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!

Commented Games by Lee Sedol: Volume 2 - Dream to Be the Best

Description: Described as many as the Korean version of Invincible, this series contains some of the most detailed commentaries that I have read thus far. In addition, it is evident that Lee Sedol 9P and Lee Sena have worked work to make the content accessible to both that beginner and intermediate players as well. This book not only goes into Lee Sedol’s thought on go strategy and his thoughts on the moves that occur; but also talks about his feelings and mental state during each game along with anecdotes from his journey to being one of the strongest go players in the world.

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After I got back from boxing last night, I was pretty much wiped out. The funny thing about me is that no matter how tired I am though, it seems that I somehow manage to find the energy and motivation to do something go related. So I decided to check out my first episode of a BadukTV English game review of Lee Changho 9P vs. Lee Sedol 9P.

For those who aren’t aware of the popularity of go in the rest of the world, there are actual television channels that are ENTIRELY dedicated to go. Now, I don’t know about you, but I would love it if we had something equivalent here in the Western world. Unfortunately though, go has not yet risen to that level of popularity. On the upside though, pioneers like GoGamGuru and BadukTV have taken the first big step to bringing us one step closer to that dream.

Here is the video that I watched last night:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCBHI_lNgXI&list=PLq69jNwwOmf-Lkbyny1HwiRUKMg6uuFo2

Since I had never watched a TV episode dedicated entirely to go (excluding Hikaru no Go), I was a little nervous that I might get bored or that I would be unable to gain anything from it. Contrary to my fears however, I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed it. Though many complain about the co-host interrupting often and saying “Yes” all the time, you have to be conscious of the fact that the English is clearly not her first language and that chances are pretty good that her mannerisms derive from Korean culture. So with that in mind, I was able to look past it rather easily and just enjoy all the marvelous go.

For those who enjoyed the video above or would like to find out more about where you can watch more episodes like this, check out GoGameGuru’s BadukTV to get access to more BadukTV that is accessible to English speakers!

Commented Games by Lee Sedol: Volume 1 - One Step Closer to the Summit

Description: Described as many as the Korean version of Invincible, this series contains some of the most detailed commentaries that I have read thus far. In addition, it is evident that Lee Sedol (9P) and Lee Sena have worked work to make the content accessible to both that beginner and intermediate players as well. This book not only goes into Lee Sedol’s thought on go strategy and his thoughts on the moves that occur; but also talks about his feelings and mental state during each game along with anecdotes from his journey to being one of the strongest go players in the world.

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I don’t know if any of you have ever heard of the game “Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon” (which is a deviation from the theory “six degrees of separation“), but it essentially boils down to the idea that every person is connected to another within six connections. And as you might guess based on the title of my post, I am writing because my friend Eric Lui had the honor of competing in the 2013 Samsung Cup and got to play against Lee Sedol!!!! I would be lying if I said I wasn’t jealous in the least, but that is still just plain epic!!!!!!

Now of course, while this usually is worthy of a post all on its own, there is another reason I’m also writing about Lee Sedol. Prior to all of above, I injured my left hand from boxing and have had to take it a little easier as of late. Since I’m trying to rest in order to quickly recover, what better way to fill the time than to study some go? And guess who’s book I happened to decide to study. That’s right. Commented Games by Lee Sedol Volume 1!

As I was working through it, I came upon an anecdote where his sister described how his father used to train him when it came to solving life and death. Lee Sedol’s father stressed accuracy and would scold him harshly whenever he solved a problem incorrectly. As a result, Lee Sedol would check his answer 100 times over before showing his father the answer regardless of how simple the problem might seem. Though seemingly harsh at the time, his sister believes that this is one of the reasons that Lee Sedol’s reading is as strong as it is today.

So how does this relate to me? Well I am the first to admit that I am pretty lazy when it comes to solving problems. I might give a problem anywhere from a glance to 30 seconds (depending on my mood) before checking out the answer. I tried to tell myself that this is because I wanted more exposure to new sequences; but in reality, this has probably been hurting my reading more than helping it.

And then as if I wasn’t already feeling guilty enough about my lazy approach to studying life and death, Lee Sedol makes the following statement:

Fighting spirit without the base of thorough reading is nothing but recklessness that leads directly to defeat.

While I was blown away by how insightful that comment is, another part of me also felt incredibly sheepish as I realized that Lee Sedol had just summed up why I lose most of my games in one line. Heh… Perhaps it’s time to take a moment and rethink my approach to studying…