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.

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!