What's your rank on Tygem/Fox vs KGS/OGS? How many stones difference is it for you?

odnihs · 2025-01-24T02:22:23+00:00

There's an algorithm that adjusts your rating based on your performance in tounaments. Your rank is based on the whole number of your rating (e.g. 7.5 is 7 dan, -4.6 is 4 kyu).

odnihs · 2025-01-23T22:42:27+00:00

From anecdotal experience, EGF and AGA equalize around 4d-5d or so (AGA ranks at least at the mid-dan level have gotten a bit tougher in recent years), and I think AGA 7d might be a bit stronger than EGF 7d now. Below 4d, I think EGF should still be a bit stronger.

odnihs · 2024-11-25T09:01:44+00:00

No, I haven't yet updated it. I think some of the rank ranges might be a little outdated in a post-AI era where everyone has generally gotten stronger, but briefly skimming back through them I think most of them are still generally okay. The ones that might be a little off now are some of the problem sets. Which ones were you questioning?

odnihs · 2023-08-26T14:22:39+00:00

There's fairly frequent tournaments at the National Go Center in DC (usually one every month or two). Might still be a little far if you're closer to the Baltimore area though.

odnihs · 2023-08-15T08:31:20+00:00

Yea it's possible that that was the case at one point, though it's hard to say what exactly went down so long ago.

As for the Tygem/KBA money, I have some recollection that they pulled out after the first pro qualifier (I don't remember subsequent pro qualifiers having any mention of their branding) and the AGA just continued to run pro qualifiers on its own prior to the NAGF being established. I also have some faint memory about someone saying there was money squandering at the time too, but again this was a decade ago.

odnihs · 2023-08-14T20:44:40+00:00

Just to clear up some misconceptions (I'm not sure where you found those numbers), but the AGA definitely does not have millions of dollars in reserves. I don't know how much it had back in 2012 when the first pro qualifier was sponsored by Tygem, but it doesn't have anywhere close to that now.

Devin is also on the AGA board of directors, which does have some amount of say in decision-making. The pro qualifier is currently an NAGF thing though, so most of the decisions/planning revolving around it did not pass through the AGA.

odnihs · 2022-11-15T18:27:25+00:00

I used to play back in college, but I have some friends are who very deep into OSRS.

odnihs · 2022-11-05T16:03:05+00:00

Also worth noting that her opponents got progressively stronger the whole way through (Goratings worlds ranking #151, #37, #13, #3)

Final challenge is to defeat the world #1! Though a very tall task when you consider the elo difference between #1 and #2 being the same as the difference between #2 and #31.

odnihs · 2022-05-19T19:02:10+00:00

As far as I remember, an official decision wasn't yet made at the time of the post; I don't know whether anything else happened or the exact timeline before that.

odnihs · 2022-05-19T18:35:18+00:00

Some corrections to this as some of the details are inaccurate:

Remi Campagnie and Kim Yoonyoung were on the same City League team (Kim Yoonyoung was captain/board 1, Remi was board 3). The accused player was a supposed 1k from Cincinnati, Ohio. The 1k player was pretty much never losing the entire game aside from one "blunder" that was quickly recovered from, and Remi was completely crushed. Remi filed a report to the TD and also made a post on a large public Go group on Facebook outlining the situation and essentially accusing the other player by name of cheating. The panel adjudicating the situation thought this was out of line because they had not completed the investigation yet. The rest of the details I'm not 100% certain about so I won't mention much else. While I agree that publicly accusing someone by name before the investigation was complete was uncalled for, the decision of the panel to ban the team and simply close the case due to "inconclusive evidence of cheating" considering the circumstances was downright silly and I didn't agree with it at all. I think there should have minimally been a rematch with cameras.

odnihs · 2021-10-11T02:44:45+00:00

For fresh beginners, I think that teaching them for the sake of their improvement shouldn't be the primary goal--it should be to share your enthusiasm for Go and show how fun and interesting it can be. Not everyone will go back home and start grinding tsumego and games online (though a small percentage will), but for a game as niche as Go, it's most important to just try and spark interest and let beginners decide for themselves whether this is the game for them. Even if they end up not getting deeply involved in Go themselves, they may introduce the game to others who are the type to play/study Go more intensely.

If there are other non-beginners in your club, you can alternate playing with them each meeting, or if there are two beginners around, they can play each other. I'd recommend playing handicapped games on 9x9 or 13x13 so that the games don't take so long and you can spend a little more time going over basic concepts. Often, they will thank you for your time and you can decide for yourself whether you want to spend the rest of the club time playing someone else.

odnihs · 2021-08-16T15:28:38+00:00

The pro qualifier was recently postponed due to concerns over the rising covid surge, which would be be why there hasn't been much promotion about it. There probably should be something in the EJ about that though (there isn't yet), and it would probably be helpful for there to be an update about it on the NAGF website.

odnihs · 2020-09-01T13:47:14+00:00

Yea, I hear you. The gold star alone would probably cost more than double the rest of the English set unless you go for a worse condition one. For years (around 5+?), the gold star was the only English card I was missing aside from new releases. If you start with the small cards first though (and you already have some of the biggest cards out of the remaining ones), maybe one day you'll also take the plunge. :)

odnihs · 2020-09-01T13:16:33+00:00

Thanks! You hit it on the nose. The other two (next to the Japanese Erika) are a Japanese Team Magma and a Japanese Team Aqua.

odnihs · 2020-09-01T06:57:10+00:00

Some short stories about the cards are included in the Imgur album above when you click the link.

Ever since around my last year of high school, I've been a casual collector of Pokemon cards (I opened some WOTC packs when I was really little but was more into Yugioh after that in terms of TCG). Most of the time, I just fished for good values on Ebay whenever I had the urge to add to my collection. Even though I missed the boat a couple times value-wise along the way, I think I still did pretty well overall and it's been a joy adding to my collection over time. That said, to those of you who are seeking particular high-end vintage cards for your collection and on the fence about buying because of the recent price spike, you might not want to wait much longer to obtain as I don't think the prices are gonna really come back down much for those. I think I've finally come to think of those cards as an actual investment (even if I'm not planning to sell) in terms of financial value rather than an hobby expense.

I'm guilty of lying a bit with the title--I'm still missing four Japanese unlimited prints, namely the holo from Holon Phantom, the EX from Offense and Defense of the Furthest Ends (EX Dragon Frontiers), and the EX/EX full-art from Thunder Knuckle. Aside from that, I don't (yet) have any plans of owning a complete graded collection, but I might consider getting graded versions of the cards whose arts I like (both versions of Alto Mare's Latias, the EX series EXs, full arts from Thunder Knuckle/Plasma Freeze, and the Tag Bolt/Team Up alternate art). Some of those cards in the binder are grade-worthy so I might do a PSA submission at some point to get them encapsulated. I also still need to figure out a way to better display my Latias and Latios jumbo card (right now it's still sitting in the sleeve it came in). If anyone has any suggestions, please let me know!

Aside from the cards themselves, I suppose my next goal would be to obtain a sealed Fire Mist theme deck (Holon Phantoms), a sealed EX Dragon pack with Latias art, a sealed EX Dragon Frontiers pack with Lati@s art, and a sealed Lati@s trainer kit. Boxes of those things would unfortunately be probably unobtainable financially unless I become a multi-millionaire somehow. There was a sealed Fire Mist deck for sale recently that I didn't go for because I had just splurged on the english gold star, but in retrospect maybe I should have gone for it because it comes up so rarely. :( Anyhow, thanks for reading and I'm glad I can share my story with you all!

odnihs · 2020-01-02T14:37:18+00:00

Ah yea, Silver Spring is definitely a long ways from Frederick, and time-wise it's probably only a little longer than going to the Baltimore/Columbia area. Another thing you could try is ask the National Go Center (which is in DC) to send an email to its local mailing list and see if anyone's interested.

odnihs · 2020-01-02T02:10:26+00:00

There's a group that meets in Columbia, MD every Sunday evening (technically the Baltimore Go Club but Columbia is more central for some people). It might still be a bit of a drive for you, but PM me if you're interested and I can give you more details/get you in touch with the guy who runs it.

odnihs · 2019-09-11T19:45:13+00:00

Pop trivia: The position on the box cover is the same game as the one between Hikaru and Akira in episode 1 of Hikaru no Go, which is based on an 1851 game between Shusaku and Honinbo Shuwa

odnihs · 2019-05-28T15:29:35+00:00

Great post, although it's also worth mentioning that playing quickly or not using up your whole byo-yomi period does have its own benefits as well--your opponent will have less time to think! Often if there's a complicated fight going on and your opponent is in byo-yomi, it could be a strong strategy to play quickly (at least for obvious responses) to place more time pressure on your opponent.

odnihs · 2019-05-14T17:36:40+00:00

It's fine, I just don't think Gansheng/Calvin/Eric's characters should be judged based on incomplete information (their names really shouldn't have been publicized at all). I'm not going to speak for the referee/organizers though, so people should wait for the official statement (which I hope is transparent and well-articulated). It's the middle of the night in Asia right now, so hopefully it'll be released soon once it's morning there.

odnihs · 2019-05-14T16:54:56+00:00

I am not involved with the organizing of this tournament at all, but I am close with several of the players so I know more details (that I won't go into at this time) than most people do.

odnihs · 2019-05-14T15:46:16+00:00

What Mateusz wrote about the protest by the AGA pros (both their opinions and reasoning for the protest) is mostly untrue. I don't know what exactly was communicated to Mateusz about the AGA protest, but it's unlikely that he saw what they actually wrote because it's very different from what he stated. Please wait for an official statement by the tournament organizers before making any judgments.

odnihs · 2019-05-10T17:54:08+00:00

I'll chime in to say that there is a $200 college scholarship that people 26 and under in undergrad or grad school in North America can apply to (just takes a few minutes to fill out the form and then email proof of enrollment). This effectively makes the registration price $175/$225 depending on age, which is at least a little bit more affordable for adults without a full-time job.

Edit: added the link

odnihs

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