In my last blog, I sated that some of my students often do the following during a game:
1. Some Go players are too kind and allow “undo” often.
2. Some Go players chat during a game.

I’d like to talk about “chat” this time.

When I see a chat even once or twice briefly in a game, I wonder how destructive that is for a player. A chat is not only very rude, but will prevent you from improving your Go.

I’ve taught hundreds, probably a thousand of people. Those who improve have something in common. When they play a game, they concentrate on a game from the beginning to the end.

Those who don’t improve also have something in common. They don’t look at their game until the end. They often look around and see other players’ games, not just once, but many times. They have a short attention span.

During a game, you must avoid any destruction, including a chat. To do so, here is what I suggest.

Before a game, you should turn off your cell phone and even a landline if possible. You should go to a bathroom, too, before a game. You should ask your family member not to disturb you (Of course, I’m assuming that you don’t have any children. If you have a child, that’s probably impossible. )

You might want to look at top pros’ games or the World Amateur champion’s game if they play a game at a U.S. or European Go Congress or on the internet. They never chat. Not even once. It’s because they are concentrating on a game. They want to concentrate and hate any destruction that would lose their concentration.

If I played a tournament on KGS, I would never chat with an opponent or anyone. If an opponent tries to chat with me during a game, I think that’s very rude. I would not respond because that would be very destructive to my concentration.

Think about this.

If you look at a chat, read it, think about a response, and type it. It may take you a few seconds or a minute at the maximum. You may think that it takes only little time.

To me, that’s a matter of life-and-death. Once you lose your concentration, it may take more time to get back to a high concentration level. That means that I would lose more than a couple of minutes. If you get a chat more than twice, and if you have only 30 minutes, that can be lethal. You should expect that you could lose a game.

In each game, your time is very limited.

Many people play a game with 30 minute-time and then 30 second-byoyomi or 1-minute-byoyomi. This means that you literally have no time to chat. Even for me, that’s very little time. Even if I had an hour, that’s still very little time. That means that you never have time to chat or look at something else. Every second counts.

During a game, you have so many things to think about.

When stones are attached, you have to read. If you’re an adult, you should pay attention to the shortage of liberties throughout a game. You also have to look at a situation globally, think about an attack, defense, invasion, etc. You also have to think about territory to see who is winning and losing. If you’re losing, you have to find a move to upset or turn around a game. It takes a lot of time to find a move like that.

Since both players have very little time, whoever has a higher concentration usually wins a game and improve fast. There is no time for chatting.

If someone constantly chats, I doubt that he or she is not interested in improving his or her Go. During your game, if a viewer tries to chat with you, I think he or she doesn’t know a manner. It doesn’t matter how strong they are. It’s very rude to chat with someone who is playing a game.

I was an insei (Go apprentice, like a Jedi knight) and recorded many games and watched hundreds of pros’ games.

There were pros who chatted very briefly during a game once or twice. But those pros never became a top pro or title holder.

Top pros, especially title holders like Cho Chikun 9dan and Kobayshi Koichi 9dan, never chatted. The late Sakata Eio never chatted with anyone during a game. Never. From the morning to the mid-night, his concentration was always amazing (He always had the eye of the tiger). He stayed at the top even when he was over 60 years old.

If you want to have a high winning percentage, there is no time or no room for chatting because that will destroy your concentration.

there is no time or no room for chatting, You need to improve your concentration. This is crucial. (I talked about how important it is to improve the ability to concentrate in my blog below: )
http://ift.tt/1mzAKbZ
http://ift.tt/1pee2wh

Yes. I assume that you might think “Hey, come on! We are not top pros or amateurs. We play Go for fun. We don’t want to lose Go friends.”

Yes. I understand that. It’s definitely good to be friendly to fellow Go players. But you can be friendly after a game or a before game.

If someone interrupts your game often and prevents you from improving your Go, do you think he or she can be a good friend for a long time? There are many people who never interrupt your games. You might want to make friends with them.

So if your opponent often chats with you even once during a game, this is what I suggest.

Before you play a game, you might want to tell your opponent why you want to avoid any chat during a game. Please feel free to show this blog. Then your opponent will blame me, not you.

Also you might want to play a game “private”, so no one can enter your game. In order to make your game “private”, this is how you do it.

When you can click “Custom Game”, please take a look at the top. In the middle, there is “private? “. Please click that. Then, during a game, no one can enter unless you allow them to enter.

If someone tries to chat with you during a game, please copy this “Sorry, I’m playing now and need to concentrate. I cannot answer this right now.” After a game, you should leave the same message. Then, eventually no one will chat with you during a game.

Please remember that trying to chat with someone during a game is very rude. Please also remember that whoever has a higher concentration usually wins a game and improve fast.

via Go, Igo, Weiqi, Baduk. Kaz’s original Igo-advice & fundamentals of Igo http://ift.tt/1pee0Vg

June 10, 2014 at 09:59AM

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Many of my students take my lessons in order to get strong as well as to have a high winning percentage.

Recently I’ve noticed that some people are missing a chance to have a higher winning percentage. Let me point that out, and then I’d like to make some suggestions.

Some of my students often do the following during a game:

1. Some Go players are too kind and allow “undo” often.
2. Some Go players chat during a game.

First I’d like to talk about “undo”.

Some people think that it’s a good manner or a friendly manner to let your opponent “undo” during a game. If it’s a teaching game, yes, I do that. But not in a serious game.

Please remember three thing:

A. If you let “undo” once in a game, you could lose almost all your games even if you’re two stones stronger than your opponent. This is true at any level, kyu level, 1dan level, 5 dan level, 8dan level.

B. At my level as an amateur 8dan, I can tell whether or not my opponent miss-clicks. But in most amateurs’ games up to 4 or 5 dan, it’s very hard, almost impossible even for me to tell which move was a miss-click. When it comes to kyu players’ games, I cannot tell which moves are miss-click. This means that you probably cannot tell whether your opponent miss-clicked it or not.

C. I’ve taught hundreds, probably a thousand of people in a Japanese Go club and Go school where they play Go face-to-face Those who improve have something in common. They never undo during a game. Those who do not improve Go often undo.

First you should know that “undo” is against the rule. If a pro does it in a face-to-face game, he or she will lose a game instantly. Recently there are internet tournaments for pros. Still undo is against the rule. That’s true in an amateur tournament as well.

Those who play Go as a hobby, undo in a Go club in Japan. But those who undo often get disliked. It’s against the rule and one of the worst manners.

Personally I don’t know the manners on the internet. But I think “undo” is made because some people do miss-click sometimes. Only sometimes. Maybe once in every 5 games. (Some kyu players seem to undo often.)

If someone asks you to undo once in every game, I seriously doubt that this person doesn’t care about a manner. At least he or she doesn’t really care about your feelings.

In fact I’ve seen many moves that are not miss-click, but a clear mistake, but still undo, and turn around a game.

Like I said, unless you’re a 5dan or 6dan, it’s almost impossible to tell whether one did a miss-click.

And if you let an opponent “undo” once in a game, you will most likely lose a game. One “undo” can be worth countless points. If you want to win a game, you shouldn’t allow “undo”.

You may worry about losing Go friends.

But think about this. Those who undo often don’t care about manners or your feelings. They may not even care about improving their Go. All they care about is win a game by any means. Would you rather have Go friends who respect you as a Go player, know manners, and want to improve Go?

It’s possible that no one ever told them manners and rules. In that case you might want to show them this blog.

If I miss-click it, I would never “undo”. Miss-clicking is one of the things I should improve. I’ll think about why I miss-clicked it, and I’ll try not to make the same mistaken again. It’s the same the mistake as forgetting to press the clock in a face-to-face tournament.

Sometimes pros miss a train, arrive late at a tournament place, and lose a game. But that’s a rule. Everyone has to abide by rules. They cannot undo.

If it’s hard for you to tell your opponent that you will not accept any undo from now on, you might want to say “my Go teacher told me not to undo yourself, nor should I allow undo. So I won’t undo, either.”

If you cannot say that, please feel free to show this blog. Then at least your opponent blames me, not you. So you won’t lose a Go friend.

I’ll talk about a chat soon on this blog.

via Go, Igo, Weiqi, Baduk. Kaz’s original Igo-advice & fundamentals of Igo http://ift.tt/1uO0jMP

June 10, 2014 at 09:01AM

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Now the summer vacation is coming, and many of you may travel. When you travel, please do not make a $100 mistake below in terms of Go. I’ll show you how to prevent that, too.

When you review my materials or study a Go book, you should not copy just sentences.

I’ve met many Japanese adult players who copy only commentaries (sentences) and don’t copy diagrams probably because copying sentences is faster and easier. They mistakenly assume that learning commentaries (sentences) will help them.

Unfortunately, many of them do not realize the fact that without understanding a shape, memorizing a sentence is not at all helpful, but can be harmful.

( I state “shape”. This can mean, a good shape, a tesuji, a life-and-death problem, etc. It can mean anything. )

Why is it harmful? Here is the reason.

There are so many diagrams that look the same or very similar to amateurs. But even if two different diagrams seem to show almost the same in the eyes of amateurs, they are often completely different in the eyes of pros or top amateurs.

In most case if there is a subtle difference, a correct move can be completely different, and the results are totally and utterly different.

For example, for native English speakers, the words “memo” and “nemo” are completely different. But for English speaking beginners, they look very similar.

The words “evidence” and “evince” do not the same meaning. The word “basic” and “basis” are not exactly the same. The words “different” and “deferred” are not the same. ( I wish I could come up with better examples in terms of English words.)

For some Americans, Cambodia and Laos may look the same. For some Asians, Canada and the U.S.A may look the same. (Maybe these are extreme examples… But Go beginners make that kind of mistakes. )

There are so many misunderstandings in Go because of similar shapes.

Every game is different, and every situation can be different. The stronger you become, the more you will sharpen your ability to see the differences. To do so, you must understand shapes and differences of shapes. (BTW, this is why I try to make problems that show differences sometimes.)

Many talented children can become very strong very quickly. In less than a year, a 1dan talented child becomes a 7dan amateur and then becomes a pro because they never forget shapes.

But adults cannot remember many diagrams at once. So some adults try to rely on words, but that’s not a good idea because of the reason above. So please be careful.

Now the summer vacation is coming, and many of you may travel. When you travel, please do not make a $100 mistake by copying only sentences. You must copy your diagrams, too.

If you have iPad, all you have to do is to transfer my texts to the iPad.

One of my students sent me the following info. I don’t have iPad, nor have I ever used it, so all I can do is just copy his sentence below…

Here’s the process in case you wanted to share it with other students:

1. Create a zip file of all problems on computer

2. Buy Easygo app

3. Connect iPad to computer, open iTunes in computer, go to “iPad -> Apps -> EasyGo” and Add.. to EasyGo the zip file you created in 1.

4. Open EasyGo on iPad

5. Create new folder (“Kaz Problems”) and click on Import button – this should open the File Manager and you should see the zip file from 3.

6. Last note – view problems in Edit mode otherwise you will miss some comments on some moves.

Good luck to you!

via Go, Igo, Weiqi, Baduk. Kaz’s original Igo-advice & fundamentals of Igo http://ift.tt/1mM1do9

June 03, 2014 at 01:36PM

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I teach Go in a very unique way. For example, I send various problems after each lesson; as far as I know I’m the only Go teacher who sends problems after a lesson. I make and send problems because of the following reasons: http://ift.tt/1riqHjv

Using the following criteria is one of other unique teaching methods (As far as I know, I’m the only Go teacher who has made the criteria. Before I made these, I had to teach hundreds, perhaps a thousand adult players, to analyze their mistakes, and to understand the level of their mistakes. So it took me many years to make the following criteria:

☆I often comment like “$30 common mistake.” See below:

$100 mistake = With this mistake, you can lose a game instantly. So you must avoid it.
$ 90 mistake = Excruciatingly bad,
$ 80 mistake = Excessively bad. It’s so bad that you may not forget it for a week.
$ 70 mistake = It’s so bad that you may not forget it for the next day,
$ 60 mistake = It’s so bad that you may not forget it for the next an hour,
$ 50 mistake = Very bad,
$ 40 mistake = Bad,
$ 30 mistake = No good,
$ 20 mistake = Not so good,
$ 10 mistake = It’s a light mistake and not so important for kyu players.
$ 5 mistake =A small mistake; 1 and 2 dan players don’t have to worry about it.

BTW, the other day one of the students asked me why a top pro
did play a certain move. I couldn’t answer that.

Here is what I wrote in the email:

With regard to top pros’ moves, I’m sorry, I’m afraid, but I couldn’t answer that.

Top pros’ moves are beyond my understanding. Even if I spend many
hours, days, or months, I could only guess what each move means.
They could read a hundred moves in a flash according to some pros.

If I understood the meaning of each move, I would be getting pros’ titles today.

BTW, I believe that in order to become strong as fast as possible,
I recommend studying the following way: http://ift.tt/1q5h6Mq

Of course, playing top pros’ games is a lot of fun, and their moves, tesuji,
and shapes are beautiful. It’s really great to spend some time and appreciate
their games.

If you review pros’ games, I strongly recommend that you buy a book with showing a
commentary. Consequently, you will understand some of the moves and appreciate their games.

So if you like to review pros’ games, you should by all means do that.

Thank you very much for reading this blog again out of your busy life.

Kaz

via Go, Igo, Weiqi, Baduk. Kaz’s original Igo-advice & fundamentals of Igo http://ift.tt/1riqHjF

May 29, 2014 at 09:56AM

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