Korean Insei League on KGS - Join now! (updated on Dec31)
Korean-style Insei
League on KGS.
They have
almost the same system in largest Korean schools: Heo Jahghei, 9p academy, Kwon
Kapmyun’s academy, Yangchun Dail, Lee Sedol’s school and others
There are 5
groups: A, B, C, D and E. A is the strongest one
Students of
10-kyu and stronger are allowed taking part
Each group
consists of 10 students, who play with each other (maximum 4 games per month
with the same opponent) and 2 teachers (teachers don’t meet with each other). There
is no pairing – students can meet each other any time and put the results in
online table, which counts the winning % and current places automatically.
Teachers usually play their games
simultaneously on 4-5 boards. They play
even games with A group members, 2-stones games with B group, 3-stones games
with C group, 4 stones games with D group and 5 stones with E group
There are 2
teachers, both studied Go in Korea for a very long time:
1. Alexander Dinerchtein, 3p (breakfast on KGS) – the owner of the peaceful playing style – he will
teach you how to play well in fuseki and yose.
2. Ilya Shikshin 7d (roln111 on KGS) –with
the aggressive playing style – he will make you stronger at fighting.
You will
see that they have completely different styles of playing handicap games.
At the end
of the each month best 2 students (with highest winning %) promote to the next
group, and 2 students with less impressive results go down.
The entry
fee is 95 usd/ month (including 8 simultaneous games, 16 lectures and up to 11 reviews)
All groups have
own prize fund, made from entry fees:
A group:
1-place: 200$, 2-place: 100$, 3-place: 50$
B, C, D, E
groups: 1-place: 100$, 2-place: 50$
Places are
decided by the highest winning percentage. To win the prize you have to play
at least 10
games (from 44 possible games) per month with at least 5 different opponents
Teachers can
take cash prizes too, so they are also interested in winning their games in
simultaneous. Teachers are not allowed to take prizes, if they play less than 60% of all games. Also teachers have big bonuses, if they play 80, 90 and 100% of all games - you can be sure, that each teacher will try to play as many games as possible (to get these bonuses)
Time
control:
30 min + 30 sec byoyomi- 5 times for insei vs insei games
30 min + 60 sec byoyomi -5 times for for simultaneous
At the end
of the each year the student, who showed best results (who won A-league most
times) will get a 1000$ grant, which can be used for private lessons, offline
study trips to Korea, Japan or China, Go books or Go equipment. Teachers are
not allowed to get this grant.
25% of your
games will be reviewed offline by Alexander Dinerchtein. More games you play –
more reviews you get! You will get these reviews once a week by e-mail.
**********************************************
We plan to
start the league from Jan, 1 – 2010
4 professional players (Chun Pongjho 8p, An Younggil 8p, Lee Hajin 3p and Cho Mikyung 1p) joined the project as lectors. They will review your games online in audio format. We will have 16 lectures in total every month. Alexander Dinerchtein, 3p will give some lectures too,including 4 lectures in Russian
Last week-end of the month is for Blitz games. If you was very busy during the month, you can play lot of blitz games at the end and get your reviews. Main time control for last Saturday and Sunday of every month is 3 times shorter than usual: 10 min, 30 sec byoyomi - 5 times for insei vs insei games 10 min, 60 sec byoyomi - 5 times for simultaneous
6.Preferred
method of payment (Paypal, Moneybookers,Webmoney, WesternUnion etc)
December 12: We already accepted 50 players. We don't plan to add more groups, so others will be in the waiting line.
Our waiting
line is unusual.If you pay early, but
there are no empty places available, you are allowed to observe all audio
lectures free of charge till you join us in February or March, when we get
vacant places.
If we
decide to stop the project, you will get 100% money back.
So, still accepting new members!
December 29: If you have an account on DGS and prefer slow games, you can get your teaching games here, instead of KGS. You can play all 8 games (or just few) with both teachers at the same time for an extra fee $2 per game. Time control must be set as 30 days absolute (no byoyomi, with clocks running on week-ends). It means about 3-4 moves per game every day. Such games will be count as standard simultaneous games on KGS and must be played on the standard handicap for your division. On DGS you can also meet the members of your group - we accept the results of such games. As you may know we also accept offline games - you can play even in the local club (if you live in the same city) - but please write and upload the SGF of your game (at least 100 moves)
breakfast
2009-11-26 04:11
Current situation: 25 registered players from 7d to 10-kyu. Mainly from Russia, USA and Germany
SomeOne
2009-11-26 03:11
Imperator:
I totaly agree with you. My point was just to be more realistic about the first goals of this league.
To my mind, I think the price is not that expensive, but there is a lot of realistic things to care about. As you said, the number of player that will enter for the first time is one thing.
And again as you said, there is a lot of people who want to improve and take the game seriously. Being a hobby doesn't mean that you don't care, but like you, I have to live and go is after job.
Imperator
2009-11-26 03:11
SomeOne:
It would seem that this league is mostly not targeted against hobbyist or casual players, but competitive players taking the game a little bit more serious. My problem with this is that it seems unrealistic to have a goal of 30-40 players entering and even so, that the league can sustained a for a worthwhile amount of time.
It would be much more interesting to see this league "meet in the middle" and maybe try to compromise.
There are a lot of competitive western players wanting to improve no matter what the cost, but even they have to make a living...
There are practical things that the league can iron out as it moves along, but I would be much more confident about its success if the people arranging it would set a more realistic starting goal. If it never gets of the ground, how can it be improved upon?
Danigabi talked about the cost not being an issue. Those who want to improve are willing to spend this kind of money he sais. But value for money is of course relevant. If most people here can not conceive that they can work this into their schedule and not get the amount of reviews etc that would make this worthwhile. Then most people would probably rather spend the money improving in a different manner. So cost is relevant, or else people will use their money elsewhere...
SomeOne
2009-11-25 08:11
I think you misunderstood my point. For most of us, go is only a hobby, it means that most of our time is spent doing something else (job, study, ...)
Of course you can have students from all over the world, you and only you have to find the time to play with your student, but suppose that in a group of 10 players, 1 is Euro and the others American ... when one is working the others sleep and so on. I doubt this player will play a lot of games and enjoy the league !
And again, if you can play from time to time at midnight, I'm not sure you can do that for a long time ... but maybe i missunderstood the goal of the league (to improve throught playing a lot of games that can be reviewed)
breakfast
2009-11-25 06:11
<Will it be possible to join the League after it has started? Say in the middle of 2010>
Yes, we will probably have special tournament for enterting the league, starting from Feb,2010 - exactly as in Korea.
breakfast
2009-11-25 05:11
I have private students from Japan, US and Europe and it's not a big problem to find the time.
We will have a special room on KGS where you can meet players from your group. Also, you will have their e-mails, so if you cannot find someone - you can e-mail him and discuss the time you prefer to meet.
SomeOne
2009-11-25 12:11
Hey,
The whole thing is a good idea but maybe you forgot something important about Korean League in Korea ... the time difference.
Most player who will attempt the league may be disappointed because they can't play 44 games as expected.
In fact most player will be European or American (I suppose) which have at least +/- 5 hours difference ...
So how to deal with a good price to enter the league / the number of games that is REALLY possible to play / the number of games review / the lectures ?
Maybe one could play at midnight during one month but how about a long time ?
Peter Dijkema
( NL ) 2009-11-25 10:11
Added the good news of An Young-gil 8P joining the two of you, to my reports. Once, I humbly hosted him in Amsterdam with professor Hahn. But now the Australians hired him. Good luck for Europe: we can learn more from An 8P again. On a regular base, even. Good job, go-sensations!
Magrom
1K ( RU ) 2009-11-24 03:11
I have one question:
Will it be possible to join the League after it has started? Say in the middle of 2010. I am unsure at the moment if I fill hate time for such activity :(
breakfast
2009-11-24 11:11
Thx for your help!
Yes, we will make games open to observers, except online lectures