I'm back (sort of)!

I have returned to the land of the living!
Or, well, not quite.

Last Tuesday I arrived at Amsterdam Schiphol Airport after a very, very long journey from Australia. The past months have been amazing, but very tiring. For 6 weeks I have only slept in hostels (8 people in one room) and haven't been in the same place for longer than a few nights. Now that I'm back, I am not only jetlagged, but also quite sick.
But, the travelling has not kept me from go. Not entirely, anyway, as I visited the Sydney and the Brisbane go club, which was awesome. Aside from that I didn't really have the time and energy to do anything go related, so I'm pretty sure I have lost a few stones (and I'm not talking about my weight, unfortunately).

Regardless, I have my pretty go board back (I used a cardboard one all the way through last year), and some time on my hands before my last year of uni starts. Although I won't be able to spend an entire 2 weeks on go (how I wish I could), I can at least go back to a few problems and maybe a game a day. I hope my strength is back where it once was before I move back to Arnhem and visit the go club there! Apparently there is one, but I hope it's still active. But more on that in a few weeks.

As I start picking up go again, you can also expect new blog posts, although (obviously) no August challenge, but I'll try to prepare a challenge for September!

And with that, I am OUT.
Literally. I need some sleep.

Quote Mania 3

"Don't just give up. 

Life is about getting knocked down over and over, but still getting up each time. 

If you keep getting up, you win."

Another quote from NANA by Yazawa Ai. 

Maybe you remember me mentioning that I kept quitting go? It was kind of the reason I even started this blog. Maybe you also remember that I said that every time I went back to playing go, my rank kind of jumped. No extreme amounts, but usually I would 'skip'  1 or 2 stones.

So for a while I would then feel that I was getting stronger very fast, and honestly I was. But then after a while I would naturally stagnate. Even though I knew there is more to go than just a rank, frustration would ensue and I would feel that nothing I did would make me stronger and I would give up. And all that in less than 2 weeks.

But go isn't something where you will improve a lot in a very short time. Of course, it depends on the amount of time you put in it, and your initial rank (ddk's will improve a lot faster than dans, usually), but even then you'll have to be patient for the 'results' to kick in.

You will have to do tsumego on an almost daily basis for a while until you notice a difference in your reading skills, you'll have to apply newly learned theory a few times before you'll get it right, etc.

Honestly, you cannot get better at go without losing, because you need those learning moments to get stronger. It might be almost impossible for me not to think about my rank or getting stronger (because I'm competitive like that), but at least I shouldn't let it hold me back from enjoying go.

From now on I will not see losing as a bad thing, but as an essential part of improving.

The ultimate way to get stronger

As you may have noticed, it happened again.
While I was busy moving half-way across the world, I kind of forgot about go.
It's a shame, but I am back, and stronger than ever! Quite literally, but I'll get back on that.

I have mentioned this before, but I am an internet player. I learned how to play on the internet, and I have always played on the internet. But I saw my relocation as a way to change that.
So, I looked online for places where people play go in Malaysia. And that was a lot harder than I expected. In the end I managed to find something, and with nothing to lose, I decided to check it out.

I had some trouble finding the place, and then almost turned around because I am socially incapable, but the Japanese men that were playing were super friendly. I played 3 handicap games (as black, obviously. Also something I had never done before), and even won one! Afterwards they took me to a Japanese restaurant with great food.
All in all, it was a great experience, and I'll be going again next week for sure. Probably there will be more people playing then as well.

This was also the first time I have played again (aside from 1 or 2 stray games) in a few months. So after I got back home I was still in the playing mood and decided to try my luck on KGS.
Now, when I stopped playing my account was around 10kyu (weak me :D), and because I stopped playing, it was '6k?' now. Of course I knew that I was weaker than that, but I just started playing.
Guess what? My rank now got solid at 7k, and I'm not losing drastically against other 7k's.
Of course, I am still weak, but this is just weird, and it's not the first time.

Whenever I stop playing for a while, I always seem to jump a few ranks after I start again. Even though I did nothing with go in between.
Maybe it's because my view on the game changes or something. It makes me wonder how strong/weak I would be if I kept playing and studying without breaks? I should be a lot stronger I think, but maybe I would have stagnated somewhere?


Anyway, here is my tip if you want to get stronger:
Do absolutely nothing


That must be the worst advise ever. 

Time for me to get back to work!