Life In 19x19

In the Japanese go community, Tsumego are differentiated from life and death problems and are thought as puzzles intended to train reading ability. The preferred way to solve them is to find one correct line of solution and to refute all other incorrect moves. Therefore the problems themselves are ...

Nov 15 is celebrated as 'ii igo' (good igo) day with i(pronounced a 'ee') symbolizing one and go symbolizying five. We can celebrate Jan 5, but if we do that, we will also have to celebrate every 15th day of every month, and we will be very busy.

Today I had a chance to speak to Otake Hideo (9p retired) over beer and wine.
He recalled, when a young professional, that he saw Go Seigen as above human, and was more than honored when Go treated Otake as one of his fellow go players. (It was among a discussion that he made a go professional ...

This is an update to my post on 10 March.
My rank on Fox (where I take my time with each move) has been bouncing between 2d and 3d (from 1k-1d last year), while my rank on KGS (where I play in my usual blitzy way as comparison/control) is still at 2k with 30wins and 41 losses from January to March ...

I have recently found a twitter account '@igoayaya15', where a go teacher posts problems which you take the marked stones. Each and every move is not complicated but the moves are terribly long.

I am making a quick advance in rank due to this.
At the beginning of the year, my teacher suggested that I take time (at least 20 seconds) before each move and,
a. double check for any mistakes/blunders, and
b. check to see whether you can tenuki.

Other suggestion were,
c. go through two elementary ...

I would say they are approaches.
1. Consideration for follow-up moves falls under the category of Joseki. There are no surrounding stones, so the value of sides, corner, influence has not shifted.
2. Calling them invasion gives a false impression that 5-4 or 3-5 gives them a corner/a stake in the ...

During the month of December 2021, there were a approx. 0.16kyu/dan downward shift, approx. 0.33 kyu/dan downward shift, and approx. 0.5 kyu/dan upward shift in KGS, and we are back to where we were on November 2021.
Accumulated adujustment since March 2018 (when OGS conducted a server-wide survey ...

On 15th Dec, Otake Hideo 9p had a press briefing announcing his retirement from pro. His reason was that the "picture" that comes into his mind while playing the game is not optimal anymore.

It all in Japanese, but its on you tube below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNSQtz0jOmc

There seems to be two downward rank adjustment early December, adding up to around 0.5k/d downward adjustment. Accumulative ranking adjustment since March 2018 (when OGS conducted a server-wide rank comparison) seems to be around 1.1k/d upward adjustment (i.e 4.0kyu in Mar 2018 is 2.9kyu in Dec 2021).

Nakamura Sumire has just won the Kisei Prelims, goes into C league to have a (long) shot at the title.
B+5.5 against Torii 3p.

This is my reply to OP.
First is whether you should improve. Cho Chikun 9p once suggested that when you reach shodan (Japan. probably 4k-5k in US/Europe) to stop there, cause you can easily find players at around your strength, thus making your go life enjoyable.

Say you reject his advice. Next, my ...

This from a guy using a different client, but you should be able to offer a game by clicking on an opponent`s name, and a menu pops up, which includes an option of offering a game. When the opponent accepts, then the time setting negotiation starts, and if both of you disagree on the time setting ...

My teacher says many are taking their effort on a wrong path.
While improving, their strength, in terms of winrate, will go back (by the way Cho Chikun 9p have said the same).
Why?, because you are a beginner on such new skills/new ways of thinking. By how much?, even two or three stones(2-3 kyu/dan ...

The chat is up and running now (as of 14 Aug 2020). Thank you for the hard work.