Good news for me are that I 1,5 weeks ago made the Oro 3dan to which makes me happy , additionally I have a 3dan Tygem account to and I like that server very much. If you can cope with brutal fighting over the board Tygem is the best server around, sooo many strong users there 24/7 to! Have fun there.
The not so good side at the moment is that what I describe as "suiciding my way up on Oro". It means basically I am quite a big bit stronger than most adversaries from 2-4dan there, however I keep killing myself so often these days again. Crucial groups die not due to brilliant move of my opponent but to my own faults. That is so annoying as I should be easily 4-5dan there by now and that probably is the problem... Obsession with rank was it called? I need to play the stones not my opponent my teacher says but that is so hard to do...
Currently I have begun studying shapes, slowly but surely it should become better. Even my teacher commented that my game made a sudden leap upwards compared to the usual games I played with her. (To those who wonder who my teacher is, it is Shen Jing, Jennie on KGS. She is very good and nice, go and check her teaching out!) Shapes now seem so very important, the game feels much lighter when you are able to make good shape. It becomes so much more fun.
To study shapes I use the "Making good shape" book from the Mastering the basics series and the audio lessions from Guo Juan on her website about shape.
So now to the things I found out about studying Baduk abroad.
Basically I now know of 2 (maybe 3) possibilities to study Baduk longterm in Korea. Which would be accordingly the "International Baduk Academy" from Lee Kibong and the "Master of Education" course at the Myongji University.
In China there are 3 possibilties from which one is dead I believe. First of all a longterm oppostunity the offer from Guo Juans Go school to study Weiqi in Wuhan. Then there are two projects for 2 months organized by two well known chinese high-dans. First EXPERIENCE GO IN CHINA by Jeff Chang and the second was gongames or so by Will Zhang but from that project I have not heard in a long time.
Sadly I have no idea about Japan and Taiwan currently. If I get a hold of it I will let you know.
So now I must tell you something. Going abroad to study Baduk certainl requires more skills than to play Baduk and one of the essentials is cooking which I cannot seem to do right. Yesterday I had two pizzas. Followed the instuctions on the packaging and shoved them into the oven for 12 minutes. Later I come down and see half a success! I managed to make one pizza! Yay! However I do not know why the second one was burned so badly. :( (Note to myslef take cooking classes soon...)
- adorable plum
