Introduction
When one falls in love with the game of go, he can choose the kind of relation that fits him. Go is an open lover. Some people are contempt to enjoy the go environment, spending their leisure time in the go world. I heard many players say in the go world one relates with interesting people with “lively minds”. Many project their energy to keep the community active, either in the local scene or in the wider scales. One can see the game as a mean to tickle his spirit, or as a path to forge his mind. This text is dedicated to the players that recognizes their approach in the last statement.
My experience
When one learns go, and he is serious about getting stronger, will lose a lot of stones after studying his first books, learning first joseki, solving first tsumego. Then things get more challenging, the desire to improve may become more scorching while at the same time more effort and resources will be required to advance. Harmonize this burning desire with a full time job requires you to use your time to the game in the most efficient way. I needed a method. Many teachers influenced me in developing a method, one of the first things I became aware of was the outstanding importance of reading, then I appreciated how developing precise tsumego skills transforms the way I play. Teacher Kazunari has something completely new to teach. Similarly to a geotechnician, he analyzes the foundations of a go player.
Kazunari’s Internet Go School
I will describe his unique teaching style, and how he worked on my basic technique. He created a relation with me by interviewing me about my history with go. Then I sent him 10 games, behind those games he studied me. He knew what tesuji I know, and saw the basic lines that I was not considering. To have fast and deep reading, I must be perfectly aware of any basic tesuji. If I misjudge a situation or don’t know a basic tesuji involved, I cannot read deeper into. Worse, my playing style may adapt to this lack of knowledge, I may thus develop recurring bad habits. If I were to study my games by myself, I may need hundreds and hundreds of hours of study to find out proper moves. But Kazunari spots my problems and bad habits really easily. In order to fix them, first he sends a test. When I answer the test and return it to him, he produces dozens of problems. By solving them, I can see my weaknesses and learn the proper moves, shapes, tesuji, etc. In other words, studying on my own is like traveling by boat in the Pacific Ocean without a compass. But taking Kaz's teaching gives me a compass to travel; I know what to play and how to study.
By studying his problems with repetition, I generated new kinds of situation in my games, often luring my opponents in the mistake I studied.
Conclusion
By having a teacher that selects the contents that I urge to learn, I improved faster. When Kazunari interviewed me, in May 2015, I declared him that my short term goal was to “create more trouble to the strongest italian players”. In the months before that declaration, I lost three time against the italian champion in tournament, I felt a gap against him. As 1st kyu, I took 15 lessons from him before the Italian Championship on December 2015. I beat the 3rd dan italian champion in an even game the first round. I was sincerely emotioned. It’s a new starting point point for me. It felt really good.
25/12/2015 Niccolò Sgaravatti
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