Home Again, Pt. 2

Mr. Yang’s teaching style was excellent.   His structured, methodical approach to the board, while often above my head, allowed me to have a much better grasp of the game after the weekend.   In fact, three days later, I can still hear his voice in my head walking through the reasoning of the moves.

The games I have played since coming back have been about five stones stronger than I played before I left, although I doubt I will keep that up now that I’m not studying twelve hours a day.   But I know I look at the board in an entirely different way now, and I am more enthusiastic than ever.

In retrospect, I was probably too much of a beginner to get everything I could out of this workshop, but I put everything I had into it and it was definitely a worthwhile effort.   I look forward to next going next year as a single-digit kyu…

Another item of interest is that nearly all of the participants were real-life players first, online players second.   Most of the games played would have been difficult within KGS time limits.   But the reading skills of some of these players were astonishing.   One of the Dan players showed how he made a winning move after reading out the possible combinations eight moves ahead.   There were a lot of skills shown that would be difficult to develop by playing only online.

Tonight is Go club, I look forward to seeing what happens…