Doing the trial for 1$.

I will post here my feelings about it.

So far I have viewed 3 demo videos and feel I have learned more about joseki/fuseki than I would in 30 minutes of studying a book, learned more about pro thinking than I would in 20 minutes of reading a book, as well as made me think a whole lot.

Basically compared to a book the time part might be not as informative exactly, but the fact is it is entertaining and the content they talk about (joseki etc) is brand new stuff not in books.

First impressions: not as many saved english videos as I thought, i think they stop after like 6 months or 3 months previous. However, 4 full page of like 7 per page... each video being 50 mins is still around 1,500 minutes of video....yea.


And also you can watch the korean channel live...

30 pages of korean baduk tv non-english videos as well.

Here are some topics of the videos:

Kim Seongryong’s lessons
Becoming 5 kyu
Searching for exquisite games
Random tournament game reviews (big ones like LG Cup etc..)

Im going to start on a lesson called "becoming 5 kyu"

Becoming 5 kyu and such lectures on general play= 15-20 min long it seems.

Game reviews= 50 minute long videos.

So I was a bit off in the video lengths, but still seem good length. The subtitles are very good.

So the first becoming 5 kyu lesson is a bit surprising.. I find the vital points of it are things I know already as I am 2k on kgs... but actually I learned some different ways of thinking about why we play the kind of opening moves we do and also some patterns. Its actually more useful than any other video ive seen on youtube or such even though it is aimed at 5kyu!

On to the next one:

Each page is 10 videos. There are a total of 31 English videos as I write this.

Also learned a really basic tip to L&D I never knew that will likely help me a lot with problems... so simple and yet effective.

So far I can only say that I agree with the gogameguru sites comment "In Korea, 5 kyu can actually be quite strong, so even dan level players will find some useful knowledge here."

I am on lesson two and have learned some really basic life and death as well as opening thinking, and a joseki or two is new to me in fact

Interesting follow up of the basic 4-4, low approach, low pincer, 3-3 block outside for a wall joseki too.

Thanks for the correct info, i was just guestimating

The service is still pretty new, they bring out a new subbed video every 2 days. Sometimes more.

I love it for the same reasons as you seem to like it ^^

edit: Btw. watch the 007 videos, they are quite funny too (on top of being insightful and instructive) ^^

Does anyone know if they are deleting old videos or if this is just how long they've been making them? Also, how old are the becoming 5k videos? I'm hoping they'll still be there when I go for my $1 trial next month.

If you say you're 5kyu(gup) in Korea, that usually means you're Tygem 4~5dan player.
In Korean traditional ranking system, 1kyu is the strongest amateur player and dan ranks are for pros.
So,

1kyu = 8~9dan(Tygem)
3kyu = 6~7dan
5kyu = 4~5dan
7kyu = 1~3dan
9kyu = 1~5kyu

There are usually no even numbered ranks, and below these ranks are just beginners.
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Maybe I'm too much off topic....?

_________________
Amsterdam, soon.

Quite informative, I didn't know (after reading the Novel 'First Kyu') that it is still like that.

The lectures that aren't game reviews are trick plays, joseki, and such. Very modern stuff, but kind of surprising because you get the misconception online that koreans are only fighters and don't memorize joseki which is definitly false.

They are not deleting old videos as far as I can tell. I'm sure David will chime in later.

Great. Thanks Oren.

I'd try it right now if it didn't mean having any kind of contact with paypal.

A few things ive noticed about korean pros from watching baduk tv:

1. They are very good at exchanging large groups like 40 points and still winning... great counting

2. They don't have this super aggressive fighting style everyone says they do, they also study joseki and such unlike everyone says, and the moves they make actually make sense.

3. The new pros in korea arent as strong as I thought they would be, maybe 6D-7D kgs, but they are better at counting and slow games than kgs 6D-7D are.

4. Lee Seedol is normal! He talks about his wife and kid and what not, and about how his mind "woke up" or he realized something about his go in 2000 or so before he won all those titles and games.

5. The difference between the "best move" and "winning move or the move to win" is huge and something amateurs don't think about.

Overall Ive learned a few trick plays, joseki, but much more about the pro world in korea and their thinking than anything else.

This cannot possibly be right. Even the weaker new pros (the two kids who became pros through a special tournament for kids, and not through the regular entrance tournament that is open to adults and older teenagers as well) are 9 dan on Tygem. One of those kids nearly beat Lee Sedol in a major tournament. By objective standards, they should be at least 9 dan on KGS. Lee Donghun, who became pro last year, lost by only 1/2 point to Tan Xiao in the Nongshim Cup. Na Hyun made the semi-final of the Samsung Cup in his first year as a pro. The gap between the strongest players and new pros is very narrow. To say that new pros would be KGS 6d/7d is to say that Lee Sedol or Gu Li might be on par with KGS 7d/8d/9d.

I guess it is possible i misjudged, but as it seemed the kids were strong for sure, but not the super machines they are made out to be. Im talking about the same pros you are, the two kids, and from my understanding a regular pro like 5p-9p watching can see many mistakes of course, but it seemed to be me watching it they were strong, but not as strong as i might have thought.

Great counting
Great liberty counting as well

These were the two main strengths I saw

things I didnt see I thought I would
Super deep reading
Anything really super special

They are good, but not like "WOW!" good. I was a bit surprised at how good their counting was to know black was losing, and to be able to tell black won the semeai, but a lot of it didn't impress me as much as I thought it would.

I think I understand what you mean. It is really difficult for us to recognize the strength of the pros. In fact, personally, I don't understand the ways in which the pros are strong when I look at a typical pro game either. I don't know how strong you are, but I bet the same is true for most players who are weaker than 6 dan on KGS.

That said, the objective evidence of their strength is fairly clear. MilanMilan is a 2 dan pro from China who is no longer playing competitively against other pros. One might say that he is among the weaker pros out there (of course, he is many stones stronger than most amateurs). However, he is a strong 9 dan on KGS. There are many former insei who are 9 dans on KGS but could not come close to passing the pro exam.

Of course, your expectations might just have been too high. No ghost moves or ear-reddening moves, right? Then again, not all pros are Jowa or Shusaku. Some pros can move the emotions of amateurs. That is why Gu Li and Lee Sedol are so popular. It may be a matter of style. If I recall correctly, the game between the two youngsters that you saw was definitely a conservative game according to the commentators; the winner would become a pro and the loser would have to win another game, so they tried not to decide things quickly.

If you are looking for some kind of spectacular move which changes game's result, you won't find in most of pro games. But take a look at games played by Lee Changho when he was dominating world tournament. You will never find any move that impress you specially but he manages to win most of times. Unless Lee Changho explains his move(thought process), you will not be impressed. One famous player who played against Lee Changho said that he didn't know how or why he lost game.