It's still quite rare for western players to be admitted as insei, and for them to make the life-changing step to move to Japan. When I read that this was exactly what Antti Törmänen was doing on his blog
Go of Ten, I became very intrigued indeed. Even more so because I was moving to Tokyo around the same time he was, and we were both departing from Helsinki airport. I sent him an email to ask him for an interview, so we may all get to know our new hero a little better. This interview was conducted at the Nihon Ki-in on Friday September, 30th. Parts between square brackets were added by me.
Hi Antti, nice to meet you. Perhaps we should start with the absolute basics. Could you tell us a little something about yourself?Hi, my name is Antti Törmänen, I'm 22 years old. Before moving here, I used to live in Espoo, Finland, which is just next to the capital Helsinki. I'm currently in my 4th year of industrial engineering and management at the Aalto University in Helsinki, and I specialize in work psychology. Though I'm technically still enrolled at university at present, I will be in Japan for most of the year, so I don't expect to do much for my university studies this year [laughs]. I've booked a return flight for May 11th, so I'll probably be an insei until the end of April.
How long have you been playing go? Often when you hear about the progression of really strong players, they rose through the kyu ranks very quickly, did something similar happen to you?I began playing go in in the spring of 2001. As I didn't really know of other places to play, I spent most of the summer playing on Yahoo Games. Late July, I learned of KGS, registered there, and got the ranking of 12 kyu. Two months later, I was 8 kyu. I continued playing, and next spring I was around 1 kyu, and by the end of that year already around KGS 5 dan. That was under the old ranking system, however, and would be closer to 3 or 4 dan on present-day KGS.
What is your current KGS account, and what is the highest rank you achieved on KGS?Well, my main account is Tien, but I've had other accounts as well. I achieved 9 dan on Tien for a short while, but the only way to maintain that was to not play [as Parik Stefanov of Go Sensations always points out ^^]. I've had a secret account or two where I achieved a solid 8 dan rank, but it really depends. I've lost fair and square to some 5 dan players as well.
This isn't the first time you've studied abroad. Haven't you been to China to study go as well?That's right. I've participated in the 'Experience go in China'-program by Liu Yuanbo (MilanMilan on KGS) twice. The first time was in 2009, when I stayed for a month and a half. The day was divided in two parts, with the morning session consisting of a lecture on the opening or a certain go problem, while the afternoon was used for a game with another student or a teacher. Afterwards, we'd review the game.
In 2011 I returned for 3 weeks, and this time I participated as part student, part teacher. I taught the morning lectures for a group of players ranging from kyu strength up to 2 dan. Since I couldn't participate in the other morning sessions to study, I only studied through playing games and having them reviewed.
Regarding these intensive study programs in east asia, do you think it's worth it for aspiring players, or would the money be better spent on books?I absolutely believe these programs are worth it. You aren't only paying for study resources or strong opponents, but more than that, you're investing in a great environment to study. Everybody there is incredibly motivated to improve, and this sort of commitment is what elevates these programs over home study. [A few days after this interview was conducted, IGN "Goama", issue #151 contained an interview with Yoon Youngsun, who said the exact same thing]
How did you end up becoming an insei?I first met kobayashi Chizu sensei at the 2007 European Go Congress. After that, we met again in France, at the 2010 Paris Open. I contacted her by email asking if there might be a possibilty for me to study as an insei, and she helped me with the paperwork.
Could you tell us something about your study method throughout your go playing career?I just played a lot of games on Yahoo and KGS. Really, I believe that's the most important part of any study program, just play a lot. I started reading some books like Ishida's 'Attack and Defense' and Kageyama's 'Fundamentals' [I knew it. Kageyama is the road to success ^^], but I didn't do a lot of go problems. After about 4 or 5 years I started focusing more on those, and worked my way through the classical problem collections.
Speaking of go problems, what is your preferred method of working with those? Do you look at the answers or not?Usually I think about a problem for about five or ten minutes at most, and if I didn't get the solution by then, I'll look at the answer. I actually kind of follow Kobayashi Chizu sensei's suggestion on this; she has said that it's okay to look at the answer. When playing a game, you don't have time to read every single situation out with brute force, so that's why it's important to recognize different shapes quickly. For this kind of training, thinking about a problem for a bit, and then looking at the answer is fine.
What will your study method look like here in Japan?Right now, I have one weekly meeting scheduled with certain professional players from the Nihon Ki-in. Kobayashi Chizu sensei had a wonderful exchange of ideas planned: Each week, I'll present some games I played in the insei classes to the professionals, and they'll try to comment the game in English only. Thus, they're teaching the game to me, while I'm helping them with the English language. This way they'll be able to travel abroad to teach go in Europe or in the United States. [I was present at the first meeting between Antti and the pro players, and Kobayashi sensei pulled out a huge atlas and spent the first ten minutes showing the young pro players what Europe looked like. It does indeed look very muuch like they're being trained for teaching abroad.]
Apart from this, I'll be doing tsumego on a regular basis every morning, and I'm also studying professional games. Perhaps once in a while, I'll go to a go salon to play, too.
You're also involved with the Nordic Go Academy, could you tell us something about that?The Nordic go academy (
http://www.nordicgoacademy.com) is an internet league-based go project that I founded with two friends of mine, Juri Kuronen 5 dan and Yang Su 6 dan. Basically, the idea was to create a system in which the teaching is done through offline reviews, making the league easier to run for us teachers. Especially while I'm in Japan, it's very difficult for me to teach western players any other way because of the time difference. Our system is based on the premise that each student plays three games a week, and then they send the game record, with any possible questions or inquiries, to us teachers, and we then send the game record back with the commentary. There are also supplementary go simultaneous games, and we're planning on holding weekly lectures as well.
Insei style league systems have become very popular in recent years. Switzerland just started their own system, run by In-Seong Hwang, a Korean 7 dan. Why do you think this method works so well?The main factor for league systems' success, I believe, is because they create a good atmosphere for learning. You feel like you're part of a group in which everyone is serious about studying. If you just play normal games on a go server, you can of course learn much as well, but it's often possible that your opponent is not playing very seriously, or they might even escape after realizing they're going to lose. Participating in some kind of a program makes you committed to it, and as a result everybody is able to study more seriously.
If there's one thing you could say to yourself when you just started out, in order to improve faster, what would it be?That would have to be "try to have fun at all times". Improving becomes much easier when you're having fun when playing and studying. Don't try to do things that you don't find interesting. A very common issue that go players have, I feel, is that they put too much emphasis on winning and losing. While winning can of course be fun, I don't think that defeating the opponent is the purpose of the game. Instead, one should always try to find the best move while playing. If one only cares about winning, one becomes short-sighted while playing, and the game also gets boring, or even frustrating to play. In a way, I think, go is not about defeating your opponent, but about defeating your own limitations.
Thank you very much for this interview, and know that we are all cheering for you. Best of luck with your insei studies.