Getting back into the groove

So like, in preparation for possibly returning to Korea, I wanted to try to get myself back in shape as far as my Go skills.  It's been a harrowing process.  For the better part of a year, I just focused on writing and getting my books ready for print.  I hadn't spent much time doing tsumego, reviewing professional games, or really anything for that matter.  The last time I played Go was a few months ago, and I can't remember the last time I played three games with a buddy of mine in real life after Christmas.  We went 1-1-1.  The tie was basically me playing really badly, and then letting him have a tesuji that basically paralyzed me and brought the game back to equilibrium.  I couldn't go on after that, so we called it quits.  So, the question is, how to get back in shape?  Motivation to study and to improve has always been the key to moving forward.  When I was in Korea and at the height of my studying, I was able to go toe to toe with the 5 dan children.  I had to really think of course, but they couldn't take me down without a fight.  Of course, back then, I was doing 100 problems a week with a weekly lecture and copious amounts of Baduk TV.  Now that I'm back home, I can't get my Go fix as easy, and I'm trying to find the motivation to get back in the groove.  At times like these it'd be nice to have a 1,000 year old ancient spirit tell me what to do :P

Spreading Go throughout the West

A friend of mine from college and I sat down about a week ago and discussed this very topic, and it fascinates me to no end.  Go has always been a niche market.  The game appeals to computer programmers and people who tend to enjoy math.  Go also attracts a few artsy types, connoisseurs of Japanese culture, and a few other people like myself who study Asian languages and culture.  There's always been this sense that Go never crossed into the main stream to the point where the average person on the street would have at least seen it and not mistaken it for Othello.  We crow when the U.S. Go Congress has over 500 participants, and we applaud as new Go clubs open up in schools across the U.S.  We fall out of our chairs when we see Go anywhere in the mainstream media.  Some think it's a matter of time before the love of Go reaches all four corners of the country, where others think that the culture doesn't have enough room in it for intellectual games with Chess having carved out such a huge section for itself.  

I personally feel there is no ceiling, but we as a community have to switch our tactics.  We have time on our hands, but we have to drop some of the old thinking that other people are going to enjoy the game the way we do.  This is the mindset of "So You Want to Play Go?" Level 1.  My assumption was that the reader would not play Go more than perhaps three times a year.  The probably would never go on to the second book, nor fully understand everything in the first.  They would, however, be entertained and feel that they learned something and came away with more information.  Perhaps they could talk about the game at some social event or with a buddy.  Socializing the game I think is the way forward.  I also would hope that there could be more tournaments modeled as cultural festivals, and then advertise about them in local papers so that you can snag more people.  I'm just basing this off of a handful of anecdotes, but if people saw it more as a light social experience rather than a quest to become the next Dosaku, the game overall might gain more traction.

A DVD series on Go

I've been working on creating a video series to teach beginners how to play Go.  I started a project on kickstarter here: http://kck.st/rSqTeg.  The idea of the project is to help make Go more popular in the West.  So far, Go players are mostly computer programmers, mathematicians, college kids, and the elderly who switched over from chess in the park to a Go board.  There are people outside of these lines, like children, but for the most part Go has only made fleeting appearances in the main culture.  It's getting better.  There are Go classes in schools and we see glimpses of the game in popular media.  My series, the "So You Want to Play Go?" books, seem to be making a dent, and Janice Kim already led the charge with her books.  Yet, getting Americans to play Go has been an uphill process.  The vast majority of the population has never seen it before.  It's sometimes hard to explain it in a way you think will capture their attention.  Heck, even the name confuses some people because it's too simple :P

I thought since my books did a good job of bridging the fun gap and were well received, a DVD would do just as well.  Here's the thing though: I'll need some assistance.  I have a friend who is a professional film maker and video editor.  For $1,000 he'll videotape and produce the DVD, as well as help me get it ready for the internet.  I tried doing it myself, but I don't really have the equipment or the technical skill to make it look professional.  Here's what I've come up with on my own: http://youtu.be/EP7fCbivQjY.  It's not bad, in fact I thought it was snazzy, but it could be better, and look a lot more professional.  After all, we're trying to get people who've never played Go to be interested.  If you're interested, please think about making a donation to help make this dream into a reality.

So You Want to Play Go? Level 4

I am working on level four of the series, and I'm doing it in conjunction with Alexandre Dinerchtein 3p who has been more than kind enough to review it.  I've been really excited to do it as I felt that there is so little out there for dan level players.  It kind of feels like you're pretty much left to study Go on your own after 1 dan.  Sure, they tell you to do more tsumego and to review more professional games, but I thought it'd be fun if there was something else you could do besides the same-old same-old.  I started on it right when I got back from South Korea.  I had spent about 6 months or so training at the Yu Changhyuk Baduk Dojang.  I had time to go on the weekends, and it was a great experience.  If you're new to the blog, I have plenty of stuff on my experiences there.

What I wanted to do with level 4 is simulate being at the Go Dojo because I know many people will not have the means to go.  I try to teach Go the way my teacher taught me.  Essentially, you play lots of games, get them reviewed by stronger players, go over many professional games, do tons of tsumego, and learn new joseki.  I was surrounded by people who were working very hard to become professionals, and that is essentially what they did everyday for hours.  I am not a kid, so I don't have the mental agility and pure open mind that they possessed, but I stuck with the program as best as I could.  Level 4 will have new joseki, analyzed professional games, positional judgement, and mistakes for dan level players.  I know, it's an ambitious project, but I felt that it'd be fun to finish the series off right. It's not quite finished, so if you have any last minute suggestions of things you'd like to see, let me know!

Blitz on KGS

So I'm focusing a lot on writing and I have less and less time to do tsumego problems and review professional games which makes up the bulk of my studying for Go.  So, to try and stay in shape so I don't slip down any stones, I play a lot of blitz games on KGS.  10 seconds per move.  I'm trying to experiment with it as a study tool, to see if it really can keep you in shape, or if you develop bad habits from it.  I am not a slow player in the first place.  I tend to instinctively slam down a stone after my opponent plays because I let my emotions guide me when I decide my next move.  My teacher in Korea told me it was a bad habit, especially when there were plenty of games I could have won with careful decision making.  One time when I was playing a kid, he walked over to our board, stood there for about five minutes and mustered all of his English knowledge into this beautiful sentence: "Fast, lose.  Slow, win."  Poetry.

Well I'm trying to see if he was really right.  I did win against the kids when I thought about it and really made careful moves.  However I can't get over the impulse to slam a stone down.  I think blitz will not get rid of that feeling, but at the same time, I rely largely on my intuition and instinct, and I think blitz games train those just fine.  You have to do a lot of quick calculation and use your gut to come up with the next move.  Although the problem is when I'm at a loss for my next move I don't really know what to do and end up clicking a random spot.

Does anyone else play a lot of blitz, and if so, do you think it's helped your game at all?

I know....

I'm not supposed to shamelessly self promote, but as an indie author, you have to shamelessly self promote :P  I just finished my book on my year in Korea!  If you're interested in going to Korea to teach ESL, or perhaps if you just wanna learn a bit more about their culture, this book is a quick, fun read!  I tried to condense my entire year down into a book, all of the places I visited, all of the people I met, and all of the adventures I had.  I went to Korea with no knowledge of the language, no knowledge of the culture, and no idea what I was getting into, so I went in by the seat of my pants and had a great time!

http://amzn.com/B005JPZ5LK

You can purchase it from Amazon for 99 cents!

For Beginners

For those of you who are not familiar with the game, here is a quick introduction!

Go is a war game.  It is an epic battle to see who can surround more territory.  Gameplay is simple.  One person is black, one person is white, and you take turns putting a stone on the board in any spot so long as it follows three rules.

These are my go bowls of awesomeness.

What makes the game interesting, but oftentimes challenging, is that you have few rules to restrict where you play, everything else is fair game.  As you can see from the picture, a Go board is a big grid.  We play stones on the intersections, and not on the squares like chess or checkers.  When you put a stone down on an intersection it has liberties:

As you can see, this stone has 4 liberties when no enemy stones occupy the horizontal or vertical spaces surrounding it.  We don't care about diagonals.  The stone on the left has 4 liberties and is in no danger, whereas his friend on the right is almost full encircled and only has 1 liberty.  By the way, the Chinese name of the game is Weiqi which means encircling game.  

When a stone has no more liberties it is captured by your opponent, taken off the board, and is worth 1 point.  One rule of Go is "You can't play a stone where it will automatically run out of liberties and die."  Yeah, I know, painfully obvious but someone has to do it.  The other rule is just a tad more complicated but keeps the game from freezing.

On the left, Black has 1 liberty left which I've marked for you, so White can capture the A stone and then our board will look like the middle picture.  The thing is, now White B has only one liberty.  If Black captures, then his stone will have one liberty, and both people will be locked in an eternal struggle for dominance.  This is why we have the "Ko rule".  The character for ko means eternity, and to keep the game going, once White takes, Black has to play elsewhere before he can take the move back.  So if we look on the right, White takes the circle marked Black stone, and Black must play elsewhere.  If White also plays elsewhere, then Black can take White 1.  

You can play Go now.  Yes I'm serious if you have a board and stones, and you can make that out of cardboard and buttons, you can grab a buddy and play.  You can try out your first game for free on the Kiseido Go Server at http://gokgs.com.  You can make an account and play as many games as you want at no charge, so Go is both fun AND frugal!