Students

Yuan Zhou is currently open for Go students. Yuan Zhou offers private lessons, group lessons, teaching games in person or on the internet.  If you are interested to become Yuan Zhou's Go student and/or take lessons from him, your Go rank is 9k and above (this condition can be waived if you are referred by Yuan Zhou's current Go students), you are a serious Go player who wants to learn, improve and enjoy Go, please contact Yuan Zhou at yuan.zhou@zhouyuan.com for details regarding lesson schedules, fees etc.

Yuan Zhou has taught many Go students over the years. Here are some of their comments regarding their experience:

Like many, perhaps most American players, I learned the game of go through other amateurs, aided only slightly by the often puzzling advice from the few books in English translation. Unguided by any foundation in the fundamentals of the game, often unaware of a whole-board overview, we drift into battles by setting up random positions and then are content to engage in our little fights when tactical situations arise. We enjoy the game but wonder why we never progress.

The teaching of Yuan Zhou has offered me insightful lessons that have changed my whole approach to the game. Trained by professionals in China, and himself one of the top go players in the U.S., Yuan has a ready insight into the heart of a position and can discern, and explain clearly, the key and essential moves and areas of emphasis. Yuan's method of teaching by reviewing the student's actual games is most helpful because it focuses on our particular thought processes and identifies our individual weaknesses. Both his lessons and his workshops are full of humor, patience, and above all the goal of developing the student's full potential. For me personally Yuan's lessons have offered a whole new dimension of appreciation for the beauty of the game.

--- Charles Alden

There are many ways to learn Go skills: playing games, looking at pro games, practicing problems, reading books, attending lectures, etc. However it can becomes increasingly difficult to improve one's game unless one has instruction from a more advanced player. The situations one encounters in games are unique and applying lessons learned from a book or pro game can be challenging, especially as one's skill increases.

Lessons with Yuan Zhou have fundamentally advanced my understanding of Go. We are able to go in depth into different situations, seeing not only the correct moves, but why they are correct. Yuan Zhou has seemingly endless patience, working through situation after situation and staying with you to assess those situations competently. He is able to do this because of his great enthusiasm for the game, which as a student inspires me to work harder and enhances my enjoyment of the game. His explanations are clear and precise, elucidating without being harsh or judgmental.

I encourage anyone with an interest in Go to take lessons from Yuan Zhou. The insights so gained are truly a revelation!

--- David Felcan

Yuan Zhou is an outstanding go teacher. The foundation of his strength as a teacher is his deep knowledge and love of the game, honed from his professional training in China, and his respect for its traditions and its stature as an art. He peppers his lessons with stories from go history, and he communicates go strategy from a commonsense, human perspective, relating it to lessons from life.

From the first lesson he emphasizes looking at the full board, counting territory and understanding how the players stand, in order to learn what the biggest priorities are. So many go players could benefit from this approach, as they often miss the big picture, getting bogged down in local complications. Working from a large-scale strategic objective can make a difficult game much easier to understand.

--- Matt Bengtson

For me, the attempt to reach Shodan was an epic struggle. Since learning the game in college, I had leisurely gained about half a stone a year. But then I hit a roadblock. I spent a few frustrating years bouncing between 1 an 2 kyu and was beginning to get frustrated with my Go. And I was not getting any younger. Finally, I decided I could not make the breakthrough to Shodan on my own. I had the good fortune to choose Yuan Zhou as my teacher.

Not long after I began lessons with Yuan, I started to see that many of the things I thought were correct, were really wrong. Not long after this, I began to put the lessons I had received from Yuan into practice. Over the course of about a year, I went on an amazing winning streak, amassing 20 tournament wins with only three losses, including winning my section at the wonderful Cherry Blossom tournament in Washington, D. C. This winning streak finally enabled me to achieve my goal for many years, the attainment of the rank of shodan.

Yuan's lessons are multifaceted. Yuan provides insight into the meaning of joseki and standard tactical techniques, while at the same time making sure the student does not lose sight of the whole board. In addition, Yuan's teaching is patient, open to questions, and has an engaging philosophical aspect that connects go lessons to situations in the larger world. I thank my teacher, Yuan Zhou, for helping me to breakthrough the haze that was clouding my vision of the game we all love.

--- Paul Celmer

Yuan is a remarkably talented teacher. In the first place, he is endlessly patient and does not complain about going over the same points many times for slow learners. More importantly, he has an amazing ability to understand what the confusion or misunderstanding is that is leading his student to make bad plays. Explaining this is vastly more helpful than merely stating that a play is bad and pointing to the correct point to play. In addition, his upbeat and supportive attitude makes lessons a pleasure. And perhaps most important, when I started studying with Yuan I actually began to get stronger, as well as enjoying the game more.

--- William Cobb

One of the most important elements of winning go is a solid understanding of the fundamentals. Even if a player is able to make tremendously brilliant moves, it does him or her no good if these moves are offset by equally abysmal blunders. These players are often consumed with the romantic notion of making flashy, unheard-of moves that somehow manage to destroy the heart of their opponents' plans.

However, the truth is that simply being able to play a consistent, solid game is a huge accomplishment for any player, and reflects a deep understanding of the game. When I first began my lessons with Yuan Zhou, my feeling for even the most basic concepts of go was terribly weak and sketchy. However, thanks to the teaching of shifu Yuan Zhou, I was able to rebuild my entire knowledge of the game. Though I have many ages to go before I can match the consistent, high-level play exhibited by my teacher, I feel like I am finally able to grasp some of the fundamentals of this game. This has helped to deepen my enjoyment and love of go.

In addition, Yuan Zhou is very nice guy and one of the most honorable people I know. He has a deep respect for this game and for the individuals that play it. He genuinely cares about his students and tries very hard to help them succeed.

--- Juan Pablo Quizon