What began in 2010 as an occasional hobby has definitely become an obsession. Well, let me go back a little further. I originally discovered Go back in 2005 because of a manga called Hikaru no Go (never heard that one before, eh?), and enjoyed the game. Unfortunately, I was so new to the community, I only knew of the Yahoo server which quickly became discouraging for me as a beginner. (Interesting note, my first Yahoo screen name was shonenhikaru). So I quit for the most part. Then in 2007 I began playing my friend Brian in Go on an old Scrabble board with fish bowl stones. Seriously. But it was nothing serious. Just casual fun. But I quit again.

And ultimately, we get to 2010. This time I picked up the game on a whim, and was lucky enough to discover GoDiscussions just before it died I think. And then I found out about KGS. And I haven't stopped playing since.

It's been a fun journey to say the least. I've met a lot of fantastic people along the way. I've discovered the ASR League and have recently become an admin for that league (although my terrible internet has thwarted me from actually being one, but more on that later).

In just 2 short years I've grown obsessed with the game. It's become a regular habit to solve tsumego. I enjoy watching professional games and even found a pro to root for (Iyama Yuta, to be precise).

I can't say I'm as dedicated as I could be though. Although recently my internet has been a serious deterrent to my playing. As I've had to tell several people, I can't even hardly play because of it. It's gotten to the point where my internet kicks me every 2 minutes. It's probably just my room though. So I've completed my 1000th game, but that'll probably be it for awhile unfortunately.

And to just give an example of how bad my internet has been, it's taken me 6 tries to finish just writing this post. But I thought it would be fun to write about my experience with Go.

I'll still be playing (on days when my internet allows it), but I obviously can't be on as frequently.

So, anyone else reach their 1000th game or anywhere close to it?

For the record, here's my current stats:

All 471 529 47%
Black 235 322 42%
White 236 207 53%
Higher 125 280 31%
Even 118 119 50%
Lower 123 58 68%
With H. 31 43 42%
Against H. 38 18 68%
Ranked 297 292 50%
Free 174 237 42%

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Slava Ukraini!

Congrats man , now go for 10k games eheheh

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There´s always more important things than someone´s dreams.