Fuseki

Fuseki, my biggest struggle of the game itself.

I once pulled up the records of my games...

I rarely go into yose. Because I always end up fighting hard, and winning by a hard kill, or getting insane profit in middle game.

Why do I fight so hard? The answer lies in opening stages of the game. My fuseki is so terrible that I typically get behind to the point that I need to step up and start fighting hard in middle game. In fact, fighting while behind is what I know.

So I borrowed a book, "A Dictionary of Modern Fuseki: Korean Style" from a player at club. I took time to play out many and many different variations.

Gradually, I'm starting to understand how stones are supposed to flow. A lot of little things just start to fall in place. Now I feel as if I can play better fuseki. I have tons of learning left to do. Funny consequence of improving fuseki is that the middle game is much more controlled. But funny thing, since I have little experience with that, I really need to learn how to do good yose with good fuseki. It is rare for me to play a middle game without a fighting. That just means that I must start to pick up on yose while working on fuseki. At least, I finally get to work on yose. All it takes is a good opening to set a good pace for the game.

Rebuilding

Some days...

go skills just plain suck.

Hardest part is learning how to pick yourself and move on. Learning how to rebuild yourself as a person. One game...it was supposed to be a teaching game...but I ended up using strength just to crush and win with 7 stones handicap. That was not a good go at all. That game...one move would have won the game easily, but I chose to just crush. Wipe off.

End result was I won, but it was not a good win.

So...immediately, I decided to stop, after several warnings from some friends...

And start over. Rebuild my go from there.

Once I focused on playing more cleanly, focused on finding the best move...I started out a bit awkwardly, like a child learning how to walk. Then suddenly, many different little things just started to click together. Now I'm playing much better go than before. I feel that I can do a lot more once I focus on best moves rather than my strength.

I have been giving weaker players large reverse komi, and tried to play normally. I consistently am impressed with myself, just trying to handicap myself by not overplaying at all, because the score will come naturally.

boy, that is one difficult thing to do, but...worth it.

Question for you...would you rather to use strength to crush and win through sheer luck and chance, or would you rather to play good go, play best move every time?

I say that it's better to play best move every time, because in long run, you will get stronger, because you actually are thinking about what works the best, instead charging like a machine, trying to destroy everything that he holds dear.

Go is about balance...and if I see an opportunity, I will grab it. I just keep playing best moves until I see a clear, open opportunity that I can take advantage of. If I see two weak groups, I will not hesitate to work carefully, and patiently to set up a massive splitting attack. I will be patient, but at the same time, not hesitate to find a way to reduce my opponent's efficiency.

There are a lot of little things...so if you are feeling down about your go, it's time to rebuild your go from a new light.