Greetings from the end of the year 2011

Dear readers,

Too bad I haven't been able to update my blog for months. I hope you have found some other interesting stuff to do :). Long story short the trip to EGC2011 in Bordeaux went really nicely and I think I even gained a couple of pounds (the food was delicious).

Enjoying every moment with finnish friends.

Korean food party, with some friends in France

 I realized at the congress once again that Go is a difficult board game. However, I tried not to take this too seriously. What I really enjoyed about that congress was the feeling of adventure when you're exploring new things, like food,wine and meeting new friends. I had the chance to keep in contact with my korean contacts, and that reminded me of the year 2008-2009 when I was in Korea. Some memories just get sweeter with time. I've even actually started liking kimchi a bit more! Moreover I was able to strenghten my bond with the finnish Go-players. I think we have a great go-community here in finland. I also managed to get some contacts from Taiwan as some of my finnish friends hanged out with them. A friend of mine even went to visit one of them in Taiwan last september!

Picture taking during orientation week at a student activity

A lot of things have happened since the last post. Actually I did manage to get a study place against my expectations at that point. During the EGC I got a call from my mom that I was accepted in Aalto University of Economics BscBa -program in Mikkeli, which is another city about 200 km away from Helsinki. So practically I'm studying business and economics in one of the best universities in the country and that's pretty sweet! Infact I had a lot of things to do in august-december, moving to another town and starting my studies, so I didn't really have time for Go and this blog unfortunately, but I think it was still good, because I've learned so many things this second half of the year and that has made my view of life broader and more exciting.

If you find yourself eating your favorite korean food, you're blessed.

In October I had my prize-trip to Korean Prime Ministers Cup in South-Korea. I must say it was an amazing trip, altough I did not play that well as I was rusty. I had the wonderful chance to get to meet old friends and some new people as well. I wish I could explain you the feeling when I had my first bite of Tuna-Gimbap at the gimbap place after so many years! It felt heavenly. Pc-bang experience was also nice :).

Anyways thanks to this trip to Korea I was able to start reviving my Go again. I started playing Go again a couple of nights a week and solving problems every now and then when I have time. From November I was more or less already in somewhat of a good shape. And I actually managed to win the Finnish Championships 2011 without any losses (7-0)(History of Finnish Championships).

Winning that championships was my childhood dream
ever since I started Go and I probably wouldn't have gotten to dan level without this goal. It felt great thinking back into 2005 when that young boy entered Helsinki Go-club for the first time on a rainy summer day, staring at a room full of Go-players so concentrated in their games. It was so peaceful inside compared to the outside where it was pouring heavily. Soon this young 30 kyu  boy was put to play against a 16-time Finnish Champion, Vesa Laatikainen 5 dan. At this moment I knew what I wanted to do. Now that young boy has more or less grown up and is not feeling as excited about Go anymore, which is a pity. However, his appreciation to the game runs very deep and will always stay in his heart.

One week until the European Go Congress 2011

Hi folks.

I got some good news and some bad news. Bad news is that it seems like I didn't get a study place to the universities I applied to ;__; ... Big shock. Well it didn't come out as a complete suprise, but still... what am I going to do now :3?
-I'll probably look for a job and start saving up money!!!
Someone might think I've made a major screw up, but I think maybe it's a blessing that my university studies get delayed by a year. In fact I could learn something about life, save some money and improve my Go.



The good news is that I survived the impact of the "bad" news and came up with some other plans. In addition I've been doing pretty well in my summer hobbies, which are this year bouldering and Go.

I just started out following a new training schedule which goes roughly like this:

Monday: bouldering
Tuesday: Go-training
Wednesday: bouldering
Thursday: Go-training
Friday: bouldering
Saturday and Sunday: Go-training + free time

Here is how the shaolin monks train!

It's a loose schedule to help me keep focused for training Go. I'm hoping to make a good record in EGC this year. Also I intend to keep myself in good shape physically. As some legendary Go-master has said "physical training is also a part of one's playing strenght and tournament endurance".

And here is how I train.

I was thinking I could photoshop this picture and put a huge waterfall and some rainforest on the background to make it look higher :-). Too bad my photoshop skills are quite limited. If someone wants to do it for me I'd appreciate it!

Anyways as you can see from the picture bouldering requiers lots of arm strenght and good climbing technique. I started bouldering maybe 3 weeks ago and now i've started to go climbing 3x a week. I also bought a pair of climbing shoes for 69€. They are pretty cool!

The Idea in bouldering is actually quite similar to solving Go-problems. There are different coloured routes called "puzzles". The routes are also graded based on difficulty with numbers from 4-9?. Currently I've climbed some 5's. Solving these puzzles requiree some planning before hand, good technique and the determinance of a great Go-master! :).


Alright, next I'll give you some insight on my Go-training time.
Recently I started studying Kong Jie's games. He is a Chinese 9dan player who holds several international titles and has occationally been #1 in chinese ranking. In fact we have some things in common. We both like to lose games to weaker players!!! ,but when the time is right, we kick ass against all the top dogs!

Having seen all his official games from 2011-2010, I've come to the conclusion that I love his style. He is a master of Life and Death and has an "All round style", meaning that he is very flexible and does not play only territorywise. His typical game starts with a framework, continues with him attacking his opponent brilliantly, then making some furikawaries and winning/ losing the game.
I've gotten some pretty good pointers from his games and recently I've been OWNING on kgs. Let's hope this keeps up.

TurkuGP2011 and enjoying the summer

Hey guys,

It's been a while again since the last post, but good is something worth waiting for, right?
These days I've been playing mostly Go. It does sound a bit boring in a way, but every game of go tells a different story. I was having some trouble playing good last month. However after my last tournament I'm feeling like I'm getting in really good flow again.



I attended TurkuGP-go tournament last weekend. Turku is a town located in the east coast of finland. We arrived on friday and some fellow go-players already got pretty drunk then. I wasn't really affected by our happy reunion until early morning apart from being slightly tired. The excitement of the upcoming go-tournament kept my concentration good. I had not been in a go tournament for more than 6 months and the games must've been my first live games in weeks =). On saturday round 1 I played against Kalle Timperi 3dan. I made 1 small mistake in the opening but my opponent didn't realize it so I fixed it back on the next move. After this my opponent missed a moyo point which was HUGE. After Opening was somewhat settled I attacked his group and to my suprise he wanted to play some Ko to help his group. After I won the ko he had a big bunch of stones in an ugly shape. During the lunch break I had some kungPo chicken which turned out to be just "ok". I ate some if it there and took the rest in a take-away box.

Next round was already more challenging. I was up against Antti Holappa 4dan. This game was kind of complicated and I made few small mistakes in the opening. Entering the middle game I felt like I was losing with no way to win the game. Then my opponent played a pretty passive move at a critical point and I got some more attacking momentum. On top of this I had used up all my time, I was sort of in byoyomi. My opponent still had 30 minutes left and deviced a sneaky plan. His tactique was to play fast so I would have less thinking time as well, which is usually not a bad idea. I had felt sleepy the first half of the game, but I really woke up in the byoyomi. I spotted insane tesujis in extreme time pressure. And by the time I was trying to kill the 4th group in trouble It finally payed off and my opponent resigned. I guess this game was my awakening for this tournament. I learned that I should feel a little bit nervious through out my games. That way my brain can process variations faster, just like in byoyomi. 3rd round game was against a 2dan. After saturday's games we went to eat to a splendid Indian restaurant. The food was so tasty!!! The owner of the restaurant thought I was 14yo geezuz!!! >.< Ofcourse I was too embarrassed to say that I'm 20...Saturday evening everyone was so tired from partying the last night that everyone went to sleep early.

A peculiar situation arouse in Pempu's game against a 2 dan. Pempu (my 4dan big bro) was losing the game badly and he didn't have any ko-threats apart from 1. Usually pempu plays false ko-threats so his opponents know not to take his ko-threats that seriously. However this time Pempu's plan was genious.As a ko-threat white(pempu) threatened to cut black's group off. Does this really work for white? -Black to play and die.

Sunday morning I felt tired inspite of sleeping 8,5 hours. My 4th round game was against Finland's WAGC representative Mikko Siukola 4dan. The game was intense and interesting. Mikko playing black seemed to get a more favourable opening. After we got into middle game mr.Siukola had a bad idea, which was to cut off my stones. As a result I closed his weak group in and secured my win with the huge wall and some territory I took in the process. 5th Round game against Jesse Savo 4dan was over fast since Jesse got caught in a  sneaky ladder and was forced to resign on move 65.

As a result I won the tournament with a 5/5 result. I got some prize moneys as well ^-^. Finally I'm starting to win some tournaments. It feels good. I haven't really won many tournaments during my go-career so I'm excited :). My rival Antti Törmänen 6dan was accepted as an insei in Japan from september2011-may2012. So It seems to be a good chance to take some 1st places from finnish tournaments while he is away.

Right after the tournament there was a monsoon in Turku :), however we got to the train station safely and headed back to Helsinki. From this tournament I studied all my games in detail by myself and with my secret teacher Mr.X who is a korean professional. Feel free to guess who it is~ I felt like I improved my game significantly and I've been having a winning streak on kgs! I Have a good feeling about the upcoming EGC in Bordeaux, France.

After the last post there were many people applying for the free lessons and the prizes go to Suvi,Boris,Juho,Mo and Pupukani. You can schedule the free lesson through e-mail.

If you like my blog show it to your friends as well. See you!

Summer holidays! new training plan? and free lessons for you

Dear readers,

Thanks for commenting on my blog!!! My original plan was to make more posts at the same time and then spread some news about some updates, but it took a while before the second post.
Anyways I was pretty busy again with 4 university entrance exams and I finally graduated from high-school!

Now I'm on my summerholidays and I don't have a slightest idea what am I going to be doing since I was a bit too lazy to find a job... +I was kinda busy until now :)
I will be going to EGC2011 in Bordeaux, that's for sure. Though I'm not that sure how I will live there since at the moment the balance on my bank account is close to 0€. I bought the plane tickets and have a free accomodation with friends. I hope everything goes well.

Now I have nearly 3 months of summerholidays before I start at university (if I get in that is), So I was thinking that since I don't have a job I could finally start training Go again!!! I've been playing actively on kgs the last 7 weeks and I noticed another major flaw in my game - Reading.... Probably that problem I mentioned in the last post has something to do with my reading skills. It seems like my mind is very fond of patterns, which I imitate with more or less with good results, but they are not enough to beat all 6-8d players on kgs. My strenght in this game is definetly my strategical planning and understanding quite well  the theory behind this game, but when it comes to more intense fighting and middle game flow, I lack very much. I think this is what is stopping me from rising to 6dan -7dan level in europe (I'm 5d now). It's a huge cap, but nevertheless fixable with loads of practice and motivation. Last autumn I was trying hard to reach 6dan level, but I gave up; It was too difficult. Now I'm ready to try again; 6dan, here I come!!!

As for last posts comments, thank you for commenting I will be trying my best to answer them.

How do you replay professional games?
-I usually replay only the first 100 moves of any professional game, since the game is usually more or less decided by then. After I've replayed a game once I replay it again from my memory. You might need to lay down the game more times before you can memorize the game, but don't give up! It's very rewarding once you master it.

Could you sometimes write posts about your time in S.Korea?
- Sure thing. I could try to make one general post about Baduk in korea and then another one of my experiences. Thanks for the idea!

Another thing is about the promotional campaign of this blog =)
Special offer: Free teaching lesson with me for all who share my blog in their facebook!!!
Send an e-mail to me and prove ur sharement. In addition there is a counter at the bottom of the page for shares on facebook. The special offer is for the first 5 people!!! So be fast :)

Keep commenting for questions new ideas. Perhaps best comments could even be rewarded!

Stay tuned! See you!!!

Hero's comeback

Hey!, I'm back.

It's been a while since I last posted in my blog, but nevertheless it's nice to start again. I was having some break from Go. It was probably very good since I managed to get some great inspiration from other hobbies and more importantly finnish my high-school!

Enough with the chit-chat let's start...

I started playing again less than 2 weeks ago and ofcourse I had to start from a bit lower since I was rusty. So I played on kgs a while as 5d and now I'm back to 6dan - more or less my old strenght, probably still not quite.




 I was at the Go-club the other day and some strong dude just wooped my ass!!!(btw, he was being an asshole)
I remembered while pondering about that match afterwords that before my break I was at a point where I should start working on improving my Go-style.
I don't know how to explain it, if you've read my older posts I might've mentioned how I can't realease my moyo-magistic style often. In other words I play very boring and so not like my style. My openings are dry and unnecessarily passive. I need some more bouncy action more suitable for my natural style. Another problem with my old style (finnish championship games) was that inorder for my opening to work, I needed enough 4th line stones + opponent must not have many strong groups - I fooled Tenba 6d pretty good with that strategy at first, but after all against weaker or smart players the style is somewhat barren.

If you have read Tenba's blog and remember his metaphor about him having the sword and me the gun, that description is probably pretty close. But that damn gun aint working!!!  It doesn't work if I give my opponent time to play hide and seek.

I usually play simple openings which give me mediocore positions, but often avoid complications way too much, giving my opponents unnecessary advantage which I later have to overcome with great difficulty.






I've come to the conclusion that my road to becoming a strong player was still at a great developing stage after coming from S.korea. The most important thing I still lacked was attitude and speciality. I've copied the wrong elements from korean professional games for my style. My basics are too firmly rooted at the moment (my natural style is being dulled by amateur baduk), so I intend to think outside the box from now on and instead of playing "best moves" I'll look for some Awesome moves!!! I'm gonna flip every stone on the go board to find what I want!!!!
Take a look at this next guy, he is not going to play hide and seek with his pray, he is just there to kill the animal and go back home with his pray! That's what my Go-style is going to look like soon!!!





Inorder for this 1st operation of "Assu's Crazy Go School" to work out I've been looking at some pro games with intense area swapping in the opening and use of thickness in action in  the middle game.
My most viewed players at the moment are:

Kang yutaek
Lee Changho
Lee Yonggu
Kim Jiseok
Heo yongho
Hong Seongji
Peng Quan
Chen yaoye
+ others

from the kgs-scene I've chosen Artem92 as my muse. His style is somewhat similar to mine, though ofcourse he already has mastered his style, and has not earned his egf 7dan for being a joke.

Please support me by cheering me! thanks for reading my blog!
Stay tuned for Go-lectures! coming soon!