Weekly Go Wednesday, Issue #46

As someone who has taken his fair share of sabbaticals from the game, one aspect that has always troubled me was how to get back into the game. After all, I had no obligation to do so and could have easily pursued other things instead.

Yet, like so many other people out there, the call of go always beckons and here I am yet again. So I wanted to write about why I’m getting back into go, in hopes that it may be of help to someone in the future.

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Hello again everyone. As some have suspected, I am back (for real this time).

I apologize for the rollercoaster back and forth of saying I was coming back and then disappearing again for some time. While some of it was a need for mental space from the game, it was really due to a large number of other factors.

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I’m back guys. After a long sabbatical, I’m back.

Wish I could do some fun go themed Chinese New Year banner, but short on time today and just wanted to wish everyone a great Chinese New Year full of good fortune, health, and great games of go!

As some of you are aware, I’ve gone off the deep end into the software development world. I’ll be taking a longer sabbatical than anticipated; but you’ll still be able to catch me for a game of go or discussion on things you can do to progress! So feel free to email me whenever and draw me out to a game on KGS whenever, because I could sure use the distraction.

Meanwhile, best of luck to everyone on their games and their progress. I definitely look forward to seeing how much everyone has grown by the time I come back! Ganbatte!

P.S. If you’d like to keep up with what I’m up to, I’ve created a new Twitter devoted to my development and UX exploits. Until then everyone!

As some of you might have noticed, I’ve been pretty MIA for a while. One of the major events that happened last week was I moved out to a new apartment. And for those who know what it’s like to move, you know how much of a monstrosity that can be when it comes to sorting, packing, and cleaning.

The move came at a rather funny time in my life as it happened to be a perfect representation of how I’ve been deconstructing my own life lately as well. Reassessing what I’m trying to do and where all my time and energy is being placed. On one hand, everything is a gigantic mess and it’s difficult at times to figure out what I’m trying to do in all this chaos. However, I have confidence that it will work out for the best.

As I’m reassessing my strategy for my life, it should come as no surprise that I’ve had to reassess how I’ve been approaching my study of go as well. I’ll be honest in that I have not been happy at all with my numerous training regimens and have felt like I’ve lost focus. In fact, my Yunguseng match which was rescheduled for today was the first time I even looked at anything go related at all in the past few days. It was quite a weird feeling.

So while I would love to continue the momentum I had going with the blog, I’m putting a hold on all the weekly articles and game commentary in order to give myself time to really sort through things. So I hope you’ll forgive me as I must tenuki for a while as I try and figure out what my whole board strategy for my life is.

I’ll be sure to drop in and update you on my thoughts and progress, so no need to worry that I’m simply dropping off the face of the planet. I’ll still be around.

Hope that all is well with everyone.

While I already miss the awesome weather, incredible scenery (aka awesome beaches with super clear water), and not to mention amazing food, I am glad to be back!

When I first left for my vacation, I thought that I would be itching to get back into go. To my surprise, it is still taking me awhile to really get back into my routine. I’m still feeling a little apprehensive; but on the upside, I am starting to feel excited at the prospect of playing again! So, good news on that end!

In the past, I used to come off of these breaks with an intent on studying like there was no tomorrow. This time though, I intend on taking it one step at a time and really figuring out where my groove is with studying and playing. My goal is to become the strongest player I can possibly be. If these last couple years have taught me anything, it is that consistency is the best route to doing so. So I’m hoping that I can avoid burnout with this slower, but hopefully more solid approach.

I apologize for not having a Monday Go Meditation ready for this week, but it seems that it may be a little bit before I get that back up and running since I’m out of games that have good material for a review. Just more motivation for me to finally start playing ranked games on KGS again. =)

After an awesome discussion with Feather , I’ve been inspired to start another weekly series in order to give you a glimpse into my world of go. It will be a high level overview of my progress every week and will be released every Friday at 5:00 PM. Let me know what you think and I can always update the format if people want!

Games

• KGS - 9 games (4 wins : 5 losses)
• Tygem - 1 game (0 wins : 1 loss)

Tsumego

• 1001 Life and Death Problems - #851 - 1001
• Essential Life & Death (Vol. 1) - Pages 1-33

Other

• Commented Games by Lee Sedol - Game #1 - Part 1
• Shape Up! - Introduction & Chapters 1 - 3

Thoughts

Overall, it’s been a rather eventful week since the ASR League was wrapping up and the final points were being tallied. The good news is that I managed to get promoted to Alpha!!! Woot woot! I know that some people will say, “It’s easy to get to Alpha. Just play a lot of games.” To you I say that may be true if you actually win some of your games, but otherwise it’s near impossible since your points rack up so slowly compared to people who win a majority of their games.

Since February is going to be a short month, it seems I will be going on another ranked game sabbatical since I will have my hands full trying to stay in Alpha class and also keeping up with my study schedule for the month. Not to mention that North American Go Convention is this month as well, and that will take out four days of studying/playing. So lots to do this month, and very little time. Something’s got to give right? =) Here’s to the start of a crazy month! Ikuzo!

As much as I hate to do this, BenGoZen will be on hiatus for the rest of the month to prepare for a brand new blog redesign. I am currently working really hard to not only implement a brand new look and feel for the blog, but I’m also completely revising and improving the information architecture and content quality to make the entire experience more enjoyable and worthy of your time!

To get you excited for some of the new changes coming in a week, here are some things you can expect to see!

1. Subscribe via email and RSS with ease!
2. Eidogo Player back in full functionality so that you no longer have to leave the blog to see my games!
3. Easy translator widget that will allow you to view my content in many languages! (Although I won’t be able to verify fully the accuracy of the translation, the content will now be available to more people!)
4. New integrated comment system that will allow you to login from various social media avenues.

Looking forward to seeing you on the grand opening - Halloween, October 31st, 2012!

So I’ve started reading my go books again, and I did not realize how poorly I’ve been playing lately. As a result, I’m taking a break from online games (once again) because I’ve only been reinforcing really poor playing habits.

At first I was troubled as to why I was still a DDK, but it does not surprise me any longer. It’s time for me to undergo some serious training.

Go ability transformation here I come!

UPDATE: So I noticed I tend to get overly frustrated and then determine to take a “sabbatical” only to find myself playing again the next day. Thus, scratch that idea, it’s just time to play better.

That’s right. Lo and behold. I have emerged from my hermit hole away from the go world and have now returned! Looking forward to posting here again. Be sure to leave a comment if you’re still following or still play go!