bgj121

Number 121 Winter 2000 Price £2.50

B R I T I S HGo J O U R N A L

Dec 2000 Cover 17/12/00 9:03 pm

Liao Xingwen, who won the Gold medal in the YouthTournament and Bronze in the Lightning at the FourthMind Sports Olympiad, is congratulated by Tony Corfewith Alison Bexfield and William Brooks looking on.

Photo: Kirsty Healey

Six year old Liao Xingwen at the FourthMind Sports Olympiad, which was heldat Alexandra Palace, London, in August.

Photo: Kirsty Healey

Lee Hyuk with Liao Xingwen and LiuYajie on a visit to Cambridge. See thePunting Party Game on page 38

Photo: Charles Matthews

Dec 2000 Cover 17/12/00 9:03 pm

UK Tournament Results ~ Tony Atkins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

Go Tutor ~ Pincers ~ edited by Charles Matthews . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Book Review ~ The Fuseki Encyclopaedia ~ Andrew Grant . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Council House ~ BGA International ~ Tony Atkins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Outplayed at Every Step ~ Matthew Macfadyen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

To Boldly Go ~ Game Analysis ~ Des Cann . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

Why Do We Make Bad Moves ~ Part 8 ~ Denis Feldmann . . . . . . . . . . 15

Simple Strategies for Improving Kyu Grades ~ Michael Vidler . . . . . . . 17

What The Books Don’t Tell You ~ Part 1 ~ Simon Goss . . . . . . . . . . . 19

Learning Go Online ~ Nick Wedd, BGA Webmaster . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

Nakade and Ishi-No-Shita ~ Building Nakade Shapes ~ Richard Hunter . . . 22

The Go Ranking System of Arpad Elo ~ Franco Pratesi . . . . . . . . . . . 28

No Smoking in the Playing Area ~ T Mark Hall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

BGA Membership Services ~ Alison Bexfield, BGA President . . . . . . . . 32

Letters to the Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

More Microscopy ~ Part 4 ~ Charles Matthews . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

Ten Years Ago ~ Tony Atkins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

Book Review ~ Galactic Go Volume 1 ~ Alan Barry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

Punting Party Game ~ Seong-June Kim . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

Mind Sports Olympiad ~ A Diary ~ Tony Atkins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

Ladder? What ladder? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

British championship 2000 ~ The Title Match ~ Matthew Macfadyen . . . . 46

Collateral Gains, Collateral Damage ~ Simon Goss . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

Computer Go: All Down to the Ref? ~ Nick Wedd . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

The Tripod Group ~ Henry Segerman . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56

World Go News ~ Tony Atkins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

Small Ads and Notices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

Forthcoming Events. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

BGA Officials ~ Postal, e-mail and Web Addresses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60

UK Club Lists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61

Glossary of Go Terms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64

1

BRITISH GO JOURNAL NO 121 WINTER 2000 ~ CONTENTS

Dec 2000 Journal 17/12/00 9:19 pm Page 1

UK TOURNAMENT RESULTS

Tony Atkins [email protected]

Distant Alarm – NearbyAccommodationThe Northern was held as usual at AllenHall, University of Manchester but becauseof repainting, the accommodation wasarranged at nearby Tree Court in the Owen’sPark complex. The socialites who met up onthe Friday evening, 1st September, went forthe now traditional curry and then mostly onto the Irish pub for a few drinks. On leavingthe pub at 11:00 one young player was sadlymet in a panic looking for a television onwhich to view Big Brother. Keeping up thetradition of university fire alarms, this yearthe alarm was a little distant and did notannoy too unduly. 48 players took part thisyear and, when Saturday evening drinkswere being taken thanks to organiser JohnSmith, surprisingly none of the top playerswere on three wins. Games Toby Manningand John Rickard, T Mark Hall and M. Yang,were both drawn, and the highest gradedplayer on three was Rafaella Giardino, theItalian 1 kyu from Bradford, who was notplaying on the Sunday. Anyway Sundayavoided more top end draws and winnerof the Red Rose Shield was T Mark Hall(4 dan) on 5.5/6. Second M. Yang (4 dan)a previously unknown Chinese playerfrom Huddersfield on 4.5/6. Two 2 danswere placed next because of the drawngames: Ruud Stoelman (Bradford) andDavid Woodnutt (Milton Keynes) with 4wins. The only player to win 5/6 was WillSegerman (20 kyu Manchester), and thetwo lowest graded 4/6s were awardedprizes too: Jil Segerman (10 kyuManchester) and Philip Ward-Ackland (15 kyu Barmouth).

No Sea – No Clouds As there was no Devon Tournament in2000, the West Country interest moved asfar as Penzance in Cornwall. However,

despite being told it was at the seaside, whenplayers arrived on Saturday 9th September,no sea could be seen as fog engulfed nearlyall the land west of Exeter. Play took placein the white-painted Yacht Inn, just oppositethe Promenade and in the shadow of theparish church. 18 players assembled afterlunch for the Cornwall Lightning Handicap –five rounds of 20 minute games in a lighthearted mood. John Rickard (4 danCambridge) proved that strong playersalways win despite the handicap, by scoringhis fifth win just as the sun appeared and thesea came back. The Go Bowls trophy had notyet been made so he only had a Devon-stylewooden stone to keep, the same prize goingto runners up with 4/5 Mike Harvey (2 danWinchester) and Dirk Henker (14 kyu), partof a family from Leipzig in Germany whojust happened to be holidaying in the area.Saturday evening gave a chance to explorethe fish restaurants and pubs of the old townbefore retiring to one of the many local guesthouses for the night.24 players assembled on the Sunday,including 10 locals, for the first CornwallTournament. No fog on the Sunday, in factno clouds at all as summer made its final

2

Cornwall winners (from left): Mike Davis,Dirk Henker, Tony Atkins, John Rickard,Jake Finnis (crouching), Mike Harvey

Photo:Tony A

tkins


blast allowing many to head for the gardento play. The really serious players stayedinside, including draw organiser Tony Atkinswho was defending the Devon Go Stonetrophy. This he did and the 2 dan fromBracknell Club beat Bob Bagot (2 dan),Quentin Mills (3 dan) and John Rickard (4 dan) to take first place. Two other playersalso ended on three wins: Mike Davis (11 kyu Rotherham) and Dirk Henker (14 kyu Leipzig). Jake Finnis (18 kyu WestCornwall) won the youth prize.

No Petrol – No Coffee Britain had been gripped by a week of petrolcrisis up to 17th September, the date of theMilton Keynes Tournament. Despite nopetrol, 56 players made it to the OpenUniversity. This year the ancient mulberrytree was fenced off to protect it from the Goplayers and as the event was for the firsttime on a Sunday there was no coffee afterthe end of the buffet lunch. Despite thewrath of thirsty players, organiser AndrewGrant and, this year, the draw computersurvived the day. Prizes for 3/3 went toDamir Nola (2 kyu CLGC), Bill Streeten (3 kyu Wanstead), Richard Thompson (5 kyuLeicester), Nicola Hurden (12 kyu BerksYouth), Matthew Woodcraft (1 kyuCambridge) and Konrad Scheffler (1 kyuCambridge). Young Kim (5 dan CLGC) wonhis first two but lost in round three to JohnRickard; John had earlier lost to Des Cannbut had beaten Xiangdong Wang (4 danCLGC), who had beaten Seong-June Kim (6 dan Cambridge). In the ensuing tie-breakJohn Rickard was adjudged the winner, by 1 point of SODOS, ahead of Wang, Kim Yand Kim S-J.

Cancelled – Retired The second biennial Norwich tournamentwas scheduled for 12th August but, like theproverbial fortune tellers’ conference, it wascancelled due to unforeseen circumstances.Another tournament missing from the year’scalendar was the Shrewsbury, normally the

first Sunday in October, which has nowstopped as Brian and Kathleen Timminshave retired from tournament organising. In its 12 year run the Go ban trophy was wonby Matthew Macfadyen 8 times, Des Cann 3times and Jo Hampton once (a good win fora mere British 2 dan). The Go ban’s restingplace is now with Ian Sharpe who gavecomputer support to Brian for many years.

Kyu Day – Dan Day The Wanstead Tournament on 14th Octoberwas a six round rapid play event, designed toappeal to kyu players and featured an intro-ductory display for locals (well at least thepoetry society saw it). However of the 44players who attended the Friends’ MeetingHouse, 20 were dan players. Winner wasSeong-June Kim (6 dan Cambridge). Secondwas T Mark Hall (4 dan London) with 5/6.Third were Young Kim (5 dan CLGC),Xiangdong Wang (4 dan London) and DavidWard (3 dan Cambridge). Also on 5 winswere Natasha Regan (2 kyu Epsom Downs)and Shawn Hearn (10 kyu Berks Youth).Annie Hall (34 kyu Berks Geriatrics) wonthe novices prize with 2/6 at her first tournament; she obviously made use of her13 stone 165 komi handicap which she wasgiven one game. Kyu players with prizes for4/6 were Wayne Walters (4 kyu Wanstead),Guy Footring (6 kyu Billericay) and PhilipBourez (5 kyu West Surrey). Geoff Kaniukwas awarded a set of mice for operating thecomputer and youngsters Nicola Hurden,Garry White and Shawn Hearn were recognised for running the registration. Peter Kimme (1 dan Berlin) had a prize forfurthest travelled.

The following day five teams of six, mostlydan players, battled over four rapid rounds atthe Nippon Club to decide who was bestLondon International Team. Yet again it wasCambridge, who scored 18 aided by perfectfours from Seong-June Kim (6 dan) andDavid Ward (3 dan). Alan Thornton’s 4/4helped London come second with 12.

3


A detailed treatment of pincersmight fill a book. Here are afew basic principles to add towhat was said at the start ofthe discussion about openings.

The Pincer PatternIn a representative pinceropening you can expect adevelopment in stages.As Diagram 1 shows, Blackoccupies the corner with 1 andWhite plays an approach moveat 2. What follows has atypical pattern:

4

Wanstead and Reading scored 11 andNippon Club 6 (a player short). 14 playershad also played the day before at Wanstead,and some were looking a little bushed after10 fast games and were glad to go homecuddling a bottle of wine, the traditionalreward for taking part.

Clocks Back – Go Forward 92 players attended the 31st Wessex on the 29th October. The day started fine inMarlborough as Paul Atwell and new mainorganiser, Simon Shiu, arrived to set up theplaying area and the traditional lunch andtea. After the four rounds, enabled by theextra hour, the rain had started and was setto continue all night causing flooding.However there was still time to award theprizes such as the team prize, won by BerksYouth 65%. Jake Finnis (18 kyu WestCornwall) won the Fred Guyatt Cup for13x13 with 8/11, just squeezing out SimonJones of Berks Youth. Tournament and

Division 1 winner was Seong-June Kim (6 dan Cambridge) with 4/4, Division 2 wasTony Atkins (2 dan Bracknell), Division 3was Gerry Mills (1 dan Monmouth),Division 4 was Geoff Kaniuk (1 kyu CLGC)winning 4/4 including Natasha Regan inround 4, Division 5 was David Killen (2 kyuCheltenham) on tie-break from Steve Bailey,Division 6 was Roger Daniel (3 kyu NorthLondon) with 3.5, Division 7 was unbeatenRon Bell (5 kyu Reading), Division 8 wasDaniel Shiu (8 kyu U/A) on 4/4, Division 9was Simon Jones (15 kyu Berks Youth) whoscored 3.5 forgetting the komi in the jigogame, and Division 10 was Alan Cameron(17 kyu Winchester) on tie break fromAlistair Brooks (21 kyu Swindon), TonyDolan (23 kyu Cheltenham) and PaulBlockley (25 kyu Worcester). Wessex is oneof those places you see some old faces butthis year it was good to see some new ones,especially the four young girls fromLongwell Green Primary School, Bristol.

!

" 1

1

2

A BC DE F

GO TUTOR ~ PINCERS

Edited by Charles Matthews [email protected]

# Black restricts the development ofthe White stone by playing a pincerat one of the six points A to F.

# White reinforces the stone at 2with the objectives of making eyeshape, moving out towards thecentre and keeping Blackseparated.

# Black adds to the original stone 1or possibly to the pincer stone, forexample with an extension alongthe side.

# White aims for a small life in thecorner or makes a compensatingattack on Black on the side notreinforced.


5

Consider the opening from a profes-sional game shown in Figure 1. Themoves shown include two pincerjoseki, in the top left and bottom right.After the pincer moves 7 and 12, thereare extensions 8 and 13 towards thecentre. We look at what lies behindthese different choices and theirfollow-ups. In the lower right Whiteconsolidated with 10, which makes asmall life. In the upper left, incontrast, Black counterattacked with15 before strengthening his stoneswith 17 and extending further with 19.The key to understanding these movesis Black 1. Together with the laterplays 7 and 15 this stone sketches outa framework in the upper right; that is,these three stones work efficiently incombination. As compensation forallowing this framework, White hassome territory in the top left (definedby 4, 14 and 18), and an attack on theBlack group 5, 13, 17 and 19. If, instead of the choice made in thelower right, White had attemptedBlack’s strategy of counter-attackingthe pincer stone, then something likeDiagram 2 might have taken place. Here White has two weak groups andBlack can gain from attacking themsimultaneously with Black 10. Bycontrast, in Figure 1 White is in aposition to invade the right side laterin the game, without the risk ofhaving to defend two weak groups atonce.

Which Pincer?When you decide to make a pincerattack, there can be a bewilderingarray of points from which to choose.For example in Diagram 1 the pincercan be high (A, C or E on the fourthline) or low (B, D or F); it can beclose (A or B) or distant. Here is someguidance on choosing a good distance.

1

23

45

6

7

8

91011

12

1314

15

161718

19

Figure 1

1

2

3

4

56

7

8

9

10

! 2


In each of Diagrams 3 and 4 Whitehas played an approach move on theside towards Black’s two stones inthe lower corner. Black has repliedwith a pincer.We assume the exchange of White 2for Black 3; without 3 the Blackstones become too weak. We can seethat White 4 in Diagram 3 is aneffective counter to the pincer onepoint away. In the sequence shown,the pincer stone is neutralised andWhite become fairly stable. InDiagram 4, the two point pincer ismore successful in denying Whitethe chance to settle quickly.In Diagram 5 we see one feature ofthe close one point high pincer.

White 4 is a good counterattack,threatening as it does to confine thepincer stone with A, or connectunder with B. On the other hand amore distant pincer permits theopponent more eye space.In Diagram 6 White has alreadydone enough to stabilise the pincered

6

group. Of the two points there, A and B,White will be able to take one if Blackoccupies the other. Therefore White can playelsewhere after Black 7; this joseki ends insente for White.If the original pincer stone had been playedby Black at A, White would need to play 8 atB to make a base; that joseki would end insente for Black.

SummaryGood pincers should have more than onepurpose. However one cannot say that thedecisions discussed are at all easy to getright.

! 5

12

3

4A

B

! 6

12

3

4 56

7

AB

Go Tutor is based onarticles written by TobyManning, David Jones,David Mitchell and T Mark Hall.

! 3

1

2

3

4 56

78

910

11

! 4

1

2

3


7

This is the second volume in the Nihon Ki-in’s Small Encyclopaedia series,published by Yutopian. As befits anencyclopaedia, it lists all the commonfuseki patterns under thirteen categories –nirensei, sanrensei, Chinese, Shusaku etc.,and gives the most popular lines of playfor each, with examples from professionalgames.

As such it fills a gap in the Go literaturebetween a general book on openingstrategy such as In the Beginning and anin-depth study of one particular patternsuch as The Chinese Opening or The Power of the Star-point. The nearestthing to this book that has existed in thepast is the two-volume Modern Joseki andFuseki, but that’s rather dated, extremelyheavy going and out of print now anyway.

Professionals always say the fuseki is themost difficult part of the game, but formany amateurs it is effectively the easiestpart, as they have little or no knowledge ofhow to play in the opening and thereforecan’t think constructively about it. We’veall seen players who rush through the firstdozen moves then slow down when thefighting starts. This book is aimed at justsuch people in the middle to strong kyurange, though dan players will benefitfrom it as well.

One nice thing about the book is that itavoids getting bogged down in endlessjoseki variations. It is impossible to studyfuseki in isolation from joseki butrelatively few joseki are presented here,and those are for the most part simple linesthat anyone who wants to be a strongplayer should know. All the joseki arepresented on full board diagrams, in thecontext of a particular fuseki in which it is

appropriate. Admittedly the largeavalanche joseki is given, and that isn’tsimple by any means, but it is essentialknowledge when playing the nirenseipattern, and even here only two variationsare listed. Considering that whole bookshave been written on the avalanche joseki,that shows admirable restraint.

You can read this book without a board as there are relatively few moves perdiagram, though as always it is best toplay the moves out on a board if you haveone handy. As with joseki books, it shouldbe studied for the ideas and concepts itcontains, rather than necessarily learnt byheart. Feel free to experiment – the finalchapter on ‘Unusual Openings’ shouldserve as a reminder that professionals arealways trying out new ideas in theirgames. A book like this should be a guide,not a strait-jacket.

Some of Yutopian’s earlier books sufferedfrom rather stilted English, but this hasnow been addressed and the text is asreadable as any other Go book on themarket. The fly-leaf lists a team of nofewer than eight proofreaders, thoughdespite this a handful of minor typos have slipped through the net, mainlymisspellings of the names of Japaneseprofessionals. Probably the most glaring mistake is Hasegawa Sunao on page 225changing sex to become HasegawaKayoko in the index.

All in all, this is a worthwhile addition toany aspiring player’s bookshelf.

The Fuseki Small Encyclopaedia istranslated and edited by Max Golemand published by Yutopian Enterprises

BOOK REVIEW ~ THE FUSEKI ENCYCLOPAEDIA

Andrew Grant [email protected]


8

It had been recent BGA Council policy toensure that the membership income receivedeach year matches the expenditure on directmembership services. It was for this reasonthe annual fee was increased upwards to itscurrent level, which will be the same for2001 as for 2000, at £12.The BGA’s other sources of income are fromtournament levies, which cover the costs oftournament equipment and services, andfrom book and equipment sales, which fundall other activity. It may become necessaryto change the membership fee upwards tocover more operating costs, as there is toomuch reliance on the books income and toomany losses on discounted membership, butthat’s in the future. As well as covering the cost of productionand shipping the British Go Journal and theNewsletter, the membership fee also directlycovers the costs of the membershipsecretary, such as membership cards andrenewal reminders. What may not beobvious is that for every membership theBGA takes it has to pay an annual fee to twointernational organisations. Firstly a fee ofhalf a euro per member is paid to theEuropean Go Federation (EGF) and secondlya total fee of 40000 yen is paid to theInternational Go Federation (IGF). Any onenational Go association of an internationallyrecognised country in, or near to, Europe canbecome a member of the EGF provided theypay the annual fees (there is a minimumpayment of 50 euro). Britain is the fourthlargest contributor to the EGF (behindGermany, France and Netherlands).The internationally recognised country ruleis important for the UK as devolution andthe splitting up of the union approaches. Itmay be a few years yet before the fledglingScottish Go Association can join the EGFand the BGA recognises the desire for the

Isle of Man Go Club to join but, despiteissuing their own passports, coinage andstamps, they are still not their own country.The restriction of a single organisation in acountry to be member of the EGF waswritten into the constitution without regardto how to change the member for a country.This has come to a head as the stillunresolved disputes in Italy have given riseto an alternative organisation (the AGI) tothe member organisation (the FIGG);currently the AGI can have no officialposition within the EGF.Membership of the IGF is important for acountry’s Association, as then the countryreceives the annual Ranka Yearbook andmoreover is eligible for an invitation eachyear to the World Amateur Go Championships.The UK has been represented at this eventevery year since it started over twenty yearsago and this year more than 50 countriestook part.As the event is not just for the top player ineach country to go on a free trip to Japan,but to encourage and develop the playersnear the top, most countries run a pointssystem to enable a rotation of players. TheUK system is based on the results in theChallenger’s League and Title Match stagesof the British Championship. It is designedso that the top player goes about everythree years and the second player aboutevery four. After that the third and otherplayers go less often and a player rankedabout fifth each year would expect to gomaybe once every 10 or 12 years. Currentlythere is no clear, active, second strongestplayer and so the rotation is seeing morefaces than expected.As a British passport is required in orderto compete in the World Amateur, overseasplayers can earn points by playing in theBritish Championship but can’t use them

COUNCIL HOUSE ~ BGA INTERNATIONAL



9

unless they change nationality; for instance,Shutai Zhang was British Champion forfour years and has 36 points he cannot use.Invitations to the Women’s and Pair GoWorld Championships are also organisedthrough the IGF and EGF, though the firstdoes not happen every year because ofsponsorship problems and in the secondthe UK does not get a place every year;the BGA runs points systems for these too.As well as BGA Secretary, I currently holdthe remit for International Liaison withinCouncil. In addition I hold the position ofVice-President Europe (one of two) withinthe five-man EGF Executive. As well asproviding the BGA’s interface to the EGFand IGF, I am the interface to the EuropeanGo and Cultural Centre (EGCC), the NihonKi-in (Japanese Go Association) and the

other professional bodies. This means thatyou will usually find me around whenprofessionals are visiting the UK, ensuringthat their trips go well.Professional visits occur somewhat randomly,usually announced to us at short notice, andthe next visits to our part of Europe willprobably be in connection with the 2001European Go Congress. This, as you probablyknow, is being held in Dublin and the BGAis assisting the Irish Go Association (IGA)by providing manpower to run various activities such as registration, tournamentsand the bookshop. I am acting as theinterface to the IGA and will be trying tofind as many of you as possible to help easethe load and make the European Congressone of the best ever. Please contact me ifyou are going and are able to help out.

!

Tony [email protected] I received a letter from aBGA member who had risen nearly todan level but confessed to knowinglittle about the Go scene in Japan andelsewhere in the Far East. He wasunclear on many things. For instance:‘What is the difference between aSensei, Gosei and Go Seigen?’This new series will build up a glossaryand help prevent our player from beingin the dark. Starting with this issue,you will find boxes like this onescattered through the pages of theJournal. Each one will provide anexplanation of some aspect of the gameof Go that doesn’t find a place in themany other kinds of article that appearin the pages of the Journal.

IN THE DARK? www.yutopian.com

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10

This year’s Challenger’s League was a toughtournament for a 4 dan to play in, as JohnRickard demonstrated by finishing last. Theobvious favourite was last year’s challenger,Matthew Cocke, but in the event the clearwinner was Des Cann. In order to show thatthis was not a fluke, here is his third gamefrom the league:

White: Des Cann 4 danBlack: Matthew Cocke 5 danKomi: 5.5

Figure 1 (1 - 60)Several important issues are clear byWhite 8. White is trying to developthe left and lower sides and will belooking to organise any fighting inthe lower left to help these projects.Meanwhile Black has taken a largechunk of territory in the upper rightand will expect to do some fightingin White’s area on the other side. The upper side could belong to eitherplayer and a major feature of thefight at the bottom is who gets senteto play there.Matthew decides to play outwards inthe bottom corner, separating White’spositions so that his future invasionsof the white sides can include aflavour of counterattack. MeanwhileDes builds his side positions as fast aspossible with 14 and 16, playing tightly so that the black corner group is still notproperly alive.Black 17 loses the thread. Black wassupposed to be struggling for the right toplay first on the upper side, and has justachieved it. The only choice is betweenplaying 40 immediately and approaching the upper left corner.White 22 is an excellent play. Apart fromtaking the eyes from Black’s corner, this

asks Black which of the white side positionshe wants to attack. Whichever side Blackblocks the other white group will becomestrong.Black 23 is nonsense, as Des quicklydemonstrates by sacrificing half of his groupto make the other half strong.At the end of this fight the white position atthe bottom is stronger than it was at thebeginning, so is the white position on the

left, and Black has had to struggle to getback the territory he had in the first place.the sequence from 17 – 39 has been slightlyworse than passing for Black. Des makes nomistake in grabbing the huge point at 40.Up to 45 Matthew resumes his determinedattempt to attack White’s strongest position,but this time it is not so unreasonable sincehe has prospects of developing the right side.Des’ play in this game features a lot of verygood slow moves. White 60 is another of

OUTPLAYED AT EVERY STEP

Matthew Macfadyen [email protected]

12

3 4

5

6

7

8 910

1112

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15 16 17 18

1920

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2223 2425

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27 282930

3132

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424344

4546

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Figure 1 (1 - 60)


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them. This makes the white cornerabsolutely secure, and makes sure thatBlack has no room for an eye on theside, which in turn means that Black isweaker in the centre. This enhancedweakness means that Des does not fallbehind in the centre fighting.

Figure 2 61 – 140 (1 – 80)Black 9 tries to capture three stones.White should either have read out thatthis is impossible or played at 11before 8.White 16 is Des’ first real mistake.This simply does not work, White has to back off a little here; pushingthrough above 15 is better. Simplycrawling on the second line at 17gives something.At 21, Matthew has scored his firstsuccess of the game, but Des keepscalm and gets back to taking big moveselsewhere.Black 23 resumes the project of trying toattack strong looking positions. This strategyis frowned upon in some circles, but it canbe an effective way of gaining extramomentum when your real project is just toinvade, and it can be highly effective againsta careless opponent.But up to 40 things have gone seriouslywrong for Black again. Most of White’spotentially attackable stones have connectedup and made territory at the same time, butworse, the black centre group is so weak thatWhite’s upper side is going to be very hardto reduce.White 52 is a good point. White needsaround 50 points on the upper side and in the centre. He is planning to let Black live,but take the rest of the area.Black 59 loses the last real chance, this hasto be at 60 to maintain access to the upperside. Des shuts in the group in sente andthen skilfully surrounds the centre.

Black 69 might have caused more trouble bybeing at 70, but by the time 80 comes, the upper side is secure and far too big.Apart from the accident on the right side,Black has been outplayed at every step.

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73747576 7778

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Figure 2 61 – 140 (1 – 80)

GoseiLiterally ‘Go saint’, one of the BigSeven Tournaments, restricted to 5 danand above and run with its currentname since 1976; its antecedents goback to 1951.

OzaLiterally the ‘throne’, the Oza is one ofthe Big Seven Tournaments, run since1953.

Tony Atkins

IN THE DARK?

!


12

Whatever you can do or dream youcan, begin it. Boldness has genius,power and magic in it.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe(1749 - 1832)

This is a close contest between playerswith different skill sets so it is quiteexciting to watch the game develop.My theme is boldness. To breakthrough to lower kyu grades one musthave the imagination to come up withbold plans. Accuracy in execution canbe tuned later with experience.

White: Ivan WatlingBlack: Jil SegermanKomi: 6

Figure 1 (1 – 41)B 11: Up to here play by both sides is good.W 12: The black group 7–9 is weak becauseit has a vulnerable point at A. Playingcontact plays (including a diagonal away like12) against weak stones is a mistake. Blackshould just reply with a block at 63 and theexchange would be good for her.B 15: Good, Black has the momentum here.W 16: The combination of 14 and 16 is alittle defensive because they surround toosmall a territory. Alternatives for 14 wouldhave been B or C and 16 could have been ajump to D.B 17: Good, Black is playing strongly.W 18: Feels good.B 19: Good, It is generally worth quite a lotto prevent your opponent coming out intothe centre.B 21: White 20 is an invasion because 5 isalready in place. For that reason 20 is weakand Black should not play contact playsagainst it as that helps to strengthen it. There

is also the problem that playing on theoutside like this Black will gain strengthfacing a white stone (6) which reduces theusefulness of that strength. It is better toattack at a distance with E or F.W 28: Playing at G is more importantbecause Black is building moyo on thebottom left whereas on the right she can onlybuild strength facing White 6.W 30: This shape, leaving an easy peep at Hon the 2–2 point is worrying. better toconnect solidly. Playing at 30 is often correctwhen White already has a stone at I.B 31: A nice bold play.W 32: Good, natural.B 35: Black has a good game.W 36: Bold but good, it is vital to reduceBlacks prospects here. It may in theory betoo deep but it’s difficult to refute.B 37: The normal idea locally but given thesize of the moyo, Black should consider an

TO BOLDLY GO

Des Cann ~ BGA Analysis Service [email protected]

1

2

3

4

5

6

789

10

11

12A13

14

15

16

BC

D17 18

19

2021

E F

22232425

26

27 28

G

29

30HI

31

32

33

34

353637

J

3839

K40

41

Figure 1 (1 – 41)


attack from above. For example Black40, White 37, Black J. The larger themoyo the bolder your plans should be.B 39: Too submissive. It would bemore positive to take a high stance withK and look for the chance to attack.B 41: Black had a huge deep moyo buthas responded to White’s invasion bymaking ten extra points of territory. If White just jumps in the centre andkeeps this group strong he would havea reasonable game now.

Figure 2 (42 – 100)B 45: No! Black 41 is much weaker than 5–39 so the atari at A is better.W 46: Aji keshi. This makes Blackdefend where she wants to defend andis enough to make the game even again. Better for White is to jump in the centre.Black’s correct reply would probably beto defend so White would gain speed.B 49: 48 was cheeky but Black still securesterritory. A counter attack at 75 would bebetter, separating 48 from the existing group. W 50: A standard kyu player mistake. Blackwill always answer such a move and Whitehas gained nothing (the stones have fourliberties for example just as the single stonehad) but White has lost a lot of potential.Later White may want to strike across theknight’s move at 51 instead of playing 50.W 54: Too modest. Having played the good,secure move of 34 earlier any additionalterritorial moves here should be on a largerscale such as B. It would be better still togain strength in the centre by playingWhite 90, Black 95, White C. The blackgroup 31–53 would then become a liability.B 55: As Black has played 45 and is verystrong here, this move is not so important.Territorially, Black should play at 100 first.If White gets to play at 100 then 45 and 55will look pointless. Strategically, an attackfrom the other side with D looks more interesting.

B 59: A little nebulous, this could end upnot making any territory whereas the naturalreply at 60 is clearly good yose. If Blackfeels thin then playing 100 in sente is bigand strengthens the black position.B 61: Another move not quite in focus. A play at D would keep White’s centregroup under pressure while building territoryabove. White is probably ahead again.W 62: I think E is larger.B 63: This has always been big.B 65: It’s bad shape to ‘peep’ at a kosumi(58–64). Locally, it would be better to playat 67 immediately.W 66: This makes 67 too good, it would bebetter at F.B 81: Another slow move here; locally, 100is still the best move.W 82: Big because it’s double sente.W 94: Too defensive, White can play at 95immediately.W 100: Now White’s lead is clear havingplayed 82, pushed into Black’s centre up to98 and still got to this point first.

13

424344 45A

4647

48495051 52

53

54B

C

55

D

5657

58

59 60

61

62

E

63

6465

66 F 6768

6970

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74

7576

77 7879 80

81

828384

85

86

87

8889

9091

92

93

94

95

9697 98

99

100

Figure 2 (42 – 100)


14

Figure 3 1 – 79 (101 – 179)B 101: Always worth having a go with a starting point like this.W 104: Maybe a good kikashi but White must be careful.W 106: A slip of the finger? Clearly must be at 107.B 107: Disaster! Now Black has a big lead; her audacity in this cornerhas paid off big time.W 112: Superb! I would have beenpleased to spot this move myself.B 135: Uh oh!…B 137: Another mistake, Black shouldgive up the three stones because…W 138: She has no answer to this.Black’s lead is now quite small. White seems to have woken up afterthe disaster in the bottom right andstarted playing much more imaginatively and accurately.B 149: It was important to capture 18 in sente first.W 170: Both 171 and 175 are bigger but White actually needs both.B 179: The last recorded move. Black wins by three points.

SummaryBlack has a good positive opening butshould have had greater (bolder) territorialambitions for her moyo.White had the stronger tactical game andwhere he needed to be brave he acted boldlyand decisively. The momentary lapse in thebottom right was unfortunate.

12

3

45

6a7

89

1011

1213

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151617

1819 20

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25 26

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4344

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5253

5455

5657 58

59

60

61

6263

6465 6667

68 69

70

A

B7172

C7374

75

7677

79

Figure 3 1 – 79 (101 – 179)

SenseiA title meaning ‘teacher’ as applied to aschool teacher or in Go to a professional,or other player, of higher rank. It can beused by amateurs when addressing aprofessional, with or without their name,for example ‘Sensei’ or ‘Takemiya-Sensei.’

Go SeigenName of a top player of the 20th Century,originally known in his native China as WuQuan. His great games were played in the1930s, 1940s and 1950s, often againstgreat rival Kitani Minoru.

Tony Atkins

IN THE DARK?

!


F, our rash dan player, was quite willing towrite a commentary for us on the game heplayed in the last round of the main tourna-ment in Budapest. The usual ‘theoretical’commentary has been neglected in order toconcentrate on illustrating the various pointsdiscussed in this series of articles. I haveattempted to separate the thoughts of F whilethe game was actually in progress (markedIF) from my ‘psychological’ commentary(marked C) and the few necessary theoreticalcomments (marked T).Before the game, upon the draw for the 9thround: ‘He’s a 4 dan with four wins.Fortunately I am taking Black. If I win Ishall have six wins out of nine games, whichis my target. That is within my reach.’ (IF)Is that really what he said to himself? Irather suspect his usual euphoria beforegames: ‘I’m going to win, no problem.’

1 to 7: A rather odd start4: ‘Ah, a Shusaku opening. Well,suppose I tried playing the kosumistraight away?’ (IF)‘Why not?’ (T)In fact, it’s one of the fusekis disregarded by F and, as he is afraid,he reacts by refusing to play thenormal pattern. (C)‘Fortunately he’s answered!’ (IF)That will strengthen F’s optimism, sowhy did he play 5? (C)

8 to 36: Catastrophe in the joseki‘I thought hard before I played 9, but Ihad not envisaged 10, which I don’tknow very well. That irritated me, andI had forgotten the tesuji of 14.’ (IF)Translation: F is not yet competent inthese tesujis, and when he forgets a

joseki of which they form part, he can’trediscover it. (C)‘I immediately improvised with 15.’ (IF)In fact it’s a bad move. (T)‘He wanted to set up a driving tesuji, poordevil, but that is what I wanted!’ (IF)This tesuji at 16 is usually the justification for14, but here White must simply play 18! (T)There, the scene is set. He’s pleased withhimself (and that’s not so clever) at havingset a trap (admittedly brilliant) that hascaught his opponent, and at the same time hetherefore concludes that this opponent is notworthy of his grade, and that he will be ableto continue leading him by the nose. Typicalexcess, and punishment will soon follow. (C)‘On top of all that, he’s submitting to thesqueeze play to the bitter end! Anyonewould think he was a kyu level player. Heshould at least have ataried at 27.’ (IF)

15

WHY DO WE MAKE BAD MOVES ~ PART 8: A CASE STUDY

Denis FeldmannTranslated by Brian Timmins and first published in the Revue Française de Go.

21 16 19 27 2910 13 17 18 28 3011 12 23 1431 24 15 20 22

35 32 34 26 25 3633

42 6 1

5

7 98 3

Figure 1 (1 – 36)


16

Definitely not! (T)‘All this influence in sente! He mustbe shattered. Let’s play quickly tocomplete this massacre.’ (IF)It certainly is a catastrophe, about 15points, but 15 points is precisely thekomi between 2 and 4 dan! (T)Besides, it takes more skill to exploitinfluence than territory. Now, fromthis point, F is going to play in atotally carefree manner. He shouldhave paused, and concentrated hard,and respected his opponent. (C)

37 to 64: The awakening‘Move 38 is too near the wall, let’spunish it: 39 should make it heavy.Damn! I didn’t foresee 40, and 41 isforced’ (IF)In fact, it can be played above 38, at A;that is the only justification for 39! (T)That doesn’t matter, it was my privilege. (IF)…Or how to play down one’s mistakes.These kikashis have already reduced Black’sinfluence, and White is beginning to catchup a little. (C)‘Does 52 mean that he doesn’t want to finishthe joseki with B? Let him give me backsente, quick!’ (IF)Impatience, impatience (C)‘Oh, 57 is quite adequate, why hane?’ (IF)(Move played almost instantaneously.)Of course, one must hane at 58. (T)This is not so much a question of theoreticalcriticism as the problem of scorn for White’sinfluence. Why does Black contemplate hisown so much and remain blind to whatWhite has achieved, which is far from negligible? (C)‘The joseki, with 59.’ (IF)Not in these circumstances. (T)He’s mad (hubris)! Not a moment’s thought,total contempt. Does he believe that he canattack stones 52, 54, 56, and 58? (C)

60 to 80: Premature attack‘This is the moment, with 65.’ (IF)Certainly not; simply ‘attack’ at A. (T)This move is far too impatient. In the past ithas brought him some success (not alwaysdeserved), leading him to create his ownpersonal theory about it, but his theory iserroneous. Here, his opponent is strong atfighting, in a bad mood after initial losses,and fully aware of the state of mind of F;the punishment is going to be terrible! (C)‘Attack on a grand scale with 73.’ (IF)And if it fails? The damage will be huge: a ponnuki on this side largely makes up forthe 15 points lost earlier, the group 37, 67etc. is still weak, and so this attack is notvery promising. All this is not at F’sstandard, but he takes his opponent for oneof his usual sparring partners! (C)Let’s be charitable and stop the game at thispoint. Here is a summary of the subsequentaction: the group supposedly attackedescapes without loss (White groups do notdie easily); Black promptly has to make life

6349 43 45 51 6147 44 46 6248 50

37

42 64 60

5338

40 3941

5259 56

57 54 5855

B

A

Figure 2 (37 – 64)


17

for his group, and the game becomes very close.Disheartened, Black makesmistakes at the start of the yoseand has to resign, about 10points behind.F’s final comment immediatelyafter the game: ‘After move 36,I lost interest in the game, and I couldn’t maintain my concentration.’It would be interesting to count how many games have‘interested’ him right to the endduring his long career! Perhapshe is just not sufficientlyinterested in Go?

7977 7876 80

727066 65 71 75 7369 74

6768

A

Figure 3 (60 – 80)

!

SIMPLE STRATEGIES FOR IMPROVING KYU GRADES

Michael Vidler

This article addresses some aspects of Goplaying in a way that I hope might be usefulfor kyu grade players who are stuck aroundthose plateaus of perhaps 6-7 kyu and below.When playing Go it is easy to get involvedin responding relatively unthinkingly to themoves of the opponent, particularly as Blackin a mid to high handicap game. I am goingto suggest that, even game or handicapgame, there are some strategies one mightconsider using on a preconceived basis as analternative to your normal style of play. Theidea is to challenge what might be ingrainedand implicit or unconscious preconceptionswhen choosing a move that result in creatingheavy groups that are inefficient, do not taketerritory and, horror of horrors, have thetemerity to die at some unfortunate point inthe game. I do this, do you? I wish I didn’t.Don’t you? I don’t claim that these sugges-tions are particularly special or profound but

they’re free and if they help you, that’sgreat! Here they are.

Tenuki!Do you follow your opponent round theboard? Do you always play the last stonelocally? Do you answer every endgame playby your opponent? My advice: go into thegame with the explicit intention of playingsomewhere else on the board, tenuki-ing, on as many moves as possible. It can befrustrating for the opponent suddenly to findthat their moves are no longer routinelyanswered. Of course, some tenukis will bebananas, but so what? File under Furikawari!

Sacrifice!Before the game, decide to sacrifice anumber of stones around the board. It iscrude and highly simplistic but consider this:if you play 10 stones in your opponent’s


18

territory and force him to take them off, hewill need around 40 plays to do so. That’s 30points less territory, and 30 moves you canmake elsewhere. Now, of course thisargument can be criticised as simple mindedin many ways but that’s not the point: try tolook at how you might play stones that youknow will die but which will give you someform of leverage or aji against theopponent’s stones. Stones die! So what?Dream a little and let them die valiantly!

Play Contact Moves!Contact plays by definition lose liberties andgive your opponent the next move. Whatactually happens when you make contactplays? Do you strengthen the opposingstones? If so what do you get in return? Doyou play on top of them, next to them orunderneath them? Is your play more aggres-sive? Dare I say it, but do you rip youropponent off in the complications of contactsand cross cuts? Consider contact plays, andconsider combining them with sacrifices!

Furikawari!Omigodmygroupsbeingattackedandmightdie!Let it. Look at your groups and what you getfrom adding more stones to them. Is youropponent making influence and territorywhilst chasing you along ? If so you aremaking a heavy group and using your stonesinefficiently. In that case, perhaps youshould look to get something in exchange,often by attacking elsewhere, engineeringthe gain of territory. Sometimes you can playa move at a distance that increases thechance of pulling out the ailing stones whilsthave an effect on another part of the board.Either way, if the opponent ignores yourmove and adds a stone locally to ensure yourgroup is snared, congratulations! You haveprobably made a furikawari.

Within this is another strategy: when you’rein a hole, stop digging! It only hurts more togive up a bigger group but try to get thehang of the balance between the nuisance

value of a group with liberties and makingthe group too big to be given up. Thestronger amongst you will realise I’m talkingabout giving up stones that are not particu-larly useful anyway: and this is not reallypure furikawari. Often furikawari involvesexchanging groups and territories that havefar more potential. So try to look at allgroups and what would happen if you simplygave one up. See under tenuki!

Count the Liberties!Go into the game determined to know howmany liberties your groups have. Add to thisdeciding whether you can increase themshould you get involved in a capturing raceand try to keep a count of the liberties whenlooking over a train of moves. There can bea lot of finesse and beauty in semeais and byimplication, increasing your liberties whilsttaking away your opponents but despite thecomplexity try to get into the habit ofcounting liberties.

Some advice: when a group without eyesgets down to 2 liberties, worry! So don’t gothere if you can avoid it!

There you have some suggestions for experimenting in an explicit way with yourplay to see if you can find different ways ofchoosing moves if you are stuck in a rut.Have fun! On a more serious note, you willsee that I have not included any positions toillustrate these suggestions. I don’t thinkthey’re needed; the positions exist in yourgames and you choose the moves. I subscribe to Bobby Fischer’s doctrine:

don’t learn moves, learn ideas. The same sentiment is expressed in reversein Go: learn joseki and become two stonesweaker. If you are to play a coherent game,it’s the reasons for playing your moves thatmatter, not playing a move because you‘know’ it is right. So in conclusion, the finalstrategy I can suggest is to try to understandwhy you choose moves; but that is probablyquite difficult to do without a lot of study.


19

On the right, Black’s marked stone is dead; on the left, itisn’t. So Black is between 2 and 4 points worse off on theright of the diagram (the exact amount depends on endgamedetails we won’t go into here). So Black 1 on the left ofDiagram 1a is correct and Black 1 on the right of Diagram1a is wrong.There is a simple principle behind all this. When you play amove, it needs to gain something at the time you play it, butyou may find later that you want to give it back in exchangefor something better. Play to minimise the local loss if thathappens.This principle is often very easy to apply. Black’s correctmove on the left side of diagram 1a is played nearer to thesafe side where his stones are alive. On the right of thediagram, Black’s bad move is further from the safe side andnearer to the stones that he might want to give up. This isoften the case.Problem 2: This is the problem thatprovoked this article. At least threebooks in English make a mess of it.Black to play and connect thecorner stones to their friends on theoutside (assumed alive). Again,there is only one correct answer.

MINIMISE THEPOTENTIAL LOSSThis is the first of a seriesabout elementary principlesthat Go books seem toforget to mention. In thecase of the principle we’lllook at this time, a fewbooks are actuallydownright misleading.Solve each problemyourself, then look at thesolution given and read theexplanation before movingon to the next. The firstproblem is extremelyelementary, so you shouldfind the explanation easy tofollow. That will prepareyou for the slightly moredifficult examples thatfollow.Problem 1: Black to play.Assume that the unmarkedstones are alive. Blackwants to capture the markedwhite stones, saving hisown marked stones in theprocess. There is only onecorrect answer.

Diagram 1a shows twoanswers that work. Aftereither of them, White canplay at A in sente and, in thenormal course of events,

WHAT THE BOOKS DON’T TELL YOU ~ PART 1

Simon Goss [email protected]

Problem 1

! 1a

A B 1 A 1 B

! 1b

Problem 2

Black will take off at B. The result is the same in either case,so why does it matter?Well, suppose that White uses A as a ko threat and you wantto ignore it to win the ko. Or suppose that White just plays Aat a time when you have spotted something bigger that youprefer to play. In either case, White will get to capture twostones. The positions you arrive at are shown in Diagram 1b.


20

Diagram 2: The correctanswer is Black 1, connect-ing with the monkey jumpshape. The offending threebooks say that Black A alsoworks. It does, but if Blackthen ignores a ko threat, a

black stone at A getscaptured, while one at Black1 doesn’t. Black A is a badmove. Notice how, onceagain, the correct move isplayed on the side of safetyand the bad one on the sideof danger.Problem 3: A more interest-ing position, taken from aprofessional game (Maeda -Go Sei Gen, 27-28/10/1954).

White has just played themarked stone. What is hethreatening, and what isBlack’s best way to defendagainst the threat?

Diagram 3a: Whitethreatens to play at 1. Blackmust then give up the fourstones. If he tries to savethem with Black 2, Whiteplays at 3 and captures with

oiotoshi. Other Blackdefences fail in a similarway, as you can check foryourself.Diagram 3b: Maedadefended by capturing at 1.

This doesn’t lose anypoints, since Black wasgoing to have to play hereeventually however heplayed. Other possibleBlack moves, such as A, B

or C, have differentproperties about thenumber and size of the kothreats left behind, makingthis position complicatedto analyse to the lastdetail. You may enjoydoing that by yourself. But even if not, it’s worthgetting the feeling ofplaying back with a movelike Black 1 here.

By the way, White has atleast three other ways toachieve the same result asdiagram 3a, but the moveshown is the one thatconforms to our principle.Black won’t answer any ofthem, but he may later takethe two White stones as ako threat. White 1 is themove that makes sure thatthe point A is definitely apoint of white territory.

When you have two ormore different ways to dowhat you want to do,minimising the potentialloss isn’t the first thing youshould think about.Sometimes you’ll find youget more points by doing itone way rather thananother. In such cases,maximising the immediategain is more important thanminimising the potentialloss (but remember toconsider sente too). In thethree problems we’velooked at, the right andwrong answers had thesame points value. That’swhen you should play tominimise the potential loss.

! 2

A 1

Problem 3

! 3a

1 3A 2

! 3b

AB

C 1


LEARNING GO ON-LINE

Nick Wedd [email protected] this article I describe some of the waysyou can use the internet to learn about Goand improve your game.

Human teachersThe BGA web site now has a page:

www.britgo.org/teaching/teaching.html

This lists strong players who sell Go lessonsin various forms and it has links to the webpages of several teachers. You should readtheir pages to see which teacher offers thekind of service that you are looking for.

You can e-mail (or post) a game record tothe teacher, who returns it with a commentsthat indicates the weaknesses in your play.You can take a correspondence course inwhich the teacher sends you ‘homework’,which you return for assessment. You can arrange to play a ‘teaching game’with the teacher, using a Go server. KGS(kgs.kiseido.com) is particularly good forthis, enabling game records to be editedonline; after the game, players can try outvariations and add commentary. Someteachers also give face-to-face teaching,either individually or as small seminars.

You might wonder why anyone should payfor Go lessons in view of the various freeteaching resources listed below. Of course,the quality of tuition is likely to be higher. I have also found that paying money for alesson greatly increases my incentive toconcentrate and to benefit from it.

The Go Teaching LadderIf you have a record of a game which youwould like reviewed by a stronger player,you can use the Go Teaching Ladder at

gtl.jeudego.org

Use of this is free. You submit your gamerecord, in SGF format, and a player a fewgrades stronger than you returns it withcomments. When submitting a game for

analysis, your first inclination may be tochoose one which you are proud of becauseyou won it. But you obviously won’t learnas much by having your good moves praisedas by having your bad moves corrected. The most instructive kind of game to submitis one which you lost but have no idea whyyou lost it.

The Go Teaching Ladder page lets you lookat other games which have been submittedand read the commentaries on them. You canalso volunteer to be a teacher for the Ladder.

Simple rules and tacticsWhen I am playing Go on a server,sometimes a beginner asks me: ‘What is thisgame about?’. I want to be able to refer themto a simple, clear web page that explains Goin a way that a newcomer to the game willunderstand. There are surprisingly few suchpages. The one I recommend is:

www.telgo.com

Another page, with a fuller account of Goand its context, written by the editor of thisJournal, is:

www.britgo.org/intro/intro.html

There is also a section for beginners on theMSO site, described in the next section.

More advanced materialThere are many web sites with discussionsof various aspects of Go tactics and strategy.The best that I know of is on the MindSports Olympiad (MSO) site, at:

www.msoworld.com/mindzine/news/orient/go/learn/golearn.html

This is written by Charles Matthews, and heis continually adding to it.

Tsume and other problemsMany Go players underestimate the value oftsume (life-and-death) problems forimproving their game. There are many webpages with such problems. The ones that Iknow of are indexed at:

www.britgo.org/problems/index.html

21


22

Problem DiscussionIn BGJ 120, the first articlein this series ended with alife and death problem.

Black 1 in Diagram 1 is anattractive point. It strikes atthe centre of the three whitestones on the left andthreatens to cut at 2. IfWhite connects at 2, Black3 kills the group.This position was Diagram13 in the last part, so I hopeyou can judge this statuseasily. White has a six-pointeye-space but he can’t stopBlack from almost filling itwith a bulky five. However,this is not the correctanswer. It’s a fine exampleof katte yomi.White 2 in Diagram 1a alsoprotects the cutting pointand foils Black’s attempt toconstruct a nakade shape.Black 3 again threatens to

cut but White can simplyconnect at 4 making a seki.This position was Diagram14a in the last part. Whitehas a smaller eye-space thanin Diagram 1, but what’simportant is its shape. IfBlack adds another stone toput White in atari after theoutside liberty has beenfilled, he makes a bent four,which is not a nakadeshape. If Black leaves thesituation alone, White mustnot add any more stonesinside his own eye. Thatwould be suicidal. As itstands, he is alive in seki.The correct answer toProblem 1 in BGJ 120 is toplay 1 in Diagram 1b. Thisis the vital point for bothsides.Since Black 1 threatens to

cut, White connects at 2 butBlack 3 kills the group.Check for yourself thatWhite 2 at 3 fails.

Key Questions

This problem nicely illustrates some of the keyissues involved in nakade.

The first thing to consider is:! Can I almost fill the eye-

space with a nakadeshape, leaving only onevacant inside liberty?

In the original problem,White has a seven-pointeye-space. The only six-point shapes that Black canmake are non-nakade ones.However, White has acutting point, so if Blackcan force him to add a stoneinside to protect it, the sizeof his eye-space will bereduced to six points. InDiagram 1b, Black canalmost fill this six-pointspace with a bulky five.The next question is:! Can I reach the nakade

shape from the startingposition, assuming Whitewill try and stop me?

It’s a battle between youtrying to make a nakadeshape and your opponenttrying to force you to makea non-nakade shape. That’swhy it’s important to knowboth types thoroughly, soyou understand what theobjective is. It’s very easyto be lazy and believe thatBlack 1 in Diagram 1works, especially if youusually play opponents whofail to punish such mistakes.But when you reach thenext level of skill, whichinvolves completely readingout a position and all its

NAKADE AND ISHI-NO-SHITA ~ PART 2: BUILDING NAKADE SHAPES

Richard Hunter [email protected]

" 1

123

" 1a

1234

" 1b

12

3


23

variations, you’ll discoverthat the game is much moreinteresting. Your efforts willbe well rewarded.Diagram 2: White has aseven-point eye-space withno cutting points.

Question 1: Can this eye bealmost filled by a nakadeshape?Well, there is only one six-point nakade shape, thecross plus one or Rabbittysix, although it can appearin different orientations.Yes, by adding four blackstones we can almost fillthis eye-space in twodifferent ways. One isshown in Diagram 2a.

Question 2: Can Blackreach this result from hisstarting position?Yes, if White playselsewhere, Black can play 1,3, 5, and 7, for example, inDiagram 2b. Note how eachof these moves makes anakade shape. If White addsstones to capture any of

these black clumps ofstones, he’s left with akillable eye-space. If Blackstrays from the path, with 3in Diagram 2c, for example,White can live with 4.

Black now has a doglegfour, which is a non-nakadeshape, and he can’t makeany bigger nakade shapesby adding stones. Black isoff the nakade path andcan’t get back on. As longas Black is on the nakadepath, in this particular casethere is nothing White cando to resist. Try the varia-tions for yourself. Oneexample is given inDiagram 2d.

After White 2, Black 3makes a nakade shape, sothere is no point in White

adding another stone.Therefore, Black will laterbe able to play A and almostfill White’s eye-space with abulky five.On the other hand, if it’sWhite’s move in Diagram 2,he can live in seki with 1and 3 in Diagram 2e.

White 1 threatens to makean eye, so Black 2 isnecessary. Although Black 2does make a nakade shape,temporarily, White 3 shuntshim onto a side track withno path to the target. Theonly four-point shape Blackcan make next is a doglegfour, which fails to kill. Notethat White 3 is essential. IfWhite plays elsewhereinstead, Black 3 kills him.In conclusion, Diagram 2 isunsettled. White lives ordies according to sente.Diagram 3: Here’s a simpleexample to test you. What isthe status of the whitegroup? The answer is givenat the end of this article.

! 2

! 2a

! 2b

1 35

7

! 2c

134

! 2d

1 23A

! 2e

12 3

! 3


24

Move Order

Diagram 4: Black to play.

Black 1 in Diagram 4a isatari. If White connects with2, Black 3 almost fillsWhite’s eye-space with apyramid four.

Black must be careful not toplay 1 in Diagram 4b,expecting to be able to playat 2 later. White will

connect at 2 and live inseki. The order of moves isoften important.

Shortage of liberties

Diagram 5: White has anincomplete eye-space.

The straightforward push ofBlack 1 in Diagram 5a isanswered by the obviousblock of White 2, whichmakes a bent four.

By now, you shouldinstantly recognise this asbeing alive. Black 3 isanswered by White 4, andvice versa. But all White’soutside liberties in Diagram5 are filled, so maybethere’s a way to takeadvantage of his shortage ofliberties. Black 1 inDiagram 5b is a tesuji.

If White answers at 2, Blackreaches in one line furtherthan in Diagram 5a. Whitecan’t cut this stone offbecause of his shortage ofliberties. And playing White2 at 3 just lets Black extendto 2. So how about White 2in Diagram 5c?

Now Black 3 kills him.White cannot play at Abecause of his shortage ofliberties, so there’s nothingto stop Black from connect-ing at A. The result is notseki because White will bein atari. Note the effective-ness of the marked blackstone.Diagram 6: Here’s anotherexample of how youropponent’s liberty shortagecan let you build a nakadeshape.

Black 1 is the vital point.Check for yourself that allother moves fail. White hasno answer to this move.

! 4 Black to play

! 4a

12

3

! 4b

12

! 5 Black to play

! 5a

1 234

! 5b

123

! 5c

12 3 A

! 6

1


25

It threatens a snapback butif White connects, Blackcan play elsewhere sincethere is nothing White cando to stop Black making asquare four that almost fillsthe five-point eye-space.Either of the ataris wouldwork for White if he hadsuitable open outsideliberties but he doesn’t;that’s the key issue.

Diagram 7: Black 1 and 3kill the white stones. Eventhough Black has made adogleg four, which is not anakade shape, White cannotplay at A, because of hisliberty shortage. So there isnothing to stop Black fromplaying there to make abulky five. On the otherhand, if Black plays 3 at A,making a square four, Whitewill not play elsewhere andlet Black play at 3 tocomplete a bulky five.Instead, White will captureat 3, making two separateeyes.Usually, one proceedsthrough a sequence ofnakade shapes making abigger one with each move,so Black 3 here might be ablind-spot for some people.It only works because ofWhite’s shortage ofliberties.

Diagram 8 shows anotherexample. Black 1 kills thewhite group.

Diagram 9: Black to play.

Black 1 in Diagram 9astrikes at the centre of threestones.

Black may be expectingWhite to descend to theedge at 3, but the hane ofWhite 2 is a good move; theresult is ko. Playing Black 1at 3 leads to the same result.The correct answer is shownin Diagram 9b. White diesunconditionally. Black 5takes advantage of White’sshortage of liberties. White

cannot push in below 5, soBlack will be able toconnect there himself.Diagram 10: Black to play.

The cut of Black 1 inDiagram 10a fails. Whiteanswers at 2 and lives.

The diagonal move of 1 inDiagram 10b is a surprisingmove if you haven’t seen itbefore. If White solidifieshis wall with 2, Black cutsat 3. Since Black hasalready taken the vital point

! 7

1 23

A

! 8

1

! 9 Black to play

! 9a

12 3

4

! 9b

1 234 5

! 10 Black to play

! 10a

12

! 10b

1

2

3


26

of 1, there is no way Whitecan live. Even if Whitecould capture the three blackstones, he would still not beable to live since a bentthree is a nakade shape.On the other hand, if Whiteconnects at 2 in Diagram10c, Black chips away atwhite’s wall with 3.

The result is similar toDiagram 5c. This combina-tion of moves appears inmany real game positions,so it’s well worth studying.Note that if Black connectson the first line to make abent three instead of 3 inDiagram 10c, Whiteperfects his wall with 3 andthis time the result is seki,because there are twovacant inside liberties.A liberty shortage can alsowork the other way,preventing a nakade shapefrom being made. Black 1in Diagram 11 is the onlymove that works in thisposition. Check the othersfor yourself. Next, if White

plays 2 in Diagram 11a,Black 3 leaves White unableto make a nakade shape.

Note that Black 3 isnecessary. If Black playselsewhere, White can play 4in Diagram 11b.

Although this is not anakade shape, this time theliberty shortage restrictsBlack, who cannot playwithout putting himself inatari, so next White canmake a bulky five.Alternatively, if White plays2 in Diagram 11c, Black 3takes the vital point,

destroying White’s possibility of making anakade shape.Diagram 12 shows the last example. The hane ofBlack 1 saves the blackgroup. If White 2, Black 3leaves White in a shortage

of liberties and unable tomake a nakade shape. Thehane at 2 in Diagram 12adoesn’t work either. Black 3makes the group alive.

Note that even if Whiteconnects to the right of 2,Black can play elsewhereand still be safely alive inseki. Of course, when Whitedescends on the left side,Black must answer byconnecting to the left of 1.The descent of 1 in Diagram12b fails. This time, afterexchanging 2 for 3, Whitecan make a nakade shapewith 4, the vital point thatBlack took in Diagram 12.

Although Black’s eye-spaceis bigger than in Diagram12a, its shape is bad.

! 10c

12

3

! 11

1

! 12a

1 23

! 12b

1 234

! 12

1 2 3

! 11a

1 23

! 11b

1 24

! 11c

12

3


27

ProblemsThese are typical bookproblems. The variationsinvolve some of theconcepts discussed in this article and lead into the next theme.Consider them as achallenge and work at them. The answers will be discussed in the next Journal.

Answer to Diagram 3The white group isunsettled. The vital pointfor both sides is the 1-3point.If Black makes a squarefour, then he can nextmake a bulky five thatalmost fills White’s eye.If White takes this vitalpoint, Black will only beable to make a doglegfour, resulting in seki.

Problem 1 Black to play

Problem 2 Black to play

!

KiseiLiterally ‘Go or Chess Saint’, this topJapanese title has run since 1977. Thetournament system involved players ofsubsequently higher grades joining in atvarious levels. In 2000 this has beenamended to include two six player leaguesand a play-off to determine the challenger;lower levels are now structured differentlyat the two Japanese professionals’ organi-sations, the Nihon Ki-in and Kansai Ki-in.

MeijinThe title previously given to the strongestplayer or ‘Master’ of a historical period.The last Meijin was Tamura Yasuhisa,who is better known by his other titleHoninbo Shusai, who died in 1940. The book Meijin or The Master of Goby Kawabata (available from Penguin

Books) immortalises the last matchagainst Kitani. In 1962 Meijin became anannual title match, one of the Big SevenTournaments.The stage before the titlematch is a nine player league.

HoninboThe priest Kano Yosabiru, known asNikkai, started a hereditary Go schooland took the name Honinbo Sansa in1605. Honinbo was the name of apagoda at his temple in Kyoto. HoninboShusai was the 21st and last holder ofthe title and ceded the name to a tourna-ment first held in 1941. One of the bigseven tournaments, the stage before thetitle match is the eight player HoninboLeague.

Tony Atkins

IN THE DARK?


28

In the last issue we looked at the rankingsystem introduced by Bruno Rüger. In thisand subsequent articles some developmentsof Go ranking systems – up to the presentday – will be outlined. This time we look atthe system devised by Arpad Elo and originally applied to Chess.The traditional ranking system of Go players(of Japanese provenance, from about 9 danpro down to 1 dan amateur and then from 1 to about 35 kyu) and the European rankingsystem (from 1, or 0, continuously down to60, or a higher limit set for beginners) areboth based on the number of handicapstones, be they integers or fractions. As such,they are typical of Go and cannot be transferred to other games. There is however another ranking systemthat is in principle suitable for any strategicgame and sport. It is based on the ratingsystem implemented by Arpad Elo and fullydescribed in his book The Rating of ChessPlayers, published in London by B. T.Batsford in 1978. In particular, what we getthereby is essentially a rating number,associated with every player and changedeither after each tournament, or at fixedtimes, by the various federations. Together with the rating numbers we obtaina direct way to rank the players, by selectinga suitable interval of rating values for distin-guishing subsequent ranks. This interval ofratings is commonly selected so that a playerhas 76 percent probability to win a gameagainst a player one rank below. The specific0.76 value derives from the assumption thatgame results follow a normal distribution,but using different statistical laws wouldlead to similar values. The fundamental concept is that any Eloscale is an ‘open-ended floating’ one. Thisimplies that there are no fixed referencepoints; it is the differences between rating

values that are important and not theirabsolute values, which are set by one oranother arbitrary selection. In applying the Elo system to Chess, therating interval between ranks was chosen tocorrespond to 200 points, for historicalreasons, in order to fit an existing system.The ratings traditionally employed for Chessincrease as known up to about 2000 for thestrongest club players, 2400 for internationalmasters and 2700 for candidates to the worldchampionship – only ten Chess players nowpass this value. The lower limit is ratherundefined, with beginners at or somewhatbelow 1000. Thus, the total number of ranksrequired, at 200 point steps in rating until2800, corresponding to the world champion,is about ten.Apart from the rating values chosen, whichmay variously agreed upon according torequirements of the specific application, thewhole concept of Elo rating (and ranking!) issuitable for most games and sports and hasbeen officially adopted, in particular, byfederations of Chess, Draughts, Othello-Reversi, and other board games. Unfortunately, the detail of the system andits parameters as adopted for the variousgames usually are somewhat different, sothat comparing player ratings for differentgames does not ensure that similar ratingvalues correspond to similarly strongplayers. Moreover, there are intrinsic reasonswhy rating numbers cannot be exactlycomparable for different games: each gameactually has its own complexity and so thenumber of ranks required for ranging thevarious strengths of the players must besmaller for easy games and larger forcomplex ones.For instance, one can check at the WorldFootball Elo Ratings web site:

www.elaboratings.net

THE GO RANKING SYSTEM OF ARPAD ELO

Franco Pratesi [email protected]


29

the application to Football, where thefollowing ratings may be found for October2000: 1 France 2026, 2 Brazil 1943, 12 England 1795, 38 Scotland 1672, 100 Northern Ireland 1440, 101 Wales 1438,214 and last, Anguilla 907. Thus, for Football, the number of ranksrequired for ranging all the national teams ofthe world turns out to be about five.Compared to Chess, this indicates a muchlower complexity of the game - if one isallowed to compare on these terms a teamgame mainly played by a score of feet withone played between individuals, mainlyusing their minds. What about Go? Several studies haveindicated that Go has a remarkably greateroverall complexity compared with the othertraditional board games, also with Chess, notto mention Draughts, or Othello-Reversi. A confirmation may derive from the muchlower progress in playing skill reached bythe corresponding computer programs.As noted at the beginning, ranking of Goplayers traditionally occurs in terms of stonehandicaps. A specific Grading System, basedon promotion points, has been used for manyyears by the BGA for ranking dan playersand will soon be introduced for kyu players(see BGJ 115, 1999, pp. 12-15).Other countries have adopted Elo-typeratings, but – as far as I know – alwaysmodified in order to obtain some fitting withthe established stone-handicap ranks. Forinstance, the Kommission Go of the GermanDemocratic Republic (apparently, not thebest candidate coming to our minds foraccepting a suggestion from the USA)officially adopted the Elo system in 1989.The same normal distribution curve in usefor Chess was applied and the 200-pointinterval still kept the meaning of 0.76winning probability. However, a ratinginterval of 100 was empirically found to bebetter suitable for fitting the already existingstone-handicap based ranks. Therefore, the

system worked by setting its rating valuesbetween 0 at 20k and 2300 at 4d, regularlystepped so that 1000 corresponded to 10k,2000 to 1d, and so on.At present, the involvement of European Goplayers with Elo systems is increasinglygaining a widespread acceptance. In particu-lar, since 1998, the European Go Federationitself has officially adopted a Go ratingsystem of the Elo kind, introduced somemonths earlier by Ales Cieply for the Czechfederation. The values of the EuropeanOfficial Ratings increase from 20k (herewith the value of 100 assigned) to 7d at 2700– again regularly stepped at 100 rating pointsintervals. By applying this system to the ranks ofpractical occurrence for Go players, weeventually obtain Elo rating values reason-ably similar to those commonly encounteredin Chess. However, differently from Chess,here full use is made of lower ratings, downto zero. It would even be possible to shiftfurther the zero setting in order to takeweaker players into account, down tocomplete beginners. Compared with theseries of about ten ranks for Chess, manymore might be required for Go, an indepen-dent way to confirm its greater complexity.Even if the general framework of theseapplications may be considered clearenough, I believe that the correspondencebetween handicap-stone and Elo ranks forGo players is worth of further study andhope soon to be able again to comment on it.

The European Ratings described abovetogether with a database of Europeanplayers and tournaments and rating listsfor each European country may be foundat the European Go Federation website:

egf.posluh.hr

!


30

This game was played at the EuropeanGo Congress in Strausberg. We playedin the schoolyard of theOberstufenzentrum so that we couldboth have a smoke. Unfortunately,Bela Nagy resigned even before he gothis first cigarette lit.I have a habit as a player of invitingmy opponent to a fight, sometimeswhen the position isn’t good for it.However, in this game it worked to myadvantage. There is also the point,shown I think by Black’s play here,that you should prepare your fights. Ifyour opponent makes what you thinkis a weak move, one that doesn’tsuppress all the aji in an area, don’tjump in with both feet. You have toprepare your attack. It may not be toomuch of a loss if he has to go back andplay another move to kill all the aji -that means you get another free movesomewhere else.

White: T Mark Hall (4 dan)Black: Bela Nagy (5 dan)Komi: 8 points

Figure 1 (1 – 100)The first problem comes when Black leavesthe group on the side to approach my cornerwith 23. He said that he played 23 from theside because a move at 24 would be toconstricted. However, this means that I amplaying towards his group in an area wherehe would normally expect to make his owneye-shape.Black 25 then appears to be trying too hard;Black has two weak groups on the board,White has none. White 26 hopes to driveBlack out and split 23 and the group on thelower edge apart. Sometimes the greatest funin Go is having your opponent trying todefend two weak groups at once.

After 29, I worked out that I could shutBlack into the corner and I hoped to makesome territory on the right side. If I couldthen keep the group on the lower side underpressure, I felt that it would give me a goodgame.White 38 is a move designed to tempt Blackto fight. The point between 39 and 40 isbetter for suppressing aji but this would justinvite Black to move out with his weakstones at the bottom. Instead of connectingat 39 it would have been better for Black tomove out to the centre with his weak groupsince I would have had to make anothermove here at some point. As Takemiya says:‘First secure your groups, then attack’.

Professional opinionThe Korean professional commented thatBlack 43 should have been the kosumibelow 51 because 43 was bad shape, leavinga weakness between 41 and 43. Also, whenBlack plays 43 and 45 he is pushing me

Figure 1 (1 – 100)

NO SMOKING IN THE PLAYING AREAT Mark Hall [email protected]

1

23

4

5

6

789

10 1112 1314

15

16 1718

19

20 2122

23

2425

26

2728 29

3031323334

3536

37

38394041

4243

4445

4647 48

4950

515253

5455

5657

5859

6061

626364

65 66

6768

69

707172

7374

75

7677787980

818283

8485

8687

88 8990 91 92

9394

9596

97 98

99100


31

against the weak group on the lower side andhe doesn’t do very much for his own group.It is as if he is co-operating in setting up thedouble attack.

The pro said that 47 should be one point tothe left. Another proverb comes to mind –‘Attack from a distance!’ The idea is thatyou play close (and contact moves) morewhen you are trying to make shape andsurvive. Moves at a distance tend tosurround on a larger scale and don’t give adirect target for the opponent to react against.

With 52 and 54 I pushed as far as I felt Icould on the right before defending theterritory on the right side. 54 also keeps upthe attack on Black and he felt it necessaryto move towards the centre. Unfortunatelyfor him, this pushes me back towards hisother weak group.

White 62 wasn’t an attempt to make eyes,just messing up Black’s shape here.

The pro said that 69 was unnecessary, sincecapture of these stones by White would begote and would only give White one eye.Note that even after 69, Black isn’t certain ofeyes here. Instead of 69, Black should keepup the pressure from the outside, perhaps at70 to build up the moyo on the upper side.

Leaning AttackBefore moving back to attack the lowergroup, I push again at 70 and 72 to movefurther out into the centre and left. You cansee that successful attacks sometimes dependon the fact that you can push the opponenton the side away from the target, buildingstrength which can be used later.

I thought that Black should play 75 at 79, asa probe. Black then shows that he had madea misreading with 77 onwards and he had toresign.

Black resigns after 100.

!

Oriental NamesIn oriental countries, such as Japan, Chinaand Korea, the family name is given first.Cho Chikun would not sound right asChikun Cho, and so the BGJ usuallyfollows this convention. However fororiental players living in the west theirname will usually appear in the BGJ inwestern fashion, for example ShutaiZhang or Yuki Shigeno; there are someexceptions: Guo Juan and Lee Hyuk soundbetter with family name first. For addedconfusion there are also different ways ofspelling the same name using Romancharacters: Lee Chang-ho or Yi Ch’ang-hofor instance.

Big Seven TournamentsIn Japan the top three tournaments areKisei, Meijin and Honinbo. The next fourare Judan, Tengen, Oza and Gosei. All aresponsored by various newspapers and areopen to all Japanese professionals or allabove a certain grade. The largest prizes,25 million yen (150000 pounds) or more,are in the top three, these being best ofseven games (each played over two days).All players also receive a game fee foreach game played (starting at a fewhundred pounds).

Tony Atkins

IN THE DARK?


32

In the last journal I explained the outreachactivities of the BGA Council. Those areaimed at attracting new members andspreading awareness of the game of Go.However, an equally important part of theAssociation’s activities is that part devotedto member services.

The objectives I set under this section for theyear were as follows:

! a smooth hand over to the new Journalteam;

! continued production of a quality Journal,newsletter and web site; and

! higher retention rate of existing members.

Other services that the BGA provides formembers, for example the Analysis Serviceand sales of books and equipment, did nothave specific objectives.

A year of change for our publicationsThis Journal is the third under the neweditor, David Woodnutt. I am pleased thatDavid is continuing the high standard set byBrian Timmins, whilst putting his owneditorial mark on the publication. Thejournal is written for you, our members byour members. Please continue to passfeedback to David and the various authorson the types of article that you want to seeincluded in the journal.

This year also saw Jil Segerman take overproduction of the newsletter from EddieSmithers. I would like to record my thanksto Eddie for the many years that he devotedto the newsletter. During this time thenewsletter proved a reliable and valuablesource of information about what had beenhappening, and was about to happen, in theUK Go scene; it continues to be animportant service for members.

Council has periodically debated the subjectof moving towards an electronic-only

newsletter. Members have suggested wecould save on postage costs by stopping thehardcopy version. However many memberswish to receive it in this way so we have nointention of stopping it at present. It is still aminority - albeit a growing one - whichprefers electronic mail. A trial is to be runnext year of an electronic version. Pleasecontact Steve Bailey ([email protected]) tojoin the trial or request further information.

BGA web siteOur web pages go from strength to strengthunder the editorship of Nick Wedd. Our siteoften proves useful to overseas players aswell as UK-based ones; many of thefavourable comments we receive come fromabroad. Volunteers are now helping Nick byupdating specific pages and a comprehensiveindex of the site has recently been completedby Jochen Fassbender in Germany. Newideas for content and feedback on existingcontent are always welcomed by Nick.

The site now contains a page that describesthe site’s policy towards commercialproducts, advertising and accuracy. If youfind any errors, please report them by e-mailto Nick ([email protected]).

Membership retention rateIt remains important that we retain ourexisting members. We welcome feedbackfrom members as to whether we areproviding the services that you want andhow we can improve our retention rate.

We are trying to make it easier for membersto renew. The membership secretary willinform you directly when your membershipis due for renewal. Don’t forget that you cantake advantage of multiple year member-ships (up to 5 years) when renewing, andthat you can renew directly at tournamentsthrough any Council member present. Ourreciprocal membership arrangement with the

BGA MEMBERSHIP SERVICES

Alison Bexfield ~ BGA President [email protected]


American Go Association is still in place,bringing in overseas members and allowingBritish membership of the AGA withoutproblems of foreign currency payment. We hope to work more closely with clubsecretaries in the next few months to identifyways in which we can make it easier forthem to encourage new members andrenewals.My new daughter, Charlotte, has alreadybeen enrolled as a BGA member under myfamily membership. However this is asomewhat slow method of increasing themembership numbers so other ideas arealways welcome!

Advance notice of the 2001 AGMDue to my new family commitments, I willnot be standing for re-election as Presidentnext year. We will therefore be looking fornew volunteers for Council and for BGAofficers. Please contact myself or anyCouncil member if you are interested, or formore information about what is involved. If you have any motions for debate at thenext AGM please let the BGA Secretary([email protected]) have these as soon aspossible as we intend to circulate an agendawith the February newsletter, ready for themeeting in Cardiff on 21st April.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Rewriting History...Dear Sir,Between drafting and typing up the historyof the British Go Congress that appeared inBGJ 119, the dates all appear to becomeincorrect and the reference to seven roundswas attached to the wrong Congress asFrancis Roads half pointed out in BGJ 120.The correct text for the second column onpage 33 of BGJ 119 is as follows....Francis Roads ran the 1972 congress andinstigated the Friday night lightning. TheJapanese Ambassador was a patron of theevent and Games and Puzzles magazinedonated subscriptions as prizes. 1973 movedto Scotland for the only time; normally thetournament was six rounds, but in Edinburghthey squeezed in seven. 1974 was inReading with JAL as a sponsor and a goodspread of photographs from the event in theBritish Go Journal.Alsager, London, Leicester, Manchester werethe next four, the latter having the infamousstolen suitcase incident...Sorry for any confusion,

Tony Atkins

Last Word?Sir,I stand accused by Francis Roads (Letters -BGJ 120) of obscurity in my article on theBritish Championship. (Come back whenyou’re Stronger - BGJ 119)One reader with none of the background andpreconceptions readily identified the issue asinclusiveness. The need for clubs to takeactive steps to cater for all was addressed bythe BGA President on the same page. I argue, in brief, that the BGA’s flagshipnational event should not have been alteredin the opposite direction, to favour the few.

Charles Matthews

33

Charlotte Alison BexfieldAlison and Simon Bexfield arepleased to announce the birth oftheir daughter, Charlotte, on 3rdNovember 2000, weight 6 lb 1 oz(2.75 kg).Charlotte is not yet playing Gobut has already been enrolled as aBGA member under the familymembership scheme.


34

This is the final part of analysis of agame Hunt–Fairbairn, based on acommentary by Seong-June Kim. As Iwrite, I can give you the good newsthat Tim Hunt is now 2 dan; and JohnFairbairn 3 dan. For obvious reasons Iam unlikely to feature any more ofTim’s games.

Figure 1 (36 – 51)Figure 1 takes the game up to play 51.At this point Black is clearly ahead.The black framework in the upper lefthas become large and requires White’simmediate attention. White did invadeit but lost the game anyway.There is a sense in which Black’s strategy has proved superior to White’salready by the start of Figure 1. By playing for position on the upperand lower sides, Black has managed aquite adequate trade-off betweenpoints on the right side andinfluence over the rest of theboard. This is one aspect ofbalance in Go. Don’t become soattached to areas initially stakedout that you forget the potentialof the rest of the board.

TesujiComments to be made this timeare about the detail of fighting onthe right side. Black loses not asecond in missing a tesuji at 37.Black had the more interestingchoice at this point of the contactplay 1 in Diagram 1. This maywork either to remove White’sbase or to cut White, dependingon the reply.If in answer White simply drawsback at 2 in Diagram 2, Black

MORE MICROSCOPY ~ PART 4Charles Matthews [email protected]

36

3738

39

4041

42

43

44

4546

4748

495051

Figure 1 (36 – 51)

! 1 Tesuji

1

! 2 Good for Black

2

3


35

will also draw back with 3there. The gain to Black fromthis exchange is quite plain,so that reply for White can beruled out.

Cut

White 2 in Diagram 3 lookslike the correct answer,whatever happens next.Then, Black 3 is strong. If Black is allowed to cutthrough in the fashion shownhere, he again gets a goodresult. The position isfavourable for Black todevelop central territorybecause the black formation in the lower right has goodshape. Therefore White isquite likely to consider theresistance line shown inDiagram 4.

Ko

Diagram 4 is an interestingexcursion away from standardshapes. Up to 9, a ko fight hasarisen. At this stage of thegame there seem not to be kothreats large enough for the koto be fought out.Diagram 5 shows the probablecontinuation; Black takesdefinite side territory, whileWhite hopes for profit fromthe three weak black stones inthe centre. If you think aboutthe weaknesses in White’sposition that Black may createwith plays at A or B, you mayreasonably conclude thatWhite has a tough task.

! 3 Cut

12

3 45

67

! 4 Ko

12

34 56

789

! 5 Continuation

12

34

A

B

5


36

Alison Cross, an art teacher from London,appeared on the Times newspaper women’spage on 12th October 1990. She had beenthe winner of a hastily organised women’stournament. This win qualified her to playand come 19th in the second World AmateurWomen’s Tournament in Japan. Thefollowing day, Saturday 13th October, anAnglo-Japanese Friendship Go Match washeld at the Montcalm Hotel in London.Japan won 2-1, but the presence of profes-sionals Takemiya, Miyamoto and Saijoraised the British spirits. Later both AlisonJones and Sylvia Kalisch won in the simulta-neous display, against Takemiya. The Britsgot revenge later in the year in a regularAnglo-Japanese match, when they beat theNippon Club by a comfortable margin. The 21st Wessex Tournament was celebratedby a birthday cake and the launch of the new

Fred Guyatt Trophy for 13x13. Since 1970the Wessex had grown from 26 to 126players. Winner in 1990 was Edmund Shawon a close tie-break. The BournemouthTournament reappeared on the calendar inNovember and was won by Alex Rix. TheWest Surrey Teach-In moved to Guildford’sSurrey University. The following day’sHandicap Tournament was won by StuartBarthropp.Matthew Macfadyen held on to the BritishGo Championship, beating John Rickard 3-0. This was good practice for John though,as he was to be the UK representative at theWorld Amateur in 1991. A round up of 1990 Go in Britain can befound on the BGA web site at:

www.britgo.org/history/1990.html

PeepsThe other comments on thefighting concern thepeeping plays of White 40and Black 45. Both aresubject to criticism.In Diagram 6 we see howBlack could have answeredWhite 40 in a less passive

fashion. Black 2 theremakes good shape and ishard for White to ignore. Itappears therefore that bothWhite’s peep and Black’sanswer were mistakes.Diagram 7 shows a bettershape for Black 45. It does

more positive work forBlack’s shape. It also has anexcellent follow-up at Awhich threatens a cut by ko,and also to mangle Whiteon the right edge.

SummaryAfter 51 in Figure 1 thereare still unsettled groups onthe right side but White is inmore trouble than Blackthere. Since Black also hasbetter global prospects inthe game, it does look as ifthe tide is already runningstrongly in Black’s favour.Good luck in the future toboth players at their newgrades!! 6 Good shape

12

! 7 Multi-purpose

A1

"

TEN YEARS AGO



37

Subtitled A Guide to 3-Stone HandicapGames, Galactic Go is the first volume of aprojected 4-volume series on 3-stonehandicap games. Like its predecessor,Cosmic Go, which dealt with 4-stone games,it continues the stellar allusion to Takemiya’slarge-scale style based on the handicappoints and the perspective of the weakerplayer is assumed throughout. As White hasthe opportunity to play first in the emptycorner in 3-stone games, josekis take onconsiderably more significance, accountingfor the authors’ intention to produce separatevolumes based on White’s first move andBlack’s reply.

This first volume deals with a White firstmove at the 3-4 point and a Black smallknight’s approach. Each of the 20 chapterscovers a game, describing first a joseki orjosekis and then a series of ‘Black to play’problems in the middle game. The josekisare predominantly of the internecine varietywith White usually making a wide pincer toprevent Black from settling himself easily infront of his handicap stone, and then Blackcounter-attacking just as aggressively. Incommon with several other books onhandicap Go, Black is encouraged to attackfrom the start which, in this case, means thatthe josekis chosen are pretty complicatedand this book is addressed to strongerplayers in the 4k – 4d range.

The middle game problems, on the otherhand, I felt were standard single-digit kyumaterial: ‘direction of play’, tesuji, life anddeath, shape, oba (big points) and generalpositional problems. Problems relating tosome frequently recurring local situations inhandicap games and choosing the largestsanrensei, I found particularly useful. The games usually proceed with Blackmaking a sub-optimal move and, eventhough these games appear to be contrived,I couldn’t help wondering how Black could

be playing such weak moves in the middlegame and yet choosing complicated josekisuch as the taisha.

This was the main weakness of the book, Ithought. Someone who felt comfortable withmany of the josekis in Galactic Go, andwasn’t just playing them from rote memory,would be too strong to find much of thematerial on the middle game stimulating.Conversely, someone of around about mystrength (4 kyu) would probably get morefrom the sections on the middle game.Galactic Go does not purport to be a josekitutor; indeed, the reader is referred to estab-lished books on joseki such as Ishida’sDictionary and though there are variationswhich either go beyond or do not appear inIshida – notably in connection with thetaisha and the 4-4 contact play which aredealt with in detail – there is none of Ishida’slucid exposition. On occasion, josekis aredescribed with what looks like an attempt toimitate Ishida, by including un-annotatedexcerpts from professional games.

The design of the book is certainly the bestof any Yutopian book I’ve come across.Gone are the oversized diagrams and thesometimes out-of-place text. The layout ismainly in two columns with diagramsperfectly aligned with appropriate commen-tary - useful for concealing the answers toproblems - and the book has a distinctlyprofessional appearance. Unless, however,you are a strong player with a firm footholdin the labyrinth of joseki who happens toplay a lot of 3-stone games, I am doubtful asto exactly how useful Galactic Go might be.Something for everyone in the 8k-4d range,say, but perhaps not a lot for any particularlevel of ability.

Galactic Go is by Sangit Chatterjee andYang Huiren and is published by YutopianEnterprises.

BOOK REVIEW ~ GALACTIC GO VOLUME 1

Alan Barry [email protected]


38

This game was played between LiaoXingwen (Black, four stones) andEuropean Champion Lee Hyuk 7 dan.It was on a rest day of the Mind SportsGo events in August; to celebrate that,and my daughter’s third birthday, Iinvited a distinguished party alsoincluding Liu Yajie and Shigeno Yukito Cambridge, to go punting. Thisgame took place afterwards, the venuebeing the carpet on Charles Matthews’living room floor, earlier home tosome Subbuteo practice by Xingwen.In the light of the casual nature of thegame and the fact that he’s only sixyears old, my comments may seem tobe unduly critical. However his level isalready that of a good BGA 3 dan andit is interesting to see what a potentialtop star still has to learn.

White: Lee HyukBlack: Liao Xingwen (4 stones)

Figure 1 (1 - 30)6 is good, but playing one below at Amight be even better: it attacks White3, the heavier of the stones, moreseverely, and White will be inhibitedfrom invading at the 3-3 point in theupper left.10 is a normal idea, but I prefer Black at 11.If White answers at B, there is no problem.Otherwise White as in Diagram 1 still needsa play like 4 to patch up.White 11 leaves Black the double peep at Cbut that is and remains a bad style play,though naturally both players had to bemindful of it.12 is correct, in my view. Another optionhere, that simplifies Black’s task, may beseen in More Microscopy Part 4 on page ??.13 I don’t in general want to criticise my oldfriend Lee, but the other contact play at E

does less to help Black out into the centre,where he is anyway headed.14 No, Black should just jump out. The14/15 exchange is aji keshi.17 is a slight overplay, leaving Black thepeep at F, but White is short of good plays. 18 lacks whole board vision. The centre iscurrently the interesting area, and Whitecan’t contemplate invading this corner yet.The central fight is ‘one weak groupbetween two’, which should work out finefor Black. Now White 19 has to be quickabout it, before Black peeps at F and makes

PUNTING PARTY GAME

Seong-June Kim

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this invasion much harderto play. Black 20 would bebetter at G.22 is a poor choice; H is adefinite improvement. InDiagram 3 White’s connec-tion to the marked stone hasbecome tenuous.White 23 is really too goodto allow. Black 24 is a goodpoint, but now that White issettled below Black’s planseems less consistent.Black 26 and his followingtwo plays are consistent andsharp, but really too aggres-sive (and 28 is a loss). Atthis point in the game Blackshould identify the upperside as the interesting area,and treat 26 more lightly.The good plan is to developterritory at the top byattacking White’s remainingweak group at a saferdistance. Simply jumping once more in the centre would be adequate.

Figure 2 (31 - 63)33 is a dangerous way to play, becauseof 34; but it is amazing to see thisstrong cut actually on the board. AfterWhite 37 it seems that Black has lostthe chance to peep at 56, a question oftiming. Black 38 is strong, but asBlack plays to live on the side (nowthe chance to connect at 41 has gone),he seems to go astray at 42. Normallytaking this key eye shape point isgood, but here Black could havefollowed Diagram 4.The sequence 54 to 63 may seem to beenough for Black but, in fact, that’s abig mistake in positional judgement.In answer to 53, I think Black shouldhandle the position as in Diagram 5.

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! 4 Black 1 is strong. IfWhite jumps in to grab thekey point with 2, he has isno answer to the hane ofBlack 3 because of thecutting point at 9.

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Perhaps learning to compromise comeshard. As it is, I think half the handicapadvantage has gone, as White makesexcellent shape with 63.

Figure 3 (64 - 100)Black’s plays from 64 to 100 don’tlack punch but they can be criticised,objectively speaking. Black 64 shouldhelp the upper left, admitting that thesecentral stones might need to be sacri-ficed. Black 66, and to some extent 84also, are too territorial. I feel a strongplayer just plays 84 at 89 and awaitsWhite’s defensive play in the top areabefore deciding what to do next. Black92 might be immediately at 94.However 100 is strong, making 99look somewhat like an overplay, so it’snot all one-way traffic.

Figure 4 101 - 150 (1 – 50)The plays in Figure 4 do pretty muchsettle the issues at stake in the centralfighting. Black does well overall toconnect at 26, giving up a few stones(Lee said afterwards he’d not readeverything correctly). On the waythere are some points of style, by nomeans unimportant. The timing inthe fight on the left-hand side goesamiss for Black. There, Black Athreatening the corner should beplayed before White connects under.Black must definitely play B before26, though it is hard to see Whiteactually being able to fight thethreatened ko. As far as directiongoes, I feel 38 at 39 must be better.Black 44 needs to be at C, to hamperthe trickery with 45 and 47.

Figure 5 151 - 207 (51 – 107)Figure 5 shows White making upground, bringing the game to a veryclose finish. To manage that, Whitedoes have to dig deep in the handicapplayer’s bag of tricks (Lee spends his

Go-playing evenings in Moscow playinggames with the locals on a few stones).

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! 5 If Black can conceive of giving up thecorner in this way, he can regain strategic controlup to 7, with his central stones contributing to theframework across the upper side, rather thanbecoming a defensive burden as in the game.


White 57 is a try-on. Black shouldanswer at 61. What happens inDiagram 6 isn’t a serious loss forBlack. White’s gain with 61 wasperhaps a surprise to Black, who mayhave expected it one to the right but theko left behind with Black A, White B,up to Black G, is too hard for Black to

win, since it gambles with the wholeblack corner. Liu Yajie thought that theoutcome in this corner decided thegame, though I believe in points termsBlack still leads after coming back to78. White is really counting on beingable to squeeze more out of an attackon the central black group. It is badluck that the stylish play Black 70becomes a loss after the threats 71 and73. White tries further fast footworkwith 101, considering he has a ratherthin group over there on the right. The final piece of action took place inthe lower right. White 101 sets up a koon the side, with the double aim ofbreaking into Black’s corner andcutting with 107. For the latter Whitemust win the ko, to avoid shortage ofliberties. Black probably abbreviated theko too readily by connecting with 106.However this marked the end of the interest-ing events in this game (the record stops at108). White eventually won by 5 points.

My overall comment: this is an excitinggame that Black could have won easily, by sacrificing a single group.

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42

Friday 18th AugustThe fourth Mind Sports Olympiad(MSO) was about to start the nextday, but already media interest in theevent had started. The Timesnewspaper featured an article headedIt’s all Go for Chinese Prodigy andshowing a small Chinese boy sittingon a pile of suitcases at HeathrowAirport. This was six year old LiaoXingwen, from Guilin, who had cometo the MSO as a guest with histeacher Liu Yajie. John Fairbairn metthem on his China trip last year andmade the suggestion to invite themover; Liao was previously pictured inBGJ117. Too young to attend schoolyet, he spends nearly all day at Go andis going to be a very strong player oneday, if not a world champion. The bigquestion was how strong was he thisyear, only the MSO would tell.

Saturday 19th AugustThis year the MSO moved to another venueand the best yet. Alexandra Palace, the birthplace of British television broadcasting,is situated high on a north London hill,surrounded by parkland, with wonderfulviews of London. The exhibition centre hassuffered several times from fire but thecurrent restoration has left a very pleasantset of halls. The MSO used the West Halland the Palm Court foyer – a future targetwould be to expand into the enormous main hall. The BGA arrived early to set upits teaching area and was already teachingbeginners when Magnus Magnusson madehis opening speech with organiser TonyBuzan. Thanks to a sponsor and earlycommitment to the event by the BGA, therewere cash prizes for the Go events, unlikemost other games, so a good turn out by the7 dans was expected.

The main BGA event that day was the startof the British Championship Match, held ina quiet upstairs room. Matthew Macfadyenwon the first game by 4.5 points. It was anexciting game with the 6 dan opinion beingthat Des Cann was winning at one point inthe game. The game record was posted onthe MSO website with comments by Seong-June Kim.Main media interested focused on Liao. TheGuardian pictured him sitting in a large chairwith the title: Go getter Young master exhibitsprowess in ancient art and Radio 4’s Todayprogramme featured an interview. Liaoplayed Mick Reiss’s computer Go programGo4++ in two demonstration games. He wonfirst in an even game by resignation and thenlater by 16 points giving the computer a 9stone handicap. Sky TV News broadcastbulletins from the MSO throughout the day,including one showing the BGA BritishChampionship team adjourning for coffee,again featuring Liao.

MIND SPORTS OLYMPIAD ~ A DIARY


Matthew Macfadyen and Des Cann playing theirfirst game in the British Championship Match,held at the Mind Sports Olympiad.

Photo:K

irsty Healey


43

Sunday 20th AugustIn the West Hall there were 700 junior chessplayers plus hangers-on and the BGA’s areawas right outside the main hall doors so theteam of volunteer teachers was soonswamped with requests to learn the game.Many coming to learn had seen the mediacoverage. Professional player Yuki Shigenohad flown in from Milan and was eagerlyjoining in the teaching.

There were three Go events scheduled.Matthew Macfadyen won the second gameof the British Championship title match byresignation to lead Des Cann two games tonone. The morning tournament was theLightning attended by 24 players. Goldmedal and £500 was won by Lee Hyuk (the 7 dan Korean from Moscow) with 7/7.Seong-June Kim (6 dan Cambridge) wassecond on 6/7. Liao Xingwen and Tim Hunt(2 dan Cambridge) both finished on 4/7,with Xingwen taking the bronze medal on tiebreak. Other prizes went to Simon Bexfield(1 dan London) with 6/7 in the McMahonsection, Shawn Hearn (10 kyu Berks Youth)with 5/7, Alistair Brooks (22 kyu Swindon)the youth prize with 4.5/7, Chuck Smith (30 kyu) with 6/7 and Mark Stretch (30 kyu)the beginner’s prize with 4/7.

The afternoon Youth Tournament had 13kids from 3 dan to 30 kyu and 6 to 17 years.Ordering was full board result followed by9x9 percentage result. It was won by LiaoXingwen with 2/2 + 75% (giving him goldand £250 to go with his bronze medal and£200 of the morning). Second Jimmy Mao(1 kyu Bristol) and third was Tom Blockley(3 kyu Worcester). Under-14 winner wasAdam Eckersley-Waites (10 kyu Cambridge)with 2 + 80%, Under-12 was WilliamBrooks (8 kyu Cambridge) with 100% on9x9 and Under-11 was Paul Blockley (25 kyu Worcester) with 2 and 67%. FrankPrager’s 100% on 9x9 was unfortunately notgood enough for a prize because of theordering used.

Monday 21st August The only Go event this day was the third andas it turned out final game of the BritishChampionship. Matthew Macfadyen won byresignation. He therefore wins the titleBritish Champion for 2000; the 16th timeand the fourth in 4 years. For the rest of theweek, Adam Atkinson and the teaching andsales stand moved from the centre of thePalm Court to a spot under a palm treetowards one end. Will we ever know howmany of the palm tree’s population ofspiders learned to play Go? Anyway with not much going on there was the chance towander around and see what other groupswere up to. Poker, Bridge and Chess alwaysseemed to have something happening andthe European Shogi Championships weretaking place in a side room decorated withgreek heroes. Unfortunately for Go theseother games were attracting players whomight otherwise have been sitting at the Goboards - Harold Lee at Poker, America’sLarry Kaufman and France’s Mr. Uno atShogi. Other Go players were seen duringthe week splitting their time between Go and other games - such as quizzes andthinking problems.

Tuesday 22nd August The computer Go event in the Mind SportsOlympiad was played as a double round-robin, with each pair of programs playingtwice, with colours reversed. Time limitswere 60 minutes each, with no overtime andChinese (area) rules were used. The clearwinner, with ten wins out of ten, wasProfessor Chen Zhixing’s GoeMate. Dr.Michael Reiss’s Go4++ (sold as GoProfessional 3) was second; its only losseswere to GoeMate, one of them by only half apoint. Hiroshi Yamashita’s Aya was third,losing games to GoeMate and to Go4++ andlosing one game to Bruno Bouzy’s Indigo.Tristan Cazenove’s GoLois lost all its games,despite achieving several won positions. Itwas running on a laptop computer and was


programmed to keep within the time limitsby speeding up, playing much worse. Givenmore time, a faster processor, or morememory, it was thought it would have scoredmuch better. The guests, including LiaoXingwen and Yuki Shigeno, spent a daypunting in Cambridge and helping tocelebrate the third birthday of Seong-JuneKim’s daughter.

Wednesday 23rd August The first two rounds of the Open tournamenttook place, 38 players took part in this, themain event. Liao Xingwen lost in round oneto Matthew Macfadyen (6 dan Leamington)but won in round two against Francis Roads(4 dan Wanstead). The four 7 dan playerswere winning as expected: Guo Juan, LeeHyuk, Shutai Zhang and Du Jingyu, theChinese from Germany. The crunch gameswere expected to take place on the Thursday.

Thursday 24th August The second day of the three-day Open sawGuo Juan, the 7 dan former Chinese ladyprofessional 5 dan, now from the Netherlands,as the only one to survive to day 3 unbeaten,beating Lee and Du Jingyu. Shutai Zhang,visiting from China, lost to Du.

Friday 25th August The Open swelled to 40 players forits last day. The medal placingsended up: Gold and £2000 to GuoJuan with 6/6; Silver and £1200 toZhang Shutai with 4/6 (having lostto Guo in the last round); Bronzeto Lee Hyuk also with 4/6. Otherson 4/6 were fourth-placed DuJingyu (7 dan), fifth GeertGroenen (6 dan Netherlands) andsixth Chen Zhixing (5 dan). Prizesfor 4 points went to UK playersPaul Margetts (1 dan), AndrewMorris (1 kyu) and Tom Cooper(15 kyu). Highlight for many, ofcourse, was the small Chinese boy,Liao Xingwen beating Des Cann,

the recent British Championship Challenger.However, he beat neither the BritishChampion nor Du, ending on 3/6.

Saturday 26th August An all day Rapid Tournament attracted 42players, including a party of Koreans whowere winners at the Korean MSO, but didn’tarrive in time for the Open. Winner was oneof these: Moon Il Do, whose 6/6 earned thegold medal and £750. The Silver went to DuJingyu with 5/6 and the Bronze to LuJinqiang on tie from Guo Juan (both 4/6).Also on 4/6 were Wang Xang Dong andZhang Shutai. Prizes for 4/6 went to JimClare (3 dan), Alison Bexfield (2 dan),Tristan Cazenove (1 kyu France), SuePaterson (2 kyu), Alexei Nemolovskii (2 kyuUkraine), Frank Prager (8 kyu, Youthwinner) and Nicola Hurden (12 kyu).

Sunday 27th August 10 pairs joined in the first MSO Pair GoTournament. Pairs ranged from 7 dan to 10kyu and were from China and UK and alsomulti-country pairs such as the German fromLondon playing with the Korean fromRussia. The results started off as expected:

44

Sylvia Kalisch & Lee Hyuk play Liao Xingwen & LiuYajie in the Pair Go Tournament at the MSO.

Photo:Tony A

tkins


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Gold to Guo Juan & Du Jingyu (7 dan),Silver to Sylvia Kalisch & Lee Hyuk (4.5 dan) but Bronze to Alison Bexfield &Simon Bexfield (1.5 dan). This was after aplay-off against fourth placed Liu Yajie &Liao Xingwen (the result being determinedby a half a point and a few clock seconds).Prizes in the lower division for 2/3 went toAnna Griffiths & Tony Atkins (3.5 kyu) andNicola Hurden & Shawn Hearn (10 kyu).The Times Crossword Competition Londonarea heat contained a few Go players such asDavid Vine and John McLeod.

Monday 28th August The last Go event at the Olympiad was13x13. Nine players took part in the novicescompetition (a non-medal event): 1st TomCooper (13 kyu) 5/5; 2nd Vojtech Hrabal (16 kyu) 4/5; 3rd Lene Jakobsen 2/4; Youthprize to Lasse Jakobsen with 4/6. Four ofthese players joined the 18 players in the topsection for the afternoon. The prize money

for first and second was shared. Gold wasGuo Juan (5/6); Silver was Lee Dong Hwan(aged 13 from Korea) (also 5/6 equal onSOS); Bronze was Lee Hyuk (4/6); 4th wasMoon Il Do (4/6); 5th was Seong-June Kim(3/6 best SOS). Prizes for 4/6 went toTatsukomi Hiroyoshi (1 dan Japan), BillStreeten (3 kyu), Stephane Nicolet (7 kyuSwiss). The Novice prize went to VojtechHrabal (Czechia).

So the fourth and largest MSO came to anend. The Go stand was packed up and theplayers left hurriedly so the Czech folksongs and the closing ceremony were missedbut it will all be on again next August at thesame place. Unfortunately we could not saygoodbye to Liao Xingwen as he did notcome to play on the Monday, probablybecause small boards are for children, butwe expect to see much more of this childprodigy in the future.

LADDER? WHAT LADDER?Figure 1 shows the first game of thisyear’s Honinbo match. It appeared inthe September issue of Wei Qi Tian Di.White must have been very surprisednot to say despairing on reading outthe ladder after Black 59.Wei Qi Tian Di is the main Chinese Go magazine and comes out monthly.While only available in Chinese, it isstill very interesting and contains manycommented games from the majortournaments. Wei Qi Tian Di can beobtained by subscription from:

Guanghwa Company Ltd,7 Newport Place, London WC2 7JR.

Annual subscriptions keep going upbut the last one was £28. Guanghwaalso have a web site at:

www.guanghwa.co.uk

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Figure 1 Honinbo Title Match Game 1White: O Meien Black: Cho Sonjin

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46

BRITISH CHAMPIONSHIP 2000 ~ THE TITLE MATCH

Matthew Macfadyen [email protected]

Championship Game 1

White: Matthew MacfadyenBlack: Des CannKomi for the games of the Title Match was 5.5 points

Figure 1 (1 - 97)

The game begins to take shape withBlack 15. Des is going to pay what itcosts on the left to build a largecentral position. My cut with 22 and24 raises a further clutch of issues. Isthis a weak group subject to profitableattack, or a strong base for counterat-tack? Is the black group in the upperleft safe or can it be reduced in sente?in particular: is the second lineblocking / crawling move to the left of9 sente for either side?Up to 36 I decided that my group hadbecome strong enough to act as alaunching pad for further operations, but thiswas a bit optimistic. The sequence to 44goes a long way towards surrounding theentire lower left area, but this is neithercompletely secure nor obviously big enough.Des could have played from the otherdirection at 45, chasing my group into thearea where neither side stood to maketerritory. But in that case the right sidewould be large enough and loose enough toinvade. In the game sequence, Black got toplay moves like 47 and 57 securing histerritory without having to spend movesdoing it. The game is flowing well for Black.As soon as my weak group started lookingalive, I return to securing the lower area, butthis is all becoming very hard work. Desreturns to the attack with 79 and is able tomake progress towards surrounding thelower right on a huge scale.

Black 95 is the last chance to play thisimportant point, and then Des tries to startthe endgame with 97.

Figure 2 97 – 184 (1 – 88)

At this stage the game is looking like a 10point win for Black, and it may well haveturned out that way if I had not spent fouryears losing title matches to Zhang Shutai.The vital lesson here is that, if you seem tobe losing the game it is a good idea to tryplaying a different game. So the expansionof the lower left area has to be left alone,and something stirred up on the right.Up to 8 I establish a live group in the corner,but then a small glint of light appears whenDes tries to play a sente move at 9. In orderto force me to make the eye at 20 he has tohang on to the centre stones which mighteasily be better sacrificed later on.

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Black 21 had definitely better shut thebottom corner in with 29. thingsbecome confusing after 28.Up to 41 I was able to capture threestones in sente and there is still theoption of living in the bottom rightcorner, though the double sente movesat 42 and 43 come first.Black 49 is a clever move, coveringthe immediate threats on the left whilealso killing the corner, but now Blackhas become thin in the centre.The last big decision is at 63, whereDes can look after the upper left group(play 76 for example) and let me in tothe lower right. neither way seemsquite big enough.The sequence from 68 to 88 is crudebut effective. Now Black does nothave enough territory.Des kept control of this game almostall the way through. it only required alittle more spare energy at the pointwhere I was reduced to speculativeboat rocking.White wins by 4.5.

Game 2White: Des CannBlack: Matthew Macfadyen

This game was surprisingly one sidedafter the close tussle of the day before.Des started to get into trouble veryearly on, with a succession of veryslightly inaccurate moves makingthings a little too easy for Black.

Figure 4 1 – 121 (overleaf)

White 14 should be one line higher,then Black is puzzled as to whichextension to make from below.White 16 should be in the otherdirection, pointing towards Black’swider and more attackable position.

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White 20 is good. The black positionsabove and below both look fairly solid,but White will probably have to wreckat least one of them to get back intothe game and building a strongposition in the area where you expectto fight later is the key to a successfulopening.White 24 starts a fight. This is notunreasonable, but...White 30 is far too slow. This connec-tion makes a heavy group whichcomes under immediate attack. betteris to start the ko immediately, planningeither to make this white position big,or to do damage elsewhere whiletaking a local loss.White 36 is another slow move. thecorner could not actually be killed.Black 43 does not capture the fivestones cleanly, but White has no timeto rescue them.White has taken a big loss on the upper side,and needs a big gain on the left to compen-sate, but when I was able to establish areasonably safe group on the left side insente up to 72, the game became hopelessfor White.Des struggled gamely, trying to find usefulthings to do in three different areas with 76,78, 80 in the hope that they might somehowcombine.I just rushed around patching up weaknessesas fast as possible, and there was nothing leftto do by the time Des resigned at 121.

Game 3Playing 6 hour games on three successivedays is hard work. Des had a difficult gameplan to devise here, needing to keep thegame close enough early on as well asretaining enough energy to play a tightendgame if need be.

White: Matthew MacfadyenBlack: Des Cann

Figure 5 1 – 72The game started with both sides sketchingout half of the board.Black 13 looks a little odd; it does not reallysecure the right side and does not expand thecentre as much as possible. The normal ideawould be to play on or near the centre spot.White 14 was not really a good move. GuoJuan thought that things could have beenharder for White if 17 had played haneround the white stones, making sure theycould not escape to the centre.The sequence to 34 looks natural enough,but the result is far too good for White. Theinvading stones have access to both sidesand to the centre.Black 35 and 37 attempt to shut White in butthis is not possible. Des was overheating abit here. There are still various ways inwhich White might be attacked later and itwould be better to leave the attack and getstarted on some invasions of his own.The sequence to 52 just about wraps up thegame. the white invasion has been a

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complete success. Now Black has tofind something even better on thewhite side.

Figure 6 73 – 174 (1 – 102)

Black 73 (1 in Figure 6) is a spiritedplay, keeping open the option ofseveral possibilities for invasion,reduction and attack.If the game is to work for Black, thenthere will need to be some stage atwhich White is struggling to survive.There is no point in pulling out theblack cutting stones at the top until atleast one of the white side groups issmall enough to be counterattacked.With 1, Des hopes to keep the whitelower corner stones busy enough thatsome sort of attack can be mounted onthe left side stones later on.White 2. I decided to look after theupper area first.White 28 is greedy. I was trying todefend my weaknesses by creatingattacking possibilities against the blackwall in the centre but the game couldbe won from here by playing simply.White 36 cuts off a third black groupin this area and none of them issecurely alive. Probably somethingwill turn up and Black will collapse,but both sides are taking risks.Black 53 is not sharp enough. Des hasspotted that the big white group on theright is still not completely alive andwants to keep it that way, as well asrescuing the lower stones, but thisstone has to be at 126 immediately.Black 69. A nice big capturing race tofinish things off.White 86, which connects at 51, is notnecessary, but it is sufficient.Black tries a speculative cut at the top andfinds several more unfavourable capturingraces, but nothing works.

Des made a very good job of finding compli-cations in an unfavourable position in thisgame, but there was a bit too much to doafter the successful white invasion early on.

1

23

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

1415 1617

18192021

222324

25

26 2728

2930

3132

33

34 3536

373839

4041 4243

444546

47

48

49 5051

52 5354

55

56

57 585960

6162

6364

65

666768

69

7071

72

Figure 5 1 – 72

123 4

56

789

1011

121314 1516

171819

20

212223

24

25

2627

28

29

3031

32

333435

36

37

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3940

4142

4344 45

464748

49

5051

52

535455 56

5758 59

6061 62

6364

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69 7071

72

7374

75

76

7778

79

808182

84

85

8788

8990

91

9293 94

9596

9798

99100

101102

Figure 6 73 – 174 (1 – 102) 86 connects at 51


50

Figure 1 shows the opening of agame played by Hashimoto Utaro(Black) and Fujisawa Shuko (White)in January 1955. The positionreached at the end of the figure is theone chosen by Des Cann as thestarting position for the FusekiFollow-On Tournament in Guildfordin July this year. There were fourrounds in the tournament, each playerplaying this position twice as Blackand twice as White.Before the first round, the playershad a few minutes to study theposition and decide on theirapproaches. We’ll have a look atwhat they came up with and at howthe professionals played. Beforereading on, you mike like to decidehow you would play.

Professional OpeningIn the opening, Fujisawa began with a 3-3point, played a low approach move at 10,and played for solid territory in the sequencefrom 42 to 51. In contrast, Hashimoto beganwith a 4-4 point, played a high approachmove at 5, and played for outside influencein the sequence from 42 to 51.White 12 is not mentioned in the Ishidadictionary. The ensuing sequence is verydifficult, but the result fits with the strategieselsewhere. The territory in the lower right isroughly equal, but Black has played onemove more than White. He has used theextra move to make an outside group that ismuch stronger and more shapely thanWhite’s three stones at 22/30/40, whichBlack can cut off from their friends byplaying at A.The result of all this is that, by the end of thefigure, White is well ahead in firm territory,while Black has a huge moyo in and to the

left of the centre. This sets the agenda for themiddle game: White will have to make surethat the Black centre doesn’t become aterritory even larger than his own. Black willwant to attack White in such a way as to doone of: (a) make lots of territory throughattacking, or (b) causing the fight to run intoWhite’s territories and damage them.

Amateur Follow-onThat’s the middle-game agenda, but have wereached the middle-game yet, or is there stillsome fuseki to play? Everyone in the tourna-ment at Guildford thought there was,focussing on the upper right corner. Of the10 games I’ve seen from the tournament,White began at B in 5 of them (3 differentplayers). Perhaps they chose that sidebecause it gives some help to the threestones lower down that could be cut off. It’sthe move I would have chosen, too.The next most popular move was White C (3 games, 2 players). This seems rather less

COLLATERAL GAINS, COLLATERAL DAMAGE

Simon Goss [email protected]

4 D8 C 1

44 42 5 646 43 7 45 B

9 G51

NM P

L 40 30K F E 22 29

37 A 39H 47 15 14 23 28 24 21 41J 49 17 13 12 26 25 27 32 48 50 11 16 35 10 31 18 19

34 33 32 2036

Figure 1 38 at 10


appealing than B does. The high approachmove has more to do with developinginfluence than territory, and the stone atBlack 45 makes the upper side an unattrac-tive place for White to build a moyo.Two of the three Black players who werefaced with White C replied with Black B.That’s good, weakening the three whitestones below. Possibly Black G might havebeen even better.One player started with White D, which issurely too slow. The exchange of White 46for Black 51 has made the upper left cornervery strong, so White D has the feeling ofmaking territory in front of thickness.Anyway, Black 45 makes it easy to erasethat territory, and Black can enlarge andstrengthen the moyo by doing that.One player (Dave Lorking) did begin insidethe moyo. He played at E, then at F, gettingBlack to protect his weak stones at 47 and49. But then he left the centre alone to playnext at G, giving a feeling that he simplywanted to probe the moyo a little beforecontinuing the fuseki. However, I’m not sureabout this, because when Dave was Black,he ignored White B to reinforce themoyo with an immediate move at H.A danger of White delaying operationsin the moyo is that Black may findtime to reinforce it himself first. Thishappened in all but two of the tengames I’ve seen. The favourite moveto reinforce it was Black J (5 games, 3 players). One player chose Black H,which is less forceful but gives Whiteless excuse to reinforce the corner.Jackie Chai had a very interestingstrategy for developing the moyo asBlack. Diagram 1 shows her gameagainst Dave Lorking. CombiningBlack 57 with the cap at 59, Jackiemakes the moyo extend all the wayfrom the left side through the centre tothe upper side. Unintimidated, Davegoes and takes a good territory in the

upper right corner, but Jackie replies bymaking solid shape, then goes on the attackwith 65 to 69. This is the real point: byattacking the white group on the left, Blacklooks like making a large territory on theupper side. White is worried enough aboutthis to try a second invasion at 70, andJackie has a fine splitting attack going.Jackie won both this and her other game asBlack, in which she used a similar strategy.Returning to Figure 1, let’s look at White’sways of dealing with the moyo. Threeplayers chose to invade deeply, at F, K and Lrespectively. F and K take aim at theweakness of the Black stones at 47 and 49and seem a good way to start. White Lseems to me to be weaker, since it makesless use of that black weakness and is closerto the very strong black group above.Three players chose to reduce from above, atM, N and P. By the time these moves wereplayed, the positions above and to the righthad evolved somewhat, so it isn’t possible tocomment on the choice of point in isolation.Now let’s see what the professionals did.Fujisawa decides to deal with the moyo

51

61 60 6257 63 64

7059 58

6968

65

54 5266

6755 5356

! 1 Dave Lorking vs Jackie Chai


straight away, invading deeply at 52and 54. Hashimoto attacks reallyviolently, stealing White’s base with55-59 and chasing White out into thecentre. Up to 80 it looks as if theargument favours White, who has eyeshape and has poked his head out intothe open, while the moyo has beenreduced to a small territory on the left.But Hashimoto has more up his sleeve.Black 81 threatens to turn the upperright corner into serious territory, andis also looking daggers at the threeWhite stones on the right side. WhenFujisawa challenges for the territory,Hashimoto lets him take it in exchangefor more outward influence and thenlaunches the cutting sequence of 97and 99. The three White stones havebecome isolated inside an area whereBlack is strong. White 100 begins theirdefence.Figure 3 shows the rest of themiddlegame. White manages to settlehimself on the right side and Blacktakes sente to attack the upper side.When the dust settles after theextremely complicated sequence there,White gets sente to begin the endgamewith 140.At the end of the game, the score onthe board was equal; White won by the5.5 komi. It’s interesting to considerhow it became so close. After all, atthe end of Figure 1 White had muchmore solid territory than Black.Black’s resource was the moyo, and inFigure 2 that got ‘trashed’, as weamateurs like to say. Once that hadhappened, Black was in a position tolaunch a new attack on the right, butWhite survived that just fine too. Sohow did Black manage to get so close?The answer can be found by looking atFigure 3. In the course of the fighting Blackhas managed to pick up several new pockets

of solid territory: a bit on the left side; a biton the right; a bigger bit at the top; and hewill certainly get some in the centre. Weamateurs see the big areas more easily than

52

84 86 9096 83 82 89 94

85 92 9593

81100

88 9165 54 74 78 80 87

59 76 7561 55 64 79

60 57 56 52 70 77 9958 62 66 98 9753 63 69 71 73

67 68 72

Figure 2

23 39 22 2134 35 26 3136 33 37 14

38 9 732 29 24 8 6 1730 28 27 25 19 1 15

3 2 165 4 1011

1213 18

20

40

Figure 3


53

we count up the fives and tens, and weworry when our moyos get trashed.But really, perhaps it is better to say,not that it was trashed, but that it wastraded. It is the sum of those newpockets of Black territory that shouldtell us what the moyo was actuallyworth. That’s the meaning of the‘Collateral Gains’ in the title.Diagram 2 illustrates some more ideasin this position It’s the game betweenMike Cockburn (Black) and JimmyMao. Black 4 is an idea similar toJackie Chai’s. White 5 shows thedanger of getting side-tracked from themain issue. If White ends up with aweak group here he is going to find itvery hard to fight in the centre and onthe left.White makes a good territory up to 17(it would have been smaller if Black16 were at 17), but Black’s outside wallmakes the moyo much stronger, so whenWhite tries to reduce at 21, Black goes onthe attack with 22. That’s important.During the next few moves, Jimmy playedaway from the centre several times, takinglots of territory but again letting Blackbecome strong in the centre. By the timeMike launches his eye-stealing tesuji at 50,the onlookers are slobbering for a kill.

Mike’s attack is very severe, but it’s veryhard to kill big groups. Jimmy manages tofind a way to connect to the upper left atWhite 75, but at a cost. Black 72 and 76 putWhite’s upper side in trouble. That illustrateswhat the ‘Collateral Damage’ in the titlemeans. When you attack your opponentinside your moyo, you may not kill, but ifthe fight goes where you can take pointsfrom your opponent elsewhere, then thosepoints are part of the value of the moyo too.

76 17 15 72 9 7 5 1274 4 16 13 10 8 6 2 375 73 71 14

69 67 63 66 11 136 37 70 68 62 6135 39 49 50 65 64 46 42 4333 34 32 31 60 23 59 44 4538 40 26 25 55 47 48 41

24 29 21 58 2228 27 57 56 54

30 51 5352

20 1819

! 2 Jimmy Mao vs Mike Cockburn

"

TengenThe centre handicap (or heaven) point on aGo board. Also the name of one of the BigSeven Tournaments in Japan. The Challenger for the title is determinedby knock-out tournaments, the play-offbeing best of five.

JudanLiterally ‘tenth grade’, one higher than thenormal ninth grade or dan. Since 1962Judan has been a tournament, one of theBig Seven. It is characterised by a doubleknock-out to choose the challenger.

Tony Atkins

IN THE DARK?


The 2000 Mind SportsOlympiad included acomputer Go tournament.This was played as a doubleround-robin. The medal-winners are shown in Table 1.This article discusses two positions from this tournament.Figure 1 is from the game betweenGo4++ (Black) and GoLois. Go4++

has just played the marked stone.When I saw this move, I asked MichaelReiss, the author of Go4++, about thedodgy-looking connections up the left sideof the board. He explained that his programreasons as follows:

The six stones in the lower left cornerare a living group.The six stones in the lower left cornerare connected to the stones marked a.The stones marked a are connected tothe stones marked b.

The stones marked b are connected tothe triangled stone.Therefore the triangled stone is secure.

Of course this logic is not valid. Diagram 1shows one way to refute it.The logic ‘A is connected to B, and B isconnected to C, therefore A is connected toC’ is not valid. It may seem surprising that aleading Go program such as Go4++ canafford to follow such fallacious reasoning.All I can say is that, despite its use of suchreasoning, Go4++ is one of the world’sstrongest programs.

54

COMPUTER GO ~ ALL DOWN TO THE REF?Nick Wedd [email protected]

Medal Programmer Program Nation WinsGold Chen Zhixing GoeMate China 10/10Silver Michael Reiss Go4++ UK 8/10Bronze Yamashita Hiroshi Aya Japan 5/10

Table 1 Computer Go winners at the MSO

bb

aa

Figure 1 ! 1

1 2

345


What’s the score?Figure 2 shows the final positionfrom the game between Indigo(Black) and Aya. Both players havejust passed. The status of the largeblack group occupying much of thelower half of the board is of interest.Diagram 2 shows a very simplemethod by which Black can form asecond eye. If this had been played,Black would have won the game by371/2 points (we were using Chinesescoring with 61/2 points komi).

In fact White would do better toanswer 1 by playing at A, which would savemost of his lower right corner. But Blackwould still save his large group and win thegame by 51/2 points.If Black does nothing, White can play at A,saving his entire lower right group, keepingthe large black group one-eyed, and winningthe game by 1811/2 points.I am not concerned with why these twoprograms failed to make such an importantmove. I am concerned with how to score thisgame. Both players have passed, so the gameis over. Yet we do not know whether thelarge black group is alive; and withoutknowing this, we cannot count the game.The principle usually applied in gamesbetween humans is that the status of a group(whether it is alive or dead) is what theplayers think it is, even if the onlookersknow better. If the players agree, the game isscored accordingly. If they disagree, theyplay out a ‘resolution subgame’ to establishwho is right.

In this game I, as referee, applied thisprinciple. I asked both programmers to asktheir programs about the status of the groupsinvolved. Both programs agreed that thelarge black group was dead. Therefore Ideclared White the winner.I was fortunate in being able to do this. Thetournament rules did not oblige programs tobe able to reveal what they think about thestatus of groups. Even if there had been suchan obligation, it would be impossible tomake them do so honestly.Adjudicating the result of a game is fareasier if it can be assumed that theprograms, and the programmers, are honest.But even when they are, a problem canarise. If, in the position of Figure 2, theBlack program had claimed that the largeblack group was alive and the Whiteprogram had claimed that it was dead, whatshould be done? When such a dispute arisesbetween human players, a resolutionsubgame is played to establish the status ofany doubtful groups. However, programs do

55

Figure 21 2 3

45A

! 2


56

not generally understand the concept of a resolution subgame: if you tell them to carry onplaying, they just pass again. There is also the question of who moves first inthe subgame. As both players have already passed,each should be willing to concede their opponentthe first move in the subgame. But in the positionof figure 2, whoever first plays a sensible move inthe subgame should win it. The Japanese rulesstate that, if neither player is willing to concedefirst move in the subgame, then both lose. I do notknow how Chinese rules handle this situation. Forcomputer Go, it is not clear whether the operatorof a program should have the right to concede thefirst move in the resolution subgame on behalf ofthe program: it could be correct to do so if theresult of the game does not depend on the statusof the disputed groups.The basic problem is that the various formulationsof the rules of Go assume, either that the players arecompetent, or that they are able to negotiate on thestatus of groups and to resolve disagreements byplaying out resolution subgames. With computer programs, neither of these assump-tions is true. I believe that computer Go is currentlybeing played in a way that can potentially leave thereferee with the task of deciding who has won thegame, but without adequate guidelines for doing so.

THE TRIPOD GROUP

Henry Segerman

!


57

August in EuropeNot much else happens in August with theMSO, US Open and the European going on.In the coverage of the European last time Imust apologise for the use of the phrase‘deflated grade’; this was not meant to beinsulting but was meant to highlight thedifferences between British kyu gradings and European ones.

September in Europe 202 players took part in the 9th ObayashiCup at the EGCC in Amsterdam. Fourplayers from Britain took part: Sally Prime(7 kyu Oxford) and Christin Meikeljohn (2 dan London) won 2/4. The top 16 players(3 or 4 wins 3 dan to 7 dan) proceeded to theknockout. Vladimir Danek knocked out GuoJuan, but lost to Filip van der Stappen.Franz-Jospeh Dickhut knocked out MerliinKuin, Frank Janssen and van der Stappen.Du Jingu knocked out Roebertie, Pei Zhao,Colmez and Dickhut to win the first prize. Two weeks later the Toyota TourTournament at Prague attracted 98 players.Four players won 5/6 and were sorted by tie-break. First was Leszek Soldan (6 danPoland) who only lost to Koszegi, secondwas Viktor Bogdanov (6 dan Russia) wholost to Nechanicky and third was DianaKoszegi (5 dan Hungary) who lost toKuzela. Starting below the bar MartinKuzela (3 dan Czechia) was fourth includinga win over fifth placed Radek Nechanicky (5 dan Czechia). Sixth was Vladimir Danek(6 dan Czechia) and seventh was UK’sPiers Shepperson (5 dan) with 4/6.

October in Europe The last day in September and the first ofOctober was the weekend of the BucharestToyota Tour event. Best of the 63 playerswas Cristian Pop (6 dan Romania) with aperfect 6. Second was Dragos Bajenaru

(5 dan Romania) with 5/6. Equal third wereperennial Toyota Tourists Victor Bogdanov(6 dan Russia) and Vladimir Danek (6 danCzechia) with 4/6. The following weekend Bratislava was thevenue for Diana Koszegi (5 dan) to winwith 5/5. Fellow Hungarian Tibor Pocsai (5 dan) was second with 4/5 and third wereOndrej Silt (4 dan) and Vladimir Danek (6 dan). The 15th Brussels Tournament was also aToyota Tour event on 28th and 29thOctober. Best of the 66 players was GuoJuan (7 dan Netherlands) who dropped agame against Nijhuis. Second equal wereVladimir Danek (6 dan Czechia), who onlylost to Guo, and Emil Nijhuis (5 danNetherlands), who only lost to Danek.Fourth place, also by tie-break, was GeertGroenen (6 dan Netherlands) who only lostto Guo. Fifth place went to top Belgian,Allain Wettach (3 dan). Sixth was Filip vander Stappen (6 dan Netherlands) andseventh was UK’s T. Mark Hall (4 dan).David Hall (no relation) tried to hide apoor British showing by entering as aBelgian 5 kyu.

WORLD GO NEWS


!

PROBLEM SOLVED!There is a free interactive service to solvelife & death problems on-line.lie.maths.qmw.ac.uk/GoToolsApplet.html

Thanks to Jean-Pierre Vesinet (Paris) itnow has a graphical interface. For closedor nearly closed problems it is veryefficient. For example, the ‘CarpentersSquare’ is solved in about 3 seconds and‘The Diamond’ in about 2 minutes.

Thomas Wolf [email protected]


58

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CorrectionsThe address given in BGJ 120 for sgf files ofJournal games was incorrect. The address is:www.faldara.co.uk/Go/BGJ/BGJ-Index.html

Youth ChampionshipsThe date on the entry form for the YouthChampionships is incorrect. The correct dateis Sunday 21st January.

Journal ContributionsPlease send contributions for the SpringJournal as soon as possible and in any caseby 16th February.Copy sent via e-mail is especially welcome.Please supply plain text as all formattinginformation will be discarded.Diagrams can be supplied as mgt or sgf filesfrom any recent Go editing program.Please e-mail your contribution to:

[email protected] post to:

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!

© 2000 BGA. Items may be reproducedfor the purpose of promoting Go providedthat all such copies are attributed to theBritish Go Journal. All other rights reserved.Views expressed are not necessarily thoseof the BGA or of the Editor.

SMALL ADSKido Yearbook 1978 wanted

Would swap 1975 (great cover) or [email protected]

Willing to pay a good pricefor any of the following outof print books:

The Breakthrough To Shodan,Enclosure Josekis, All AboutLife and Death Vols 1 & 2,All About Thickness, Kato'sAttack and Kill.Vince Suttle 01473 [email protected]

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IN THE NEWS

Eternity ~ Not So Long After All?Cambridge Go players Alex Selby andOliver Riordan were in the news recently asthe first to solve ‘Eternity’ – a tiling problemdeveloped by Christopher Monckton.Basically, Eternity is a polygonal jigsawpuzzle with an ingenious set of pieces. The object is to fit the 209 pieces into atwelve sided figure. A prize of £1,000,000was offered for the first solution.Alex and Oliver finally found a solution onMay 15th 2000, some six weeks ahead oftheir nearest rival though it took some timeto confirm that theirs was indeed the firstsolution. You can read Charles Matthews’account of their discovery through aninterview with Alex at:

www.msoworld.com/mindzine/news/miscellany/eternity.html

59

FORTHCOMING EVENTS

JanuarySaturday 20thFurze Platt, at Hitachi Europe HQ atWhitebrook Park, Maidenhead. Flexiblekomi will apply with players bidding to playBlack. Entries to Chris [email protected] Sunday 21stThe British Youth Go Championships atFitzharrys School, Abingdon. Please note:the date on the entry form is incorrect.Contact Simon Goss, Butler Road,Crowthorne, Berks RG45 6QY01344 777 9634

FebruarySaturday 10th:Cheshire, at the Rolls-Royce & BentleyMotors Works Restaurant, Pyms Lane,Crewe, Cheshire.This event is taking place alongside theCrewe Chess Congress. Many thanks tothem, and to Rolls-Royce & Bentley Motors,for providing the venue. Entries to Tony Atkins 0118 926 8143 Saturday 17th (Provisional):Oxford. Contact Niall Cardin.

MarchSunday 4th:Trigantius, in Cambridge. Contact AlexSelby. [email protected] 17th-18th:Candidates’ Tournament. Contact Tim Hunt. Late in the month: Coventry.Saturday-Sunday 31st March-1st April:Irish Open. Contact John [email protected]

For the most up to date information on future events, visit the BGA web site at:

www.britgo.org/tournamentsAlex Selby and Oliver Riordan with theirpuzzle solution and what looks like quitea lot of money.


60

! PRESIDENT: Alison Bexfield29 Forest Way, Woodford Green, Essex IG8 0QF(020 8504 6944) [email protected]

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BGA OFFICIALS

! indicates member of BGA Council


61

BATH: Paul Christie 01225 428 [email protected] Meets at The RisingSun near Pulteney Bridge, Wed 7.30pm.

BILLERICAY: Guy Footring 01277 623 [email protected] Meets Mon.

BIRMINGHAM: Kevin Roger 01214 494 [email protected] various places.

BOLTON: Stephen Gratton 01617 613 465Meets Mon 7.30pm.

BOURNEMOUTH: Neil Cleverly 01202 659 [email protected] Meets at 24Cowper Rd, Moordown, Tues 8pm.

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CHELTENHAM: David Killen 01242 576 524 (h)Meets various places, Wed 7.30pm.

CHESTER: Dave Kelly 01244 544 [email protected] at Olde Custom House, Watergate St,Chester, Weds 8.00pm.

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EDINBURGH: Howard Manning 0131 667 [email protected] Meetsat 4 Bright’s Crescent, Edin. EH9, Weds7.30pm.

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HIGH WYCOMBE: Paul Clarke 01494 438 [email protected] Meets Weds8.00pm.

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HULL: Mark Collinson 01482 341 [email protected] alternate Weds 7.30pm.

IPSWICH: Vince Suttle 01473 625 [email protected] Meets Thurs.evenings in the Brewery Tap, Cliff Road.

ISLE OF MAN: David Phillips 01624 612 294Meets Mon 7.30pm.

UK CLUB LIST

! Indicates new information


LANCASTER: Adrian Abrahams 01524 [email protected] Meets Weds.7.30pm Gregson Community Centre, 33 Moorgate.

LEAMINGTON: Matthew Macfadyen01926 624 445 Meets Thurs 7.30pm.

LEICESTER: Richard Thompson 0116 276 [email protected] Meets at 5 Barbara Avenue,LE5 2AD, Thurs 7:45pm.

MAIDENHEAD: Iain Attwell 01628 676 792Meets various places Fri 8pm.

MANCHESTER: Chris Kirkham 01619 039 [email protected] Meets at the SquareAlbert in Albert Square, Thurs 7.30pm.

MONMOUTH: Gerry Mills 01600 712 [email protected] by arrangement.

NEWCASTLE: John Hall 01912 856 [email protected] various places, Weds.

NORWICH: Keith Osborne 01603 487 433Meets first, third & fifth Weds of month.

OPEN UNIVERSITY & MILTON KEYNES:Fred Holroyd 01908 315 [email protected] Meets 1st Mondayof the month in O.U. Theatre Bar others atWetherspoons, Midsummer BoulevardCentral MK, Mon 7.30pm.

OXFORD CITY: Richard Helyer01608 737 594 Meets at Freud’s Café,Walton Street, Tues & Thurs 6pm. Checkwith Richard that Freud’s is available.

OXFORD UNIVERSITY: Henry [email protected] in Besse 1.1, St Edmund Hall (term only) Weds 7.30 to 11pm.

PORTSMOUTH: Kevin Cole 02392 820 [email protected] various places, Sun 1pm.

READING: Jim Clare 01189 507 319 (h)01344 472 972 (w) [email protected]@icl.com (w) Meets at the BreweryTap, Castle St, Mon 6.30 pm.

S. E. WALES: Paul Brennan 02920 625 [email protected] Meets Chapter ArtsCentre, Market Street, Cardiff. Tues 7:30pm,

ST ALBANS: Alan Thornton 01442 261 945 orRichard Mullens 01707 352 343Meets at The Mermaid Wed 8pm.

SWINDON: David King 01793 521 625Meets at Prince of Wales, Coped HallRoundabout, Wootton Bassett, Wed 7.30pm.

TAUNTON: David Wickham 01984 623 519Meets Tues various places.

TEESSIDE: Gary Quinn 01642 384 303 (w)[email protected] at University of Teesside Wed 4pm.

WEST CORNWALL: John Culmer01326 573 167 [email protected] Acorn Theatre, Parade Street,Penzance, Mon 8.00pm.

WEST WALES: Jo Hampton 01341 281 [email protected] Allday 01341 280 066 Llys Mynach,Llanaber Rd, Barmouth LL42 1RN.

WEST SURREY: Pauline Bailey 01483 561 [email protected] in Guildford, Mon 7.30 to 10pm.

WINCHESTER: Mike Cobbett 02380 266 710 (h)01962 816 770 (w) [email protected] mostly at Black Boy, Wharf Hill, BarEnd, Wed 7pm. Check with Mike Cobbett.

WORCESTER & MALVERN: Edward Blockley 01905 420 908 MeetsWeds 7.30pm.

62


63

LONDON CLUBSCENTRAL LONDON: Geoff Kaniuk

020 8874 7362 Meets in Daiwa Foundation,Japan House, 13-14 Cornwall Terrace, NW1,Sat 2pm. Please press doorbell marked ‘Go’and wait 3 minutes.

NIPPON CLUB IGO KAI: K. Tanaka020 8693 7782 [email protected] Meetsat Nippon Club, Samuel House, 6 St AlbansSt, SW1. (near Piccadilly Circus tube)Fri 6.00 to 10.30pm. (Entry to building until9pm). £4 Board Fee All players welcome.

NORTH LONDON: Martin Smith020 8991 5039 [email protected] in the Gregory Room, back of ParishChurch, Church Row, Hampstead(near Hampstead tube) Tues 7.30pm.

NORTH WEST LONDON: Keith Rapley 01494 675 066 (h) 020 8562 6614 (w)Meets at Greenford Community Centre,Oldfield Lane (south of A40), GreenfordThurs 7pm.

SOUTH CENTRAL LONDON: Mark Graves 020 7639 3965 (h) 020 7888 1306 (w)[email protected] Temporarilysuspended.

TWICKENHAM: Neil Hankey 020 8894 1066 (h)Meets Sunday evenings.

WANSTEAD & EAST LONDON: Jeremy Hawdon020 8505 6547 Meets at Wanstead House, 21 The Green, Wanstead E11, Thurs 7.15pm.

YOUTH GO CLUBS

[email protected]

BERKSHIRE YOUTH: Simon Goss 01344 777 [email protected] at St Paul’s Church Hall,Harmanswater Mon 4pm to 7pm.

BLOXHAM SCHOOL (Oxfordshire): HughAlexander 01295 721 [email protected]

BRAKENHALE SCHOOL:Emma Marchant 01344 481 908

CAMBRIDGE JUNIORS: Paul Smith01223 563 932 (h) 01908 844 469 (w)[email protected]

THE DRAGON SCHOOL (Woodstock):Jonathan Reece 01869 331 515 (h)[email protected]

EVELINE LOWE PRIMARY SCHOOL (London SE1):Charles O’Neill-McAleenan 0207 252 0945

FITZHARRY’S SCHOOL (Abingdon): Nick Wedd01865 247 403 (h)

HAZEL GROVE HIGH SCHOOL (Stockport):John Kilmartin 01663 762 433 (h)

LONGWELL GREEN PRIMARY SCHOOL (Bristol):Bob Hitchens 01761 453 [email protected]

ST IVES SCHOOL (Cornwall) Ms Alex Maund01736 788 914 (h)[email protected]

ST NINIAN’S HIGH SCHOOL, Douglas, I.O.M.Steve Watt

ST PAUL’S SCHOOL (Cambridge):Charles Matthews 01223 350 096 (h)[email protected]

STOWE SCHOOL (Buckingham): Alex Eve 01280 812 979 [email protected]

! WHITEHAVEN SCHOOL: Keith Hudson019467 21952 [email protected]

Up to date information on UK Go clubsis maintained on the BGA Web Site at:www.britgo.org/clublist/clubsmap.html

Please send any corrections and all newor amended information to Nick Wedd,the BGA Webmaster.See page 60 for all BGA contact details.


64

AJI: latent possibilities left in a positionAJI KESHI: a move which destroys one’s own

aji (and is therefore bad)

ATARI: having only one liberty left; stonesare said to be ‘in atari’ when liable tocapture on the next move

BYO YOMI: shortage of time; having to make a move in a given time. Overtime is nowmore widely used in tournament play

DAME: a neutral point; a point of no value to either player

DAME ZUMARI: shortage of liberties

DANGO: a solid, inefficient mass of stones

FURIKAWARI: a trade of territory or groups

FUSEKI: the opening phase of the game

GETA: a technique that captures one or morestones in a ‘net’, leaving them with twoor more liberties but unable to escape

GOTE: losing the initiative

HANE: a move that ‘bends round’ an enemystone, leaving a cutting point behind

Hamete: a move that complicates the situation but is basically unsound

HASAMI: pincer attack

HOSHI: one of the nine marked points on the Go board

IKKEN TOBI: a one-space jump

ISHI NO SHITA: playing in the space left after some stones have been captured

JIGO: a drawn game

JOSEKI: a standardised sequence of moves,usually in a corner

KAKARI: a move made against a singleenemy stone in a corner

KATTE YOMI: self-centred play; expectinguninspired answers to ‘good’ moves

KEIMA: a knight’s move jump

KIKASHI: a move which creates aji while forcing a submissive reply

KOMI: a points allowance given to compensate White for playing second

KOSUMI: a diagonal play

MIAI: two points related such that if oneplayer takes one of them, the opponentwill take the other one

MOYO: a potential territory, a framework

NAKADE: a move played inside an enemygroup at the vital point of the principal eye-space to prevent it from making two eyes

OVERTIME: in tournament play, having to playa number of stones in a certain time e.g.20 stones in five minutes

OYOITSHI: playing in the space left aftersome stones have been captured

PONNUKI: the diamond shape left behind aftera single stone has been captured

SABAKI: a sequence that produces a light,resilient shape

SAGARI: a descent, extending towards theedge of the board

SAN REN SEI: an opening which consists ofplaying on the three hoshi points alongone side of the board

SEKI: a local stalemate between two or moregroups dependent on the same libertiesfor survival

SEMEAI: a race to capture between twoadjacent groups that cannot both live

SENTE: gaining the initiative; a move thatrequires a reply

SHICHO: a capturing sequence shaped like a ladder

SHIMARI: a corner enclosure of two stones

SHODAN: one dan level

TENGEN: centre point of the board

TENUKI: to abandon the local position andplay elsewhere

TESUJI: a skillful and efficient move in alocal fight

TSUKE: a contact play

YOSE: the endgame

GLOSSARY OF GO TERMS


Newly AvailableThe World of Chinese Go – G70 £9.00This book by Guo Juan is an in-depthview of the Chinese Go scene. Gameanalysis is presented with character andpersonality insights. Very entertainingreading. Intermediate level.

Kido Year Book for 2000 – KI00 £38.00All about Go professionals and theirgames (in Japanese).

Galactic Go – Y27 £10.00How to play a 3-stone handicap gamewhen White plays first on the 3-4 pointand Black replies on the 5-3 point.Contains many new joseki related to thispattern. Probably Advanced level.

Fuseki Small Encyclopedia – Y28 £10.00A book I found rather dull but which astronger player told me was brilliant andfull of new insights. It must therefore beAdvanced level!

First Kyu – HONG £10.00This entertaining novel is again in stock.

Life and Master Games – G46 If you have purchased a copy withoutthe optional CD, you will be able buy itseparately soon. Price not yet available.

Go WorldIssue 91 of Go World is expected to bein stock and I hope you will want tostart taking this excellent magazine on aregular basis. Please send me yoursubscription for this and the next threeissues at the new rate of £18.00 postpaid (Britain and Channel Isles).

No Longer AvailableHandicap Go – G16 is out of stock andout of print.

Price ChangesGraded Go Problems Vol 4 – GGP4increased to £9.00.

Lessons on the Fundamentals of Go –G28 reduced to £9.00.

Invincible: the Games of Shusaku – K01reduced to £18.00.

I am now prepared to dispatch full-sizeA2 and Gostelow boards by carrier but acarriage charge of £5 must be added.However, if two or more boards areordered, only one carriage charge needbe paid.

Goods DirectThe BGA bookshop, with a wide rangeof books, equipment and other items,will certainly be at the Maidenhead,Cambridge, Coventry and the CardiffCongress, of course. It is expected thatOxford Heritage will again support theOxford tournament. For details, pleasesee the BGA website or contact me.

Ordering informationA full price list is available on request.

All prices quoted above include the costof postage and packing.

Please note that credit card facilities arenot available.

Orders, accompanied by cheques madepayable to 'British Go Association',should be sent to:

R. G. Mills, 10 Vine Acre, Monmouth, Gwent NP25 3HW

Telephone: 01600 712 934

[email protected]

BGA BOOKS

~ THE BEST SOURCE OF GO BOOKS AND EQUIPMENT ~

Dec 2000 Cover 17/12/00 9:03 pm Page 4

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