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taiji
PageType: HomePage
Keywords: People
I play as taiji 1k on the Kiseido Go Server. I have played over 3,000 games of go on IGS (accounts xinjia and kungfu), however I don't play there anymore out of preference for KGS. Professional Go Players:* My Alexander Dinerschtein number is 1. * My Solaris number is 1. * My tartrate number is 2 (through both solaris and breakfast). * My Cho Hun-Hyun number is 2 (through Kim Jung-Jin). * My shuusaku number is 5 (Shusaku-Shuei-Shusai-Iwamoto-DrStraw(KGS)-Me) My games have been described by my opponents as 'interesting'. I believe I have a truly unique style, constantly changing. A long time ago I started calling myself a "professional kyu player". This means that I am "at least several stones stronger than the corresponding amateur kyu". I know this doesen't make much sense now, but back when I was 16 kyu professional on IGS, I had a dream. And, I had finally beaten those hard to beat 16 kyus and figured out their mystical "sente". My top influences are currently Go Seigen and Shusaku. I strongly reccomend the book "A Way of Play for the 21st Century" by Go Seigen, and "Invincible: The Games of Shusaku". I have a mission in the go world: to become 1 dan professional, for real. It's a long, hard road; I suspect I will need to become around 6d on KGS before it would be possible to think about really becoming pro. After all, at least one chinese pro has a 7d account on KGS, and some have 8d accounts. So getting to at *least* 6d is the first step. It would seem that 7d and 8d KGS is equivalent to 1p and above. What I mean by this is that there are some 1p players who retain 7d+ accounts. In other words, although pro ranks are not ratings, there does seem to be a requisite strength of pros; This appears to be at a *minimum* of 7d-8d on KGS. Here is my plan: 1. Memorize Ishida's joseki dictionary. Memorizing Joseki Discussion 2. Memorize Cho Chikun's Life and Death. Do many go problems. Many. 3. Memorize professional games. A lot of them if possible. 4. Take lessons from a very strong amateur dan, or pro player. 5. Promote the game of go and teach go. Please see: Updates: April 25th, 2004: I wrote the above back when I was around 5 kyu on KGS. Over time I began to get stronger. My taiji account is only 1k, but I have another account which I worked up to 4d before bouncing around and setting down between 2d and 3d. The plan is working. It's a self directed plan and it requires dedication, but if I have nothing else but my dream, I still have dedication to it. So as I write this I stare down the final 3-4 stones it will take me to improve to the level where I can start thinking about pro apprenticeship on some level (insei, lots of private lessons, or something like that). As part of my plan to promote go, I teach go in a children's school. I teach four children's classes per week and I am looking at picking up additional classes soon. I am also writing a series of go books; the first one, for beginners, is almost finished. You can download a copy if you like, just go to: taiji's books Questions and comments below: Anonymous Comment: I've seen your games as Usagi on KGS - you are nowhere near to being a solid 3 Dan (KGS). You still make alot of bad, "kyu-ish" moves. But keep studying and you may get there one day. Response: Go is like war, and truth be told, people like the above just want to tear you down because they are your direct rivals. Most of the people who have said the above to me are kyus (such as papertiger 10k, ofriedli 5k, SaiNoSensu 1k, etc). I suspect those people don't have a conception of what it takes to advance from where they are to where I am now. To close this response, one must question how I got to 4d on KGS *twice* and why I am 2d now if I am really playing a lot of "bad, kyu-ish" moves. -- taiji First of all, I am a Dan player like yourself (1 Dan). Secondly, I didn't mean to come across as tearing you down. I just think you are not 3-4 stones away from professional strength. KGS rankings should not be your sole basis for determining your strength. If you seriously want to know how strong you are, have a professional level player look at some of your games. I've done it but as you're probably already aware, it is not cheap! Seriously though, best of luck and let us know what gets you past the next few stones as I myself seem to be stuck at Shodan :) Hu: I attached the "Anonymous Coward" tag to the previous posting, which was subsequently removed. I am all in favor of various levels of anonymity. People are free to post anonymously on SL. Or they may wish to choose an identity that is anonymous but has continuity that extends over many postings and several servers. SL and the other servers use a login/password system to maintain the continuity of an identity on a server.
I chose to attach the same tagline that other respected servers such as Different Anonymous: Please do not prejudice anonymous comments with derogatory edits Hu. If someone wishes to express the opinion that taiji is rather given to wishful thinking, wiki allows them to do so anonymously. Hu: It may be a person's "right" of some kind to post personal insults totally anonymously. That doesn't make it respectable. The word "prejudice" refers to judging before a fact. I made my edit after the remark had become a fact. However, since this is taiji's page, ultimately he will manage it the way he wants to. After a while, I expect all these comments including mine to be erased. This is a copy of the living page "taiji" at Sensei's Library. ![]() |