124: Are games decided by “effort”?

Kai is a young 3-dan Go player living in Japan! He is very passionate about Go and was kind enough to come on the show to talk to me about all sorts of Go things – from time controls to how the ranking system works in Japan. It was a great time for me, so thank you for being on the show, Kai!playgo.ggJoin the Discord⁠Support Star Point⁠The Star Point Store

What does it mean to “lock in”? Can you try too hard? Can you try too little? Can the amount of effort you apply really make a difference in the outcome of the game? Or is our fate decided by bigger things?Firestar73’s Pokemon Go CelebrationReading DojoVisualization ExercisesJoin the Discord⁠Support Star Point⁠The Star Point Store

Why do we make the moves that we make? Let’s discuss the importance of knowing the reasons behind our moves and explore as many types and purposes of moves that I can come up with!Join the Discord⁠Support Star Point⁠The Star Point Store

Go is too competitive and too stressful to be considered a “cozy” game. Or is it? I think Go has a lot of cozy DNA and I will tell you in this episode right here how to approach Go in a more relaxing, cozy, stress-free… ahh.. what was I saying? Oh right, yes we’ll talk about how to make Go cozy and stress-free!Yushima Go CafeJoin the Discord⁠Support Star Point⁠The Star Point Store

Is Go a good fit for you? What is Go like to learn and pursue? I’ll tell you about some of the big reasons I think you should give this game a chance as well as common hurdles that beginners go through that cause them to lose interest in this game I love so dearly.Join the Discord⁠Support Star Point⁠The Star Point Store

It’s a Reddit Roundup episode! Or a Reddit Review? Reddit Retrospective? Whatever, we’re reading Reddit posts from r/baduk in this one.Join the Discord⁠Support Star Point⁠The Star Point Store

Go strength is about expanding your Go vocabulary: “Go-cabulary”, if you will. But how does having a large Go-cabulary help us? And how do we expand our Go-cabulary? Is Go more than a battle between two military strategists? Could it perhaps be a duel between wizards?Join the Discord⁠Support Star Point⁠The Star Point Store

I read my old Go journal from 2019 and it was very interesting to see into the mind of a DDK… that is also my own mind. It was really fun to see how I have changed and grown as a Go player, comparing the struggles I used to face to the ones I face now.Enhans Go "Agentic" AIBuzzsaw’s Go BlogJoin the Discord⁠Support Star Point⁠The Star Point Store

Do you find it hard to understand Go players because they use weird terminology like “tiger’s mouth” or T H I C K N E S S? And for some reason they all sound like they are speaking Japanese? Well, listen to this episode to educate yourself as I try to define as many top must-know Go terms that I can think of!Join the Discord⁠Support Star Point⁠The Star Point Store

It’s the 10th anniversary of the famous and historic showdown between Lee Sedol and AlphaGo. A lot has changed since then, and Go players have already been facing the first wave of the AI revolution for a decade now. What lessons from our experience with AI in Go should we bring forth into the era of ChatGPT and Gemini?Join the Discord⁠Support Star Point⁠The Star Point Store