New job, new preferences

Friday, May 23. 2008


This week I got into a new job where everything I knew is futile and the daily routine is based on pouring information into my brain from 8:00 to 18:00 (with a lunch break). Unfortunatelly, in order to understand the slightest amount of this knowledge, my brain needs to process it at a lower pace at home during the following hours.

The result is that my free time is reduced to it's smallest representation and I'm too tired to place stones in a goban in any sort of logical order. Just to give you a quick sample, I haven't checked my computer in 3 days, something which I used to do at least twice a day, and I didin't go to the usual weekly club meeting. So, in the end, the spare time for Go has been reduced to weekends where I have to combine it with my girlfriend... so I guess I won't be playing as much Go or reviewing software on the forecoming months as I had been doing lately.

A couple things more before finishing the post:

-The pro games database has been deleted from the databases' site in order to avoid some copyright conflicts. It seems that there are different points of view in this field, so if I don't want to get into trouble with anyone, deleting it seems the most reasonable behaviour.

-I've added the possibility to announce yourself on this site, you'll see the link at the upper left.

-The videoreviews of MoyoGoStudio and Stonebase are partially done, but as they require quite a lot of dedication to finish them in order to get a decent result, and some video post-processing, so these two projects will be delayed until said otherwise.

Go Blogs crisis

Tuesday, May 6. 2008


Yesterday I was reading the usual feeds on my google reader till I realised that there were only 5 major writers... out of a total list over 30 sources. Then, I decided to take a look at the Go Blogs list on Sensei's Library, just to realise that the Active/Inactive list of bloggers was quite outdated.

The result: (in pink the new inactive ones)

[361 points = Go | http://www.361points.com/blog/] (by [Sorin Gherman])
[Alejo's
Tenuki | http://www.alejostenuki.com/blog/] (9k KGS, partially a
videoblog)[RSS Feed|http://alejostenuki.com/blog/feeds/index.rss2]
- [Ava's Go
Journey | http://go-journey.blogspot.com] (14k KGS, starts out at 18k)
[RSS Feel|http://go-journey.blogspot.com/atom.xml]
[Baduk und Sprache | http://baduk.at]: [maruseru]'s blog, in german
[ChiyoDad
Learns Go | http://chiyodad.blogspot.com] (8k KGS, blog starts at
unranked) [RSS Feed|http://chiyodad.blogspot.com/atom.xml]
[Contemplations on Go | http://grandyan.blogspot.com/] ([GrandYan]'s blog, starts at 1d)

[FlameBlade's: Board Mirroring the Soul | http://www.flamingstones.blogspot.com] (dan level)
[frankiii's blog | http://frankiii.blogspot.com/] (18k, blog starts at 21k) [RSS Feed|http://frankiii.blogspot.com/atom.xml]
[Go Around | http://5around.blogspot.com/] (Photos from Italian and some European Tournaments, in Italian)
- [Go4Go.net Go News | http://www.go4go.net/v2/modules/news/] [RSS Feed | http://www.go4go.net/v2/backend.php]
[Go Game In Russia | http://go.weiqi.ru/] [RSS Feed|http://go.weiqi.ru/rss]
- [A Go Player | http://goplayer.blogspot.com/] (15k, blog starts at 24k)
[Igo Report|http://igoreport.blogspot.com/] (by Nacho Cernuda, 4d in Spanish)
[Jon Boley|http://myspace.com/spazzy_j] (6d, blogging from Seoul, Korea)
[Kami no Itte|http://kaminoitte.com/blog/] (blog by [Codexus]) [RSS Feed | http://kaminoitte.com/dotclear/rss.php]
- [Kikashi | http://kikashi.blogspot.com] (Learning Experiments in the Game of Go)
[Kouseis World | http://kouseisworld.blogspot.com] (1k, German Blog about Go)
- [Malweth's Go Blog | http://www.tsumego.net/blog] (9k, blog starts at 18k)
[Maths and Weiqi...with a British Accent | http://mathsandweiqi.blogspot.com]
- [Mr Ooijer
Blogs | http://blogger.xs4all.nl/rongen17/] Jan van Rongens Blog [RSS
Feed|http://blogger.xs4all.nl/rongen17/Rss.aspx]
[Nachtrabe's Baduk Blog|http://nachtsbaduk.blogspot.com/] (8k, [nachtrabe's|nachtrabe] baduk blog, formerly on SL)
[NannyOgg's
Shodan Challenge Blog | http://shodan-challenge.blogspot.com/] [RSS
Feed|http://shodan-challenge.blogspot.com/atom.xml]
[Nexik Baduk School| http://www.baduk.nexik.net/] (Dan level)
- [rayen's Go blog during his fulltime study in Go| http://www.progamed.com] (dan level)
[Polish Go| http://polishgo.blogspot.com/] (Dan level)
- [A River of Stones | http://bodhiwater.blogspot.com/] [RSS Feed | http://feeds.feedburner.com/ARiverOfStones]
- [Rob's Go Blog | http://waykay.blogspot.com] [RSS Feed|http://waykay.blogspot.com/atom.xml] [RobFerguson]'s Go Blog
- [The Shodan Year | http://the-shodan.blogspot.com/] Ash's improvement log during the BGS's Shodan Challenge program.
[Think, strive, good luck | http://think2improve.blogspot.com/] Jayme Fosa
[A
Shugyosha's Journey |http://www.bodhiwater.blogspot.com/] (29k, blog
starts at 30k) [RSS Feed|http://bodhiwater.blogspot.com/atom.xml]
- [Snakeeater on Go | http://snakeeatergo.blogspot.com/] (4k)
- [Studying Weiqi in China | http://www.gostudent.blogspot.com/]
[study at Myongji University in Korea | http://www.jens.baduk4u.de] Jens Henker 4d, in german and english
[TheKro's Nest | http://www.cs.sun.ac.za/~skroon/personal/blog/] [Steve]'s blog (1k)
- [toastcrumb's Go Blog|http://shodansummer.blogspot.com/] (12k)
-
[Tsumego.net - The game of Go (Weiqi) |
http://www.tsumego.net/blog/index.php] [RSS Feed |
http://www.malweth.net/nucleus/atom.php?blogid=2]
[Wolvie's Go Blog|http://wolviego.blogdrive.com/] (30k)
[World news about game of Go|http://go-news.blogspot.com/]
- [xed_over|http://www.xanga.com/go_player] (9 kyu, began blog at 12 kyu)
[IgoBlog|http://www.igochile.cl/blog/] News in Spanish
* [ziggy's go club]



All in all, 15 blogs had to be removed from the Active Blogs list due to the lack of activity during the last 6 months or the impossibility to reach their addresses. Some of them already announced their desire to stop blogging, but others were just left to their own luck by their owners.

Even there is still a nice list of active blogs, if you check your feeds reader, you'll realise that there are only a few of them which are regularly posting on their blogs. In fact, most of the feeds you received last month came from only 5 authors. Now I hope you get what I mean by Go Blogs Crisis.

Playing too aggressively

Friday, May 2. 2008


For some reason, during the last month I've realised that I'm playing way too aggresively without bothering about making points while chasing my opponent. Obviously, as a result of this I tend to make kill-or-die games which may end up as flawless victories or tremendous defeats.
Though I've tried to fix this behaviour by making some sort of moyo-based fuseki, I always get into hardous fights in the middle game with big groups involved.
On the next two games there are both samples of this "bug" in my playing style: in the first one I manage to win by a larg margin but one of my groups is killed and in the second one... well... you'd better watch it for yourself what happens when my reading isn't as good as my opponent's.


Continue reading "Playing too aggressively"