bgj131

UK News and Tournaments ~ Tony Atkins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2An Ethical Problem? ~ Ian Marsh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Go Tutor ~ Counting: The whole board . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6Council House ~ Tim Hunt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7BGJ 130 Problem ~ Tim Hunt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9LG Cup Upset ~ Alexandre Dinerchtein . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10Impressions of Penzance ~ Francis Roads . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13Diary of a Go Plonker ~ Ian Marsh. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14Nakade & Ishi-no-Shita ~ Part Twelve ~ Richard Hunter . . . . . . . . . . . 16Editorial . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20An Ethical Solution ~ Ian Marsh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21Hyde’s Assistants ~ Both inadequate ~ Franco Pratesi . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22A 13 x 13 Problem ~ Simon Goss . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24Thoughts on Reading the Spring Journal ~ Matthew James . . . . . . . . . 25Answer to the 13 x 13 Problem ~ Simon Goss. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26The Long Goodbye ~ Roger Peck . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28‘Go’ Problems ~ Tim Hunt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29The BGA Bookseller ~ Gerry Mills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30Thrilling Semeai Games ~ Part One ~ Richard Hunter . . . . . . . . . . . . 31Ten Years Ago ~ Tony Atkins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34The Phases of Go ~ Roger Daniel. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35‘Go’ Problem Solutions ~ Tim Hunt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36World Go News ~ Tony Atkins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

BGA Officials ~ Postal, e-mail and Web Addresses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

UK Club Lists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

Notices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

Glossary of Go Terms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

1

BRITISH GO JOURNAL NO 131 SUMMER 2003 ~ CONTENTS

July 2003 Journal 13/8/03 6:04 pm Page 1

Upstairs and DownstairsLike last time two events were held side byside at Leamington. More accurately theywere upstairs and downstairs. Upstairs onthe Sunday, 23rd March, 41 players took partin the second four round rapid play event.Again held at the Oddfellows inLeamington, again the weather was niceenough at lunch time to seek an ice cream inthe park. Tournament winner was Des Cann(4 dan Milton Keynes). Second and thirdwith three wins were Alan Thornton (2 danSt Albans) and Niall Cardin (1 dan Oxford).Both Ben Swann (7 kyu Manchester) andTim Lamont-Smith (18 kyu Worcester) wonall four games. Others on three wins were:Kyeong Yun Jeong (1 kyu Leicester),Matthew Piatkus (3 kyu Oxford),Malcolm Walker (7 kyu Worcester),Emma Marchant (8 kyu Bracknell) andAlex Beman (25 kyu Leamington).Between games National Trainer a nowbeardless Matthew Macfadyen analysedgames from the Candidates (Hunt vHall and Hobson v Cockburn), but thethird commentary before prizes wascancelled as everyone was feeling alittle tired.Downstairs over both days of theweekend 16 players of grade 1 dan to 4dan took part in the first stage of theBritish Championship. Winner of allfour games was Quentin Mills (3 danLondon) who beat Alex Rix in thefourth round. Players with three winswere Alistair Wall (4 dan Wanstead),Alex Rix (4 dan London), David Ward(4 dan Cambridge) and Andrew Jones(3 dan Wanstead). Because Seong-JuneKim will not be playing the champi-onship this year as he is back in Korea,there were six places available in thenext stage. The Challenger’s League

would hence have the above five, joined byDes Cann and Matthew Cocke (pre-qualified), and by John Hobson (2 dan Bath),who won the nigiri against Tim Hunt (3 danMilton Keynes) to decide the best player ontwo wins.

Tropical and TopicalThe British Go Congress, from 4th to 6thApril, was this year held in the far south-west at Penzance. John Culmer and the WestCornwall Go Club welcomed 50 players to avery sunny weekend of seaside and Goplaying at the Queen’s Hotel, the only largehotel on the Promenade. Situated a fewblocks down from the usual Yacht venue, the

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UK NEWS AND TOURNAMENTS

Tony Atkins [email protected]

David Ward concentrating during theChallenger’s League, held at MSO Cambridge

Photo:Charles Matthews


hotel offered players grand views of the bayand was also handily placed for the tropicalgardens. The weekend featured the BritishLightning, British Open and the topicaldiscussions of the Annual General Meeting.A good local contingent took part as well asplayers from London, Thames Valley,Midlands and Manchester, but only one ladfrom Cambridge who bravely travelled downon his own.The British Lightning had 34 players andwas dominated much of the way byBracknell Club; they had 3 out of 4 semi-finalists. It turned out, however, that nobodycould beat several times winner T.Mark Hall,4 dan from London, and he took the title on5 wins. Those on 4 wins were Tony Atkins(3 dan Bracknell), Toby Manning (3 danLeicester), Clive Hendrie (1 dan Bracknell),William Brooks (6 kyu Cambridge) andFrancis Roads (4 dan Wanstead).The British Open had 50 players and wasdominated for much of the way by relatedGo players. A pair of Harveys and Millswere unbeaten after the first day, but againnone could beat T.Mark Hall (4 dan) whoconvincingly won the British Open with astraight 6. Quentin Mills (3 dan London)won 5 to come second (ahead of FrancisRoads). Fourth was 1 kyu player, David M.King from Swindon with 5 wins. Others on5 were Martin Harvey (4 kyu Manchester),James Collier (4 kyu Devon), Bill Streeten(5 kyu Wanstead) and William Brooks (6kyu Cambridge). The local junior playerJake Finnis (17 kyu) won all 6 games. Bestof six teams for the third year running wasWanstead winning two thirds of their games.Tim Hunt collected for the first time theTerry Stacey Trophy for most wins in thelast year (27.5), ahead of David Ward (27)and Francis Roads (25).

Locals and InternationalsThe first of two team events took place asusual on Easter Monday 21st April. This wasthe Thames Valley Team Tournament,

otherwise known by a long acronym speltentirely with “T’s. This time six teams metat Burpham near Guildford and competed forthe Broken Go Stone Trophy and ahandmade chocolate egg made by AnnieHall. High Wycombe’s Paul Clarke (1 dan),David Denholm (5 kyu) and JonathanEnglefield (11 kyu) won aided by Davidwinning 3/3. Also on 3/3 were AndreCockburn (7 kyu Bracknell) and AlistairWall (4 dan Royal Standard of England).Tony Atkins (3 dan Reading) won theContinuous 10x10 and Emma Marchantsolved the word quiz. Six days later four ‘International’ teams metup at the Nippon Club in Piccadilly for thetwice yearly team event. Unfortunatelyregular winners Cambridge could not attendthis time, allowing new winners. Wansteadwon 5 games, London and Reading 10, butwinners with 11 points were the Orientalteam which contained players of 5 nationali-ties. As usual all got Japanese lunch and aprize, but the best prizes went to those on 3wins namely Quentin Mills, StuartBarthropp, Geoff Kaniuk, Young Kim and LiShen.

Games and GoThe second Cambridge Mind SportsOlympiad weekend was held, like the last, atParkside Community College. This year itwas sponsored by Hitachi Europe andGames and Puzzles shop and ran for threedays up to the May 5th holiday. It wasorganised by Charles Matthews, Paul Smithand others from Cambridge Go Club,together with local Chess organiser PatrickRibbands. As usual there was a goodselection of games: word games, card games,board games and traditional ones. No Goplayers took part in the British ShogiChampionships, but were seen playingTiddlywinks (Alan Dean), Tridge card game(John McLeod), Omweso (Paul Smith),Settlers (Piers Shepperson). Local ladWilliam Brooks showed his versatility by

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trying his hand at most games and other Goplayers had a try at Paul Smith’s extremelyhard logic and games puzzle sheet. Therewas a chance also to teach Go to othergames players, especially the large numbersof junior chess players and especially thisyear the large party of keen games playersfrom Uganda, who were over for theMancala-type games. On the Sunday 32 kyu players (plus a ghost)played in the Barlow. Winner was PaulTaylor (1 kyu Cambridge) with 5 out of 5.Last year’s winner, Edward Blockley (2 kyuWorcester), was second with 4 wins. Also on5 out of 5 was Hoi-Ping Mok (12 kyuCambridge), and on 4 out of 5 was ThomasFord (14 kyu Cambridge). On the Mondaythe 5-player junior event was won again byWilliam Brooks (Cambridge). The 6-playerDan’s event was won by its organiser, AlexSelby (3 dan Cambridge) on 5 out of 5 andsecond was Francis Roads (4 dan Wanstead)on 4/5. All of these players had a chance towatch the players in the Challenger’s Leaguewhich had started on the Friday at St. Paul’sChurch and had continued throughout theweekend at the MSO. The first two days sawthe field split in half, as on the first day fourplayers won all their games. After the secondday Matthew Cocke was on 4, Des Cann andDavid Ward were on 3 and Quentin Millswas on 4 but having the top 3 others to play.After the seven rounds the ordering wassorted so that every player had lost to everyplayer placed above him. This was partlythanks to Des ‘Houdini’ Cann escaping froman impossible ko fight against Alex Rix.Matthew Cocke (5 dan Norwich) won all 7to become the new British ChampionshipChallenger. Des won 6 and David Ward 5.Quentin won 4, Andrew Jones 3, Alex Rix 2,Alistair Wall 1 and John Hobson 0. The top3 retain places in next year’s league.

Cakes and QuizzesThe 25th Bracknell Tournament wascelebrated with a Go cake. Made by tourna-

ment organiser and Bracknell club puddingexpert, Ian Marsh, the Go Board and stonesiced sponge was cut after round two. JimClare had the honour of wielding the knifehaving been three time winner of theTournament. 52 players attended the eventon 11th May, again held slightly confusinglyin Wokingham at the Woosehill CommunityCentre. The showers held off most of the dayand folk could be seen outside betweengames walking the baby, smoking a pipe orplaying a game of 13x13 (T.Mark Hall,Natasha Regan and Oscar Selby, but notnecessarily in that order). It was nice to seeformer British Champion John Diamondback at the tournament and he went on towin beating T.Mark Hall (4 dan), AlanThornton (2 dan) and Piers Shepperson (5 dan). Other winners of 3 games wereHarry Fearnley (2 dan Oxford), CliveHendrie (1 dan Bracknell), Steve Bailey (3 kyu West Surrey), Alec Edgington (5 kyuWanstead) and Erwin Bonsma (6 kyuIpswich). Natasha Regan (1 dan Epsom)won the 13x13, as she had plenty of babyminders and was not playing the tournament.Jil Segerman won the 25th anniversary Goquiz and puzzles, and Jonathan Englefieldwon the photo caption competition.

Pineapples and PairsThe 13th British Pair Go Championshipswas held on 25th May at Foxcombe LodgeHotel, Boars Hill near Oxford. This was thefourth time that Roger and Jill had hostedthe event and the food was as excellent asusual, both for the competitors at lunch timeas for the koi carp in the pond in the garden.This year neatly there were four handicapteams and eight teams in the open section.Thanks to continuing support of the JapanPair Go Committee and the British Pair GoPromotion Partners, everyone won a half ofa pair of prizes such as a pair of pineapples.However looking at the group photograph ofeveryone with their prizes, it would seemthat Natasha had won a baby, though


Matthew had not! Organiser Francis Roadsproduced an extremely hard quiz where firstand second names of famous people had tobe re-paired; Jil Segerman and TonyPitchford were the best at this scoring 17 outof 20. Steve Hefford was there supportingmembers of the Bracknell Club and got tochoose the best dressed pair. This was Alisonand Simon Bexfield for the second yearrunning. Leamington’s Kirsty Healey (1 dan) andMatthew Macfadyen (6 dan) were persuadedto play at short notice and won the champi-onship for the third year in a row. This timethey had a hard struggle as they only beatNatasha Regan (1 dan Epsom) and MatthewCocke (5 dan Norwich) by 2.5 points inround 2, and Letchworth’s Alison Bexfield

(2dan) and Simon Bexfield (1 dan) by half apoint in the final. Taking third place behindthe Bexfields were Natasha and Matthew;fourth were Jackie Chan (1 kyuBournemouth) and Francis Roads (4 danWanstead) (splitting the tie of those on 2wins by CuSS). In the handicap ShawnHearn (6 kyu Sleaford) and Nicola Hurden(10 kyu Bracknell) were on for a third win ina row, but lost to Swindon’s Elinor Brooks(6 kyu) and Erik Hall (2 kyu). Despite Elinorand Erik then losing to Annie Hall (27 kyuBracknell) and Jonathan Englefield (11 kyuHigh Wycombe), the CuSS tie-break madethe Swindon pair the winners. Young Nicolaand Shawn took second and Annie andyoung Jonathan took third, all with 2 wins.

5

❍

Below is a situation that occurred in a clubgame. I would expect dan and low kyuplayers to have no problems reading thestatus of the three second line black stones. I hope higher kyu players will find it aninteresting challenge.

Secondary questions are:Would you try and play the black position ina normal game in which you were losing?– a lightning game?How far into the sequence would you play?A discussion of this position is on page 21.

AN ETHICAL PROBLEM?Ian Marsh [email protected]

An Ethical Problem?

Clue for weaker players Black has noticed that the five-twopoint threatens a double atari and iswondering whether five-in-a-row inthe corner works in this case.


6

Most amateur players count badly, if atall. On the other hand all top playerscount, some of them incessantly. Youcan ask what this habit of seriousnessdoes for your play. More importantlyyou could actually try it in yourgames.

Why does counting matter?● You must look at the whole board,

area by area, to reckon the score.This provides an antidote to thelimited vision characteristic of thepursuit of a local fight.

● You will detect big plays when youcount, in the process of trying toassess the final results in each partof the board.

● You have to plan according to yourcount of the game. If you are 15 or20 points ahead at the end of themiddlegame, you should think ofwinding the game up, as simply andsafely as possible. If you are down by thesame margin, throw safety to the winds.Complicate, invade, look for kos. Youhave nothing to lose but the game.

● You may believe abstractly in the bestmove, the one move you should seek toplay. The truth is that even professionals– especially professionals – playaccording to the state of the game.

Practical CountingHow should you count? One commonmethod is to count pairs of points. You counta pair for a dead stone still on the board andthe point under it, and a pair for a vacantpoint from which a prisoner has beenremoved. Structure the count into separateterritories, so that a change in one does notentail a total recount.Diagram 1 is taken from a game in BGJ 43(between Hasibeder and Rebattu, bothamateur 5 dan). A precise count cannot be

obtained yet. But the upper left can beestimated as 23. The Black region on theright is a little harder to reckon. There is abig play at X for Black, one to the right of itfor White. It seems reasonable to count it atabout 47. The marked White stones arecounted as pairs. Pairs ‘a’ and ‘b’ takeaccount of captives. Try estimating otherareas yourself.

Tips for counting● Make use of your opponent’s thinking

time to count. But use some of your owntime too if required.

● Count when observing games, forpractice. Try to guess first, then count tocorroborate, to sharpen your intuition.

● Don’t worry about being seen to count.Endgame expert Kano 9 dan counts witha shake of the head for each point.

Next time, we’ll look at counting in theareas where boundaries are not yet fullydefined – endgame counting.

ABCD EFGHIJK

L

X

ABCD

EFGHIJ

K

ab

cde

fg

h ij k

l m no p q r

s t uv

cde

f gh ij k

l m no p q r

s tu

❏ 1

GO TUTOR ~ COUNTING: THE WHOLE BOARD


7

The AGMThe AGM took place on the evening ofSaturday 5th April, as part of the British GoCongress in Penzance (a most enjoyableevent – many thanks to the West Cornwall Go Club). Both reports of the past year, and plans forthe future were full of the GoZone projectwww.britgo.org/gozone. Peter Wendes hasnow visited over 80 schools (and a varietyof other organisations) in Hampshire andthe surrounding area to introduce Go.Matthew Holton is starting similar activi-ties in the North-East. I believe that SimonGoss has been talking to some others whoare interested in getting involved too. Thisis the most exciting outreach activity wehave had for a number of years, and it isour main priority for the coming year.The proposal to amend the constitution waspassed. This adds a new section with oneclause, designed to make it much harder forsomeone to force the winding up of theassociation simply to get their hands on ourassets.

Winding-up and Dissolution51. Upon the winding-up or dissolutionof the Association, if, after the satisfac-tion of all debts and liabilities, thereremains any property whatsoever, thatproperty shall be donated to theEuropean Go Cultural Centre, or, if thatis not possible, to some charitablebody. Nothing shall be paid out ordistributed to the Association’smembers.

Other items from the AGM more naturallyfall under the headings below.

Who does whatAt the AGM, all of Council was re-electedexcept for Natasha Regan, who steps downfollowing the birth of her son Oscar. Anna

Griffiths, previously co-opted, was electedonto Council.Alison Bexfield was elected Auditor at theAGM. This was at the suggestion of theprevious auditor, Toby Manning. Alison isan accountant by profession, and for thelast few years she has produced the BGA’sannual accounts. Therefore, she is the idealperson to audit the accounts. Thanks toToby for his years of auditing. At the council meeting following the AGM,there were a few changes to the long list ofpeople who contribute to the BGA(www.britgo.org/officers/).Hopefully you have had a chance to see theBGA resources CD. We decided torecognise the work that Jon Diamond hadput into this by creating the role of CDEditor and appointing Jon to it.Toby Manning has kindly volunteered totake over from me as ChampionshipsOrganiser. I am very grateful for this, beingSecretary consumes enough of my time. For some time, Adam Atkinson has beenthe person who, more often than not, runsthe BGA stand at events like the MSOwhere we have needed to run a stand. Todemonstrate our thanks, he is now‘Exhibitions’.Emma Marchant has taken over fromAlison Bexfield as Youth Newsletter Editor.I believe that Emma has produced her firstyouth newsletter, but annoyingly, I am noteligible to receive a copy. Does anyoneknow a reliable rejuvenation treatment?

BGA BooksThe work of running BGA books continuesto increase and is reaching the limit of whatone person can do on a voluntary basis.Actually, if the BGA bookseller was notsomeone as wonderfully dedicated as Gerry

COUNCIL HOUSETim Hunt [email protected]


8

Mills, we would long since have passed thelimit of what one person could manage.Most of the book-seller’s work-load nowcomprises selling book by mail-order,particularly to people who are not BGAmembers. On the other hand, the mostvaluable part of the book-seller’s job istaking the books to tournaments, so that wecan have a look at them, and make ininformed decision about which ones to buy.Fortunately this is the part of the job thatGerry finds most rewarding.So to reduce the bookseller’s workload, wewill sell BGA books, the company, toPayday Games at book value, and return tothe situation where the BGA only sellsbooks and equipment to its members.Payday games is a small company partiallyowned by Gerry Mills which specialises inselling board games. For example you mayhave seen the very smart boxed go sets thatthey have produces, and which the BGAbookshop sells.This was announced at the AGM, whereseveral important points were raised. Forexample, it is important that we can sellintroductory books and equipment to all-comers when we run an outreach stand. Thisis possible because, for instance, the personrunning the stand could sell books andequipment as an agent of Payday Games.Council has scrutinised the terms of thisdeal very carefully, and we are satisfied thatit is the right solution for the BGA.

Selecting representatives for international tournamentsFor many years, we have run a pointssystem to select who represents the UK inthe World Amateur Go Championship. Youcan see the workings of the system on theweb page:

www.britgo.org/reps/wamateur.html.This has worked very well, sharing out thetrips to Japan between those who mightreasonably expect to go in a fair and trans-

parent manner. We have similar systems forthe World Amateur Pair Go and Women’stournaments.Until now, we have not had anything similarfor the European tournaments where theBGA is asked to nominate a representative.When we are asked to nominate someone(which is not always the case, for examplethe Fujitsu Cup entrants are picked by theevent’s organisers) Council makes aselection. Obviously, we try to be as fair aspossible, but even though we are not inten-tionally secretive about it, at the moment itis not quite as transparent as the ‘World’selection systems alluded to above. Wedecided to do something about this.For the European Pair-go, we will use thesame system as for the world, but with aseparate tally of points - see

www.britgo.org/reps/epairgo.html.Since different pairs represent us and havetheir points reset to zero in different years,the two systems should nominate differentpairs for each event each year.For this individual events we were unable tocome up with a satisfactory points system.Paradoxically, the standard at the Europeanevents is higher than at the world events. Atthe World amateur there are participantsfrom whose strengths range from 8 dan to 5kyu, whereas at the European Ing cup, a 4dan might find it difficult to win any gamesat all. So the invitations to European eventsget shared out between a very small pool ofplayers, and a points system is not verygood at doing this.So we decided to stick with the currentmethod where Council chooses whoreceives the invitations. However, we dowant to allocate places fairly, and we wouldlike everybody to see that the allocation isfair, so we have created web pages for eachevent listing who has received invitations.They are all accessible from

www.britgo.org/reps


9

The policy email listAt the AGM it became clear that not enoughpeople had heard about the bga-policy list.This is an e-mail discussion list open to allmembers of the BGA. It is a way for allinterested members to discuss how the BGAis run; what opportunities it should be takingadvantage of; and what its policies shouldbe. It is also very useful for Council, helpingus to be more aware of members’ viewswhen we make decisions.We strongly encourage anyone interested inhow the BGA is run, or who feels that theymight have something to contribute, to jointhe list. To subscribe, visit the web page:two.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/bga-policyand follow the instructions.

I may just have made my usual mistake ofassuming that everyone else has as muchexperience of computers as me. Perhaps Ishould provide a little more explanation.Once you have ‘subscribed’ to the policylist, you will be able to send e-mails to [email protected]. Any e-mail you send tothis address will be forwarded to all of thelist subscribers. Similarly, any message thatanybody else sends to [email protected] be forwarded to you. This enables thosepeople who have joined the list hold discus-sions via e-mail as a group.We have tried to make joining the list assimple as possible, but if you can’t work thesystem out, please do e-mail me, and I willbe happy to provide assistance.

❍

BGJ 130 PROBLEMTim [email protected] seems that I messed up the problem onpage 19 of the Spring Journal. Or at least,not the problem, but the solution (p39).In Diagram 1, the failure, White doesbetter to play 3 at 4. Still, the correctanswer in Diagram 2 is better than this.I must have made an error in simplifyingthe position, but I can’t work out what (I only have the simplified positionwritten down). The statements in the textabout how well the various moves workwas correct when talking about theposition in the game, even if they arewrong when talking about the problemposition.Credit to Jonathan Chin, Chris Goldsmithand Duncan Macdonald for pointing outthe error of my ways. It is nice to knowthat so many people read their journal soassiduously, within a few days ofreceiving it.

In the Dark is replaced by a newseries describing useful or interestingweb pages that, once read, mean youwill no longer be in the dark but in thelight. If you know web pages that youparticularly like or find useful, pleasesend a review in less than 60 words [email protected] for futureinclusion in this series.

Go News www.britgo.org/news/index.html

If you can’t wait until the nextnewsletter and need to know the latestnews, then go to this page. Beneath itare five pages of news: UK tourna-ment results, overseas results, news,diary and small ads. Tournamentreports appear as soon as possibleafter the event, with links to the fullresults tables when available.

Tony Atkins

IN THE LIGHT


10

This is the game I played in the firstround of the 8th LG WorldChampionship on 17th June 2003. My opponent is O Rissei, 9 dan.Black: O Rissei 9 danWhite: Alexandre Dinerchtein 1 danKomi: 6.5

Figure 1 1 – 504 If, instead, I take the empty

corner, O Rissei, 9 dan, will playhis favourite territory-orientedopening at 11. So I avoid it.

6 The correct choice. It is alsopossible to take the corner at A.

9 The only move.12 A joseki.17 O Rissei’s style. Ikken tobi at B

is the usual answer.22 It is not easy to find the correct

way to invade this moyo. San sanis not the best choice, Black’sposition would be too powerful.

LG CUP UPSETAlexandre Dinerchtein [email protected]

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Figure 1 1 – 50

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❏ 2 Black’s position would be too strong

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❏ 1 Bad for White


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23 A good answer.24 This is a new move.25 The right direction.26 The correct shape. Not long ago

Lee Changho, 9 dan, played thismove against Hane Naoki, 9 dan.Diagram 1 or Diagram 2 wouldboth be bad for White.

29 A good move – see Diagram 3

32 A solid answer.34 This exchange is necessary.

Without it Black’s moyo wouldbecome really deep.

36 A greedy move. It would bebetter to invade the moyoimmediately.

42 Now White has no choice. IfWhite cuts at C and Black playsat D, the moyo would be huge.

43 A big move. Now the exchangeof 36 - 37 and 40 - 41 is bad forWhite.

48 The wrong answer. It would havebeen better to defend the cornerdirectly at E.

Figure 2 51 – 10054 Now the triangled stone (48) is

almost useless.55 A passive move; the largest part

of the board is at 64 in the bottom left.

61 Another passive move, but ORissei, 9 dan, thought he wasahead.

5152

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❏ 2 Figure 2 51 – 100

❏ 3 The corner is small

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Alexandre Dinerchtein playing in the firstround of the 2003 LG Cup


68 The correct shape; if Whiteplayed at F it would be difficultto save the marked stone.

76 A probe.80 White is happy to save the central

group without any damage.

Figure 3 101 – 150 (1 – 50)101 The correct answer. Black cannot

block in the corner.115 A dubious move. It would be

more solid to defend at G122 A probe.136 Because of the 22 – 23 exchange

this combination is sente forWhite.

137 A mistake. Better to defend at 41.144 Now the game is close, but Black

is still leading by 2 or 3 points.

Figure 4 151 – 270 (1 - 120)5 Another mistake. Black loses

about one move here. Better to capture at 16.

16 O Rissei, 9 dan, overlooked this move.20 The group is alive. Now White is

ahead.

12

Source:www.go4go.net

500 commented games ayear, including 5 commentedprofessional games coveringmajor Go events everyweek, 5 commented top-level amateur games playedon KGS every week, andoccasional special topicsabout European andAmerican Go tournaments.

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2223

242526 27

282930 31

32 3334 35

36

3738

39

40

41

4243

44

45

46

47484950

G

Figure 3 101 – 150 (1 – 50)


13

“Why are they holding the British GoCongress in such a distant location this year?”was asked by more than one voice. But theoffer by the West Cornwall Go Club to hostthe Congress was the best one that Councilhad received. Anyone who prefers morecentral locations is free to offer to run such aCongress. Personally I think it is an excellentidea to explore such a distant venue; firstly tomake it easier for people in the area to attend,and secondly perhaps to encourage morepeople to attend the annual tournament held inthe West Country.I use that rather vague term, because theannual event seems to have migrated; havingstarted in Devon, it has moved steadilywestward, and unless the Scilly Isles are underconsideration must have reached its home. Idon’t think I have ever played in the BritishCongress at a more attractive location. To lookup from one’s game and view the sunlit wavesin Mount’s Bay was very pleasant. I arrived a day early on the Thursday, to findTim Hunt already in residence. We visited theWCGC in the evening. They meet in amember’s flat, wrongly addressed on theirwebsite, but we found it. They have a coupleof junior members who attend from 8-9 pm,which is an encouraging sign.Coastal scenery is Cornwall’s strong point,and Tim continued his strenuous programmeof cliff footpath walks on the Friday, while Ipreferred the art galleries of St. Ives. The artcommunity seems to have spread outwards;there’s art on view and for sale in almostevery West Cornwall town now.Friday evening brought the usual LightningTournament. I had my doubts when it wasbilled as a computer drawn handicap Swiss,but Tony Atkins seemed to keep the BGAcomputer under control, and it went verysmoothly. Predictably, bruiser T Mark Hallswept all before him.

You will have gathered that the venue, theQueen’s Hotel, is on the sea front. It musthave quite a lot of stars, and although theyoffered a rate reduction for go players, it wasnot a cheap place to stay. FortunatelyPenzance is replete with cheaper hotels andguest houses. The atmosphere was verysimilar to playing in the Sefton Hotel inDouglas, before the IOM tournament movedto Port Erin.The main tournament went very smoothly; noannoying delays, with Tony and Tim keepingthe computer on its mettle. I felt that a slightlysour note was struck on Saturday evening,when the AGM was delayed through beinginquorate. There were people in the hotel whowere politely asked to make up the numbers,but refused. Eventually a sufficient number ofarms were twisted, but I do feel that beingunwilling to give up an hour of ones time tosupport our hardworking and dedicatedCouncil smacks of selfishness. The businesswent through expeditiously under the quiet butfirm chairmanship of our President.On the Sunday the main tournament endedearly, with T Mark once again in first placewith an unbeaten record. It was a pity thatmany of the stronger players were not therethis year to give him a harder time, though Ithink he might have won anyway, as heseemed on top form.On the Monday morning I took the opportu-nity to visit an award-winning PilchardMuseum. I couldn’t help wondering what thecompetition had been. There was a sting inthe tail for me in the afternoon. Theweekend weather had been fine, but waitingfor over two hours for a delayed train on awindswept platform with no waiting room orleft luggage facility made the ‘Welcome toPenzance’ sign on the station seem ratherhollow. Still, it was a good weekend allround, and I hope to be back.

IMPRESSIONS OF PENZANCEFrancis Roads [email protected]


I have spent the last few minutes on myhands and knees searching for a missingblack stone.Why is it always the black stones that escapethus (a casual examination of most club’s Gosets seems to confirm this theory)? It leavesme wondering if the manufacturers of thecheaper types of Go stone make more blackstones than white, or whether a worldwidepreponderance of white stones is inevitable.There are some exotic theories for theinequality of the different colour stonesfound in sets1. One is that stones rubbingtogether can naturally change colour in thedark. The evidence quoted for this is theoccasional appearance of a wrong colouredstone in a bowl of otherwise correctlycoloured stones.The sci-fi wormhole theory is used toexplain those stones that turn up unexpect-edly, often seeming to materialise in themiddle of your game at an intersection youcould have sworn was empty. This is whereall those dropped stones disappear too.The missing black stone is howeverdefinitely my fault. I was holding my nextstone to be played in my hand, rather thenleaving it in the bowl until needed, when Idropped it. This is a bad habit I need to cure.Not only is the stone droppable but alsothere is an overwhelming urge to play thenext stone immediately. Slowing down andtaking that little bit longer is a good way toreduce silly mistakes.I suppose names could be given to thevarious ways people handle their stones. Iwould be a Butterfingers, whereas a Shamanwould be someone who grabs large handfulsof stones and rattle them in some form ofinvocation. The Drill-Sergeant takes stones

from the bowl, and lays them out in everchanging patterns before sending them intobattle. The Tsunami resigns their game bypushing the stones in a wave at you. TheMagician is someone who producesprisoners from strange and random places atthe end of a game. The Klutz Magician findshis prisoners have disappeared at the end ofthe game (to where?) nobody knows,including the person who happens to bepacking away the adjacent game.The only safe place for stones seem to be thebowls, and for prisoners the upside-down lidof the bowl.Anyone who has attended a tournamentusing Canadian overtime (where after theflag has dropped on your clock, you have toplay a specified number of stones in aspecified time) will tell you this is a goodidea. There is room to count out the requirednumber of overtime stones and, by puttingthe lid upside-down on your bowl; youprevent yourself from messing up yourovertime by accidentally playing stones fromout of the bowl.Experience has also taught most Go playersto place any drinks well away from the Gobowl. Other players tend to find it amusingto watch someone, who is staring intently atthe board, reaching out for a stone andending up finding out all about the tempera-ture of the coffee. On a more cataclysmicscale this can lead to liquid over the board ora bowl full of stones going flying across thefloor.Assuming you survive major disasters, andhave not been topping up your bowl withsomeone else’s prisoners, what can you do ifyou run out of stones (I will hazard that youare playing Black) and a supply of extrastones is not readily to hand. First you can

14

DIARY OF A GO PLONKER ~ WHERE HAVE ALL THE BLACK STONES GONEIan Marsh [email protected]


exchange prisoners, a point being worth apoint. Secondly excess prisoners can beexchanged for komi. Thirdly as a despera-tion measure if both players can agree thatan area of the board is played out, then anypotential prisoners therein can be removedprematurely.The player with stones left can fill in damebut you will still need stones to fill in anysente dame.There is no rule as to when komi stonesshould be given, although taking komi at thestart and again at the end of a game is to befrowned upon. Because of the hazard ofrunning out of stones I prefer to adjust forkomi in the counting up, rather then handingstones over at the start of the game.Cultural differences also affect the handlingof stones. All Go players get taught thatthere is a right way to hold the stones, thatthey should be played assertively, and it isalright to slide a stone into awkwardpositions. You should not let go of a stoneuntil it is in position. To oriental playersassertively means boldly to produce a noise,whilst western players tend to play stonesmore quietly.For nigiri2 it is common to place one or twostones on the board to indicate odd or even.In some cultural situations it is assumed theplayer will place one stone, so this is thesafest thing to do if in doubt.Stopping the clock and-or placing multiplestones on the board is a good way to resignwhen there is a language barrier.Just be prepared for, and tolerant about,cultural differences.Finally what do you do about that stone thatmaterializes next to the board at the end ofthe game, but whose origin is uncertain.Time honoured tradition has it that you ask,“Where did that stone come from?” whenthe real question is “Where is that stonegoing too?” If the answer is not obvious andyou cannot agree, and that one point decides

the game3, then it comes down to commonsense in a friendly game (a draw or voidedgame perhaps) or in competitions suchdecisions are left to the tournament director.Anyway, that is enough about stones.Particularly as I still have a missing stone to find, assuming it has not alreadydematerialised.Notes:1 Before Go equipment was readily availablein this country there was also the danger ofGo stones being eaten.2 A way of determining who is Black ineven games. One player grabs a handful ofwhite stones whilst the opponent guesseswhether it is odd or even in number.3 If all that is affected is the size of the win,who cares about that odd point?

15

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16

The previous article in thisseries ended with twoproblems.

Answer to problem 1Diagram 1. Blocking at 1is no good. With 2, Whitecaptures the black stonesin the corner. Next, Blackneeds to play both A andB in order to make twoeyes. Black must get moremileage out of hissacrifice stones.How about making adogleg with 1 in Diagram1a? This doesn’t workeither. When Whitecaptures it with 10, theshape left behind inDiagram 1b has no cuttingpoint. Not all doglegs areequal. The orientation ofthis one makes it useless.The key move is the haneat 1 in Diagram 1c. IfWhite throws in at 2, thenBlack makes a doglegwith 3. This is the way toget all the requiredforcing moves in time.Black 5 is atari, so Whitecaptures with 6 at 2. Canyou visualise the shapeunder the stones? Thistime the dogleg doesindeed have a cuttingpoint, so Black 1 inDiagram 1d is sente. AfterWhite connects at 2,Black has time to play 3,which makes two eyes.

White can block at 2 inDiagram 1e instead ofDiagram 1c. Once again 3and 5 are sente, so Blackcan live with 7. See how theexchange of Black 1 forWhite 2 gains a movecompared with Diagram 1.This is the essence ofskilful sacrifice.

Answer to problem 2Diagram 2: Black musthane at 1 in order to widenhis eyespace. Next, White 2fails. Black 3 is the vitalpoint at the center of threestones and it defendsagainst White 4 at 5.With 4and 6, White prevents Blackfrom getting a second eyeon the side here, but Blackcuts at 7. The atari of Black9 puts Black ahead in thiscapturing race.Diagram 2a: White 2 is astrong move. It’s the vitalpoint for both sides in thisshape. It threatens to cut at11, so Black can’t extendwith 3 at 4. Black 3 is best.Playing 3 at 11 is no good:White can turn at 5 andBlack cannot make an eyein the corner. So Whiteplays 4 and Black cuts at 5.Can you see how this willend up? White 6 preventsBlack from increasing hisliberties by playing atarithere, but with 7 and 9Black constructs a dogleg in

NAKADE AND ISHI-NO-SHITAPART TWELVE: ONE, TWO, THREE: ISHI-NO-SHITARichard Hunter [email protected]

❏ 1 No good

12A

B

❏ 1a Wrong

123

456

7 89 10

❏ 1c Hane 6 at 2

1 2345

❏ 1d Sente

123

❏ 1e Black lives

123

45 67

❏ 1b No cutting point


17

the corner. After Whitecaptures it with 14, Blackcan play back inside with 15at 5, which gives him hissecond eye.Ishi-no-shita shapes ofteninvolve four or more stones.The most common types aresquares and doglegs, whichwe have studied in somedetail already. The originalGo Player’s Almanacdefined ishi-no-shita as thesacrifice of four or morestones, but many Japanesego books use this term forthree-stone sacrifices too.The 2001 Almanac nowomits this limitation. Seeingunder the shape left by athree-stone capture can alsobe difficult. Even visualis-ing the position after twostones have been removedcan be a high-level task.

‘One, two, three…’Let’s start with a quick lookat one-stone captures. Thesnapback has beendescribed as a brilliant dawntesuji. It’s one of the firstglimpses of the beauty of gothat beginners encounter. Istill remember how stimu-lated I was by dying in asnapback in my very firstgame of go. Snapbackproblems are introduced inGraded Go Problems vol. 1.It’s a very simple concept,but most go players haveexperienced the horror ofdiscovering one theyoverlooked slightly deeperinto a fight once they werepast the point of no return.Diagram 3 shows a simpleexample. White is threaten-

ing to capture three blackstones. But if Blackcaptures the marked whitestone, he plays himself intoa liberty shortage. Whitecan play back at the markedpoint, capturing four stones.Diagram 4. White has sevenstones on the second line.There is a proverb that says‘eight live, six die’. Seven isthe unsettled case inbetween these. If it’sBlack’s turn to play, he can

kill White. The hane at 1reduces White’s eye-spaceand 5 is a nakade. It doesWhite no good to captureone stone with 6. This onlymakes a false eye. Blackturns at 7 and preventsWhite from escaping.Diagram 5 Black to play.The vital point is A. IfWhite connects there, it’s all

over and Black is dead. IfBlack throws in at A, Whitecan capture this stone, butit’s a snapback. Blackretakes and lives.Diagram 6: White has justthrown in at 1, threateningto capture the black stone inthe corner and make twoeyes. Black to play.

Your first thought might beto take this stone with 1 in

❏ 2 Black wins

1234

5 67

8

910

11

❏ 2a Ishi-no-shita15 at 5

123

45

6

78

9

10

11

12

1314

❏ 3 Snapback

❏ 5 Black to play

A

❏ 6 Black to play

1

❏ 4 Hane

123 4 567


18

Diagram 6a, but White 2wins the capturing race. It’ssuicidal for Black to playatari from either side.

Black should extend at 1 inDiagram 6b. This is askilful sacrifice.

White captures two stoneswith 2. Next, Black playsback inside at 1 in Diagram

6c. Next, White fills aliberty with 2 and Blackcaptures two stones with 3.Can you visualise the shapeunder the stones?

Diagram 6d: There is indeeda snapback at A, just as inDiagram 5, but it’s too slow.White’s four stones haveonly one liberty, so insteadof capturing White’s throw-in stone, Black can capturethe four white stones.Thistype of sacrifice in thecorner occurs quite often ingames. It’s well worthstudying carefully.Diagram 7: The placementat 1 is the correct way tokill this White group.

If White plays 2, then Black3 prevents White fromgetting a second eye. Blackcan afford to sacrifice twostones: if White plays A tocapture them, Black throwsin at the marked point tomake this a false eye forWhite. Starting with 1 inDiagram 7a is a mistake.

After White captures twostones with 2, Black canindeed break the eye on theleft by throwing in at themarked point, but White canmake two eyes by playing A.The two-stone sacrifice onlycreates a false eye in gote.

Diagram 8: The hane ofWhite 1 is a mistake. Blackto play and live. Diagram 8a: Black 1,widening the eye space, iscorrect. Blocking withBlack 1 at 4 is no good.White will just hane at 1.After Black 1, White 2 isforced. Next, Black makesone eye with 3 and threatensto make another one, soWhite must connect with 4.Black 5 is atari on threestones, but if Whiteconnects, he just loses morestones. In Diagram 7, thetwo-stone sacrifice left apossible false eye; here,when Black captures three

❏ 6a White wins12

❏ 6b Extend1 2

❏ 6c Play back inside

12 3

❏ 6d Snapback istoo slow

A

❏ 8 How can Black live?

1

❏ 8a Capturethree stones

1 23

45 A

❏ 7 False eye

123 A

❏ 7a Mistake by Black

1 2 A


19

stones, White cannot stophim from making an eye.White retakes with 1 inDiagram 8b, but Black hasenough space to make aneye with A.

Diagram 9: Black to play.Capturing the white stoneon the side with 1 inDiagram 9a is sub-optimal.White captures with 2.Next, if Black connects with3 (left of 1), White can live

with A. But if Black plays 3at B, White can block at Cand then fight a ko for asecond eye.Extending at 1 in Diagram9b is a rather surprisingmove, but it’s a cleversacrifice. It’s suicidal forWhite to connect and playatari from the left with 2 at

3, so White plays atari fromthe right with 2. With 3,Black captures one whitestone, but he leaves himselfin atari, so White cancapture the three blackstones by retaking at themarked point. Doesn’t athree-stone capture giveWhite an eye here? Try andvisualise what happens next.Black can recapture thewhite stone with 1 inDiagram 9c. This is possiblebecause of the presence ofthe triangled black stone.

As a result, Black 1 andBlack square form an eye-stealing combination thatensure White only gets afalse eye here. Be careful,even a three-stone capturemay not result in an eye.

‘…Ishi-no-shita’Diagram 10a. Breaking theeye on the left is no good.With 2, White immobilizesthe two black stones. Blackwould like to connect at the1–1 point in order to make anakade shape but that’sillegal, so White will get twoeyes when he captures there.Black 1 in Diagram 10b isthe vital point for both sides.

If White connects at 2,Black 3 steals the eye on theside and this time the three-stone shape does lead tonakade. Black plays 5 at 1.If White captures the threeblack stones with 1 inDiagram 10c, then Blackplays back inside with 2.Next, 3 and 4 are miai.White 4, Black 3 leavesWhite with only one eye,the same as in Diagram 10b.

❏ 8b Enough space1A

❏ 9 Black to play

❏ 9a Not best

1 2 A

BC

❏ 9b Sacrificethree stones

1 23

❏ 10 Black to play

❏ 10a White lives1

2

❏ 10b Vital point5 at 1

12

3 4

❏ 10c Connect and die1

23

4

❏ 9c False eye

1


20

So what happens if Whiteplays 3 and makes an eyeon the side. Doesn’t thisgive him two eyes? Black 4catches White in a beautiful‘connect and die’ tesuji.This is an example of whatcan happen ‘under thestones’ in the case of athree-stone sacrifice. We’lllook at some more examplesnext time.

I’ll leave you with twoproblems to think about.Both are Black to play.

❏ Problem 1

❏ Problem 2

EDITORIALAn apology is due for the late publication of this edition ofthe Journal, which is due to increasing demands on my time.Unfortunately, this situation will not soon improve and it iswith regret that I am obliged to step down as Editor; theAutumn issue will be the last that I will produce.I have enjoyed my time as Editor. Whoever takes my placewill have the opportunity to develop a publication that reachesout to the whole of the Go playing community in this country.We need to appoint a new Editor as soon as possible so thathe or she has a chance to pick up the traces before producingan issue unaided. I will be very happy to provide whateverhelp is required to ensure a smooth transition.Please contact myself or a member of Council if you wouldlike to discuss the possibility of taking on the job of Editor.Contact details are on page 40.

❍


21

Diagram 11 in Diagram 1 is the obvious first move,threatening double atari. 3 attempts a five-in-a-row in the corner, but thanks to the whitestones on the second line 4 kills the stones.

Diagram 2Note that playing 4 as in Diagram 2 does not work.

Diagram 3For those that read the sequence in theDiagram 3, then White cannot answer theatari made by 5 as Black would then play atA and win the capturing race. In fact Whitemust answer the atari by playing A,asotherwise Black would win the ko fightusing internal ko threats A then B.As to the secondary question as to whatBlack should play in a normal game or a

lightning game, the (admittedly small)number of low dans I asked this question ofall came up with the same answer.Firstly, everyone commented that ethicalquestions like this are tricky. Certainlyplaying nuisance stones for no other purposebut to try and make your opponents clockdrop is unethical.Given that you have read the black stones asdead, and you realise that they are a goodsource of ko threats, then the first thing to dois to try and create an advantageous koelsewhere on the board during the game.If however the rest of the game is played outand you are still losing, what is the correctthing to do? In all cases the same answerwas given whether the game was a normalgame or a lightning game. Given mycomment above about unethical moves, thisis surely what you would expect.Everyone thought that playing as far as 3 inthe first diagram was legitimate, to provethat the opponent had read and understoodthe corner. Some thought about the atari onthe three white stones first, as being integralto the sequence, whilst others preferred toleave the atari as a potential trap for Whiteshould they play that particular line.Whether stronger dan players wouldconsider these moves frivolous is a mootpoint.

12

34

❏ 1

12

3456

78 9

11

❏ 2 10 at 8

1 2

345

a

b

❏ 3 10 at 8

AN ETHICAL SOLUTIONIan Marsh [email protected]


In a previous issue (BGJ 130, p. 26) we haveseen that in his book of 1694 Thomas Hydecame near to first describing Go to Europeanreaders, with enough detail to let them playit. This he did with the help of two persons,who unfortunately were not expert enough.Let us try and expand the bit of informationprovided by Hyde about them.

William GiffordThomas Hyde wrote that he owned a Goplaying set, brought to him by Mr. Gifford,who had been a merchant active in Asia,where he had also been Governor of Fort StGeorge, in Madras. Fort Saint George is an exact reference; theplace is Madras, now Chennai, one of thefirst British colonies in India. The fort wasbuilt on 23rd April (Saint George’s day)1639 by the East India Company that hadobtained a piece of land from the local king. Around the fort, the colony of George Towndeveloped as the place of white people,whereas the rest of the colony was named‘Black Town’. The trading centre that grewhere was open to merchants coming fromseveral countries of Europe and Asia,including China.

Madras was the sort of place where anythingcould be found or ordered, but at the sametime it’s difficult to imagine people therewasting their time, playing a difficult gameof pure skill, with no gambling involved.The political situation was far from quiet atthe time. Local traditional authority wasdivided among several groups, which foughteach other. The various European nationsinvolved (especially Portuguese, Dutch,English, and soon afterwards French too)were each trying to displace the local tradeconquests of the others.The ‘official’ members of the East IndiaCompany were competing for their tradewith independent interlopers, workingindividually or as unofficial groups orcompanies. Moreover, it may be surprisingto know that hard internal battles werefought among the leaders of the East IndiaCompany themselves.In the specific case of Governor Gifford, weobtain the general impression of a Governormore honest and dynamic than average.Some information indicates positive activityby him to improve the local conditions fortrade. For instance, we have indications thatearly on he founded a bank in Madras.

22

HYDE’S ASSISTANTS ~ BOTH INADEQUATEFranco Pratesi [email protected]

Go in the Movieswww.european-go.org/archives/filmography.html

Gionata Soletti from Italy has collected together details ofall known films that feature Go in them. Many are oriental,but a few are western blockbuster movies such as Pi and A Beautiful Mind. Some just feature a Go board in a sceneand others an actual game. TV Drama’s such as AllyMcBeal and Animations are included.

Tony Atkins

IN THE LIGHT


Further information on the main events andthe personages involved can be found inreference works. Let us summarise from oneof them (Burgess James, The Chronology ofModern India. Edinburgh: Grant, 1913),keeping its chronological format.In 1681 the Court of Directors orders thedismissal of Streynsham Moster, Governorof Fort St. George, and on July 3 he issucceeded by Mr. William Gyfford, till July25, 1687. In 1683, Mr Gyfford Governor ofMadras, is directed to control Bengal also,and he is there from August 8, 1684 till Jan.26, 1685, Mr. Elihu Yale acting for him atMadras. In 1684, Mr Gyfford, Governor ofFort St. George is made President of theCoromandel and Bengal settlements. In1686, Apr. 12, King James II by Chartergrants permission to build a mint at Madras.In 1687, July 25, Mr Elihu Yale succeedsMr. Gyfford (dismissed) as Governor ofMadras till Oct. 3, 1692.It is easier to find information on this ElihuYale, because one of the most renowneduniversities of the USA was named afterhim; a whole book has been devoted to hislife: (Bingham Hiram, Elihu Yale: theAmerican Nabob of Queen Square. NewYork: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1939). Obviously, we often find Governor Giffordquoted in the part of book devoted to Yale’sstay in Madras. The relationship betweenGovernor Gifford and member of staff Yaleappears to have been fine. On the otherhand, Gifford’s later stay in Madras wascomfortable enough, thanks to Yale, the newGovernor. Of course, we can only partially reconstructthe life of William Gifford. However, it mustbe acknowledged that the single event that isof interest for us is a hardly noticeable onein his life. We cannot hope to find a historyof Madras, or of the East India Company, inwhich information is provided on the Go setthat Gifford offered to Thomas Hyde!Whatever the detail, the Governor eventuallywas able to present a game set to Hyde, but

it is evident that his knowledge did notinclude the corresponding software.

Shen FuzongHyde’s main information had been providedby a Chinese native. His name – Shin Fo-çung according to Hyde – is differentlywritten, with Shen Fuzong or Fu-zong as thecommonest version.It seems that there is no record about him inChinese history books, all the informationabout him originates from Europe (DingGuoru, Personal communication, 2002).Considering his life, this is not too surprisingbecause he came to Europe as a young man,together with Jesuit Philippe Couplet, anddied only ten years later, during his travelback home.In Europe, however, the visit of the convertedChinese was not unnoticed. He especiallyleft traces in England, where he was welcomeat the King’s court and was the first to makea catalogue of the Oriental archives in theBodleian Library. During his stay in Oxford,opportunities to explain the elements of Goto Hyde were of course frequent. This Chinese converted to Christianity wasalso the subject of a painting by Sir GodfreyKneller (see the front cover), which was keptamong the preferred art works by the Kingand is still part of the Royal collections.The sitter (Michael Alphonsus Shen Fu-Tsung) was born of Chinese Christianparents and came to Europe at the insti-gation of Father Philip Couplet, Procuratorof the China Jesuits in Rome. Afterleaving Macao in 1681 they travelledtogether in Italy, France and England.Shen Fu-Tsung left England in 1688 forLisbon where he entered the Society ofJesus. He died near Mozambique on hisway back to China in 1691. Shen Fu-Tsung seems to have been awell-known figure at the English courtand his portrait was painted for James II.The first reference to the work is by the

23


naval surgeon, James Yonge, who sawShen Fu-Tsung at Windsor Castle in July1687, describing him as ‘a young,palefaced fellow who had travelled fromhis country and become a papist (hispicture being done very well like him inone of the King’s lodgings)’. When James II visited Oxford inSeptember 1687, Shen Fu-Tsung was thesubject of conversation at the BodleianLibrary, where the sitter had apparentlyhelped to catalogue the Chinesemanuscripts. On that occasion James IIremarked that ‘he had his picture to thelife hanging in his room next to the bedchamber’.The painting can be categorized either asa religious picture or as a portrait. Thecomposition succeeds on the basis of theunaffected sense of design and the direct-

ness of the characterization. The fact thatthe sitter looks upwards and away fromthe viewer suggests divine inspiration.According to Horace Walpole, ‘Of all hisworks, Sir Godfrey was most proud ofthe converted Chinese.’

www.artcyclopedia.com/art42day/art0808.shtml

This renowned painting may be ‘read’ fromour point of view too. In the portrait we seea young Chinese who had taken the cowl.How could he be an expert in Go? Probablyhis education had other priorities, works onmercy, heaven’s inhabitants, and so on.At most he could have heard about it or availhimself of short descriptions of the game keptin the Bodleian Chinese archives that he wasindexing. Unfortunately, it is evident – fromthe information communicated – that henever played a Go game with Thomas Hyde.

24

A 13 X 13 PROBLEMSimon GossWhite has just played 1 and captured themarked stone. There are no other prisonersand no komi. Black to play and win. Thisisn’t an endgame counting problem; it’s areading problem. Solution on page 26.

❏ 13 x 13 problem1

Hall of Famewww.britgo.org/hof/past.html

If you have often wondered who thereigning South Coast HandicapChampion is, then this is the site foryou. Every known winner of everyUK and Ireland public tournament islisted. Earliest records date back to thefirst British Go Championship. Sisterpage ../hof/current.html just listscurrent champions and the titles theyhave.

Tony Atkins

IN THE LIGHT

❍


25

I am currently researching and writing a sixto eight thousand words paper of ‘WorkingMemory and Go’. Which is about using thegame of Go as a prop to reveal the evidence,of hemispheric modes of and models of,short term thoughts and awareness. On reading the spring 2003 BGA Journal inearly May, I noted that Tony McFaddenasked if any one had thoughts on how onecould play an infinite game of Go. I wasconsidering the evolution of Go assomething to discuss at the end of my paper,for what advances can still be made if onehad the opportunity to explore these possibil-ities; and if people were to be inclined toaccept a mutation.I imagined a spherical board, that has theusual number of lines as a contour grid. Butthere is no perimeter, which would make theimplications of board play to seem as aninfinite board when empty. Now of coursethis would mean an big rupture in traditionalefficient area capturing methods; andpossibly cause multiple ko situations –which only lends itself further to thevastness of infinity. I have not yet played on such a board; butcan anyone say what other implications ordebasing effects it would have on the rulesof Go as they stands today?The practicality of making such a board,would need some form of gyroscopiccontraption holding the spheroid board in theair, and to rotate it so as to view as much ofthe game as is needed; and some newmethod other then gravity would be neededto keep the stones on the intersections. Thisperhaps in itself, may inspire a lens shapedboard, which would have an altogetherdifferent effect.

●

Ian Marsh’s lively writing in the Spring 2003issue mentioned in his notes: “In this caseperhaps the proverb should be ‘In the land ofthe blind the one eyed man is dead’”. Inreference to observing a blind eye situation,by both players, of a dual atari shared liberty(ko) once the game had ended.Another apt reworking of the originalstatement, which lends itself to this closedgame ko observation would be: ‘In thecountry of the blind the one-eyed man islucky to escape with his life.’ Celia Green,The Decline and Fall of Science, 1976,p.171 ISBN: 0 900076 06 2.

●

There has been a TV show that was repeatedrecently called Monkey or Monkey’s Magic(children’s 70s, 80s comedy show). Thisfeatured a game between Monkey and hissensei, using the art of distraction to take hissensei’s hand made mystical sweets, during agame of Go that the sensei was playing onhis own until monkey turned up. It made mewonder how many times Go was featured inthis long running show.

●

For those not of a high enough standard ofmemory to produces the 9x9 mind boardsuggested by Tony Atkins in the Spring 2003issue, another game can easily take it’splace; the game of Noughts and Crosses. Tohelp you or your children develop perceptualreasoning skills and a good spatial awarenesscapacity. One for long journeys with a backseat full of kids. For those that have bettermemory recall, 3D cubed Noughts andCrosses, with three sets of nine boxes – ortwenty seven spaces.

THOUGHTS ON READING THE SPRING JOURNAL

Matthew James [email protected]


26

All there seems to be in the problem is the 5-point gote at A in Diagram 1 and the kothat White has just captured.

If either side connects the ko, it’s a seki. If either side plays at B, there is no sekiany more – one side must be captured. It’shard to play at B, though, because whenyou do, the opponent will capture the ko,putting you in atari, and you have to findthe first ko threat. Hence each playerwould rather the opponent shouldered theburden of playing B. For this reason, suchkos often get left as they are for a longtime. This explains the name mannen ko,which means 10,000-year ko in Japanese.Books and articles often say that a mannenko is usually left till very late in the game,when one or other side will normallyconnect to make it seki. If Black believesthat this is the whole story, he may play atA, expecting White to connect the ko. Ifthis happens, Black wins by 9 points.But what White will actually do is shownin Diagram 2. After Black takes the 5-pointmove at 2, White makes the approachmove at 3 (atari). Black recaptures the ko,but White’s ko threat at 5 is big. If Black

answers it at A, White can recapture the ko,and Black has no ko threats. All he can dois pass, leaving White to capture the sixBlack stones. White wins by 4 points.Alternatively, Black could ignore the kothreat and capture eight White stones at B.But then White A kills Black in the lowerright corner, and again wins by 4 points.Look again at Diagram 1. The way Blackshould have thought about this problem isto ask himself who needs to do what inorder to win. Black has 40 points ofterritory. White has 30 plus the prisonerfrom the ko capture. The seki isn’t enoughfor White even if he gets the 5-pointendgame move at A as well. White has tocapture something to stand any chance. SoBlack must assume that White is going toplay the approach move at B and use theko to try to capture something. But whatcan Black do about it?The answer is Black 2 in Diagram 3, fillingin a point of his own territory, but alsoerasing White’s biggest ko threat. Whitenow has two possible ways of playing:One way is to take the endgame point firstand then keep on fighting the ko, as in

❏ 1

AB

1

❏ 2

B 23 A

54 1

ANSWER TO 13X13 PROBLEMSimon Goss [email protected]


27

Diagram 4. But when White eventuallyrecaptures at 7, Black passes! Now Whitecan’t afford to play the atari at A. If hedoes, Black recaptures the ko, and Whitehas no more ko threats, so it is Black whocaptures him.White’s other try is to approach the koimmediately at White 3 in Diagram 5. Thisway, White’s ko threat at 5 ensures thatWhite will capture something. But Blackstill wins the game by ignoring the kothreat to win the ko by capturing White.

(He can also win by answering the kothreat and letting White capture him at thebottom, as you can check for yourself.)It’s important for Black to erase White’sbiggest ko threat. If he erases the otherone, with Black 2 in Diagram 6, he losesafter White approaches the ko and thenplays the big ko threat at White 5. NowBlack can choose whether to answer it at Aand let White win the ko, or to capture at Band let White kill him by playing at A, buthe loses by 5 points either way.

❏ 3

2

❏ 4

5 6

3A

24 7

❏ 5

5 7

6 83

24

❏ 6

2

B3 A

54 1


28

It was a day like any other day, 24 hourslong and ending in a “why”, only this daywas different. Murder was in the air andmurder’s my business. The perfect crimethey called it. A trail as cold as a liquidnitrogen bath after a long hot sauna and nota lead in sight. Whoever orchestrated thislittle masterpiece was clearly a heavyweightin the head department. For once in my life Ihad to admit that I was completely stumped.Solving this one was going to be one toughassignment. $25 a day plus expenses. I reallyneeded to get out of this racket.It was a long shot but I had nothing else togo on. August 2000 was the date. There wastalk of a big gathering of brains down inLondon town at the Alexandra Palace – Ali-Pali as it is known in the underworld. Theevent was the Mind Sports Olympiad, andbeing something of a wood pusher myself Ithought I would take the opportunity to catchup with a few old acquaintances and see if Icouldn’t pick up a lead or two. The grandhalls of the Palace were teeming withMasters, Grandmasters, Dans, Kyus, Sharks,Memory Men (and women), mathematicalgymnasts, anagram aficionados, crosswordchampions and general enthusiasts alike.Here was an atmosphere you could cut witha knife; one that I recognized and one that Igrew up with having first tasted it at sometender age lost in the mists of time when Iplayed my first ever game of chess againstthe old man. The smell of competition. Myold man may have been a soft touch atalways giving me a head start - a queen, arook, a knight - but he always played to win.Here, surely, among this mass of grey matterwas someone with the capability of perpe-trating the crime that had so far defeated thebest detectives The Yard had to offer.By the time I arrived at the Palace manytournaments were already under way: Go,

Chess, Bridge, Oware, Scrabble, Poker,Crosswords, Othello.. the list was as long asa long thing. Not being particularly up forplaying myself - my chess being rusty andmy Go green - and needing, in any case, tomingle, I contented myself with a leisurelysaunter around the various rooms, observingthe different ways devised to test the humannerve, will and intellect. Someone,somewhere, must know something. Therewas a lot of questions that needed to beasked and I was the man to ask them.The first people to tap for info, I figured,were those manning the various promotionalstalls on display. As well as hosting theirown tournaments the various associationsand federations (the ‘families’) representedat the Palace generally had their own stallsset up to push their particular racket, and itwas to one of these that my enquiries ledme. This particular stall was promoting agame called Gipf and, feigning idle curiosity,I sidled up to the stall, sat down at the seatavailable, and started asking questions abouthow the game was played. Gipf proved to bequite an intriguing invention involving twoplayers moving alternately, placing whiteand black discs on the intersections of lineson a board. A strange idea for a game I’llgrant you - but there you are. The man at thestall referred me to some web site addresswhere I could find out more about it -<http://www.gipf.com> - but being an old-style Dick myself a few scribbled notes inmy little black book was all I needed. Beforelong I soon found myself locked deep inthought in a strange new world of shufflingdiscs and non-orthogonal intersecting lines,doing battle against the bundle of synapsessitting opposite me. Needless to say thegame ended fairly quickly with me beingtaken for the Gipf-smuck that I was; butwhat struck me most about the encounter

THE LONG GOODBYERoger Peck roger.peck&xitec-software.com


29

Here are two problems I created for myteaching at the West Surrey Teach-in.They are status problems. You have todetermine what will happen to thesegroups. Perhaps they are alive, in whichcase the correct move for both players isto do nothing until the endgame. Orperhaps if White goes first she can kill,and if Black goes first he can live. Orperhaps the correct answer involves a ko.The answers are on page 36.❏ Problem 1 ❏ Problem 2

‘GO’ PROBLEMS

Tim Hunt [email protected]

❍

was the overpowering enthusiasm that myadversary displayed throughout. In a raremoment of intuition I asked the man who Ihad been doing battle with whether Gipfmight in fact be his brainchild and the broadgrin and puffed out chest that greeted myenquiry assured me that he was. Indeed, Gipfwas just one of a number of scams that thisdark horse of a man had dreamt up.Here then was the kind of man I was lookingfor. A man with real vision. A man in searchof the perfect game. Could not the man insearch of the perfect game also be the authorof the perfect crime? I stared across the boardand pondered the nature of the person staringback at me as he held my gaze easily,casually and completely unruffled. There wasno doubting, this was one tough cookie and Idetermined then and there to find out moreabout him. Smiling, I stood up and reachedout a hand which he clasped firmly andsecurely. I thanked him for the lesson andassured him that our next game would not beso easy. He nodded his appreciation and then,as I turned to take my leave, he made anobservation that completely stopped me inmy tracks. “You’re a Go player aren’t you?”My heart missed a beat. Alarm bells went offin my head. How did he know? What hadgiven it away? I racked my brain for an

explanation. Was it something in the way Ihad played his beloved Gipf that hadbetrayed me? Had I been subconsciouslymaking shape or surrounding territory? No, Iquickly dismissed this as a possibility. Irarely did either of those two things evenwhen playing Go. That couldn’t be it. Was Iwearing a British Go Championship T-Shirt?No – that couldn’t be it either. All my Go T-shirts having long since faded, shrunk anddeveloped tell tale dark patches under thearms. No, there must be some other explana-tion, but what could it be? Was there someparticular look that all go-players shared?Did Go players all have long beards, or wearglasses? Did they all carry themselves in aparticular way? No, try as I might andcalling to mind every go player I had everknown I could discern no common traits. As I began to run out of all possible naturalexplanations I started to wonder what arcanepowers this man possessed that enabled himto read a man’s soul and penetrate hisinnermost thoughts and I realized that Icould not now part company with this manwithout first finding out. “Tell me”, I said,with a certain trepidation in my voice, “how did you know?”. “Oh”, he replied,“only Go players hold the discs between theirforefinger and big finger the way you did”.


30

From 1st July 2003 this job is being simpli-fied. Non-members will no longer be able topurchase books and equipment from theBGA, but instead will be diverted tocommercial suppliers. This will mean thatthe BGA will not need to operate thebookselling function through a separatelimited company - BGA Books Ltd.As far as members are concerned there willbe no change in the service provided, whichat present includes:● holding stocks of all books on Go

currently available in English● holding stocks of a range of equipment to

meet the demands of most members andclubs as well as the BGA itself

● where possible holding stocks of out-of-print books, occasionally includingsecond-hand books

● an ‘all new books’ subscription service● a Go World subscription service● holding stocks of old Go Worlds where

possible● holding stocks of Go stones to supply in

small quantities as replacementsfollowing loss or damage

● attending all major tournamentssupported by the BGA throughout theBritish Isles, and attending minor tourna-ments or supplying them with books forresale (on request)

● the provision of Book Tokens for BGA-supplied books on Go

● and finally, offering useful advice bytelephone or e-mail on what books areappropriate to members’ needs

The reason for this simplification is thecontinuing growth in the complexity of thebookseller’s job. Previous simplificationsincluded the abandonment of the sales toshops operation (there were also VAT

problems), and the transfer to Steve Baileyof the sales of back numbers of BGJs. A comparison with 1995 is illuminating:❍ The number of books in English in the

BGA Price List has trebled;❍ The number of equipment products

stocked has doubled.❍ The number of different issues of Go

World stocked has increased by 50%.❍ The value of sales has almost doubled,

while prices have hardly changedThere are some restrictions on the serviceprovided to overseas members. Books areoffered at standard prices to both UK andEuropean members, but elsewhere a supple-ment to cover additional postage costs maybe required. Outside the UK such a supple-ment is always required for equipment,which usually makes the price absurdly high:eg the postage and insurance on a PGT3 Goset to be sent to Greece is over £30.Cash payments are accepted in sterling,euros or dollars, while cheque payments areaccepted in sterling or euros, using thecurrent rate of exchange. Credit cardpayments are not accepted.One problem area is the supply to membersof books in oriental languages. Kido YearBooks have been supplied to special orderfor several years, but requests have beenreceived but not accepted, for many otherbooks. It would be an advantage if anotherbookseller, preferably with a knowledge oforiental languages, could be appointed tosource these books and so give an enhancedservice to members.If you would like any further informationabout any of the services provided or toobtain an up-to-date Price List contact theBGA Bookseller - for details see BGAOfficials in this BGJ.

THE BGA BOOKSELLERGerry Mills [email protected]


31

Semeai is the Japanese word for acapturing race. This is going to be anirregular series. I don’t promise tomeet the deadline for every issue ofthe journal. My aim is to present someleftover material that didn’t make itinto my recent book CountingLiberties and Winning CapturingRaces due to space limitations.We’ll start with an NHK Cup gamebroadcast in November 2002. Black isCho Sonjin 9 dan and White is HaneYasumasa 9 dan. The commentary isby O Meien 9 dan.Figure 1. Moves 1 to 5 show a localsequence. Actually Black peeped at 1and extended to 3 slightly earlier in thegame. After White 4, play shifted tothe right-center for ten moves. NowBlack has returned to the position onthe left side and extended to 5. ShouldWhite connect at A or extend at B?If White extends at 1 in Diagram 1, Blackcuts at 2. This captures the corner. It’s asimple capturing race with no clever movesfor gaining or reducing liberties. Black isahead 5 to 4.On the other hand, if White connects at 1 inDiagram 2, then Black comes out with 2. If

Black answers White’s peep at 3 with 4, thenWhite 5 wins. O did not give the continua-tion, but Black will lose the capturing race ifhe connects up the marked stone. But if hedoesn’t connect and lets White capture it, thecapturing race vanishes and Black is leftwith a weak group. However, Black may notconnect at 4. Instead, he may hane at 1 inDiagram 3. White can cut at 2, but after

THRILLING SEMEAI GAMES - PART ONERichard Hunter [email protected]

1 23

45

A

B

❏ Figure 1

❏ 1

1

2

❏ 2

1

234 5

❏ 3

123


Black 3, the white stones on the rightare captured.O expects White to give way andplay Diagram 1. He is quite surprisedwhen White connects at 1 in Figure2. Black blocks at 2 and White peepsat 3. Next, O is sure that Blackcannot connect with 4 at 8. Diagram3 is good for Black. O reads out the moves to 9 in Figure 2, but what is the status of thecapturing race? At best, it’s risky.The game proceeds with 4 to 7.Surely Black must escape with 8 at 9To O’s disbelief, Black connects at 8.“This semeai is frightening,” says O.“It will probably become ko.” AfterWhite blocks at 9, there is noavoiding a capturing race. What doyou think will happen?Black starts by playing 1 in Figure 3 (move131). Is this best? O isn’t sure, but it doesmake the position easy to read (well maybenot quite so easy). “I don’t think one wouldwant to be Black in this position,” he says.

White 2 and 3 are fairly predictable. Next,White should descend at either 4 or 7. Whitechooses 4, so the hane at 7 is a key move. Opredicts all the moves in Figure 3 and addsthe continuation in Diagram 4. Black plays 3

on the inside liberty because itbelongs exclusively to White in thistype of fight. White 4 is atari, soBlack takes the ko with 5, but thisdoes not put White in atari. Blackneeds to add one more move (insideWhite’s eye). White cannot avoidfighting the ko. Connecting at A and

32

1

23

456 78

9

❏ Figure 2

1

2 34

56

78

9

1011

12

❏ Figure 3 ❏ 41

2

3

4

5

A


33

approaching from the rear istoo slow. The result is afavourable one-moveapproach ko for White. ForWhite, it’s a direct ko.When he takes it, he putsBlack in atari, so White canwin by ignoring one blackko threat. On the otherhand, Black must make anapproach move. Thedrawback of this is that ifWhite wins the fight, thisextra move becomes justanother prisoner. Blackdecides not to fight the ko atthis point in the game. After12 in Figure 3, he playselsewhere (move 143).Perhaps later he will havesome better ko threats. Oregards this result as afailure for Black’s plan.Later in the game (move156), White adds a move inthe bottom left corner (heconnects the ko) to resolvethe fight unconditionally.This gives Black his secondsente move elsewhere ascompensation for losing thecapturing race, but it’s notenough. The gamecontinues for a while, butBlack resigns after W 172.If you need a more detailedexplanation of the basicprinciples of countingliberties and winningcapturing races, then pleaseread my new book. I haveexpanded on the materialpublished in the Journal(BGJ 102–120) with achapter of entirely newmaterial discussingcapturing races involving

ko, including approach-move kos.There is little time left inthe TV program for thepost-game analysis, only afew minutes, so the profes-sionals focus on the fight inthe bottom left. O wonderswhether the result shouldhave been a direct ko forBlack.Diagram 5. Cho tries outBlack 1 here instead of 1 inFigure 3. He’s dissatisfiedwith the outcome in thegame. Is this move better?

Cho tries descending at 3instead of playing hane, butthe players conclude that itdoesn’t capture White: theresult seems to be seki.If Black wants to try andkill White, then the hane at1 in Diagram 6 seems to bethe only move. This ends upequivalent to the actualgame. It seems that Blackcannot expect to kill White.Hane expected Diagram 7,which is a seki in gote forBlack. The professionalsswitch a few stones around

(Diagram 8) and produce amore realistic seki withoptimal move order (notshown) and White uses hissente to play 1. Cho thinksthat White is ahead in thisposition, but Hane says hewas not confident ofwinning.Just at the end, Hane pointsout that he should havedescended on the other side,at 1 in Diagram 9. White 4in Figure 3 was a terriblemistake he says. O playsthrough it with him todiscover the difference.Diagram 9 leaves Blackwith no way to win thefight.

❏ 5

12

34

5

❏ 6

12

34

567

8

9

10

❏ 7

12

34

5

678

9


34

The conclusion is that, after Figure 2, thebest that Black can get is the gote seki ofDiagram 8 (similar to Diagram 7).This was an exciting fight. The short timelimits meant that both players mademistakes. It’s reassuring that even profes-sionals are not perfect. Moreover, the

commentator was guessing a bit at the resultof the capturing race. He didn’t have time toread it all out correctly either. I think youwill find it worthwhile playing through themoves either on a real board or on acomputer. An sgf file can be downloadedfrom the BGA website.

❏ 8

1

❏ 9 12 takes the ko

1

234

5 6

78

9

1011

13

❍

The first Welsh Open at Barmouth was asunny one day event in May 1993; it waswon by Matthew Macfadyen. The newBrighton club and the local kids dominatedthe prize list at Bracknell, but Monmouth’sQuentin Mills was the winner. Shutai Zhangproved unbeatable as expected at theChallenger’s League in Leamington. Secondwas Edmund Shaw and third Alex Rix. Theother Bank Holiday event was the revitalisedScottish Open. This was won by FrancisRoads who was celebrating his 50th birthdaythe same month. Francis also dominated thesecond Isle of Man Go Week in Douglas. Hewon the main, afternoon and 13x13. DesCann won Leicester in June.Piers Shepperson was at the World Amateurin Fukuoka in Japan. China won the champi-onship on SOS from Korea. On theEuropean Grand Prix circuit the Russians

Lazarev and Bogdanov were doing well, andso too were the local Orientals Shen, Guoand Wataru. However our own PiersShepperson also did quite well with fourthplaces in Milan and Helsinki. The Russianevent was held again on a boat on the Volga.Fen Yun, the Chinese professional, was backin England for two months before Prague.She visited London, Cambridge and the M4Corridor. Prague was host to a successfulEuropean Go Congress. It was won by Robvan Zeijst, with Matthew Macfadyen ineighth. There were many side events, muchmusic, trips out to the home of Budweiserbeer and the traditional pork and dumplings. In Japan, Cho Chikun won the Honinbo forthe fifth time in a row, earning him the titleof Honorary Honinbo. Kobayashi Koichiwon the Gosei, whilst in China a new 9x9event was won by Ma.

TEN YEARS AGO



35

Beginners need eventually to come to a clearunderstanding of what constitute the phasesof the game of Go. You need to recognise these transitions. Thisis because you need to change your thinkingat such points and take stock of yoursituation.The three phases are:

1 Opening (fuseke)2 Middlegame3 Endgame (yose)

Of course everything has a beginning, amiddle and an end and so do each of thephases.Yose begins strictly when there are only 4point plays left on the board. You might beled into thinking that a few 7, 6 & 5 pointerscould be included but although these arecompletely calculable, these are really partof the late middle game – the part where youprepare for the endgame and in the endgameamounts are what counts. The fact that it canbe calculated is not the phase.Planning for the endgame is important and afine art. Learning that this is so is the key toprogress. You may be going to win or losethe game by one point so the end of the yosecan make or break you.If you have a clear idea of what the openingand endgame is then you are in a position tospot the transitions to and from themiddlegame.The beginning of fuseki consists of the firsteight moves or so – four of yours and four ofyour opponents’s. These moves determinethe course and opportunities in the fuseki.There may be joseki in the fuseki. That issequential lines emerging, of forced playsthat set up solid blocks of structure. But, ingeneral, it is good to remember that eachisolated stone is a potential group that has to

live. And so the fuseki is really characterisedand defined by the idea of the initial distrib-ution of isolated and partially isolated stonesand their arrangement across the board.What are called the josekis are in the fusekireally just a rude interruption of this proces-sion to deployment. Just often an interrup-tion to peace by contention or fighting.So what is the middlegame? Well, survival isa very important activity in life and thatcomes first. In other words – safety andurgency. Secondly, obtaining position bystructure that you can convert into posses-sion and control of Area. These two activi-ties are always the concern of themiddlegame.So, given these phases, recognition of theimportance of what is going on allows youto orientate your mind and get your bearings– so to speak!

THE PHASES OF GORoger Daniel

UK Professional Visitswww.britgo.org/history/pros.html

Covering all known visits by profes-sional Go players to the UK andIreland since 1974, this page will tellyou who came where and when andsome of the places they have been.Most frequent visitor is Yuki Shigenowho has been based in Italy for somefive years already and expected againin July.

Tony Atkins

IN THE LIGHT


36

The answer to bothproblems is that the group isunsettled. Black can live,and White can kill.

G ProblemIn the G problem, Black canlive with 1 in Diagram G1.

Since this move makes themost territory, it is the onlycorrect answer, althoughother moves may make twoeyes.To kill, White needs to startwith the atari at 1 inDiagram G2. If Black letsthe two stones get captured,there is not enough space to

make two eyes, so 2 isforced, then White shouldpush in from the outsidewith 3. After Black blockswith 4 we reach the mostinteresting point. If youhave not done so already,stop and think about wherewhite should play next.Make sure you read outevery possibility.White 5 in Diagram G3 isthe only move. Pleaseconvince yourself of this.

Having to spot this move 5from the problem positionseems to make this quite ahard problem.Going back to the start,starting with the push indoes not work becauseBlack can immediatelymake two eyes as shown inDiagram G4.

O ProblemIn the O problem, Black canlive by making the sameshape as before, as inDiagram O1. The otherpossible black move alsoworks, and perfectionistswill want to think aboutwhich leaves fewer kothreats.

For White to kill, only theatari works, as in DiagramO2. Black’s shortage ofliberties is fatal.

‘GO’ PROBLEMS ~ SOLUTIONS

Tim Hunt [email protected]

❏ G1

1

❏ G2

1 2

34 ❏ O1

1

❏ G4

1

2

❏ G3

5


37

You may, at first, think thatWhite 1 in Diagram O3 alsoworks, but it does not.‘Black to play and live’

after Diagram O3 is aninteresting follow-upproblem.

Black 2 in Diagram O4 isthe only move. I leave youto confirm this on yourown.

❏ O2

1 23

❏ O3

1

❏ O4

2

Having played through a professional game late one evening, imagine my surprise nextmorning, when I discovered that an overnight visitor had taken a particular interest inwhat I thought was a very straightforward forcing move.

Photo:David Woodnutt


38

European Ing CupThe European Ing Cup (Ing Chang-KiMemorial) was held at the Go Centre inAmsterdam, the first weekend in March.Britain was represented among the 24 strongplayers by T.Mark Hall, the top UK player atthe last European Go Congress. Four playersended on 5 out of 6 namely Netherland’sGuo Juan, Romania’s Cristian Pop andCatalin Taranu (professional) and Hungary’sCsaba Mero. The other two professionalsplaying, Russia’s Alexandr Dinerchtein andSvetlana Shikshina, only scored 4 as did LeeHyuk, the Korean from Russia, andGermany’s Christoph Gerlach. However theweekend was marred by Victor Bogdanov (6dan Russia) being taken ill during play onthe Sunday and being rushed to hospital withbleeding on the brain. He is now starting along recovery following surgery.

Irish OpenThe 15th Irish Open was this time an eventin the Toyota-PandaNet European Go Tour.27 players from a dozen nations attended theusual venue of the Teachers’ Club in Dublin,for a weekend of Go and other fun. The IrishRapid started off on the evening of Friday7th March. 15 players took part. MarcoFirnhaber (5 dan Berlin) won the title with astraight 5 wins. Played with handicap andever speeding time limits, anyone can dowell and so John Leuner (9kyu South Africa)and Dan Gilder (3 dan Manchester) tooksecond place with 4 wins. The Saturday andSunday saw the Tournament proper, withplayers battling for Tour points as well as alarge selection of prizes. The top place waslikely to go to one of two visitors who hadbeen all over Europe after tour points. In theend it was Marco Firnhaber who came outwinner, with in second Vladimir Danek (6dan Czechia), who only lost to the winner.

Third was Dan Gilder (3 dan Manchester)and fourth was Chen Mingyou (3 danChina); both scored 3 out of 5 and shared theTour points for those places. Sharing theTour points for places 5 to 8 were TonyAtkins (3 dan Bracknell), Toby Manning (3dan Leicester), Gerry Mills (1 danMonmouth) and Paul Lecomte (1 kyuNetherlands). John Leuner won 4.5, AudeFriren (3 kyu France) won 4 and DaveHoran (14 kyu Chester) won 3.5. Saturdaynight’s distractions included the first Giant’sCauseway Go game, played on an upturnedGo ban where the ‘squares’ were all differentheights; Noel Mitchell and Paul Lecomtebeat John Leuner and John Gibson. Sundaynight was the Irish Go dinner at the Japanesenoodle restaurant, complete with parlourgames. Top of the 9 players in the IrishHandicap on the Monday was Roger Daniel(2 kyu London). Second was Colin Adams(1 kyu Lancaster) and third Dan Gilder andfourth John Leuner.

European Youth Goe ChampionshipsThe Youth Championships were held inCannes, France, as part of the huge festivalof games, during the third weekend inMarch. Yet again a record number of playersfrom a large number of European countriestook part. Of 83 players in the Under-12category, three players ended on 4 out of 5to take the top places: Ihor Zaytsev (4 kyuUkraine), Artem Kachanovskyy (4 kyuUkraine) and Mirolsav Sos (8 kyu Czechia).At under-18 four of the 193 players took thehonours with 4 out of 5: Ilia Shikshine (5dan Russia), Timor Douguine (4 dan Russia),Antoine Fenech (3 dan France) and MartinJurek (3 dan Czechia). Apart from the strongplayers there were vast numbers of doublefigure kyu players, which is good for Go’sfuture if they keep playing.

WORLD GO NEWS



39

Velden TournamentThe Austrian Toyota-PandaNet European GoTour event was held over the third weekendof the busy month of March. It was won byCzech 6 dan Radek Nechanicky. Second wasDiana Koszegi (5 dan Hungary). LocalsFranz Huetler and Gert Schnider were third.44 players took part, but sadly there were noplayers below 10 kyu.

European Pair Go ChampionshipsThe European Pair Go Championships wereheld in Wodzislaw in Poland on the firstweekend in April. 14 official pairs took partin the top championship group; apart fromFrance, Germany and Netherlands all werefrom the east of Europe. Unbeaten winnerswere Rita and Tibor Pocsai from Hungary.Second was Russia (Natalia Kovaleva andAlexei Lazarev) and third was Poland A(Alexandra Lubos and Leszek Soldan). Theywere the best of a group on 4 wins that alsoincluded Germany (Lisa Ente and BenjaminTeuber) and France (Anne Tombarello andDenis Hanotin). 15 local pairs also played ina handicap group.

Paris Toyota-PandaNet European Go Tour Final275 players took part in the traditional Easterweekend festival of Go in Paris. Again theelegant town hall at the Place D’Italie wasthe venue. The entry included a remarkable30 players of 5 dan and above, and a dozenfrom the UK and Ireland. Wuge Briscoe,David Ward, Martin Harvey and RichardMullens won 3 out of 6. Winner again on aperfect 6 was Fan Hui (7 dan China) who isliving in France. On 5 wins were CsabaMero (Hungary) and Asai Hideki (Japan).On 4 were Guo Juan (Netherlands), IonFlorescu (Romania) and Radek Neckanicky(Czechia). Top Frenchman was Jean-Francois Seailles (5 dan) with 5 wins in 7thplace. Professional Yuki Shigeno providedcommentaries and a Lightning Tournamentand party were held on the Sunday evening.

Toyota-PandaNet European Go TourFinal RankingsThe final rankings of the tour are decided atParis, which scores extra points. Winner ofthe 2002-2003 Tour with 113.73 points from7 events was Radek Nechanicky. Secondwith 104 from 5 events was Guo Juan. Thirdwith 94.04 from 9 events was MarcoFirnhaber. Vladimir Danek had 65.9 and FanHui 62. Then came Oleg Mezhov, CsabaMero, Ion Florescu, Du Jingyu and DragosBajaneru in 10th. Top UK player was DanGilder in 25th with 14 points.

Computer Programswww.britgo.org/gopcres./gopcres.htmlOver the years the BGA has collectedinformation on as many Go computerprograms and Go Servers as possible.As well as historical information onservers, there is information on everyGo server available. Also there arelistings of available Go software,whether recording or playing, free orpaid for, complete with links to beable to acquire the software.

Japanese Professional Newswww.nihonkiin.or.jp/index-e.htm

Go to the Nihon Ki-in site in Japan toget the latest news on the professionalscene in English. Updated usuallyweekly by John Power in Tokyo, thepages give the latest tournamentresults, promotions and so on, with aspecial section dedicated to WesternPros in Japan. There is a link to brandnew news and links to older history.

Tony Atkins

IN THE LIGHT


40

☛ PRESIDENT:Simon Goss 4 Butler Rd, Crowthorne, BerksRG45 6QY 01344 [email protected]

☛ TREASURER: T. Mark Hall47 Cedars Rd, Clapham, London SW4 0PN020 7627 0856 [email protected]

☛ SECRETARY & TOURNAMENTS: Tim Hunt208f North Row, Central Milton Keynes MK9 3LQ 01908 695 [email protected]

MEMBERSHIP SECRETARY: Kathleen TimminsThe Hollies, Wollerton, Market Drayton,Shropshire TF9 3LY 01630 [email protected]

JOURNAL EDITOR: David WoodnuttHergest Mill, Kington, Herefordshire HR5 3EL01544 231887 [email protected]

WEBMASTER: Allan Crossman53 North Gyle Terrace, Edinburgh EH12 8JY0131 539 0668 [email protected]

PUBLICITY/PRESS OFFICER: Nick Wedd37 North Hinksey Village, Oxford OX2 0NA01865 247 403 [email protected]

NEWSLETTER EDITOR: Jil Segermanc/o Nuclear Medicine Department, RoyalSussex County Hospital, East Road, Brighton,BN2 5BE 01273 664 [email protected]

BOOK DISTRIBUTOR: Gerry Mills10 Vine Acre, Monmouth, Gwent NP25 3HW01600 712 934 [email protected]

CHAMPIONSHIPS ORGANISER: Toby Manning7 Oak Tree Close, Leamington Spa CV32 5YT01926 888 739 [email protected]

ANALYSIS SERVICE: David Ward17 Moore Close, Cambridge CB4 1ZP01223 523 683 [email protected]

☛ ARCHIVIST: Les Bock 36 Grove Park,London E11 2DL 020 8530 [email protected]

YOUTH NEWS: Emma Marchant41 Lochinver, Bracknel, RG12 7LD01344 481 908 [email protected]

EDUCATION OFFICER Peter Wendes 13 Stakes Road, Purbrook, Hants, PO7 5LU02392 267 648 [email protected]

CHILD PROTECTION ADVISOR: Sue Paterson1 Town Quay, River Road, Arundel BN189DF 01903 889 825 [email protected]

GRADING COMMITTEE CHAIRMAN: Jim Clare32–28 Granville Rd, Reading RG30 3QE [email protected]

☛ JOURNAL BACK NUMBERS: Steve Bailey49 Stocton Road, Guildford, Surrey GU1 1HD01483 533 748 [email protected]

☛ Bill Streeten 3 Wellington Court, WellingtonRoad, London E11 2AT 020 8926 [email protected]

☛ Anna [email protected]

KYU GRADING/GODRAW PROGRAM: GeoffKaniuk 35 Clonmore St, London SW18 5EU020 8874 7362 [email protected]

NATIONAL TRAINER: Matthew Macfadyen22 Keytes Lane, Barford, Warks. CV35 8EP01926 624 445 [email protected]

EXHIBITIONS: Adam Atkinson 1 Kelsey Court,Burgess Hill, West Sussex RH15 0TU01444 248 011 [email protected]

AUDITOR: Alison Bexfield112 Westview, Letchworth Herts SG6 3QJ01462 684 648 [email protected]

Useful e-mail and web addressese-mail for general BGA enquiries

b g a@britg o. d e mon. c o.uk

BGA Web sitewww. britg o.org

BGA e-mail listssee web site for details of how to enlist

for general and discussion broadcast:g ota lk@britg o.org

for policy discussion broadcast:b g a-p olic y@britg o.org

BGA OFFICIALS ☛ indicates member of BGA Council


BATH: Paul Christie 01225 428 [email protected] Meets at The White Hart,Widcombe, Bath, Tues 7.30pm.

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

BIRMINGHAM: Michael Vidler 0121 246 [email protected] Meets at theBrook pub, Selly Oak., Mon 7.30pm.

BOURNEMOUTH: Marcus Bennett 01202 512 655Meets at 24 Cowper Rd, Moordown BH9 2UJ,Tues 8pm.

BRACKNELL: Clive Hendrie 01344 422 [email protected] Meets at Duke’sHead, Wokingham, Tues 8.30pm.

BRADFORD: David Keeble 01274 581 [email protected] Meets at TheVictoria, Saltaire Rd, Shipley Weds 7.30pm.

BRIGHTON: Granville Wright01444 410 229 (h), 01273 898 319 (w)[email protected] Meetsat Grand Central pub, Surrey St, oppositeBrighton Station, Tues 8pm.

BRISTOL: Paul Atwell 0117 949 [email protected] at Polish Ex-servicemen’s Club, 50 StPaul’s Road, Clifton, Bristol, Tues 7.30pm.

CAMBRIDGE CHESS & GO CLUB: Paul [email protected] 01223 563 932Meets Victoria Road Community Centre,Victoria Road, Fri 7.30pm (term). Caters forbeginners and children.

CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY & CITY:Charles Matthews 01223 350 [email protected] Meets atCastle Inn, Castle St Mon 7.30pm; TheLatimer Room, Old Court Clare College Tues7.30pm (term); Coffee Lounge, 3rd floor, TheUniversity Centre, Mill Lane Thurs 7.00pm;CB1 (café), 32 Mill Road Fri 7.00 to 9pm;CB1 informal Sun 4pm.

CARDIFF Neil Moffatt 0292 041 [email protected] Meets ChapterArts Centre, Market Street, Canton, CardiffTues 7:30pm.

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

CHESTER: Dave Kelly 01244 544 [email protected] Meets at OldeCustom House, Watergate St, Weds 8.00pm.

DEVON: Tom Widdecombe 01364 661 [email protected] Meets Tues at 7.45pmExeter Community Centre, St. David’s Hill.

DUBLIN COLLEGIANS: Noel [email protected] Mons and Weds 9:00pmPembroke Pub, 31 Lower Pembroke Street(off Baggot Street), Dublin 2.

DURHAM UNIVERSITY: Jenny [email protected] Meets Mons 8.00pm TheVictoria Hotel, Hallgarth St, Thurs PFH bar.

EDINBURGH: Phil Blamire 0131 663 [email protected] Meets at UCWClub, 15 Brunswick St, Thurs 7.30pm.

EPSOM DOWNS: Paul Margetts 01372 723 [email protected] Meets at 7 RipleyWay, Epsom, Surrey KT19 7DB but checkwith Paul first. Tues 7.30pm.

GLASGOW: John O’Donnell 0141 330 [email protected] Meets term time atResearch Club, Hetherington House, 13 University Gardens, Weds 8pm.

HASTINGS/EASTBOURNE: Patrick Donovan 01323 640 552 Meets by arrangement.

HIGH WYCOMBE: Paul Clarke 01494 438 [email protected] Meets Tues 8.00pm.

HP (BRISTOL): Andy Seaborne 0117 950 [email protected] Meets Wed & Frinoon. Please ring in advance to ensure thatplayers are available.

HUDDERSFIELD: Alan Starkey 01484 852 420Meets Huddersfield Sports Centre, Tues 7pm.

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

ISLE OF MAN: David Phillips 01624 612 [email protected] Suns & Weds 7.30pm.

UK CLUB LIST


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

LEAMINGTON: Matthew [email protected] 624 445 Meets 22 Keytes Lane,Barford, Warks. CV35 8EP Thurs 7.30pm.

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

LETCHWORTH: Simon Bexfield 01462 684 [email protected] Meets Caffeine CoffeBar, off Station Rd 1st Sun 2.00pm pleasephone to check.

LINCOLN: Dr Tristan Jones 07752 681 [email protected] Thurs 7.30pm.

LIVERPOOL: Roger Morris 0151 734 [email protected] Meets Maranto’s WineBar, Lark Lane Weds 8pm.

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

MANCHESTER: Chris Kirkham 0161 903 [email protected] Meets at the SquareAlbert in Albert Square Thurs 7.30pm.

MID CORNWALL: Iyan Harris 01872 540 529Meets Miners & Mechanics Social Club, St.Agnes Thurs 6:00pm.

MIDDLESBOROUGH: Gary Quinn 01642 [email protected] Meets at the University ofTeesside Weds 4:00pm.

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

NEWCASTLE: John Hall 0191 285 [email protected] various places, Weds.

NORWICH: Tony Lyall 01603 613 698 Meets atThe Louis Marchesi, Tombland,Thurs 7.30pm.

NOTTINGHAM: Clive [email protected] Meets Weds7.00pm at The Crown Inn, Church St,Beeston.

Open University & Milton Keynes:Tim Hunt [email protected] 01908695 778 Meets 1st Mon of month at O.U.Cellar Bar other Mons at Secklow 100,Midsummer Boulevard Central MK, 7.30pm.

OXFORD CITY: Richard Helyer01608 737 594 Meets at Freud’s Café, WaltonStreet, Tues & Thurs 6pm. Check with Richard that Freud’s is available.

OXFORD UNIVERSITY: Niall [email protected] Meets at theSeminar Room, Corpus Christi Coll Weds 7.30pm (term).

PENZANCE: John Culmer 01326 573 [email protected] Meets UpstairsFlat, 39 Morrab Road, Penzance Thurs8.00pm.

PURBROOK: Peter Wendes 02392 [email protected] Meets most Thursevenings at Peter’s house, ring and check.

READING: Jim Clare 0118 377 5219 (w)[email protected] Meets at theBrewery Tap, Castle St, Mon 6.30pm.

SHEFFIELD: Will Segerman 0777 370 [email protected] Meets Red Lion, CharlesSt, Suns 7pm.

ST ALBANS: Alan Thornton 01442 261 945 or Richard Mullens 01707 323 629 Meets atThe White Lion, 91 Sopwell Lane, St. Albans.Non-regular visitors ring to confirm.

SWANSEA: Meets at JC’s, a pub on the univer-sity campus Suns 3.30.

SHERBOURNE & YEOVIL Julian Davies 01935423 046 [email protected] MeetsBrewers Arms, St James St, South PethertonWeds 7.30pm.

SWINDON: David King 01793 521 [email protected] Meets at Princeof Wales, Coped Hall Roundabout, WoottonBassett, Weds 7.30pm.

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

WEST WALES: Jo Hampton 01341 281 [email protected] Allday 01341 280 365 Llys Mynach,Llanaber Rd, Barmouth LL42 1RN.


43

WEST SURREY: Pauline Bailey 01483 561 [email protected]. Meets inGuildford Mons 7:30 except bank holidays.

WINCHESTER: Alan Cameron 07768 422 [email protected] Meets at TheBlack Boy Pub, 1 Wharf Hill, Bar End,Winchester Weds 7pm.

WORCESTER & MALVERN: Edward Blockley01905 420 908 Meets Weds 7.30pm.

LONDON CLUBSCENTRAL LONDON: Keith Rapley 01494 675

066 [email protected] Saturday12:00 to 19:00 sharp (except when the Fridayor Monday is a bank holiday) at the CrosseKeys pub, 9 Gracechurch Street, LondonEC3, Board fee £2.00

NORTH LONDON: Martin Smith020 8991 5039 [email protected] in the Gregory Room, Parish Church,Church Row, Hampstead Tues 7.30pm.

NORTH WEST LONDON: David Artus 020 8841 4595 [email protected] at Greenford Community Centre,Oldfield Lane (south of A40) Thurs 7pm.

SOUTH WOODFORD: Francis Roads020 8505 4381 [email protected] Meetsat Waitrose Coffee Bar Tues 10.30am

TWICKENHAM: Roland Halliwell020 8977 5750 (h) Meets irregularly at Popes Grotto Hotel Sun eves. Always ring to confirm.

WANSTEAD & EAST LONDON: Alistiar Wall 0208556 4232 [email protected] at Wanstead House, 21 The Green,Wanstead E11, Thurs 7.15pm.

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

Please send corrections and all new oramended information to Allan Crossman,the BGA Webmaster.See page 36 for all BGA contact details.

NOTICESJournal ContributionsPlease send contributions for the SummerJournal as soon as possible and in any caseby 3th September.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 reliable Go editing program.Please e-mail your contribution to:

[email protected] post to:

David WoodnuttHergest MillKingtonHerefordHR5 3EL

Advertisements£100 per page and pro rata (b/w). Contactthe Editor for colour cover rate. Privatelyplaced small ads, not for profit, are free.Discounts available for a series.

BGA Tournament Phone 07951 140433The BGA has a mobile phone so that peoplecan contact tournament organisers on the dayof the event (for example, in case of breakdown or other problems). Please note thatnot all tournaments make use of this phone.

Web addressesWhen quoted in the Journal, these aregenerally given without the leading http://,which can be assumed.

© 2002 BGA. Items may be reproducedfor the purpose of promoting Go and not forprofit provided that all such copies areattributed to the British Go Journal and theconsent of the author has been sought andobtained. All other rights reserved.Views expressed are not necessarily thoseof the BGA or of the Editor.


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; stones

are 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 libertiesDANGO: a solid, inefficient mass of stonesFURIKAWARI: a trade of territory or groupsFUSEKI: the opening phase of the gameGETA: a technique that captures one or more

stones in a ‘net’, leaving them with two ormore liberties but unable to escape

GOTE: losing the initiativeHANE: a move that ‘bends round’ an enemy

stone, leaving a cutting point behindHamete: a move that complicates the

situation but is basically unsoundHASAMI: pincer attackHOSHI: one of the nine marked points on

the Go boardIKKEN TOBI: a one-space jumpISHI NO SHITA: playing in the space left

after some stones have been capturedJIGO: a drawn gameJOSEKI: a standardised sequence of moves,

usually in a cornerKAKARI: a move made against a single

enemy stone in a cornerKATTE YOMI: self-centred play; expecting

uninspired answers to ‘good’ movesKEIMA: a knight’s move jumpKIKASHI: a move which creates aji

while forcing a submissive replyKOMI: a points allowance given to

compensate White for playing second

KOSUMI: a diagonal playMIAI: two points related such that if one

player takes one of them, the opponent willtake the other one

MOYO: a potential territory, a frameworkNAKADE: a move played inside an enemy

group at the vital point of the principal eye-space to prevent it from making two eyes

OVERTIME: in tournament play, having toplay a number of stones in a certain timee.g. 20 stones in five minutes

OIOTOSHI: ‘connect and die’, capturing by acascade of ataris, often involving throw-ins. If the stones connect up to escape,they all get caught.

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 along oneside of the board

SEKI: a local stalemate between two or moregroups dependent on the same liberties forsurvival

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 stonesSHODAN: one dan levelTENGEN: centre point of the boardTENUKI: to abandon the local position and

play elsewhereTESUJI: a skillful and efficient move in a

local fightTSUKE: a contact playYOSE: the endgame

GLOSSARY OF GO TERMS


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