arrived, and promptly sat myself next to him as I was told to work on the life and death problem on the board. As we sat there staring at the board, Nate made a comment that made me laugh,

“Two years after Shifu told me someone named Ben might be coming who was close to my level, you’ve finally managed to show up.”

After everyone had arrived, it was time to see if the students had figured it out. As luck would have it, since I was the weakest player there, I was to give the first response. Recently, I had been exposed to some of the quirkier life and death problems that required atypical moves just as making the empty triangle descent and such; so I ended up choosing that move even though I couldn’t quite see the end of the sequence. Sure enough. I was wrong. Haha. Eventually a stronger player gave the right answer, and so we finished up the explanation and moved on to the review of the professional game.

The game we were reviewing was one of Ishida Yoshio and Rin Kaiho‘s games from 1974. Before we even began looking at the kifu however, Yuan Zhou launched into a fascinating explanation of the history behind the game: Go Seigen & Kitani Minoru, the Super Six, the terse feelings of having a non-Japanese player hold both Meijin and Honinbo titles, and so on. While some may wonder how relevant this is to getting better, it is like a cultural tour of this game we all devote so much time to that many often overlook. And if you still aren’t convinced, knowing the history behind the entire game made for a much more exciting review since you have an understanding of the players and how high the stakes are.

After the exciting game review, we had lunch and then proceeded with the afternoon game. Since we had an odd number of players, one of the players recorded my game while I had the opportunity to play. I felt kind of badly that I was playing and the player had to record, so in the future, I think that I would not mind being the recorder instead so other players can play instead. Anyhow, here’s the game record from that afternoon.

After all the games were finished, Yuan Zhou reviewed all of the games. If there’s something I learned from that experience, you tend to remember your lessons a lot better when other people are watching the review and seeing the mistakes you made. For example, the one thing that I will remember forever is the Elephant’s Eye (which I’ll write more on at another time). In addition, being able to have both sides of the game reviewed really helps to open you eyes as to what was supposed to work and what wasn’t supposed to work. On top of that, getting to see the game reviews for everyone else’s game was also very helpful.

Although I started out skeptical of what I would gain from the workshop, I am now a huge fan of them. Since most of players will never have the opportunity to be an insei and study go at that level of intensity, I really feel that go workshops are like one day insei experiences. Everyone who attends is committing their time and money, and you can be sure that everyone wants to make the most out of it. In addition, they are spaced out in such a way that you don’t have to worry about information overload. In fact, that’s exactly what you want since the time apart from each workshop allows you to absorb and apply the things that you learned so that you will have new things to learn the next time around.

I highly recommend Yuan Zhou’s workshops if you ever have the opportunity. The next workshop will be December 16th, 2012. If you’re interested in attending one of Yuan Zhou’s monthly workshops, contact him at yuan.zhou@zhouyuan.com. Hope to see you there one day!

So for those who don’t play on KGS, I actually managed to climb back up to 6k and hang on to it (knock on wood). As it is everyday, I had an urge to play a ranked game and decided to play against an opponent who is actually more along the lines of 5k but recently got downgraded to 6k. Although I was resistant to playing him at first, I decided to plunge ahead since I planned on beating stronger opponents anyways.

Let me just say this for the record: I never quite understood the importance of endgame until this game.

I mean, sure, everyone “knows” that the endgame is important. As I look at the people around me however, I realized that most kyu players tend to disregard this aspect of go since most of their games are contingent upon big battles which often result in early resignations. With that in mind, how could you blame them for not paying more attention to endgame?

As I’m approaching the mid-SDK range, the games that I have played have begun to take on a new form from the big battles I used to fight. While this makes me a bit nervous, this is part of the journey to becoming the strongest player I can possibly be.

The following game is one that I think many of you would find quite interesting since it consists of a rather complicated capturing race and is a great example of why a player’s endgame skill can be the difference between victory or defeat.

While he ended up resigning due to the capturing race, in reality this game goes down as a defeat in my book. Had I been more careful about my endgame, I’m quite sure that I would have earned that victory fair and square; but it is clear that my reckless endgame actually cost me the game. This game has really humbled my opinion of my abilities and reminded me how critical it is to:

1. Practice estimating the score so that I do not have a distorted view of the game.
2. Be more meticulous about my endgame moves since I only get a few opportunities to really practice it.
3. Continue to practice my reading abilities so that I do not get caught in liberty shortages due to misreading.

Here’s to hoping I have learned my lesson.

I’m not sure if anyone else feels this way, but there’s just something about playing an even game with someone much stronger than you that tends to bring out the best moves in you. And although I did not know this at the time, my game with Tilwen is what I needed to regain my composure and leave behind the reckless go I had been playing.

After the game was over, Tilwen gave a fantastic review that really opened my eyes regarding vital concepts that I never quite grasped:

#1. Attack from far away.

#2. Contact moves are for defense.

This may be common sense for many of you, but I assure you that the simplicity of the concepts never occurred to me throughout my study of go. Perhaps it was simply the reinforcement I needed after much studying, but his explanations of these concepts really helped to solidify the concepts. For those who still find these concepts difficult to grasp, just read it over a few time for familiarity and I assure you that I will write an article on these to better clarify them for you.

Many thanks again to Tilwen for his help and advice!

Introduction — Round 1 — Round 2 — Round 3 — Round 4 — Conclusion

In all my naivety, it never occurred to me that I might end up giving my opponent handicap stones. After all, the majority of the time spent playing online were either even games or against stronger opponents who would give me handicap stones, not the other way around!! To make matters worse, I had spent so much time studying how Black should deal with handicap games that I wasn’t quite sure what to do as White. And as if that wasn’t enough, my familiarity with handicap games extended as far as 3 stones. Now that I was facing an opponent with 4 stones, I couldn’t help but feel the blood begin to drain from my face as I stared down the menacing board.

“All four corners are gone… I don’t even have one corner of influence to work with… I have no idea what I’m going to do…”

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