Life In 19x19

I began playing Go a few months before my first lesson from Kaz's internet Go school. It's been almost nine months since that lesson. Six of those months I was unable to play or study seriously. In my three months of active study with Kaz, I've taken eight lessons and gone from 23k on OGS to 13k.

I have many of the popular books on Go techniques, but I still turn to Kaz when I want to progress. Even books on a specific aspect of the game are too broad to be efficient learning tools. They will have a few paragraphs on an idea, leave you with a handful of problems, and move on. It's only over many games that you find out if you've understood what you read. Kaz speeds up that process tremendously. After giving you a test to spot your weaknesses, he homes in on what troubles you most about a concept.

At first glance it might seem like he's spending an inordinate amount of time on one type of move or sequence in your play. Surely you'd get a better value from one book with dozens of moves, right? But look closer. In each specific topic Kaz picks for a lesson there is a fundamental concept of Go applicable to your whole game. You learn not just how and when to play a move, but why you should play it. Go books often show just the how. Good ones explain the when. I've yet to find a book that helps me understand the why like Kaz's lessons.

I still have a long way to go. I'm aiming for shodan and beyond. I plan to stick with Kaz for the whole ride.

Interesting how many of Kaz’ students turn up here to spam praise him right with their first post … I wonder whether Kaz approves of this or whether he asks them to do so.

I wanted to give a recommendation and he asked if I was comfortable doing it here. I checked the rules to make sure it wasn't considered spam. If I misunderstood the rules or if there's a better place for this post, please let me know.

Thanks for replying at all …

A better place, you ask … I’d say that such posts would be a LOT more credible in a forum/group/social network where you already have been a “citizen” for a while, anywhere where people already know you for your other contributions; or, of course, in your personal Go blog, or just a post on your FB wall, on G+, or a Tweet, visible to all your followers who “know” you.

But this way, registering here and recommending Kaz right in your first post … just looks like spam (to me—others may view it differently).

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Also helpful would be if you’d post a link to your KGS or OGS profile where people could follow your progress and see your rank curve

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Bonobo wrote:But this way, registering here and recommending Kaz right in your first post … just looks like spam (to me—others may view it differently).

I'm not part of any social networking sites. No blog or anything like that. If this is the majority view, I'll delete the post.

OGS profile: https://online-go.com/user/view/172816

rowan wrote:I'm not part of any social networking sites. No blog or anything like that. If this is the majority view, I'll delete the post.

Well … I think this discussion can help clarifying … and I’d definitely wait for others to chime in and not hastily delete it now just because I ranted maybe it’s just me who is a bit irritable <shrug>

But maybe you can tell Kaz that asking students to recommend him in places where these students don't have an established account already is a bad idea because it comes over in a spammy way.

Thanks for your understanding and willingness to discuss, this immediately adds to your credibility

OGS profile: https://online-go.com/user/view/172816

Thanks, that curve doesn’t look bad looks quite nice, steady progress, but then again not much different from many others who just played, played, played … (but stronger players than me might view it differently) …

Anyway, at the pace you’re improving it seems like you’ll overtake me soon, with or without Kaz

Bonobo wrote:Thanks, that curve doesn’t look bad looks quite nice, steady progress, but then again not much different from many others who just played, played, played … (but stronger players than me might view it differently) …

Without access to a parallel universe I can't say whether I'd be in the same place just by playing lots. I do know I started improving a lot faster after I started with Kaz than when I was just reading books.

But maybe you can tell Kaz that asking students to recommend him in places where these students don't have an established account already is a bad idea because it comes over in a spammy way.

I was concerned about this. Aside from looking at the rules, I also looked at responses to the other recommendations for Kaz. I only agreed to post here because the other posts by newcomers weren't called spammy.

Rowan, I appreciate your perspective. There are a few of us who simply wish Kaz was taking new students!

Bonobo wrote:Interesting how many of Kaz’ students turn up here to spam praise him right with their first post … I wonder whether Kaz approves of this or whether he asks them to do so.

I think you're being over sensitive... this is not spam.
This is a Go student with praise (and recommendation) for his Go teacher.
We are a Go community. We need more of this.

xed_over wrote:

Bonobo wrote:Interesting how many of Kaz’ students turn up here to spam praise him right with their first post … I wonder whether Kaz approves of this or whether he asks them to do so.

I think you're being over sensitive... this is not spam.
This is a Go student with praise (and recommendation) for his Go teacher.
We are a Go community. We need more of this.

Okay, I will take your word for it.

It was just that I have seen several similar posts in the past, often by people who seemed to have registered only to post their praise of Kaz here … which seemed—well, I’ve said it all, and I will keep it to myself in future. Seems I am wrong … maybe my sensors are spoiled by having seen too much spam already.

Thanks, and my sincere apology to Rowan.

There appears to be a sub-forum dedicated to nice reviews like this.
http://lifein19x19.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=68

An admin really ought to move all the related threads there.
This is where I'd look when I decide to hire a teacher.

Koosh wrote:There appears to be a sub-forum dedicated to nice reviews like this.
http://lifein19x19.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=68

An admin really ought to move all the related threads there.
This is where I'd look when I decide to hire a teacher.

I think I did that properly. Let me know if it's not correct.

It really bothers me knowing that Kaz tells his students to do this. If he was actually accepting students, it probably wouldn't bother me. What's the point since he isn't accepting new students?

It tells his current students that they should continue to pay for their lessons or they could lose their places at any time to other potential students knocking at his door.

I wish that I could find more student reviews of various go teachers, but that's not likely to happen if the community is actively hostile to recommendations. Kaz is not taking students now, but surely he will be one day. There is no reason for him to silence a student that wishes to share their experience. If someone wants to leave a positive (or negative) review, where else should they go to do so? There's not a Yelp category for go teachers, and consolidating reviews on a personal web site means that only those who already know about your services will find them.