About Zee:

I am just a regular person who loves Go. I don’t play Go too often anymore, but I love producing video content for those seeking improvement.

I started to learn Go by attending Mansoo Kim 8P’s online course after my friend introduced me to Go when I was around 23. I went from 30 kyu to 1 dan in about 6 months with the help of Mansoo Kim’s incredible teaching style. As someone who fell madly in love with Go, I also got into Hanayeol’s course, and he made learning go extra easy for me. If you want to find an online instructor who speaks English, I highly recommend Hanayeol. He has a completely different teaching style than most of the Western instructors.

I currently play around 5~6dan on FOX. But all my videos are produced with the help of stronger players and books.

For example, the josekis and the way of explaining concepts are directly taken from how Mansoo Kim 8P teaches his adult students at his Dojang in Korea. The San Ren Sei project’s base is Takemiya Masaki’s book on Cosmic Style with touches from Mansoo Kim, etc.

I believe adults and kids require different ways of learning Go. Kids can be forcefully sat down and grind problems. Kids have no choice but to listen to what their teachers say. But, as adults, we rarely have time and energy to learn like kids.

When teaching kids, instructors would explain everything in extreme detail. And they will also “shove” knowledge into kids’ heads through repetition. Instructors also would force kids to solve problems, and, by solving problems, kids can improve their reading ability and notice patterns in those problems which helps them to identify shapes/situations in actual games.

However, not many adults can handle so much information in one sitting and don’t have too much extra time to attend online/offline classes every single day. On top of that, adults have fully developed brains so directly telling them about theories and showing them common patterns is a much more efficient way of teaching Go. It is certainly better than telling them to find patterns by solving problems.

In Simiple Baduk, my goal is to get as many people to 1 dan as I can. I was able to go from 30 kyu to 1 dan in half a year, so I believe most adults reaching 1 dan is not a pipe dream. I do this because I believe Go really starts to get interesting when you can read kifu books without others’ help. And 1 dan is when you can start to understand the meanings behind moves.

My teaching style is directly taken from how Mansoo Kim and Hanayeol teach their students. I won’t emphasize readings or local fights because you don’t need those to get to 1 dan. All you need is some of the most basic knowledge of Life & Death, End Games, and some theories. The most important things are theories on Fuseki and how to attack for profit. As long as you get these 2 theories down, you should be able to become a confident and proud 1 dan player in no time.

I also share “incorrect” information in my videos from time to time, and here is why:

I will teach you certain moves that are wrong in AI’s eyes and in higher-dan players’ eyes. But those moves work in lower-ranked games. These are like unorthodox “trick plays” that you won’t be able to learn unless you learn them from me or some other instructors in person. Most free online videos are all about being 100% correct, but I am all about making you 1 dan.

If your opponent has flaws, then exploit those flaws. You don’t have to stick with proper moves while knowing your opponents can’t handle your trick plays. By playing these trick plays, you are also getting used to these unorthodox moves so you don’t get tricked if your opponents want to trick you. That is another important lesson.

If I told you to play a certain way until 1 dan, then that means nobody lower than 1 dan can notice your trick plays. So you can get to 1 dan sooner than expected. Once you reach your cap with these trick plays, you can seek help from AI or stronger players to teach you how to properly play… but, by that time, you should already know how to properly play because you have seen how your stronger opponents deal with your trick plays.

In my courses, I won’t teach you unorthodox moves and also teach you proper ways to play at the same time, because I know you will want to stick with the proper moves. I want you to play moves that exploit your opponents. If you want to learn proper moves, you can ask AI and there are sources everywhere online, but these unorthodox moves are the real hidden gems.

My current source of income is being a performer and lecturer. I do not rely on Simple Baduk to make my living. I am a full-time Magician, so I am constantly traveling around to perform and lecture. I am producing Go content purely out of passion and love. I can’t always get to your emails ASAP due to my messed up schedule, but I will get to you as soon as I see your emails.