Kaz s Online Go School

Transcription

1 Kaz s Online Go School Who is Kaz? What makes him a unique Go teacher? Hello, everyone. My name is Kazunari Furuyama. Please call me Kaz. First I d like to show you my best teaching results in order to prove that I m qualified to teach: Kaz s students How long they have Their rank Their rank taken Kaz s lessons before after 71- year- old 9 months 2 kyu 1 dan 74- year- old 2 years 3 kyu 2 dan 45- year- old 1 year 9 kyu 6 kyu 69- year- old 10 months 4 kyu 1 kyu 70- year- old 11 months 5 kyu 2 kyu 73- year- old 1 year 7 kyu 2 kyu I m a former insei (apprentice) in Japan. I m a co- author of the Go books, Get Strong at Joseki Volume II and III. I ve been writing an article to AGA Members' E- Journal for many years. I ve been teaching Go for many, many years. The majority of my students are in their 40s, 50s, 60s, and 70s. So I m best at teaching students in those age ranges. I teach those students differently from teenagers because in my experience their ability to learn Go is completely different from that of children.

2 My teaching is rather unique because I know more than a hundred common amateur mistakes along with how to correct those mistakes. To be honest with you, I ve never heard of any Go teachers who know a hundred common amateur mistakes. This is why I think I m a unique Go teacher. I also emphasize tesuji and life- and- death. This is because learning both tesuji and life- and- death makes Go players strong not only at fight, but also at understanding joseki as well as countering non- joseki moves. I can usually remember amateur games for at least a week, often a month, sometimes a year. This is why I ve been able to remember and analyze common amateur mistakes. And if you attend Kaz Go School, I can show you how a 73- year- old student above studied. After his miraculous improvement, he wrote about how he studied.

3 Kaz Go School begins. I m starting Kaz Go School in order to make you strong. The first school session lasts 8 weeks, and the fee is $6 USD. I m going to send a text after each class. Please read the details below. You can compare my school rates with other schools: The first Kaz session (End of January March): Kaz Go school: $6.0 / 5 for 8 weeks another online Go school: $187.5 / 135 for 8 weeks another online Go school: $41.0 / 30 for 4 weeks another online Go school: $103.0 / 75 for 4 weeks another online Go school: $ 62.0 / 45 for 4 weeks The second Kaz session (April June) [Tentative]: Kaz Go school: $9.0 / 5 for 8 weeks another online Go school: $187.5 / 135 for 8 weeks another online Go school: $41.0 / 30 for 4 weeks another online Go school: $103.0 / 75 for 4 weeks another online Go school: $ 62.0 / 45 for 4 weeks Each school has different contents and provides different services. My school is cheap, so I think you can get your feet wet more easily. When I announced that I would start a website, the fee was $3 a month. Because of that, I d like to offer $6 school fee, which is the same as 3$ a month. I hope you don t mind this fee. Kaz first school session provides a 2- hour lesson 8 times and the fee is $6.

4 The second school session provides a 2- hour lesson 12 times, and the fee is $9 (tentative). How I Teach 1. I make up an opening and wait for my students in Kaz teaching room. 2. All the students join in Kaz teaching game. (Please be on time. If you re late, you may not have a chance to play.) 3. Each kyu player pairs with another kyu player, who is close to his / her level. Then a dan player pairs with another dan player. 4. Then the pair play my prepared text game by following the order below. 5. One of the pair players clicks Options Clone game in Kaz teaching room. 6. The other pair joins the game. 7. Click Tool in the upper left corner Set Players. 8. Enter each player s username and start the game. 9. Kaz is going to watch all the games. 10. After 10 minutes, you stop a game. (I hope you have time to play about 30 moves.) 11. Then Kaz reviews all your games, and everyone watches and asks questions. Sometimes I may ask all the participants try rengo*. *Rengo is a team go; in other words a group of people play together. Each person plays about 20 moves. I like rengo because in my experiences, when people play, many people can remember their mistakes for a while or a long time. But

5 many people may not remember a lecture. In fact I ve done rengo teaching on KGS plus teaching and found that it was quite effective. Warning: Please don t criticize or tease other players moves. I believe that there are no bad moves. Everyone has an experience of playing mistakes. Even top pros make mistakes. I believe that your mistakes are there to help you improve. Testimonials Here are some testimonials my students wrote after taking lesson with me. Student A s Testimonial The following student started playing Go in his late 30s. He is now his mid 40s. I am extremely pleased with my first lesson with Kaz. He asked for 11 recent games- the first ten he examined to get an idea of my strengths and weaknesses, and then sent me the 11th game with detailed comments. Based on his analysis of the games, he then sent me many exercises grouped by themes- corner invasions, "Romeo & Juliet" shapes, basic joseki, etc. If you're an older Go player (I started learning go in my late 30s), Kaz has special advice- he understands that the adult brain learns differently, and studying the same way a young player would study only leads to frustration. The adult brain is not necessarily at

6 a disadvantage, it just requires a different approach, and Kaz has broad experience teaching adult players with great results. Kaz also has an interesting way of characterizing plays and shapes, giving them memorable names such as "the Indiana Jones tesuji" and "the Romeo and Juliet shape". I also enjoy how he assigns a dollar value to certain mistakes (such a play is a $30 mistake, another is a $60 mistake, etc.); it gives me another way to remember them. All in all, I think a lesson with Kaz is a great value for the price. I found the instruction to be in- depth, and tailored to my learning style and particular goals. Student B s Testimonial The following student started playing Go around the age of 40 years old. He is now in his mid 40s. To whom it may concern: I am writing to recommend highly Kaz as a teacher. I have tried quite a few teachers over the past 6 years, both online and off line and of all the teachers I have learned from, I feel that Kaz has improved my go the most. I think there are a number of reasons for this: (1) Kaz stresses teaching basic shape. He then applies these shapes to many situations so that these shapes become like second nature. He will give problems that focus on a certain shape from different angles that will make you think but will also drill through repetition. I find that this repetition really helps me

7 remember which I can then apply to a game situation. (2) Other teachers often show joseki or patterns that involve memorization of a series of moves. Kaz instead focuses on shapes that are strong and applicable in many situations. This means that instead of spending energy on memorizing a series of moves that you may not properly understand, you can find the proper move or shape in many general situations. (3) Kaz stresses not having broken shape - - "Romeo and Juliet" situation. I think remembering this is already worth 1 or 2 stones in strength for kyu players. I have truly found Kaz's teaching to be unique and would be happy to discuss further. I want to join! How do I sign up? A. Please send the following information to me at cickazu@gmail.com as soon as possible! Your KGS account. Your ranking on KGS. The country where you live. Your time zone (the time zone is the most important information. Please give me the time zone, for I don t know all the time zones). When the daylight saving time (or the summer time ) starts in your country. (This is extremely important because this may affect my plan to teach in March. If you don t know which date, then you can tell me an approximate date.)

8 FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions) Q. Where is Kaz school? A. I teach on KGS Kaz teaching room. This is an exclusive class. Only I can let my members in. Q. When does Kaz school start? A. I m going to start on the following time and the date and continue every weekend at the same time: Japan US Pacific time GMT Jan. 26th Jan. 25th Jan. 25 th Sunday Saturday Saturday 7:00 am 2:00 pm 10:00 pm For European players I m really sorry to choose this schedule. Since I m more well known in the U.S., I ve chosen this time. In the future when I have more students, I d like to provide a class for European Go players during the daytime. Q. Is this school as good as Kaz website? A. I hope so. I ll do my best to satisfy you. Please read the details below. Warning: Currently I have a problem with the website and can t update it. So the information on my website is old. Q. Can I play in this school or just watch a lecture? A. You can play and I ll correct your common mistakes. In my experience playing is better than watching a lecture.

9 Q. I want your common amateur mistakes. Give me that. A. There are 40 free Go problems attached. The first few problems are easy ones. The last ones are the hardest. You are welcome to use these to study. Q. How do I get the solutions to the problem set? A. If you join Kaz Go School, Kaz will let you know how to get answers to those. Or if you take Kaz s simul lessons or private lessons, Kaz will give you some answers free. If you like to know about Kaz s simul lessons or private lessons, please to Kaz: cickazu@gmail.com Q. I don t have a lot of money. Can I get a discount? A. If you re short on cash, please to Kaz cickazu@gmail.com and ask him about it. Q. Will there be any texts for students to study offline? A. I m going to make one text after every class based on the lesson. Q. How do I pay? A. I use Paypal and accept the US dollars, the yen, the Euro, and the UK pound. I may also accept other currencies if Paypal carries them. I DO NOT accept credit cards. My Paypal account is Kazunari Furuyama (cickazu@gmail.com). Thank you for reading this. I hope to see you in Kaz s Go School!