New Way To Teach Go to Beginners

During the World Youth Go Championship (WYGC) that the Malaysia Weiqi Association organized last month, (http://wygc2014.weiqi.org.my), Mr. Yang Yu Jia from the Ing Chang-Ki Wei-Ch’i Educational gave a talk on the new way to teach Go to beginners. I find this idea quite good compared to how we traditionally teach Go, at least at the beginning stage. Basically, the idea is to learn how to watch Go, i.e. how to understand what is going on in a game of Go without one having to be really good at it.

I have hung on to this concept actually from my earlier days of learning Go although Mr Yang said it much better and in a lot more depth. I remember in my earlier days, I took Go lessons from Cornel Burzo and one of the thing that stuck with me was his comment “Try to understand what is happening on the board” and in line with this, as we review the game, he explained to me what is happening, what is the story, what both sides tries to accomplish and how the opponent try to counter it and instead force his own strategy to win.

Those lessons are very valuable to me and it was that time that I try to understand what is going on although I am far from being a competent player. Every move must have some meaning to it, if not, why play the move right? And this meaning must be in the context of the game strategy, its use and effect on the board and its relationship with other stones on the board.

In my lessons in TAR UC, I have often tried to do the same, running like a mad man from the computer to the projector screen trying to explain to the class what is going on in the game and what each player tries to do and the meaning of their moves. I find teaching this way, in a visual manner, very interesting and helpful to the student to think of the game as a full board game with the aim to surround territory.

The traditional way of teaching Go starts with explaining on how to capture stones and because this being the earliest lessons, the danger is to plant into the mind of the student that Go is all about capturing and killing stones. In fact, this is very evident in the way the student plays the game, even up to reasonably high level where their whole and only focus is to capture and kill opponent stones. I have revised the beginner book a bit to reflect Mr. Yangs method. essentially, his very first ideas is to teach the students to draw lines, i.e. the relationship between stones and the board. By being able to draw these lines and understanding these lines, the student will be able to start to see the reasons why stones are played in a certain way.

For instance, in the diagram above, if one draws lines between the stones and to the edge of the board, one can see that the two black stones on the bottom right is securing the bottom right corner while the single black stone on the top left is making a claim on the upper left corner territory.

The solid red line means that the connection is very secure and this is usually the case when there are no gaps (i.e both stones stick together next to each other) or if there is only one single gap in between them. Any farther than that, the line is drawn as a dotted line indicating that the connection is still not very secure although the relationship and intent is there.

In the diagram above, you will notice that the black stones at the top left corner has secured the territory in a solid manner but the white stones have laid out a framework on the right side. Both sides have played four stones but you will notice that white has more potential to get more territories because it has laid a larger framework. Yes, the framework is a series of dotted lines which means that it is not solid but because the framework is large, the potential to convert them into a bigger territory is extremely high.

Framework is like building a house. The larger the framework means that the house has a larger foundation size and thus becomes a larger house. And because Go is a game that surrounds territories, the more territories you surround, the higher the chances you will win.

There is also the idea of breaking up the opponent’s framework line so as to prevent the opponent from turning the framework into real territory. How to break them and at which point to play to break them is also explained. All in all, I find this method of teaching the very first few lessons very fascinating compared to the traditional way of starting to teach from the liberty point of view, i.e. a stone has four liberties and take away four liberties the stone is captured.

Of course teaching liberties of stone is very important because that is how Go is played on the tactical level but I agree to not teach that in the first few lessons.

Don’t forget that these students normally know nothing at all about Go and we do not want to give them the impression that Go is all about capturing stones but instead teach them how to understand the game by just observing it.

There are a whole lot more to Mr. Yang’s lessons and in fact he has published several books to explain it. I hope everyone interested in Go education will take a look at them.

Go Lessons Blog

I have just started a new blog on Go lessons. Please visit there is you are interested. The rationale for setting that blog up is also justified. I have written, for the first time, my Go history as well :)

http://mwagolessons.wordpress.com

Bahau Trip

Recently, on the 10th of Jan, the Bahau Arts Society invited us to an event to help promote and teach Go in that area. The society is very active and promotes a lot of artistic and cultural things, such as Chinese chess, calligraphy etc. They are very nice and treated us very well. One thing amazing about Bahau is the high prices of the properties there, which is at least comparable to Kuala Lumpur prices. One reason is because the people there are rich from logging and rubber and because they like to stay where they are and because of the limited number of properties available, demand exceeds supply and thus the prices go up. At least that was what I was told.

Bahau is the romanised word for “Horse Mouth”. I asked why it’s called Horse Mouth and apparently there are no specific reasons. It just happened to be like that. I strongly believe that there is a reason but then the person we asked may not know.

Here are some pictures from that day. And thereafter, a great dinner ensued, thanks to a friend who took us to that restaurant.

The organizing committee. Our association is represented by our president Mr. Tiong (in black shirt) and our secretary, Mr. Chow (in orange shirt).

Part of the audience

Our Malaysia Weiqi Association’s gift to the Bahau Arts Society.

Mr. Chow giving an introduction about Go to the audience.

Teaching games

The kids are totally hooked. Let’s hope they continue to learn and improve.

Old and Young – everyone can enjoy and play Go.

Look who’s talking.

The Wing Chun of Go

Recently, I got to give a fancy name to close fighting in Go and called it the Wing Chun of Go. This name was inspired in my game with Dennis recently, two games to be precise, where close fighting occurred, one stone touching the other and killing off liberties as they Go, and one mis-reading will mean the collapse of the entire group. This is very exciting Go.

Now of course those quite well versed in martial arts will rebuke me at this point and say that Wing Chun is not as simple as I said, Wing Chun is not the same thing as close fighting, although close fighting is one of its characteristics (those who at least have watched the movie IP MAN will know). Wing Chun is of course a lot more. Most of all, Wing Chun is about flexibility. Flexibility that give rise to strength, just like a bamboo. It is also about the balance of the body. Balance plus flexibility give rise to strength and speed.

So as in Go, in a close fighting situation, flexibility and balance is extremely important and one major factor in determining which player have better flexibility and balance can be seen through the shapes of the stones of the player. The understanding and knowledge of shape is one key factor in fighting and add on to more detailed and superior reading abilities, it can be determined which side will win the fight.

Detailed and superior reading ability can be cultivated and one of the blind spot that I realise is to read the lines of play based on a one way street, i.e. the player only reads what he/she thinks they want the results to be without careful consideration of the other options that the opponent has. This kind of wishful reading is very dangerous because the player did not consider the flexibility of the stones and will often then get big surprises when the opponent does not play along their wishful lines.

Another important thing in Go is the realisation of the “Plus/Minus” factor. In Go, one cannot gain everything (at least between players of equal strength). Here flexibility is important. Letting the opponent get something and one gets something in return is important. Being too rigid and stubborn will result in the player not getting anything at all.

A give and take attitude with a good splash of patience, flexibility and balance, backed by reasonably good reading and awareness of the ever changing stone configurations, should give one a good Wing Chun game. Haha.

“You only solve local problems……..”

Since I have not posted something on Go for quite some time, perhaps I can share some things I have learnt from strong Go players and hope that it also helps others. And so this is what a strong Go player told me when I asked him what is the problem with my Go:

“You only try to solve local problems and not global problems.”

And it is like a kick in the brain for me. Indeed it is true. For example, when I send in an invading troop, I only look at making sure that that troop survives but in the process of doing so, my opponent gains better advantage elsewhere. I do not consider other possibilities. This is only one example and nowadays, with this awareness, whenever I make a move, I try to ask myself, am I only trying to solve a local problem and forget the global problem? By solving this local problem, am I creating a bigger global problem?

Another one that I like is this:

“This move means you choose to destroy 10 points and build zero.”

Normally, this is related to one’s lack of the big picture again and what is called the “jealousy” factor. By playing a move that just prevents your opponent from taking a bit of points and not creating any points for oneself, what the opponent will do is just play elsewhere and make more points elsewhere. It is very important to know where the blue ocean is. Competing in a red ocean environment leaves one with little profit.

Besides advice from stronger players, which is absolutely essential in one’s quest to become a stronger player, there are many other things that one can do and for me, besides playing with stronger players and benefit from their reviews, solving life and death problems (tsumego) and tesuji problems is again absolutely important.

If there is one series of books that I can attribute to a significant improvement in my playing strength, it is the Lee Changho Six volumes Tsumego and Six Volumes Tesuji problems. The increase in strength is amazing and I can feel that power, just like those chinese martial arts movies where one learns a new technique or stance or has some of their “chi” points opened. The feeling is amazing.

This set of books is good for anyone that is in the region of 3-4kyu and wishes to breakthrough to the dan ranks. They are very affordable (only RM7.00 per book) and should see one through at least 3dan.

On replaying pro games, I have replayed quite a lot of pro games but at this moment, I do not seem to see much benefit from them (but maybe subconsciously they helped a lot). Compared to playing with stronger players and get their help to comment games which I think is the BEST way to improve, replaying pro games can be time consuming and yields comparatively little results, although replaying pro games can be very enlightening and exposes possibilities. But I still think the time spent vs results ratio still favours playing games with stronger players and getting games commented.

But I do remember distinct improvements when I replayed a Shusaku game against Ota Yuzo, another time when I replayed a Gu Li game and also the first game in Jubango between Go Seigen and Kitani Minoru in 1939. These three I remember distinctly their effect on my game.

Studying joseki? No point for me since I forget them in about a week’s time. But I remember again learning a great lesson when studying the taisha in the lecture by Yang Yilun, on what joseki is all about. I then seem to realise that joseki embodies a lot of things in Go, the concept of miai, the principles of fighting, the principles of positional judgment, etc. But honestly, if you ask me about more variations of a one space low pincer against a komoku kakari, I surrender immediately. I really don’t know many josekis and I don’t seem to be able to remember the sequences somehow, even after trying to remember them repeatedly.

The Bruneian Experience

So I am now back from Brunei since I was invited by Xinwen to Brunei to be their chief judge in the Brunei 1st Inter-School Weiqi (Go) Tournament 09.

I have always been amazed by Xinwen and his team in promoting Go in Brunei and this inter-school tournament is indeed another big leap forward to encourage more people to play Go. To show my support to him as well as sort of representing the Malaysian weiqi players as well, me and my wife bought the Air Asia flight last Wednesday. It was a trip that almost didn’t happen as we were on the verge of canceling the trip as something unexpected happened but finally we were able to go.

The tournament was casual but well organised. The best part of it is it has a very close feeling to it, everyone is nice to each other and the mood is very jovial and positive. There are more on the tournament on Xinwen’s blog.

On Brunei itself, it is a rather quiet place, peaceful and with really good roads (perhaps so that the Ferrari and Lamborghini can speed through them). The mosques there are nice and there are quite a lot of mosques there. If you would like to have a peace and quiet life where a lot of things are relatively cheap, such as cars, houses, petrol etc., then Brunei will be a good place to live.

However, if you are the Las Vegas sort, you will easily find yourself easily bored. It will be good, however, to go there and stay to detoxify yourself from too much partying though.

In a way, Brunei or more particularly the Bandar Seri Begawan area since we mostly ventured around there, reminds me of Ipoh or Kelantan. Quiet and peaceful where everybody almost knows everybody and every place is just within minutes from one place to another. The typical Bruneian are really nice people, always very polite and obliging.

So perhaps there is another event next year and if there is a chance, I will perhaps visit Xinwen and his family again. And yes, Xinwen’s family is really nice and pampered us well :)

Here are some pictures (picture credit: the ever excellent Jayden Sia):

Playing simultaneous games with the participants of the tournament:

Prize presentation. This is Peng Hui (or Xinwen calls him Penguin). A jovial and really nice guy. Kit says he looks a bit like Jet Li.

Prize presentation to Mah Zhe Fan (or they call him Makai). He is also very nice and he is quite strong in Go too.

Here is the group photo:

Ultimate Pair-Go

Okay, the next post will be a post about Godard’s PIERROT LE FOU but for this post, since two of our players Suzzane and Jimmy is now in Japan for the International Pair Go Tournament, I would like to comment on a book that I recently read, THE GO CONSULTANTS.

It is a book about a game whereby Go Seigen and Kitani are one team and Segoe Kensaku and Suzuki Tamejiro another. It was thought to be a great pairing up as both Go Seigen and Kitani are popular for their New Fuseki theory while the two older masters are in the conventional camp, although Suzuki is actually Kitani’s teacher and Segoe was said to be Go Seigen’s teacher (but it was not officially mentioned).

The idea is that both players on each side of the game can adjourn anytime during the game and go to another room to consult each other and in that room, there is a reporter waiting to record their conversations and analysis. This way, we know exactly what they are thinking.

I would dare say that everything that one needs to know how to play Go well is in this book. There is an analysis on every aspect of the game, from Opening moves to whole board joseki consideration, to Go strategic concepts such as thickness, influence, strength and weakness of groups, efficiency, aji, miai, tesuji, yose, positional judgment etc. etc.

The book is about 150 pages and that is only for ONE game alone. Just imagine that kind of analysis that is in the book. This is a wonderful book indeed.

Jeonju, Korea

So I am now back from Jeonju, Korea. It is a very nice town, serene and beautiful. It is a very good blend of the traditional and the modern. I could have lived there. It is also the hometown of Lee Changho, the top Go player who has won more than 20 world titles. Here is my picture with him. I was so fortunate to be able to have a photo with him. I met him in Singapore during the Ing cup but didn’t manage to take any photos, so here it is, one of my missions in Go has been accomplished :)

Photo credit: Billy

Jeanju is a nice blend of the traditional and the modern. On one side of the town we can see very traditional houses but just walk for a while and cross the street, it is a completely fashionable area with lots of teenagers and modern things to feast the senses.

Photo credit: Jayden

One of the dishes that Jeonju is famous for, the Bibimbap:

Photo credit: Xinwen

The Jeonju trip is for the Korea Prime Minister Cup (KPMC) Baduk (Go) Tournament. Here are some pictures:

Photo credit: Xinwen

Photo credit: Jayden

Some friends:

Handy – Indonesia Official

Sharen – Brunei Official

Jayden the superb photographer

Extremely blur guy Xinwen

Our player, the superb Zaid Waqi.

On the last day, we had a simultaneous game with professionals as well as touring. Here is the photo with the cute professional that I played with:

Some photos of the area (all thanks to our superb photographer Jayden.)

The champion from South Korea on the left versus Japan.

Bango Report

In my earlier post, I have made a vow to treat each game seriously and play seriously. I think I have more or less done that, I have tried to play more seriously although there are games that I have tried some new fuseki ideas (those I played with will know what I am talking about).

However, playing seriously is different from playing the most severe move every single time. You still can have a serious game but yet the moves may not be the most severe that one can imagine or play. This is because when you have a game that is won, you can safely play the moves that do not take the highest risks but play perhaps a second best move that can safely lead to a win. I am sure Hane Naoki sensei will endorse this idea as he has himself said this in his book “The Way of Creating a Thick and Strong Game”.

For example in my game with Anthony (one of the up and coming player, who is very determined to improve) yesterday, the first game I played him I gave him 4 handicap stones and won. Then we played a second game and Chyn playfully asked us to play a 6 handicap game which I thought, well why not? I won that game by 55points and Anthony said how come he lose so much more in a 6 handicap game compared to a 4 handicap game? I told him that it’s because in a 6 handicap game, my moves will be much more severe compared to a 4 handicap game. In that way, it is like what Hane Noaki sensei said, there is no need to take the highest risk and play the most severe move. Sometimes a low-risk second best move will win the game too.

Okay, today’s topic is about the 2nd Gobango Game that I have played. Since per my post below, I will write briefly on the bango games, here is something that I must pay more attention in my next game. I missed a handful of endgame moves and I realise I tend to really make mistakes in my endgame.

The game is against Philip (2d). I took black with no komi and I won that game by 22 points on the board. However, although it doesn’t affect the result of the game, I could have done something in the diagram below (approximate position only since we didn’t record the game). Black to move. What is the status? Can Black do anything? (this position is probably a 6-8kyu question. haha).

So Much To Study

There is so much to study on Go. It is only slightly lesser compared to the time when I self-studied my way to the ACCA qualification. Studying Go now gives me the same self-study feeling. A rundown of the study materials as are currently on my desk which forms part of my self-devised study plan:

1. Fuseki

a. Dictionary of Basic Fuseki by Rin Kaiho. This is to read through and understand the fundamentals of fuseki. Although a bit dated, it is really an excellent survey of fuseki thoughts and ideas.

b. A Dictionary of Modern Fuseki – Korean Style. This is to complement the above, to bring it more up to date, although fuseki ideas keep on improving by the day. One has to put a line for study, furthermore, just by understanding this materials will be good enough to up my games by at least a couple of stones.

2. Joseki

a. Dictionary of Basic Joseki by Ishida Yoshio. This is an excellent survey of joseki. The explanation of moves and why they are good and why some others are bad is really illuminating. Joseki is like contact fighting. By understanding joseki, one will have a better understanding on fighting.

b. After Joseki by Kim Sung Rae. Joseki is just that many moves but what happens after that? This book explores some of the common joseki, in fact so common I just played some of it in my last game. But the book succeeds in showing me all the danger points after the joseki and how to defend or exploit those points.

3. Problems (Tesuji/Tsumego/Reading)

a. Segoe Kensaku and Go Seigen – Tesuji Dictionary
b. Segoe Kensaku – The Book To Increase Your Fighting Strength At Go
c. Gokyo Shumyo
d. Shuko – The Only Move Vol. 1 & 2

[already recently completed the Lee Chanho Tsumego and Tesuji set of 6 volumes in each set]

4. Pro Games

a. The Complete Games of Go Seigen – I am now only focusing on volume 4 and 5, covering his games in the early 1933 and all his Jubango games.
b. Gu Li Games compilation. Gu Li inspire me a lot. I like his style.

[already read and studied Kamakura twice and all of the Shusaku vs Ota Yuza’s Sanjubango, also twice. Went through about 30 Lee Changho games seriously once. this is besides the normal reading of current pro games that is freely available from the internet.]

Quite a lot of things to study and now with the Gobango series, there is now good avenue to put into practice the lessons learned and Confucius would have been proud.

Disastrous Game

For the fun of it, we have started a Gobango series in the club. The gobango is inspired by the old Japanese masters where they have a series of 10 games but because we don’t have that much time, we reduced it to 5 games and thus Go bango. Each player in the club is free to choose his or her opponents. My opponents confirmed so far are Alex, Xinwen and Philip. I have two more slots of which to fill.

Yesterday I had my first game with Alex and it was a disaster especially towards the late midgame/early endgame where I lost a lot of points and needlessly throw away stones because I have failed in my second precept in Go, i.e., to always think and verify before playing. I failed to do that and as a result my opponent captured the stones that I have carelessly played and increased his territory. If not the result won’t be as disastrous as this.

At the beginning, it was still ok but a joseki mistake and some psychological problem resulted in my stones getting sealed in. The joseki mistake was the star point-kakari-pincer-jump joseki which I am not very good at but somehow chose. I have used the low Chinese Fuseki which I am currently studying and below is the board position up to move 8:

I have had a game with Alex previously and the board position up to here is exactly the same. And Alex made the same jump. As I was studying this fuseki, none of the games in the database suggested this jump. Here is the board pattern search of over 100,000 professional and high dan amateur games. The most common reply for White is at “a”, i.e. san-san. There must be a reason why no one in that 100,000 plus games played the jump as Alex did with move number 8. I wanted to experiment to find the answer but the results for me was disastrous. Perhaps I am not strong enough. Maybe someone strong reading this can help.

My theory is that it is bad for White to let Black get territory on both sides of the board, i.e. the right side and the top side. But I am not sure.

Below is the position up to move 81. I notice my weakness of loving territory too much and getting sealed in everywhere, resulting in my opponent getting a huge center framework. I am working towards improving this psychological weakness and be more daring to venture into the center and be non-attached to corner and side territory.

As per above, I have failed strategically to limit White’s center potential and did not exploit the weakness in the formation and this breaks my first precept, i.e. always have a plan. I have failed to evaluate strategy and failed to formulate a plan to counter that central potential.

So I deserve to lose this game but my next game, I will improve and do my best again. Go is such an enjoyable game. Even more so when playing with great friends :)

A Vow re Go

Here is something that I have been thinking about. I think I haven’t really put enough seriousness in playing Go. I mean I do play very serious games which all that is in my mind is to find a way to win, and win I must but a lot of my games are not serious at all. I noticed that all the strong players treat each game seriously, and they play to win. That mindset is the mindset to getting stronger. And I believe it and must now try to think that way too.

I am actually quite sick of having to say, “oh it’s just a teaching game, so the moves are to prompt the student”, or, “oh, I was just playing there to see if the ‘student’ replies correctly or not”, or “I was just testing my moves”, or “I ‘let water’ only”. I am truly getting quite sick of this and I think this is a major roadblock to anyone wanting to improve Go. I don’t think any good and strong Go player thinks like this. To improve Go, there is only one way. To play seriously together with a desire to win, or at least this is what I believe now.

Come to think of it, it really makes no sense to lose and then give excuses. Why not win first then only talk? Why must one lose to teach or experiment? Why not win first then teach the student what he played wrong or win first then only say you could have ‘let water’? I think it is all excuses and to cheat oneself, to want to believe one is actually strong but could not take the fact that one is actually not as strong as one would like to believe. And thus the masking and the excuses.

This whole idea is wrong. It feels wrong.

Anyways, from now on, I vow to treat every game seriously. Played seriously with a desire to win. So if I lose, there shall be no excuses. There is only one reason why I lose. I am weaker than my opponent. At least for the game that has just concluded. And this shall be admitted. Only then will there be a path to become stronger.

And of course, if I win, I will refuse all the excuses my opponent gives me. I will just think he or she is weaker than me. At least for the game that we just played. I will assume he or she played seriously. If not playing seriously, why waste time and play at all? Better go to a movie?

Remember: If you lose, YOU are weaker. No excuses. Just go and study and practice more instead of giving excuses why you “could” have won. Face the fact. Face reality.

“It’s not denial. I’m just selective about the reality I accept.” -Calvin and Hobbes

Japanese Modern Visual Culture – Daicon

Yesterday and today morning we were at the Multimedia University in Cyberjaya as part of the Malaysia Weiqi Association’s promotion of Go in the Daicon event. It was really nice, full of youth and vigor. It is undeniable that the Japanese have been very successful in exporting their culture, from karaoke to manga to anime to J-Pop etc.

It has always been a wonder to me to see people dressed just like the characters in the manga or anime. But it is such a great thing that they did, do what they like, live the moment. Daicon is a great celebration not only of Japanese visual art but also a celebration of the spirit of youth.

Here are some photos (courtesy of my wife of course):

Figurines:

Cosplay:

Malaysia Weiqi Association promotion gang:

Now That We Know – Secret To Winning Go

Now that we know that the object of Go is to get more points than your opponent, how do we then proceed to study Go so as to become stronger?

Recall from the post below that P(A)=pt(A)+pc(A), then to have more points, one has to surround more territory and/or capture more stones. However, unless your opponent is foolish enough to let you have your way, you will find strong resistance from your opponent so as to ensure that your points is lesser than his/hers.

Now, how does one learn how to create more points? The answer lies in the strategic and the tactical.

Strategic means study materials that increases your understanding of Go as a whole game. On the highest level, it involves the understanding of the basic strategic concepts of Go, such as miai, thickness, sente, gote, aji, value, etc. The next level will be thematic studies of things like thickness, direction of play, etc. Then the next level will be the study of various opening such as the san-ren-sei, Kobayashi fuseki, Mini Chinese Fuseki, etc.

On the tactical level, the highest level are things like positional judgment, strength and weakness of positions and stones, etc. The next level will be general reading ability to execute the strategy derived from skills developed in the strategic level and an indepth understanding of shape. Next level will be the basic tactical skills such as tesuji, haengma, joseki knowledge, yose skills and tsumego capabilities.

To improve on Go, one has to improve both the strategic and tactical skills, not just tactical skills alone which is the obsession of many Go players.

And the final thing is application. Application of the strategic and tactical skills in a real game. Therefore, when one plays a game, it is better to think and apply what one has learned, refine them, learn from the game and think about it again and again, and apply them again in games. Therefore playing games is extremely important to solidify the knowledge and skills. If not, the improvement is just only in your head, a make-belief, until you really start to win games against people you can’t win against previously.

Perhaps this is the way to improve Go.

P(A)=pt(A)+pc(A). P(B)=pt(B)+pc(B). If P(A)>P(B), P(A) wins. Reverse is true. R(B) is player B’s resistance so as to ensure P(B)>P(A).

R(B)={{[S(B)+T(B)] x E(B)]} + M(B)}, where S(B) is player B’s strategic skills and knowledge and T(B) is player B’s tactical skills. E(B) is player B’s experience level and M(B) is player B’s stamina.

If R(B) > R(A), then the chances are that P(B) will be more than P(A).

Ah hahahahahaha. There you have it. The secret to winning Go.

p/s: this is just a fun post done out of boredom. don’t take it seriously.

Object of Go

Some random thoughts on Go:

1. The winner of Go is determined by who has more points. The player that has more points wins.

2. Points can be obtained by either surrounding territories or capturing opponent’s stones.

3. Therefore player A’s total points P(A)=pt(A)+pc(A), pt(A) being total number of points of surrounded territories and pc(A) being the number of opponent’s stones captured.

4. Therefore, if P(A) > P(B), then P(A) wins. P(A) being the total points for player A and P(B) being the total points of player B. Add komi points to the players that plays White.

Knowing this, there is then actually two important things in Go, i.e. your ability to surround territory and/or your ability to capture stones.

Therefore whenever a move is played, always consider:

1. Does the move contribute to increasing your territory points?

2. Does the move contribute to decreasing your opponent’s territory points?

3. Does the move contribute to saving your stones from being captured?

4. Does the move contribute to capturing your opponent’s stone?

Therefore, every move you play has a certain value. What is the value? How much can it add to your points? How much can it reduce your opponent’s point? How much can it strengthen your own weak groups? How much can it make the opponent’s stones weak?

With this, we know why the Ear Reddening Move played by the legendary Shusaku agains Gennan Inseki is so great. Because:

1. It strengthens his own weak groups by helping them to escape and reducing opponent’s power.

2. It enlarges his own’s territorial potential.

3. It aims in reducing the opponent’s territorial potential.

In our games, how many times are moves like this being played?

I have read elsewhere that all you need is strength in reading ability. This is true but reading ability is only the enabler. It enables one to execute his strategy. But pure just reading ability alone is not enough. At best, it is used to solve life and death problems, but Go is a lot more than just life and death.

The black move of 1 in the diagram below is the legendary ear reddening move.

Hahahahahahahaha….. what a rant on a Friday lunch time afternoon where I have 2 hours lunch break. Hahahahahaha.