On Sunday, July 21st, I was able to finally join my friends at Yuan Zhou‘s Monthly Workshop! Though I was originally unable to go, I’m glad that I was able to make it out!

The day began as always with a tsumego on the demonstration board.

Though I had the correct answer at one point, I talked myself out of it by misreading the order of moves. As a result, I unfortunately can’t proudly say I solved it with confidence. Haha. But in terms of what I gained from that experience, I need much more work on my life and death skills. I’m decent with some of the instinctual moves, but I need to be better in terms of being absolutely sure of my answer.

After my friend Gurujeet answered the question correctly, we moved on to reviewing a professional game between Lee Sedol [9P] and Lian Xiao [4P]. It was an exciting game that really helped to open my eyes. Some of the major things I learned from the flow and tenacity of the players include:

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For those who have not heard the news, there is talk of the possibility of Lee Sedol coming to the United States (Source: GoGameGuru). For those who are not aware of who Lee Sedol is, he is one of the top professional players right now. While many of us in the Western hemisphere could only dream about the possibility of even seeing one of his games live in person, the mere thought that I could possibly meet him in person and (in the ultimate of possibilities) actually get lessons from him is just….

Although even if that ends up becoming true, it won’t happen for at least another three to four years. So, guess I have a bit of work to do until then huh? After all, I wouldn’t want him spending time trying to teach me obvious mistakes that I myself notice.

With that potential awesomeness aside, my losing streak continues to thrive as I wrap up my final ASR games. Just one more left to go. After that, it’s time to do a serious assessment of my training regimen.

After Kaya.gs came out with their go server, I would have never suspected that I would be sitting here telling you about a brand new go server; but reality always has a way of surprising you and I am thrilled to tell you about a brand new go server!!!

Go9Dan will be approaching the server in a brand new way by adding the element of currency to the game. This means that players will now have the ability to put more than just their rank at stake when they play. There are multiple kinds of currency, but in general, they will allow players to bet on games, observe professional games, teaching games (which I believe are from professionals… but don’t quote me on this), buy instructional videos and books, and so on. For more information on the currency, click here. And for the record, while I don’t agree with all the aspects that they plan to utilize the currency for, I do think it will bring a new aspect to online play that will motivate more people to play.

If that wasn’t enough to get you interested in checking Go9Dan out, would it be of any interest to you if I told you that 9 dan professionals will be on this server?!?!?! 9 dans like Lee Sedol?!?!?!!? runs around like a little kid

Here are some of the fantastic benefits that you can get by signing up before February 8th, 2013:

1. 3 months of Lite Membership
2. 500 Gold
3. 1,000,000 MPoints
4. Entered into a raffle for a chance to play a game against Lee Sedol!!!!!!!
5. Having the possibility of being one of three players to win a free teaching game with Lee Sedol!!!!!!!!

AHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!

Now for those who have now explored the sight and are coming back to tell me, “Whoa. Ben. You forgot to mention that this will be a server with a monthly subscription.” False. I intentionally left it off until this point because people need to see the value of the go server first. Now that you’ve seen the potential value of this server, I want to emphasize to you that signing up now is a win-win situation. No money commitment, and the potential benefits are ENORMOUS!!!! And like with any service or product, a 3 month trial to see if you think its worth the money is about as good as it is going to get.

So don’t delay! Go sign up now and be sure to put down bengozen as your referral! See you guys there!