Internet Go Lessons, Offline

I’ve writte about whether or not it’s good to study AI.  Please click here.

 

Kaz’s Internet Go School: offline teaching!

Big Discount: There has been a worldwide inflation.  However, I decided to reduce the lesson fees for new students to help the Go community.  For 3 dan or weaker players, I’m offering a half price.  And if you’re not satisfied with the 1st lesson, I’ll give you the lesson fee back.  So you may take the 1st lesson without any lesson fee.

 

There is a special deal for Special Lesson B!

Special deal for children under 18 years old!

I’ve decided to offer a special deal for children under 18 years old.

1.  If he / she takes “Special Lesson B” and takes 10 lessons in 5 months, I’ll give him / her 5 free lessons ( and there is more.  Please read below.). ☆

This offer is for those children under 18 years old.  This deal is available until the end of January.

If she / he gets busy studying at school, I’m happy to extend the time up to 3 months and possibly more.  We can talk about that.

2. After completing “Special Lesson B”, and if she / he takes Special Lesson B again immediately, and if she / he takes Special Lesson B 6 times continuously, I’m going to send you my secret to doing well at school, especially in university.  I can give advice on that because of my following experiences.

When I was a child, I was going to be a pro, so I never paid attention to classes in junior high school and never went to high school.  (In Japan going to high school is not compulsory.)  But I failed to be a pro.

After that, I studied English by myself and went to a community college in the U.S.  I studied junior high school study, high school study, along with university study.  During that time, I developed a way to study effectively. 

Then I transferred to Lewis & Clark College.  Then, I was accepted at Yale University’s graduate school.

Unfortunately, I left there after 3 weeks because I did not incur a huge debt. 

So if your child has a hard time learning well at school, I can give you a lot of advice on how to do well.

Again this deal is available until the end of January.

 

Recommendation

Here is a recommendation from a father, whose son improved from 11-12kyu to 4 kyu in 7 months.

“I chanced upon Kaz sensei’s blog a few months ago, and I was very impressed with Kaz sensei’s teaching philosophy.
At that point of time, my 7-year-old son had been stuck in 11-12 kyu for 4 months.  So I decided to try out Kaz sensei’s lesson on June 13th.
Upon receiving Kaz sensei’s first lesson via email, I was surprised by the amount of material received.  It was all about my son’s biggest mistakes, plus the way to rectify them.  I took several days to fully digest the lesson together with my son.
My son is now only on his 8th lesson, but my son has since passed his stumbling block and will be reaching 8 kyu very soon.  ( As of December 31st, 2023, he is now 4 kyu.)
This is all thanks to Kaz sensei. Before Kaz sensei, I had found several other teachers for my son, but none has put in as much effort as Kaz sensei to come up with tailored teachings to my son’s weaknesses. My son is very fortunate to have Kaz sensei as his teacher. For that I am very grateful to him. 
 
My son hopes to reach 1 dan either within this or next year. With Kaz sensei’s help, I am very sure he can achieve his goal.”
 
 

About my teaching experiences:

 When I started teaching at a Go school, soon I became very popular.  While other Go teachers played 3-simultaneous  games, I always had to play 17- or 15-simultaneous games often because many people wanted to get my lessons.  After the game, I recorded all the games and gave comments to all students.

Also for the past 10 years, I have discovered about 300 common amateur mistakes and made more than 10,000 problems to correct those mistakes.  In my lessons I’ll first examine 10 games to find out your biggest weaknesses, the worst habits, and the last of the most important basics.  you will learn those from the 1st lesson.  I’m the only Go teacher who can do all of these. 

Also I can remember my students’ games for years.  So I can recognize my students’ old games immediately.  I also can remember almost all of my students’ biggest weaknesses, their worst habits, and the most important basics they have lacked for many years. 

About a couple of years ago I discovered how to teach “cross-cut”.  There is a Go proverb “when crosscut, extend”.  However, this is one of the most unreliable Go proverb because there are so many exception.  I never knew how to deal with “cross-cut”.  But a couple of years ago I developed an easy way to teach that.  Now my students are confident about “cross-cut”.

Also I can teach how to prevent AI moves.  I’ve writte about whether or not it’s good to study AI.  Please click here.

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Kaz offline internet Go lessons!

These are some of the recent teaching results:

Maxim P. was 14kyu player 2 years ago.  Now he is 5kyu. ( This was in the year, 2022.)

Seb D. was 2 kyu player and took 9 lessons.  After 8 month, he is now 1dan.  This was in the year, 2022.  (As of October, 2023, he is 2dan.)

 
Max was 4kyu 4 years ago.  Now he is 1dan.  He purchased a 33-lesson-package in the beginning of 2022.  He recently purchased a 40-lesson-package in September, 2023. )
 

Rowan was 23 kyu player and took 8 lessons.  Now she is now 13 kyu.

Fred was19kyu player and took 3 lessons.  Now he is now 15 kyu.

Marek was 8 kyu player took 7 lessons.  Now he is now    5 kyu.

Mario was a  2-3 dan player and took 6 lessons.  Now he is now 4dan.   He recently purchased a 33-lesson-package. ( This was in the year, 2022.)  After a year, he has become 5dan. ( This is in the year, 2023.)

George in his 60s has been taking my offline Special Services Lessons, beginning in summer, 2014, and has improved quickly.  See George to learn how he has studied.

 

Recommendation from Maxim P., 5 kyu player (August, 2022)

I started taking Kaz’s lessons about 2 years ago; I was at the age of 45.  At that time, I was 14 kyu.  Now I am 5 kyu.  I’ve been very satisfied with his lessons so far.

 

Recommendation from Seb D., 1 dan player (August, 2022).

I started taking lessons from Kaz at the beginning of 2022.  I was 2k+ and 45 years old.  Since then, I’ve taken 9 lessons.  In less than 8 months, I have reached 1d.  This was a long-held objective of mine, so now I am ecstatic.  He is a fantastic teacher.  Learning from him has been incredibly pleasant and efficient.
Seb. D.

 

Recommendation from Leo, 2 kyu player (April, 2017).

After having worked with different Go teachers and different formats (online lessons, offline lessons, lectures, problems, game commentaries, training games) in the past I can say that for me being taught by Kaz seems to be the best way to really improve the way I play in a systematic and lasting way.

Thanks for teaching me!

Leo

You can read more recommendations here:

 

 

This is my best teaching method:

  1. My student sends me his / her 10 most recent games in .sgf format.
  1. I examine his / her 10 games.  Then, I can find out many of his / her worst habits, biggest weaknesses, and incorrect moves.  I will also teach the most important basics that my students lack.  Mainly I look for million-dollar mistakes and ignore five-dollar mistakes and ten-dollar mistakes.  (Before the arrival of the internet, I had to play at least 10 games to find out my students’ bad habits, big weaknesses, and incorrect moves.  But now I can teach the most important points from the 1st lesson.  I’ve been doing this for many years.  As far as I know, this is my original teaching method.  )
  1. Based on analyzing the games, I will comment on million-dollar mistakes and ignore five-dollar mistakes and ten-dollar mistakes. 
  1. In the next lessons, I’ll ask my students to send me 3 games, and I’ll examine their games and comment on them.  I often discover new weaknesses and very bad habits because the more games I analyze, the more weaknesses and bad habits I’ll find, and I’ll teach all of these.
  1. Sometimes, if some students have a very hard time understanding, then I’ll send tests and problems to help them understand the most important points.

Here are the reasons that my lessons very helpful.

  1. Each student has different weaknesses and worst bad habits, so I have to find out about that for each students.  I’ll correct those.
  2. Analyzing 10 games gives me a lot of information about a student’s Go, and I’ll teach the most important points.  ( Pretty much all student lack important basics.  In that case giving advanced lessons will not be helpful, but harmful because that’s like trying to build a 10-story building without the foundations on the 1st floor.) 
  3. There is a vicious cycle in learning Go.  I’ve found that many adults study a lesson only for a short time, and then start playing many games and practicing their bad habits.  My lessons will help you overcome their worst habits and their biggest weaknesses.
  4. Many adults study other people’s mistakes instead of their own mistakes.   They are not aware of their own common mistakes, and they keep making the same mistakes for many years.  I’ve observed that the longer they keep making the same mistakes, the harder it it to fix them because the bad habits ingrain in them.   My lessons will help them aware of their own common mistakes.  If they study my lessons repeatedly, they will learn from their own mistakes and master basics.  That will make them quantum leap in the near future.
  5. My lessons will help me evaluate my students’ true ranking.  Sometimes a student who claims to be a 1 dan turns out be a 5 kyu.  I’ve learned that examining 10 games may not show that.  When I give him / her my tests and check the answers, then I can find out how well or poorly he / she understands.  So I can send appropriate problems, so he or she can learn the basics at his / her level.

I have a lot of know-how on how to make appropriate tests and problems, to correct their mistakes, and to help them build strong basic foundations.  Consequently, I can confidently say that I’m an expert on that.  Naturally, almost all my students like this teaching.  More importantly, many of them have been showing a clear improvement.

 

 

I will also teach you the following:

  1. I will teach how to master a cross-cut.  If you take 3 or 4 lessons, you should be able to handle pretty much any cross-cut.
  2. I will teach how to deal with the famous AI opening variations.
  3. I will teach how to make the famous opening such as the Chinese opening and the Kobayashi Opening ineffective.
  4. Many people mistakenly think that all peeps are good.  However, there are many bad peeps.  I’ll teach you good and bad peeps.
  5. Many people mistakenly think that all “push from behind” moves are bad.  However, there are quite a few good, acceptable, or necessary “push from behind” moves.  I’ll teach you those.
  6. I’ll teach you the most useful life-and-death problems.  Life-and-death books show many problems, but some problems never come out in real games.  I only teach life-and-death problems that come out most frequently in your games.
  7. I’ll teach you how to turn the tables when you are losing a game.  I’ve created many tests and problems.  Some of my students did experience those in their games.
  8. I’ll teach you how to play well in byoyomi.
  9. I’ll teach you how to play well in the endgame.


 

Lesson Fee:

The 1st lesson fee is $52 / €50.  However, for 2 months, I’m offering $42 / €40 for the 1st 3 lessons for all students. 

For 3 dan players or weaker, the 1st lesson fee is $28 / €26.  I’m offering this only for 2 months.

So here is the lesson fee for 3dan or weaker.
1st lesson : $28 / €26
2nd lesson: $42 / €40
3rd lesson: $42 / €40 
4th lesson: $42 / €40
5th lesson: $52 / €50
6th lesson: $52 / €50 , and so on.

Here is the lesson fee for 4 dan or stronger.
1st lesson : $42 / €40 
2nd lesson: $42 / €40
3rd lesson: $42 / €40 
4th lesson: $52 / €50 
5th lesson: $52 / €50 , and so on.

WARNING: If you’re going to take many lessons from me, it’s better to take Special Lesson B because it’s cheaper and there are special deals and special services. 

WARNING: If you’re not satisfied with the 1st lesson, I’ll give you the lesson fee back.  After the 1st lesson, you should ask me to return the lesson fee in a week.  If it takes more than a week, I will not return the lesson fee.  Also the transaction fee is deducted from the lesson fee.
WARNING: If you ask me to return the 1st lesson fee and then later on, decide to take more lessons from me, I’ll ask you to pay the 1st lesson fee as $52 / €50 along with the 2nd lesson fee, $42 / €40 

WARNING: If you don’t like to use PayPal, you may use Wise or moneycorp.com

WARNING: You don’t have to include the transaction fee because I’ll pay the fee.

WARNING: Please do not write anything in your games. Please do not write any questions in your games. I’d like to teach you 1-millon-dollar mistakes.  But many people ask me 5-dollor or 10-dollar questions. I’d like to make you strong fast. To do so, I’d like to teach you 1-millon-dollar mistakes.

WARNING: How to apply this lesson is stated at the end.

Are my lessons expensive? : Some people tell me that my lesson fees are expensive.  Please think of it this way.

Compared to buying Go books: If you buy a Go book, it costs $15, $20, or $30.  If you buy two books, you will pay $30, $40, or $60.  But it’s not easy to find Go books at your own level.  I know many Go players who have bought 20 or 30 Go books, which can cost somewhere between $300 or $900.  Many of them haven’t finished reading all of them.   Quite a few people say that they haven’t even mastered one Go book.  That’s probably because the books are way too hard for them.  It’s like you buy a lottery, and you draw a blank.

More importantly, none of the Go books are written based on analyzing your games.

If you take my lessons, you will always get a winning ticket.

I will teach you your biggest mistakes and million-dollar mistakes.  I’ll teach you your worst habits.  I’ll teach you the lack of most important basics.  If necessary, I’ll send you many problems to help you learn those things fast.  You will be able to use them for many years.  In fact I’m a unique Go teacher who does all of these.

So which is better?

You keep buying many Go books until you find a book at your own level, which may take many years.  Or you may never find the right book.

Or you take my lessons and receive game reviews and problems, which are most appropriate for you, and you will be able to use them for many years.  The longer you study my tests and problems, the stronger you will become.

It took me many years to acquire these skills:  Also I must say that analyzing 10 games and making problems are not easy even for experienced Go teachers.

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Special Lesson A: Kaz Internet Go Camp (Currently I’ve suspended this deal.  Please apply for “Special Lesson B” instead.)

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Special Lesson B:

Special service 1: This is a 10-lesson.  ( You could have 11 lessons in the next round of “Special Lesson B” with the same lesson fee.  The information is below.)

Special service 2: You will receive following texts.

Free opening texts:   1. How to counter the Chinese opening,   2. How to counter the mini Chinese opening,   3. How to counter the Kobayashi opening,   4. How to counter 5-4 point joseki,   5. How to counter 5-3 point joseki, and there are more.  ( If you want to know a particular opening, please ask me.  I have all the counter moves against any opening.  Some openings don’t have a name, so I cannot spell them out here.)

Special service 3:

Other free texts: You can choose six texts in total from the following:

      1. “Fight like Rocky Balboa!  Fight like Rocky Graziano!  Fight like Raging Bull!”  You will learn about fight.
      2. Learn about “the 0nion Tesuji” (which makes an opponent’s eyes water just like chopping onion).
      3. “Thick, Thicker, Thickest !!!” Maximize your thickness and make an opponent’s thickness useless.
      4. “Attachment effect, butterfly effect”.  If you learn the proper attachment and how to make the most of it, your moves could affect the entire board just like the butterfly effect.
      5. The “Killing-stones-syndrome”.  If you’re addicted to killing an opponent’s stones, you need this.
      6. “Big pig snout”.  You will learn about one of the most commonly shown life-and-death problems.
      7. “He is a peeping Tom?!  Peep, peep, PEEP!”  You will learn correct peeps and incorrect peeps.  You will find that so many people, kyu and dan players alike, play incorrect peeps.
      8. There’s a Go proverb: “The ponnuki is worth 30 points.”  But many people misunderstand what is ponnuki, and what is not.  You can learn these.
      9. “Endgame techniques (If you learn these endgame techniques,  you will be able to turn around a 25-point losing game. WARNING: I’m still making these.  I’ll try to finish them soon. )

Special service 4: The best way to study 1

You will receive information regarding what you should study.  You should study…   You should NOT study…  If you know this, you will become strong more quickly than your rivals.   I decided to write this because there is a lot of misunderstanding of what you should study in the Go world.  One example of this is http://kazsensei.seesaa.net/article/419725905.html

Special service 5: The best way to study 2

You will receive information regarding the best way to study.   A university professor recently collected data from 10 million Japanese students learning English words.   There appear to be certain limits to learning; that is, studying harder does not necessarily mean that you will learn more.  In fact, the research shows that studying for shorter periods can actually produce very good results.  I will show you how to study, so that you can apply this method to your Go study.  I’ve been trying it myself while learning Chinese, and I’m happy to say it seems to be working.

A bit skeptical?  According to my Facebook friends who speak several languages, learning Go and learning languages share many similarities.  So this information should help Go players.

(FYI, I currently don’t use Facebook, so you won’t find me there.)

Special service 6: The time management

You will receive information about the best way to make the most of your time when you play a game.

Special service 7: The anger management

Quite a few people who make a mistake during a game, tend to get angry or upset and make more mistakes.  If you’re one of them, then take my lessons and receive information about how to manage your anger.

EXTREMELY IMPORTANT: If you do not improve, I’m going to send you many more extra problems until you become 2 stones stronger. 

WARNING: I will send many extra problems if you do not improve, and if you follow my advice.  If you do not follow my advice and do not improve, then I may not give many extra problems.

 

Lesson Fee for Special Lesson B:

The fee for the 10-lesson-package is $490 / €470  (One lesson is equivalent to about $49.00 / €47.00.)

WARNING: You don’t have to include the transaction fee because I’ll pay the fee.

WARNING: When you transfer the payment on PayPal, please pay in the dollar or the Euro, not the yen. 

WARNING: If you don’t like to use PayPal, you may use Wise or moneycorp.com

WARNING: Please do not write anything in your games. Please do not write any questions in your games. I’d like to teach you 1-millon-dollar mistakes. But many people ask me 5-dollor or 10-dollar questions. I’d like to make you strong fast. To do so, I’d like to teach you 1-millon-dollar mistakes.

Refund Policy: No refund, please.

WARNING: How to apply this lesson is stated at the end.

Time Frame: 10 months.  If you don’t take a lesson once a month without notifying me of the reasons, I assume that you cancel the lessons.

☆ If you take 10 lessons in 8 months and take another “Special Lesson B” again, I’ll give you 1 free lesson.

I offer this because I’d like to encourage my students to study my materials as much as possible to get rid of their worst habits and biggest weaknesses as soon as possible, so they can master the basics as soon as possible.

Those who who do not improve play too many games.  For example, some of my students plays 10 or more games a week and study an hour or less.  If you play 10 games, you spend at least 10 hours or possibly 20 hours, which is a lot!  If you play 10 games, you are practicing your bad habits and your weaknesses for 10 or 20 hours, and if you study an hour or two hours a week, you will never improve because your practicing the bad habits and weaknesses for too many hours. 

Go is one of the hardest games, and you really have to be committed to learning the basics.  So if you have 10 hours a week, you have to study my materials at least for 8 hours.  If you keep doing that for 5 or 6 months or so, then you may begin to see your improvement.  Those who have a very good basic background see the improvement more quickly.  But most of my students have very little basic background, and most of them do not have a habit of studying every day or every week.  So they have to make a habit of studying a lot.  Once they regularly, sooner or later, they will make a quantum leap. 

EXTREMELY IMPORTANT: Please keep that in mind that the longer you practice your bad habits and your weaknesses, the harder it is for me to correct them. 

Refund Policy: No refund, please.

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How to apply for Kaz’s Go Lessons!

      1. Please go to Paypal and look for my email address: cickazu@gmail.com
      2. Please complete the payment to Kazunari Furuyama, (in Japan).  (WARNING: Paypal insists on a currency conversion.  But please do not convert that.  Please pay in dollar or Euro, not Yen.  It’s because if you convert that, I cannot tell the amount of the payment.)
      3. Please email me to let me know that you have sent the payment.  Here are examples of a message.

“This is Harry Callahan (your full name, please).  I just finished the payment.   I’ll take take Special Lesson B.  Go ahead, make my day!”

      1. Please send me your most recent 10 games in sgf files.
      2. After this, I’ll send you tests.

WARNING: When you transfer the payment on PayPal, please pay in the dollar or the Euro, not the yen. 

WARNING : Please do not pay the transaction fee.  I’ll pay for that.  If you mistakenly pay more, I’ll send you extra problems to compensate for that.

WARNING: Please do not send the payment as “a family” on PayPal.  Please use the payment as business transactions.

WARNING: If you don’t like to use PayPal, you may use Wise or moneycorp.com

WARNING : If you send fewer than 10 games, that’s fine, too.  A win or a lose does not matter.  Even games are preferable, but handicap games are fine, too.

WARNING: Please do not write anything in your games. Please do not write any questions in your games. I’d like to teach you 1-millon-dollar mistakes. But many people ask me 5-dollor or 10-dollar questions. I’d like to make you strong fast. To do so, I’d like to teach you 1-millon-dollar mistakes.

WARNING: Some people worry about sending me bad games.  I believe that all your games are there to help you improve.  So you shouldn’t worry about good or bad games.  Besides, often when people say “Oh, I played terrible games”, but it turns out to be good games.  I’ve seen that many times.  In addition, it’s better for me to see your worst games because I’d like to see your biggest weakness and the worst habits as soon as possible.  So I will be able to help you improve at maximum speed.

Please also read “Teaching

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