bgj153

British Go Journal 153 Autumn 2010

CONTENTSEDITORIAL 2LETTERS TO THE EDITOR 3VIEW FROM THE TOP Jon Diamond 4THE SCHOOLS AND OUTREACH PROGRAMME Toby Manning 5GO KIBURI RETURNS FROM SCOTLAND Pauline Bailey 6UK NEWS Tony Atkins 7YOSE PROBLEM Toby Manning 10ISLE OF MAN GO CONGRESS 2010 Leo Phillips 11WORLD NEWS Tony Atkins 14VANESSA WONG Pat Ridley 16THE BGA BOOKSHOP - 1994 TO 2010 Gerry Mills 21THE LEARN GO WEB SITE Neil Moffatt 23GO AT TAMPERE Francis Roads 26ARUNDEL GO CLUB Pauline Bailey 30BRITISH TITLE MATCH - GAME 1 Geoff Kaniuk 31CHAMPIONSHIP FORMAT SURVEY—RESULTS Geoff Kaniuk 35SOLUTIONS TO PROBLEMS 41USEFUL WEB AND EMAIL ADDRESSES 44

BGA Tournament Day mobile: 07506 555 366.

Copyright c© 2010 British Go Association.Articles may be reproduced for the purposes of promoting Go and ‘notfor profit’, providing the British Go Journal is attributed as the source andthe permission of the Editor and of the authors have been sought andobtained in writing.Views expressed are not necessarily those of the BGA, nor of the Editor.

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[email protected]

Welcome to the 153rd British Go Journal.

SolutionsBy popular demand (thanks to all those who commented), the solutions toproblems are published at the back of this Journal. This is in addition to thesgf files, which will continue to be published on the website, as they are ableto present a fuller exploration of the different lines that might be tried.

CreditsMy grateful thanks to the many people who have helped by proof-reading thedrafts, providing technical help, and most of all, by contributing articles: to ouranonymous problemist and our anonomous cartoonist, to Tony Atkins, PaulineBailey, Barry Chandler, Ian Davis, Jon Diamond, Alexandre Dinerchtein, FredHolroyd, Geoff Kaniuk, Toby Manning, Matthew Macfadyen, Gerry Mills, NeilMoffatt, Lauri Paatero, Leo Phillips, Isobel Ridley, Francis Roads, EdmundStephen-Smith, Nick Wedd and Julius and Vanessa Wong.

EditorsFred Holroyd has found himself significantly over-committed (he is not the firstand won’t be the last retirer to find himself in this position!) and does not feelable to devote the time the Journal needs. With much regret, he has thereforedecided to stand down as Co-Editor. If you are interested in editing one ormore editions a year, please contact me, and I’ll be happy to explain what isinvolved.

Pat Ridley

The .sgf files for problems and games printed in this journal appear on

www.britgo.org/bgj/current

All the .sgf files, and the answers to the problems set in the last issueappear on the BGA website at

www.britgo.org/bgj/issue152

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LETTERS TO THE EDITORPair GoThis small article was passed on to me by Stan Wade in work. He’s a beginner,and has been formulating how to play Pair Go properly. I thought it mightcatch your interest.

1. Remember your own plan, and stick to it.2. Look irritated whenever your partner makes a good play3. When unsure as to the merits of a partner’s play, resolve the situation at

once to clarify how poor it was4. Always play the most complex lines. Your partner should naturally follow

your lead.5. When the pressure mounts, forcefully remark that ”Time is passing”.

Kind RegardsIan Davis

Insei - your first step to becoming a pro!

If you have the goal of improving your Go quickly or even becoming aprofessional, you have to become an insei first. How much does it cost tobecome an insei in Korea? The teaching fee is typically $1000 US per month(Yang Jaeho(9p)’s Go school, for example). Accommodation is included. Youwill also need about $1000 US for the plane ticket and near $25 per day forfood (about $750 US/month). So, a one-month long study trip to Korea willcost at least $2750 US.

The Online Insei League is about 30 times cheaper! And you are still able tostay with your family and continue your job!

In the Insei League you will get even more teaching games and lectures thanyou can get in regular school in Korea! And it’s possible to get your moneyback, if your tournament score is good! We don’t have any vacant places forthe DGS (Autumn-2010) and KGS (September) Insei Leagues, but on KGS wewill have a few empty spots in October for 10k-9d players.

For $95 US per month in the KGS League you will get 8 teaching games withA.Dinerchtein, Hwang Inseong (top groups) and Natasha Kovaleva (lowgroups), 5-10 game reviews by email ( depending on how many games youplay every month). You will also get your games reviewed online - we willhave game reviews by 8 different teachers from 8p to 4d : about 30 lectures intotal. Free KGS Plus access is included with the entry fee.

Feel free to register at:KGS: http://insei-league.com/ (for October 2010)DGS: http://dgs.insei-league.com/ (for Winter 2010)

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VIEW FROM THE TOPJon Diamond [email protected]

I’d like to congratulate our twoparticipants in the 27th World YouthGoe Championship, held in Taiwanin July. They both won two games,with Anson Ng (2d) 7th in the Under-12 section and Vanessa Wong (5d)8th in the Under-16s. I believe thismay be the first time we’ve ever hadplayers in this event1 and hope ourother young players will continue toimprove in strength and be able toparticipate in future years.Vanessa is now one of our strongestplayers and is challengingMatthew Macfadyen for the BritishChampionship this year. By the timeyou read this the first three gamesshould already be over, so go to thewebsite for the current status . . .Our online activities are continuingto grow, with an Individual League

in prospect for the New Year tocomplement the Team League. We’realso moving our Internet host froma USA to a UK company, so theremight be an interruption in servicein December, especially as we’reupgrading to a new version of Drupal!But this should provide a better basisfor moving forward.

Finally, as I’m sure you all know,Gerry Mills is retiring as Booksellershortly — his last outing is atLeicester on 27th November. We’reall exceptionally grateful for his 16years of service in this role, and hisgood humour under all conditions.This is a service which is not providedby any other Go Association aroundthe world, as far as I’m aware.He’s appeared at innumerabletournaments over the years (it mustbe well over 100, carting countlessheavy boxes in the back of his car),and sold over £250,000 worth of booksand sets, contributing some £25,000of net revenue for the BGA. So thishas been a significant support to ouractivities. I’m sure you’ll all agree thathe’s irreplaceable, and will join withme to wish him well in his retirement.Full details of how we’re going tocope without him are still beingworked out. However, one thing iscertain — Gerry will still be supplyingGo World to subscribers! Please watchthis space, and all the other means bywhich we communicate with you, formore details as to how to buy booksand sets in future. Hopefully, they willbe in place by the time you read this.

1Actually Leigh Rutland played in 1984 — see BGJ 63 — Ed.

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THE SCHOOLS AND OUTREACH PROGRAMMEToby Manning [email protected]

The BGA is in the middle of asignificant outreach programme, withthe intention of introducing Go toas many people as possible. We willnever get the whole country playingGo—this is an impractical objective—but we would like to be in the positionwhere ”Go” is part of everyone’svocabulary so that the phrase ”Iplay Go” is equivalent to ”I playChess”, and does not get the response”What is Go?” Our programme isconcentrated on schools, but doescover other events.

Schools Support

Much of the work is undertaken byPeter Wendes, who provides highquality “Introduction to Go” eventsfor schools, using sponsorship fundsfrom Winton Capital Management.These funds are usually matched 50%with local resources, often via the localauthorities’ “Gifted and Talented”programmes.

This year, Peter has run events inTameside (Manchester), Lewisham,Hastings, Hertfordshire (4 events),Thames Ditton and Suffolk; moreare planned. We try to get a localrepresentative to attend so that in theevent that local schools wish to set upa Go club they have a local contactwho can help.

The BGA is also receiving directrequests for assistance in settingup school clubs or providingdemonstration or introductoryevents—we have run events inLoughborough, Northampton andBath so far this year. There aredoubtless other events taking placeof which the BGA is unaware.

The BGA is sponsoring the productionof cheap 9x9 sets aimed at schools.These have a board made of laminatedcard, with real (plastic) stones, and theintention is to sell these to schools for£5.The BGA is always looking for furtheropportunities to spread awareness ofGo, and if you have a promising leador idea please contact any member ofCouncil.

CRB ChecksThere is some concern amongpotential volunteers that they mayneed a “Criminal Records Bureau”check before visiting schools, and thatthis is bureaucratic and expensive.The current position is that it is theresponsibility of the school; they mayask you to have a check undertaken,although this is only likely to happenif you are visiting frequently andare unsupervised. If the school doesask you to have a CRB check, it isreasonably simple (and they will helpyou complete the forms, and pay anyfees necessary). As an alternative,any BGA member who regularlyvisits schools and believes it wouldbe useful to have a CRB check cancontact Sue Paterson, the BGA ChildProtection Advisor, and we canget one for you (the BGA will paythe administration fee of £15): Suecan also provide advice in this area([email protected]).This is an area where legislation isunder review, and the BGA is keepingin touch with developments.

Other EventsWe also try to have a presence atselected events with a “Japanese”

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flavour or at game-playing events. Wereceived a lot of interest at our stalls at“Expo”—a large anime conventionheld bi-annually in Docklands,London, although our attendanceat a Japanese festival in Richmondwas less successful. Peter Wendesran events at Chiddingstone Castle,near Tonbridge, and at the “WillAdams Festival” at Gillingham, Kent(Will Adams was probably the firstEnglishman to visit Japan, in 1600).

Much of the support to school clubsis undertaken by a relatively small

number of volunteers who attendlocal school clubs on an occasionalbasis, providing tuition, mentoring,help and support to the often hard-pressed teacher. The BGA is alwayslooking for additional support tospread the burden. Even if you cannothelp with school clubs (in particular,these are mostly run at lunchtimes soit is very difficult for someone witha full-time job to help), there is scopeto assist with one of the other events,which are usually at weekends. If youare interested in volunteering, pleasecontact me at [email protected].

GO KIBURI RETURNS FROM SCOTLANDPauline Bailey [email protected]

It is not generally known that Go Kiburi1 spent much of his life in Scotland,nor that he had a slight stammer. That besides, one day he realised that theBritish Go Journal had not published anything about him for many years. Thismade him sad and he wanted to rectify it, so asked Iki Jibiki for suggestionsas to what to do. Iki thought the personal touch might be best and contactingsomeone Go knew could be a good idea. ’Was there anyone ?’ ’Yes,’ replied GoKiburi, ’Ikken Tobi’.

PROBLEM 1��

Black to play

1Once upon a time, I am told, there was series of stories in the BGJ about thiswell-known Go player. For more of his adventures, see the AGA web site athttp://www.usgo.org/resources/downloads/gokiburi.pdf—Ed.

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UK NEWSTony Atkins [email protected]

Pair Go Champions: Natasha andMatthew, Kelda and Paul

As usual the Pair Go Championships,the 20th, were held at the FoxcombeLodge Hotel, Boars Hill near Oxfordon 13th June. New proprietor GaryAdams was not sure what to expectand could have done without a waterleak, requiring a bucket in the playingroom. Last year’s winners KirstyHealey and Matthew Macfadyen lostin round two to Alison and SimonBexfield, but Alison and Simon lostthe final. The winners were NatashaRegan and Matthew Cocke, who tookthe championship for the first timein five years. In the 10-pair handicapgroup, the winners for the secondyear running were young KeldaSmith and her father Paul Smith, fromCambridge.

Best Dressed Pair

The Best Dressed competition againfeatured top-hatted winners: SarahWright and Alistair Turnbull won,with reigning World Pair Go BestDressed champions, Kirsty Healeyand Matthew Macfadyen, takingsecond spot. Paul and Kelda Smithalso won Francis Roads’s ReligiousEducation Quiz, with 20 points.

Biggest Durham Ends in 3-way TieThe following weekend saw 54people gathering at St John‘s College,Durham for two days of Go at thebiggest Durham Go Tournament sofar. Having a mere one winner seemedpaltry, so in the absence of meaningfultie-breaks, the tournament was wonjointly by Matt Reid (1k), Yohei Negi(2d) and Matt Crosby (3d), all onfive wins. Scott Owens (9k) fromCambridge was the only player withsix wins, and the other players on fivewins were Jamie Taylor (5k) and JamesHadfield (7k). Prizewinners with fourwins were Luke Humphreys (12k),Gregor Welsh (10k), Dave Cantrell(9k), Andre Cockburn (7k), Will Taylor(6k), Edmund Stephen-Smith (4k),Sandy Taylor (1d) and Nick Krempel(3d). The Small Board tournamentwas won by David Taylor (30k), andthe Lightning Tournament jointlyby Edwin Brady (1k), as the personon 100% with most wins, and DaveCantrell, having most wins overall.Additional prizes went to SusanTaylor, who baked shortbread in aGo board design, and Adam Watts,who baked very popular flapjacks.Finally, a special prize was awarded toGerry Mills for his stalwart serviceproviding the bookshop to thetournament over the years.

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Yohei Wins Despite Tie

For the second weekend running,Yohei Negi (3d) ended a tournamentequal on wins with two others atthe top of the table. This time, atthe Welsh Open in Barmouth, a tie-breaker was in use and so he won,ahead of Matthew Scott (2d) andSandy Taylor (2d) by one SOS point.Thus Yohei retained the Welsh Opentitle he won the previous year. Alsofinishing with 4 out of 5, below thebar, were Richard Mullens (6k, StAlbans) and Richard Scholefield (10k,Milton Keynes). 39 players took part,an increase on the previous year. Theweather was glorious, and playersenjoyed paddling in the sea, walkingalong the beach, promenade and hillsat the back of Barmouth, and open-airGo in front of the venue, the Min-Y-Mor Hotel.

New arrival from France wins MK

Thirty players attended this year’sMilton Keynes Tournament, held onthe first Sunday in July, a new timeof year. Although the playing hallwas familiar, the adjacent side roomshave been completely rebuilt as theOpen University’s new Hub; theyprovided a new and unfamiliar placein which to relax between games.The tournament winner was MathieuDelli-Zotti, a French 1k now living inBrighton. Also winning three wereGraham Philips (2k) and Steve Bailey(4k). The best team was Cambridgewho won 2/3 of their games. In theMK-Goban side event, Steve Baileywon 4/5 games, but the prize went toPaul Smith for 5/9.

Roella Tops UK Go ChallengeThe Finals of the UK Go Challenge forschools were held at Andy Brixey’sschool, St Mary’s Priory RC JuniorSchool, in Haringey, London, on thesecond Saturday in July. An excitedbunch of 29 children took part, themajority from the host school, but itwas sad to see so few older childrenthere and several of the age categoriesuncontested. The section winners andrunners-up won cash prizes, thanksto Winton Capital Management, andall section winners also got a framedcertificate showing their achievement.Roella Smith, from Milton nearCambridge, was the overall winnerfor the first time and she also won thepuzzle-solving prize.

Barney v Roella, UKGoC

St Mary’s Janet Olatokun wasawarded the fighting spirit prize. Theage group categories were determinedby a knockout system and the teamtrophy was decided by head-to-headmatches. Children who were justlearning Go and had not played in aheat were able to play in the separateChallengers’ section. The results areshown in the following table:

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Winners:U14 Boys Peran Truscott (Cambridge)U12 Boys Thomas Meehan (Solihull)U10 Boys Barney Shiu (Bristol)U8 Boys Mark Slatter (Milton, Cambridge)U12 Girls Angel Jobson (St Mary’s, London)U10 Girls & Top Girl Roella Smith (Milton, Cambridge)U8 Girls Kelda Smith (Milton, Cambridge)Runners-Up:U14 Boys Linden Ralph (Cambridge)U12 Boys James Lee (St Ann‘s, London)U10 Boys Vijayant Pannu (St Mary‘s, London)U8 Boys Anthony Ghica (Kettlefields, Newmarket)U10 Girls Samantha Castrillo (St Mary‘s, London)Overall place winners:1st Roella Smith2nd Barney Shiu3rd Peran TruscottOn 5/7: Jason PrinceOn 4/7: Filip Nykiel, Alexei Pierre-Davis, Gabriel OlatokunChallengers’ Tournament Ernel Bodi (St Mary‘s, London)Champion School N/CChampion Primary School St Ann‘sChallengers’ School: St Mary‘s

Oscar is youngest Isle of Man winnerOscar Selby, aged 7, became theyoungest winner of a Manx Go eventin August at the Isle of Man Go Week.He won the 13x13 and also the Rengo(doubles) with Matthew Cocke. Notmuch older was the winner of theLightning Tournament, Barney Shiu.More details are elsewhere in thisJournal.

No British Go Golds at MSOThere were no British players winningGolds for Go at this year’s MindSports Olympiad. The event washeld at the end of August at the SohoTheatre in the centre of London.Restricted space meant fewer eventsthan normal, with Go restricted totwo: the Small Board and the Open.Six players played the Small Board(13x13) on the Friday afternoon. Goldwent to Spain’s Paco Garcia de laBanda (3d). Silver went to Xinyi Lu

(4k) and silver to Vincent Frochot (8k)from France. In the 12-player Openon the final Sunday, the Gold waswon by Turkish 1d, Bulent Tuncel.Silver went to Paco and Bronze ontie-break to Alistair Wall (3d). Asusual, Go players took part in othergames too, throughout the event,with some awards, such as NatashaRegan’s Silver at Hare and Tortoiseand Matthew Hathrell’s Golds atLost Cities, Continuo and Poker. Pacowas noteworthy as the MSO‘s overallPentamind winner.

Only One Winner

Ivan Wong, a Chinese 1 dan researchstudent at Manchester University,won the Northern Tournament on 5thSeptember at the Stockport MasonicGuildhall. Unusually, Ivan was theonly player of the 24 there to win allthree games, and so was the only prizewinner. Gerry Mills again brought the

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BGA bookstall, but for the last time.

Teachers beat local Cornish organiserThe following weekend, the two BGAteachers from the Saturday morningteaching session were the winnersin the Cornish Go weekend‘s twotournaments. The venue this yearwas the Queen’s Hotel, as the YachtInn was unavailable. The roomswere comfortable with the usual seaview, but players missed the usualchance to sit out in the sun in thepub garden to play. In the 16-playerCornish Lightning Handicap on theSaturday afternoon, Tony Atkins(2d, Reading) was the winner in thefinal against John Culmer (1k WestCornwall), despite having to give afour-stone start. On the Sunday, TobyManning (2d, Leicester) won the 20-

player Cornish Open. Again JohnCulmer was the player beaten in thelast round. Toby collected the Devonand Cornwall Go Stone trophy, whilstTony collected a new similar trophy(but serpentine and not wood) givenin memory of a local player, DominicTaylor, who had died recently.

New Cornwall Handicap Trophy

YOSE PROBLEMToby Manning [email protected]

White to play. Who wins, assuming best play?(Assume that there have been no captures, there is no komi and use traditionalJapanese counting, i.e. no pass stones).

��

White to Play

For the solution, turn to Page 41.

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ISLE OF MAN GO CONGRESS 2010Leo Phillips [email protected]

The 10th Isle of Man Go Congress washeld at the Cherry Orchard in PortErin, from August 22 to August 27.We were very happy to welcome backlots of friends, old and new, for thisevent, which we consider to be a weeklong Go party, with a good varietyof different events, Go and social, sothat hopefully there is something foreveryone to enjoy.We were very fortunate that the Isleof Man Department of Tourism gaveus 3-day travel passes and passes forfive Manx National Heritage sites,which we were able to give to anyonewho wanted them (including non-Go-playing family members).The Congress is structured so thatpeople can decide their own mix of Goand sightseeing—it is possible to playGo solidly all week, it is also possibleto play Go for part of the day, and goout with family for the rest of the day.There was a total of 51 players,including the Isle of Man players,ranging in age from 5 (EdmundSmith) to quite a lot older (lots ofpeople). One of the younger childrenat the Congress was 7-year old OscarSelby, from Epsom. While he was atthe Congress, he learned that he waspossibly the youngest child to get anA* for GCSE maths.We started off the week with a bigSaturday night meal at the Falcon’sNest Hotel, to which nearly everyonecame.The Main Tournament, which is a 5-round McMahon, with 90 minutesper player and 20 moves in 5 minutesovertime, took place every morning(except the rest day). This was wonby Alex Selby (4d, Cambridge), with

Matthew Cocke (5d, Epsom) 2nd, AlexRix (3d, London) 3rd, and DanielleWard (10k, Cambridge) 4 out of 5.The Afternoon Tournament, heldon Sunday - Tuesday afternoons,was a 3-round McMahon with 60minutes per player and 20 moves in5 minutes overtime. This was won byToby Manning (2d, Leicester); otherprizewinners were Peter Collins (2k,Bristol); Elinor Brooks (8k, Swindon);and Kathleen Timmins (14k, MarketDrayton).On Sunday evening, we had our usualquiz, with everyone who participatedforming themselves into teams, andSteve Jones as quizmaster. A riotoustime was had by all, and the three top-placed teams enjoyed chocolate prizes.On Monday, after the tournaments,Francis Roads gave one of hisexcellent teaching sessions, basedon some rather tongue-in-cheek kyuplayers’ Go proverbs, and everyonewho came along hopefully learned alot, thought a lot, and played betterGo for the rest of the week.

Get Strong at Being Weak - FrancisInstructs

Monday night was Rengo night.The beauty of Rengo is its supremeinclusivity. Players ranged from

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Edmund Smith, age 5 and 40k,partnered by his dad, Paul Smith(2d), to Matt Cocke (5d) partnered byOscar Selby (40k), and lots of othersimilar pairings. A brilliant eveningwas had by all, and the winning teamwas Oscar Selby and Matt Cocke.

Kelda Smith and David Ward in theRengo tournament

On Tuesday we had the MusicalEvening, a well-established traditionat the Isle of Man Congress. Notas well attended as at previouscongresses, when people have learnedto play crumhorns in ensembleunder Francis Roads’s expert andcharismatic guidance, but enjoyedby the participants and the small buthighly appreciative audience. Theevening has in the past been sharedwith an Alternative Strategy Gamesevening, and the general consensus ofopinion was that this may be a goodformat to which to revert in the future.Wednesday was the Rest Day, wheneveryone went off exploring the Isleof Man, and using their free traveland heritage passes. (People wereoffered the chance of a Die HardTournament, which has had a fewdoughty contestants at previous

tournaments, but everyone decidedto go sightseeing instead this time.)In the evening, lots of us met upfor another meal at the Falcon’sNest. Thursday saw the start of theHandicap Tournament, using thenow-famous Manx Handicapping,which has proved to be an excellentway of ensuring fair results. Thefame of Manx Handicapping hasspread worldwide, and was recentlyadopted by the Gallatin Valley GoClub, in Bozeman, Montana, fortheir tournament. We hope that moreclubs will realize the benefits of ManxHandicapping, and adopt it for theirtournaments. (For more detailedinfo, please email David Phillips [email protected]).The winner of the HandicapTournament was Peter Collins, 2k,from Bristol. Runners-up were LukeHumphreys (11k, Durham); and twoof the older children—Barney Shiu(10k, Bristol); and Roella Smith (13k,Cambridge).

On Thursday evening, we had a 13x13Tournament, in which most peopleplayed, including the children. OscarSelby had been promoted from 40kto 35k, and in spite of a rise of fivegrades in three days, managed to winthe tournament, playing in the finalagainst his mum, Natasha Regan.

A regular feature of this Congress isthe Sandcastle Competition, usuallywon by the Bexfield family. Thisyear we had two very imaginativeand well-constructed castles—Bexfield Castle, designed and made byCharlotte Bexfield, aged 9; and SelbyCastle, made by Oscar and his family.Bexfield Castle scored very highly forCharlotte’s skill in designing canalsand moats, for moving water from thestream that runs down the beach tothe sea into her castles’ moats; also for

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her unique idea of having a jellyfishfarm, carrying the jellyfish up to theirponds (without getting stung!), andcaring for the jellyfish by bringingup buckets of sea water to makethem feel at home. Charlotte alsocreated a couple of Gaudi-esque smalltowers, using the ”dribble” techniqueintroduced by Matthew Macfadyenin 2008. Selby Castle scored for theimaginative use of red food colouringto create the volcanic lava, and for theinclusion of a Go board in the sand,with a game in progress; and a ThreeLegs of Mann made from severalcarefully-placed small castles. Bothwere judged to be the best sandcastlesever seen at an Isle of Man Congress.

The Congress ended with a splendidBuffet Dinner, in which the newchef at the Cherry Orchard excelled

himself, and everyone had big mealswith seconds (and thirds!) for anyonewith a sufficiently big appetite. Thiswas followed by the Prizegiving,hilariously compered by Steve Jones.One of the awards is traditionallygiven to the tallest person at thecongress—Steve had been researchingthe work of his scientist namesake,and awarded this congress’s prize toConstance and Margot Selby, who asidentical twins, counted as one geneticindividual, and together were tallerthan Paul Barnard.The evening ended with a few Gosongs, and we were all very sorrywhen everyone went home. Theweek was over all too quickly—weare missing everyone, and lookingforward to the next congress (whichwe have started planning already).

PROBLEM 2��

Black to play

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WORLD NEWSTony Atkins [email protected]

Anson and Vanessa play in WorldYouth

Every year the best children at theEuropean Youth Goe Championshipscan get selected to play in the WorldYouth Goe Championships. This yeartwo players representing the UK wereselected to be part of the Europeanteam at that event. Vanessa Wongwas selected to play in the Under-16 section and Anson Ng, who livesin Hong Kong, was selected to playthe Under-12s. Thus they were luckyenough to go to Taiwan during thefourth week in July. The tournamentwas held on Penghu Island and beachtrips were included in the schedule.As expected, the Chinese, Koreanand local players dominated theevent. China won the Under-12 andKorea the Under-16 titles. Anson andVanessa both won two out of four. TopEuropean player was Lukas Podperafrom Czechia, who won three gamesin the Under-16s.

Yohei Top for UK at EGC 2010

The 54th European Go Congress wasagain sponsored by Zhuyeqing Tea.It was held in Tampere, Finland, asdescribed in the report by FrancisRoads. 418 players took part in themain Open Tournament; this timethere were just a few strong playersfrom outside Europe. Ilya Shikshinfrom Russia was the champion,topping the group on eight wins, justahead of Artem Kachanovskyy fromUkraine by two SOS points. YoheiNegi (3d) was best placed of the 17from the UK who took part, with 6/10in 53rd place. Andrew Simons (2d)also won six games.

Fifty-nine pairs took part in the PairGo Championships. The winners ofthe 600 euro first prize were KlaraZaloudkova (Czechia) and Mok Chin-Seok (Korea). They beat Laura Avramand Ilya Shikshin from Russia in thefinal. Ilya Shikshin also won boththe Lightning and again the 13x13.Janne Kosso from Finland won the 9x9Handicap.Three hundred and fifty players tookpart in the Weekend Tournament andit was won by Kim Jung-Hyeop, withIlya Shikshin in second. From the UK,Yohei Negi (3d), Martha McGill (3k)and Huw Mort (13k) won three, andAlice Bradley (10k) won four games.Kim Jung-Hyeop also won the 195-player Rapid.

American Go GatheringThe 26th US Go Congress was held inColorado Springs. T Mark Hall wasthe British representative, winninghalf his games. Myung-Wam Kim, a9 dan pro living in the US, was theunbeaten winner for the third yearrunning. Francis Meyer was second,only losing to the winner. About 270players took part.

Netherlands wins EuroteamsThe European Team Championshipwas held in the middle of August,following straight on from theLeksand Tournament in Sweden,which Ilya Shikshin won. TheNetherlands was the winning teamwith eight points and fifteen wins.Second was Serbia also with eightpoints but wins. The usual winnersof this event, Russia, were third. Sixteams took part. After Leksand, the

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leaders in the Pandanet Go EuropeanCup were Pal Balogh on 33 andOndrej Silt on 29.

Will Brooks third in EuropeanStudent ChampionshipWilliam Brooks (3d), the studentfrom Cambridge, was a creditable

equal third in the European StudentGo Championship in Darmstadt,Germany. He only lost to the top ratedplayer Benjamin Teuber (6d) and tothe eventual winner Matthias Terwey(3d). Twenty-two students from eightcountries took part.

SIDEWAYS LOOKING PERSONS

Advice for young Go players ...... Learn about ladders

Before

After

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VANESSA WONGPat Ridley [email protected]

Recently turned 15, Vanessa is theyoungest person to play in the titlematch for the British Championship.She plays Matthew Macfadyen in a‘best of five’ series of games whichstarted in September (see page 31for details of the first game), gettingthere by winning the Candidates’Tournament with a perfect 6/6,and winning a play-off for secondplace with Richard Hunter in theChallengers’.

Vanessa started to learn Go fromher father, Julius (2d), at the age of

6, and started to concentrate on Gofrom the age of 9. She became 1dat the age of ten and 3d at twelve.In 2008, she obtained a national 4dcertificate in China in 2008 , and isnow 5d. She won the Hong KongPair Go Championship in 2005 andthe British Youth Go Championshipin 2006 , and represented Britain ontop board in the women’s team at theWorld Mind Sports Games in Beijingin 2008. Her most recent achievementsinclude 3rd place in the 2009 LondonOpen and 2nd place in the under 16age group at the 2010 European YouthGoe Championships.

Vanessa is currently studying atConcord College, near Shrewsbury,where the first game in the BritishChampionship was held. When shefinishes at Concord, her plans includestudying Biochemistry at Cambridgeand becoming a professional Goplayer in Taiwan. Below is a game sheplayed in round 1 of the 2009 LondonOpen.

Diagram 1 (1-50)

White: Kano Nagao, 6dBlack: Vanessa Wong, 5dLondon Open 28th December 2009,Round 1, Board 1Komi: 7.5Reviewed by Alexandre Dinerchtein,3p

� It was popular to extend here 15years ago, but nowadays it’s rare tomeet this move.

� It’s not a mistake, but Koreanprofessionals think that if Whiteplays at A, she can get a promisingfuseki—see Variations 1–3 on thenext page.

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Variation 1 (Move 6)

Now the marked stone is too weak.


Now we can see that the markedexchange is bad for Black: it’s tooclose to the wall.

This is the best way for Black, but in7.5 komi games it looks a bit slow.Black can play like this, but it’s quitepassive.


Returning to the game (Diagram 1) . . .

�White may think about tenuki. She may try to make the exchange of,black at( first, but I doubt that Black will answer passively—see Variation 4overleaf.

17


We call it ”my way strategy”, whenyou often ignore the plans of youropponent.


� Now White has to push.After 18 White has a stable base,sente and a promising yose at A.Lee Changho, 9-dan was a big fan ofpushing at A early in fuseki.

Returning to the game (Diagram 1) . . .

Now the fuseki is standard.

A joseki, which was really popular in the middle of the 90s, but recently it’srare to meet it.

�Wrong order! See Variation 5 above.

� Good punishment.� Black is favourable. We can compare it with another

joseki: 1-10 (see Figure 1). The A-B exchange after thiscommon joseki is clearly good for Black.

�White has sente moves around M6, P5, L4 and O3, soit’s easy to invade.

� Big overplay! Black is not thick enough here for killingthis stone—see Variation 6 on the next page.

Figure 1

18


Here is the normal way.

Returning to the game (Diagram 1) . . .� Another overplay! I would prefer

to play kakari on the top first.&White’s group is hard to kill and

Black’s wall is hard to use. We canalso see that Black lost most of herlower territory.

- Any hane helps White to createshape. A is better, usually. Extend,if you plan to attack!

: The cut at< is better timing.@ Good move!H Black’s attack failed.QWhite is alive in sente! It’s a

big success!R I would prefer to play tenuki

here.X The shimari at A looks more

important.^ Joseki, but here it’s bad. It’s

more important to preventBlack’s moyo on the left withB.

_ Good move! Black has anice wall, so the commonjoseki at C or D would be tooslack. Black wants to takeeverything on the left!

Diagram 2 (51-100)

19

Diagram 3 (101-150)

g Locally the result is good forBlack, but she is still behind.

k Atari atm is more common.m Black lost sente here.n Good shape.r The peep is painful for Black.t I would prefer to extend at A

– White would be ahead.w Tenuki is better. The

extension to M17 (at�)is really huge!

| Painful for Black!~ It was Black’s sente, but she

forgot to make it earlier.�White can win easily by

extending at A.� Black has to fight!� It’s easier to defend at L14

(at ).

Now it’s good to defend at M15 (keima, at�).

White was careless here.�White lost more than 20 points in the centre. Her compensation is top side

and B11, but it’s clear that this compensation is not big enough.Finally Black won the game by 0.5 point – we can say that Vanessa was verylucky. It was hard to change the result of this game after an unsuccessful attackin the fuseki.No more comments on the game. Some ko fight moves were omitted from thefinal diagram. Black wins by 0.5.

Diagram 4 (151-200) Diagram 5 (201-272)

20

THE BGA BOOKSHOP - 1994 TO 2010Gerry Mills [email protected]

Wee Willie Winkie! that’s what wwwsuggested to me when I took over theBGA bookshop in 1994. Electronicbooks were science fiction. My firstPrice List had under 50 entries: now ithas over 250. After a year or two Ishi,the original publishers of Go books inEnglish, died, and from the ashes roseKiseido. Several more new publishershave appeared since, notably Slateand Shell.Until the last four years, Go bookprices remained stable, judged bythe Elementary series. Early on Irealised that it was generally no moreexpensive to post a book than it was tosell it at a tournament, so all priceswere changed to include post andpacking, which helped to simplify thejob in various ways.The biggest change came when AlexRix introduced me to Compendia,who were interested in selling Go

books and kit through their retailoperation in Greenwich. Subsequentlyseveral other retailers started buyingfrom the BGA, leading to my biggestever order (over £1,000 at today’sprices) to a shop in Cambridge.However, distributing Go booksand kit to shops caused tax and VATproblems, and these persuaded methat this was not really practicable asan amateur operation. So I formedPayday Games Ltd. as a non-profit-making sideline to a group ofcompanies in which I was interested,and many of you will have seen thecharacteristic black boxes and tubesdesigned by Roger Whitehouse, whoran all the Payday companies. WhenRoger had to retire, the business wassold to Tim Dixon, who combined itwith his existing games and puzzlesbusiness, Pentangle. Now I sourcemost books and equipment throughTim, and he has all the problems ofdealing with overseas suppliers.The biggest event was the DublinEuropean tournament in 2001. TheBGA bookshop was there for thewhole of the fortnight, which involvedpre-purchasing a massive quantityof stock and transporting it acrossthe Irish Sea. I have close links withDublin as my daughter Candi andfamily live there, so I have alwaysattended as far as possible anytournaments in the city, and in returnI have had wonderful support from allthe Irish Go players.I haven’t kept records all the wayback to 1994, but I estimate that I haveearned about £50,000 for the BGA onsales of perhaps £250,000. Currentlysales are falling off, partly becausemany UK players have all the books

21

they need, partly because of muchhigher prices in the last few years, andpartly due to the growth of electronicbooks. I don’t think these will entirelyreplace conventional books, but theirpotential advantages for technicalsubjects such as Go are considerable.So now I am giving up running theBGA bookshop, which has beenquite a large part of my life. Whatam I going to do in the future?Principally, I have a half-written novelto finish, which will be published andtouches on the game and one or twopersonalities in it. I will also continueto be involved in a large softwareproject which needs a lot of attention.There will be time for new friends likeStephanie Perks who, as Andy Finch’swife, ran the BGA bookshop for a timeabout 25 years ago. And I will be ableto try out some activities like sailingand skiing that are new to me. I won’tbe at many English tournaments, butI hope to continue to attend most ofthe Scottish and Welsh events, Dublinof course, and some of the weekendtourneys in Europe.It is likely that I will also continue tohandle ”Go World” subscriptions, andI hope to set up and run a secondhandGo book shop on-line.Some of my favourites:

Current tournaments: Maidenhead,because it cheers up January, andDublin, because of the Guinnessbetween rounds.

Former tournaments: Shrewsbury,when Brian Timmins ran it, andLeicester, when Eddie Smithers andfamily ran it.

Go clubs: Swindon, for beingoutstandingly friendly andwelcoming. Chester and Cardiff aregood, too.

There are a lot of people in the UKGo scene that I like, so perhaps it isunwise to single out a few amongst somany.

In no particular order: Bob Bagot, mypredecessor at the BGA bookshop;Pauline Bailey, for being indomitable;Alison Bexfield, with whom I wasalways on the same wave-length;Donald McLeod, for not wearing akilt; Toby Manning, especially forencouraging Quentin and me at theBristol Go Club; and John Gibsonand Chris Rafferty from Dublin, fordrinking me under the table.

Finally I must remember John Hall,my former colleague and old friend,who introduced me to Go in 1976, andlater ran the Newcastle Club for manyyears.

PROBLEM 3��

Black to play

22

THE LEARN GO WEB SITENeil Moffatt [email protected] established the Learn Go web site (www.learngo.co.uk) in 2009 to accompanytwo books on Go that I had self published on Amazon. The motivation behindwriting them was acquired over twenty years of Go playing, as I sought, withgrowing disillusionment, a book on Go that avoided the universal habit ofserving up multiple moves per diagram. And this included excursions tobookshops in both China and Japan. But to no avail.

Figure 1

For many weak Go players, and especially for newcomers to Go, I felt thatit was simply a bad habit that moves in a sequence had to be combined intoone diagram. True, it certainly saves on space, but at what cost? The effortrequired to scan a board for each numbered move, and then to mentally removeall numbered stones and re-add one by one is something that I have alwaysfound hard for anything more than five moves. As early as page 6 in the wellrespected ‘Learn to play Go volume 1’ beginners book by Janice Kim and JeonSoo-hyun is a board shown with six numbered moves. The book deems itappropriate to present a started game in such a fashion to complete newcomers.In addition to this problem, I also felt that double-digit kyu players were poorlyserved by game reviews. Again, the habit to comment on only occasionalselected moves has become a norm. ‘The other moves are obvious’, of course.Not to someone relatively new to the game. They want to know about eachmove. Habits and norms tend to get accepted regardless of their ongoingefficacy. So I adopted both of these concepts in my books; ‘Learn Go’ forbeginners and ‘Games of Go’1 for double-digit kyu players.

1Games of Go was reviewed in BGJ 149—Ed.

23

As time passed, I decided that the time was ripe to add a facility to displayinteresting games I encountered in my Go playing and studying. The idea wasto set up a kind of Go blog, with support for the odd double-digit kyu playergame review request as well. But I wanted to break some new ground here,and I knew that I could not implement my ideas using existing Flash based GoGame viewing software. So I researched the new HTML5 Canvas, and foundit to be ideal for displaying Go games. The key features it had over existingsoftware were that I could use static web page buttons to control the game, andthat I could tailor it to suit my ideas.The first of these ideas was to provide an effective way of jumping to keypoints in a game. Most games on the site now have a list of ‘Jump to’ labels. Forexample, ‘Black seals the edge of his large moyo’. The list provides a basic flowof activity through the game in addition to the normal move navigation buttons(Figure 2 shows part of the relevant screen).

Figure 2

I also wanted to simplify alternative move sequences, and did so in a similarvein, providing each with a descriptive label. Now you can click on one ormore alternative sequences for a particular position, such as ‘If Black played atA instead’. To serve beginners, I provide highlighting of Japanese terms in themove descriptions. Hovering over these pops up a definition. This minimisesthe problem of terminology overload for newcomers.I also wanted to provide a little more than game reviews and interestingpositions. I was particularly determined to undermine a certain snobbishnessin Go, where players even slightly stronger than others would assume anundue sense of authority in their judgement. The result was two new categoriesof Go game presentation.

24

First, the display of an anonymous game, where the role of the viewer is toguess the grades of the players. It might surprise you how often we misjudgeweaker players in their style. One particularly eminent early trial user of mysite, (whose name can only be revealed to those who email me), guessed theplayer grades of a professional game as kyu level. Second, the presentation ofa particular position in a professional or Internet game, where the role of theviewer is to guess the next move (see Figure 3). For many professional games,this is particularly enlightning. It is much like the corresponding facility inGoGod, but for one specifically chosen move, rather than complete games.

Figure 3

Now that the site has bedded down, I aim to add a few games or positions orguessing games each week. As I said, I am happy to accept the occasional gamefor review. I hope that the site is well received, and that it appears as well as itdoes on my brand new shiny Apple iMac.

25

GO AT TAMPEREFrancis Roads [email protected]

The first round of the 2010 EuropeanGo Congress started on time. Thisis such an unusual happening that Ithought I’d mention it first.At some recent European GoCongresses I have felt ratherembarrassed at the small Britishattendance. Not so this time; therewere about 15 of us, amongst a total ofaround 500. As usual, I don’t deal inresults; they are readily available onthe website.

Tampere City

Tampere was easy to get to. Mychosen route was plane to Helsinkiand direct coach from the airportto central Tampere, though therewere good alternatives. The city isFinland’s third largest. It was foundedin the late 18th Century, and has anindustrial past, though the many redbrick factories with their tall chimneysare now mostly converted to otheruses.This was the Finnish Go Association’sfirst chance to organise the Congress,and it went well. We played in twoschools, where the playing conditionswere pretty good. What wasn’t quiteso good was the lack of anywhere to

socialise properly. There was a smallalcohol-free coffee bar which closedat five each day, so during the day thesocialising tended to take place on thegrass in a nearby park. In the eveningswe met at a pub where the TampereGo Club has its headquarters.There were the usual side events;Lightning, 9x9, Team Go, Rapid Go,Pair Go, etc. The Pair Go rules inparticular attracted some comment. InBritain we have separate tournaments:even games for the stronger pairs,and handicaps for the rest. Here wehad an unconventional compromise:handicap minus four stones. I doubt ifthat will set a precedent.

Saijo sensei (9p) says farewell

Professionals were available, forlectures, simultaneous play and gameanalysis. I found the last of these threeby far the most useful. All who haveattended this congress in the pastwill know Masataka Saijo sensei, asplendid teacher of amateur players.He announced that Tampere was tobe his last European Congress, as he

26

is seventy years old and feels it is timeto retire. We shall miss him, and histolerant attitude to our blunders.There was little organised in theway of excursions for the off days:Wednesdays for all, and the weekendas well if you didn’t want to play inthe separate weekend tournament.But this didn’t matter much, asTampere has plenty of attractivewalks, and museums for the indoor-minded. Most of us weren’t, as apartfrom a couple of thunderstorms wehad fine weather throughout.The city sits on an isthmus betweentwo lakes. They have differentwater levels, and the former rapidsbetween them have been harnessedby the Finns to keep Tampere’slights burning. There are manyattractive walks along the lake edges,swimming beaches, and boat trips.The nearby pine and birch forestsare very accessible too, though theFinns have something to learn aboutway-making. My compass was areassuring presence.

Tampere North Harbour

The Finnish language is prettyopaque. You can’t even try to guess

meanings; for example, Appelsiini isthe Finnish for, wait for it, orange, as Idiscovered to my cost at my hotel’sbreakfast bar. (though in fairnessto Finnish, there is a similar stateof affairs in German and Dutch).Fortunately almost all Finns speakexcellent English.

Have you seen the film ’The Mastersof Go’? It was produced in the 1980sas the first co-production betweenJapanese and Chinese film makers.It was shown during one of theevenings. The dialogue is in Chineseand Japanese, but the subtitling iseffective. It is a harrowing story of theeffects of WWII in the Far East on thelives of some ordinary Go players andtheir families. I strongly recommendit, but don’t expect a barrel of laughs.

Hayashi Kozo (6p) plays theOkinawan Shamisen at

the Go Song party27

The last Friday evening brought thetraditional song party, which I findthat I am expected to lead when Iam present. I am also expected toproduce a new song for the occasion;you may see it on page 29. We keptgoing in the park for about threehours, until it was too dark to see.We were by no means English-dominated this time, with musicalcontributions in German, French,Japanese and Finnish. Professionalplayer Hayashi Kozo brought andplayed his Okinawan shamisen, andjoined in the spirit of the occasionwith some of his native folk songs.There used to be a tradition of Gosongs at the British Go Congress, nowkept alive at the Isle of Man event.During this party the senior refereeapproached me and asked me if Iwould sell him my soul for nothing.Of course I agreed, and found thatwhat he actually wanted was forme to attend a meeting at 08:30 thefollowing morning. A dispute hadarisen during Round 9; this had tobe resolved to enable the draw forRound 10 to be ready for a 10:00start; and a member of the AppealsCommittee had declared himselfunavailable at 08:30. Please would Ijoin the committee, the other membersbeing Hans Mulder of the Netherlandsand our own Geoff Kaniuk.I thought it a little irregular to havetwo members from the same country.I also thought it irregular to have toget up at 07:30 at a Go congress. Butone wants to help where one can. Iduly presented myself, and foundthat not only was I a member of thecommittee, but that I was expected tochair it. If only promotion at Go cameso easily ...A high-ranking player who was well

ahead on the board had lost on time.He asserted that this was because theaudible warnings given by the Ingclock had been silenced without hisknowing, he himself having been latearriving and finding his clock alreadyrunning. He suggested that as hedidn’t realise that he was in overtimehe would be unfairly penalised tohave the game awarded against him.There was rather more to it than that,but in the end we decided that it wasup to him to ensure that the audiblewarnings were as he wanted them,and to know how much time he hadleft. The digital display for overtimeis quite different from that for maintime. So we awarded the game to hisopponent. He immediately appealedto the EGF Rules Commission, andthe last I heard was that they were stilldiscussing the matter. But at least weenabled Round 10 to start on time.

As I mentioned, one thing whichthe Finns were unable to providein their chosen venue was a sourceof mealtime snacks and alcoholicrefreshments. I can’t imagine that thiswill be a problem at the next EuropeanCongress. That’s in Bordeaux, where Ihope we’ll see plenty more Brits.

Blind Japanese player at the EGC

28

Finnish Go SongFinnish Traditional TuneFrancis Roads

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FinOutPair5.

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1.2.3.4.

Chorus:

6. Saijo sensei gave us a speech which left us feeling rather sad. This is his last year, so we shall miss the best go teacher that we've had. Chorus.

7. Finnish organisation's been so good it's given me this idea: Let's have the European Go Congress here in Finland every year! Chorus.

29

ARUNDEL GO CLUBPauline Bailey [email protected]

A way to introduce new players to Go,as well as giving pleasure to existingones, would be to follow the lines ofthe Arundel Go Club. This wouldbe enjoyed by games players andsociable people everywhere, as well aspromoting Go. It just needs someonelike Sue Paterson to open their homeand start a Go Club with extras.Sue started the Arundel Go Clubin January 2008, and it meets oncea month on the last Sunday (withoccasional deviations) at 2pm on.The venue is Sue’s flat overlookingthe River Arun and only a few yardsfrom the High St. Players arriveand depart as it suits them and Ido not know when it ends as wehave always left before then. Suealways sends reminders to attendersand receives replies so she has anidea of who is coming. This is verynecessary as there is a lot of foodand drink involved. On arrival awarm welcome is always followedby teas/coffee/alcohol, nibbles andan opponent. We play in the diningroom but sometimes overflow to thekitchen and/or sitting room. Granvillefrequently treats us to a piano recital.The grades are very mixed, fromreal beginners to dan players, buteveryone enjoys themselves andweaker players learn a lot. All sizedboards are used and three or moregames played against differentopponents. Drinks and nibblescontinue to flow until around 6.15pm,when the decks are cleared and adelicious supper is served. We have

all sorts of delights from home madesoup and bread to stews, salads andpasta dishes. Sue has an an allotmentso extra delicious home growningredients are provided. There is agood pud to follow: icecream, fruit,crumble etc. and lots of cheese. I hopeyour mouths are watering!! Peoplebring various offerings from time totime and some even provide the maindish. It is all such fun.When that is cleared away (nowashing up), the people remainingbecome a Games Club. We play allsorts of games; card, board, diceetc. according to the number ofplayers. I think the evening continuesindefinitely. We leave about 8.30pm.Sue has also run two tournaments atArundel: one in the Norfolk ArmsHotel, which was very grand, andone in the Football Club, which wasanother good venue. I hope a spot foranother will be found.In addition to the Club, Arundel itselfis a great town, full of interestingshops, galleries and eating places.There is nearly always somethingspecial going on—music in the streets,Art Festival, Flower Show, HistoryExhibition, Vintage Cars etc. etc. Oncewe had fireworks in the evening. Inthe summer, the Castle is an outingon its own, as well as the nearby BirdReserve. The Tourist InformationCentre is very helpful. Go playerstravel miles to attend the Arundel GoClub, and I think it is quite uniqueand the best Go Club in the world.Thank you, Sue.

30

BRITISH TITLE MATCH - GAME 1Geoff Kaniuk [email protected] is the first game in this year’s Title match played on 19th September 2010at Concord School near Shrewsbury between current Champion MatthewMacfadyen (6d) and Challenger Vanessa Wong (5d). The komi is 7 1

2 andtime limits are 180 minutes main time, Canadian overtime of 10 moves in 10minutes. For the first game in the series of 5, players choose colour by Nigiriand then alternate. Matthew won the Nigiri and so is first to play black.The game was commented live by Li Yue on KGS and you can find theunexpurgated sgf file in the Championships pages(www.britgo.org/titlematch/2010/game one 2010 liyue.sgf). Thefollowing comments are by Li Yue unless labelled otherwise. Most of the othercomments were added afterwards by Matthew Macfadyen and are labelled(M).

Diagram 1 (1-50)

� Black has presented us with anuncommon opening. D9 is usual,but G15 is clearly more focused oninfluence in the centre.

�White’s normal continuation—taking big points.

Attacking White while making abeautiful moyo in the right side.

� Black’s pincer at Q9 is one spacefurther away than in the usualjoseki sequence following O4.

� By playing this way, Black cannot seal White in directly.

� The only move.

� (Javaness) Can Black kill by playing at L3?

� (M) Black can attack severely at�, but not kill cleanly. The corner isunstable as well, so it is clearer to live first, let White out at� and thenattack on the right.

� Nice shape, moving fast.

$White now wants to get out as fast as possible, and N9 is nice shape.

% Black at O8 looks scary, but if he persists in cutting off N9, Black’s right sidegets damaged.

* Aggressive! This is a a bit impatient as White already has a weak group inthe centre.

31

+ This contact is a bit strange, for when White strengthens the Q13 stone, Blackis left with a cutting point.

/ Black is now out in the centre.

0 Nice move, because Black doesn’t have a good point on the right sideanyway.

1 Aggressive move. 7White is now struggling in the centre.

: There are two weak White groups in the upper right side, all following fromthe questionable invasion at Q13. (Jjermann 4d) Can Black play S13 and thenfight with White?

; Key point, as otherwise White will make eyes at O16.

< However, Black gives the centreaway. (M) It seems that Li Yuemade the same mistake as I didat;. That is the vital point forattacking the top white group,but this is absolutely not thetime to attack that group, whichis difficult to settle and is notattacking anything. The correctdirection is to connect at< in thecentre. White has no choice but tocome out with@ orY. Next, Blackhas time for K4 to run out naturallywith the lower group and leaveWhite with problems all over theboard. < is a key point and givesVanessa things to attack in severaldirections.

Diagram 2 (51-100)

Variation 1 (69-71)

A (M) Another error. I was stillattacking in the wrong direction.This could have been atF,followed by white atE and blackatD. The result would have givenme some sort of access to thecentre. Once Vanessa playedDandF, I was definitely in trouble.

D This gives Black the opportunity tosettle the right by capturing at Q14(see variation). This would leaveBlack with a large territory in theupper right, but two weak groupsbased on the triangled stones, splitby White’s very strong centre.

32

H It seems now that the black Q11 group is in trouble

Y Black ataris here rather than J11 in order to keep pressure on the white groupQ7.

c Only move.

dWhite could play at S8 instead of here, but that leads to complications. NowWhite has no more worries about her Q14 group.

e Black has now lost the opportunityto extend at K9. (M) Moveeis hopeless. I soon had to addanother stone ato, and by the timeVanessa found the killing attack atv there was no chance left.

h The ko is not so important forWhite anymore—she just has tolive on the upper side. This alsoreally weakens the Black N8 group.

p (Javaness 2d) It feels that White isso powerful now.

Diagram 3 (101-150)

t In this fight it feels that Black did not get anything but White became strongin the centre, and Black even lost his big corner in the upper right.

} The sealed move. Players and recorders enjoyed a very nice sandwich andsalad lunch in an old wooden-panelled hall in the College.

Diagram 4 (151-200)

: Instead of connecting here, Whitecan extend at H17.

33

T Black next resigns.

Diagram 5 (200-212)

In this game there were some interesting fights in the opening. White first hadtwo weak groups in Black’s influence, and it was quite difficult for her.

(M) Vanessa stretched her position to the limit with the ambitious attack at*,but she fought accurately, and took full advantage of my mistakes in directionat; andA to seize control and wrap up the game in masterful fashion.

PROBLEM 4��

Black to play

34

CHAMPIONSHIP FORMAT SURVEY—RESULTSGeoff Kaniuk [email protected]

GOALSApart from the obvious need to find the strongest British player, the goals ofthe British Championship system can be summarised as follows:

RankingNot only does one want to find the strongest, but also the ranking of the topplayers in focussed tournaments. Such ranking is used for determining whogets selected for World events for example.

TargetRising players need to be given targets to work towards. The systemprovides the opportunity to meet the strongest of our players, and by sodoing up and coming players can learn and improve.

TeachingThe Championship system provides a golden opportunity for focussedteaching. This occurs through game analysis at the Candidates’, throughon-line professional commentary, and game reviews from any of theChampionship phases in the Journal.

PublicityA Championship event is always a good context for raising awarenessabout the game of Go, both in the media and in the public consciousness.

The present Championship system has evolved over many years through smallincremental changes and some large changes like the one following a survey in2006. This starts with the Candidates’ six-round Swiss tournament over threedays, accepting qualifiers who have achieved a rating of 1900 or more in at leastone BGA tournament during the previous year. The top seven players join withlast year’s Champion to play in all-play-all Challengers’ league. The top twoplayers then play the Title match decided by the best of five games, each withthree hour time limits on the clock. The games are of a high standard and wellworth viewing live on KGS.We do get feedback from time to time that some players feel the system couldbe improved. After all it is five years since the last major change to the system!We decided to try to get a better understanding of players’ concerns througha survey of opinions, and this article details the survey, its analysis, andconclusions.

SUMMARY OF THE SURVEYA questionnaire was included with the invitations sent out to players whoqualified for the 2010 Candidates’ tournament. Some of these were returned

35

by email, some by post and some were filled in at the Candidates’ tournamentitself. In all, 29 responses were received from a total of 103 players invited toattend. The following are the questions posed, chosen on the basis of reports ofplayers’ concerns:

AS IS Keep the existing format exactly as it is.

2200 Keep the format as it is, but increase the qualification rating thresholdfrom 1900 to 2200.

SEED Keep the format as it is, but seed the Candidates so that expectedqualifiers do not play each other in early rounds. They will therefore playweaker players and all will get a poor initial SOS. This can be achieved byusing a ’split and fold’ method for the pairing.

SUPER Keep the format as is, but ensure strong players do not meet weakplayers in the early rounds. This can be achieved by pairing the top eightplayers in a ’supergroup’ say three McMahon points above the rest. So onlyby round four will ’super-groupers’ meet upcoming ’weakies’.

MERGE Merge the Candidates’ and Challengers’. The top two play in the Titlematches.

TOP 8 Scrap the Candidates’ and choose the top eight from the rating list toplay in the Challengers’.

TITLE Scrap the Candidates’ and Challengers’, and choose the top two fromthe rating list to play in the title matches.

CHAL Scrap the Title matches. The winner of the Challengers’ is the cham-pion.

OTHER Some other way.

ANALYSIS METHODEach question was scored by the player in the range 0 to 10. The simplestanalysis is to collect the total score for each item from all the questionnaires andexpress the score as a percentage of the total possible achievable score - 290 forthe 29 responses.Clearly a very high score for a question can be achieved only if nearly everyonescores near the maximum for the question. A low score is achieved if manyplayers ignore the question (scoring 0) or only a very few score highly.There is a middle ground where a question can score quite well in two ways:

1. Many players give a moderate score.

2. A few players give a high score and the rest give a mediocre score.

The simple Score analysis cannot distinguish between these two cases, and yetit seems important to avoid a score being dominated by a few individuals witha strong opinion. To this end I have included a second Population analysis inwhich responses to a question are dropped if they score below 6/10.

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ALL PLAYERSWe now look at the results of the survey for all players responding to thequestionnaire. The following table shows both the Score analysis and thePopulation analysis side by side. The column %SCORE is the ratio of the totalaccumulated score to the total achievable score expressed as a percentage. Thecolumn %POP expresses the ratio of the number of responses scoring six orbetter to the number of responses received, as a percentage.

QUESTION SCORE %SCORE POP %POPAS IS 181 62.4 19 65.52200 53 18.3 3 10.3

SEED 135 46.6 13 44.8SUPER 74 25.5 3 10.3MERGE 87 30.0 5 17.2TOP 8 31 10.7 1 3.4TITLE 2 0.7 0 0.0CHAL 63 21.7 3 10.3

OTHER 99 34.1 8 27.6Table 1: Responses for all players

It is encouraging to see that there is a very strong correlation between the Scoreanalysis and the Population analysis—certainly for the three very strongestresponses which are AS IS, SEED, and OTHER. So we can be assured that theresults are representative and not dominated by the strong opinions of a fewplayers.It is clear that when all players’ views are taken into account there is a prefer-ence for leaving things as they are. There is some support for seeding playersfor the pairing and no strong desire for some other change to the system.

STRONG PLAYERSPlayers below 3 dan rarely qualify for the Title matches, so it seems fair to askwhether the above conclusions would change much if we considered responsesfrom players who have achieved a 3 dan level of play. In this case we have 14players ranging from 3 dan to 6 dan producing results as in the next table:There is now a definite shift in players’ preferences, with more options beingconsidered. For example in the response for all players, only three questionsscored more than 20% in the %POP column, whereas six questions scored morethan 20% in the strong dan players’ responses.Nevertheless, the three top scoring questions are still as before but with adifferent ordering: AS IS, OTHER, SEED. Again there is a strong correlationbetween accumulated score and population counts, showing that the results arenot skewed by a few players with strong opinions.

PLAYERS’ COMMENTSPlayers made comments about other formats both in responses to Question9 and additional comments to other questions. Of the fourteen strong dan

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QUESTION SCORE %SCORE POP %POPAS IS 76 54.3 8 57.12200 28 20.0 1 7.1

SEED 60 42.9 5 35.7SUPER 48 34.3 3 21.4MERGE 41 29.3 3 21.4TOP 8 19 13.6 1 7.1TITLE 1 0.7 0 0.0CHAL 35 25.0 3 21.4

OTHER 70 50.0 6 42.9Table 2: Responses for strong dan players

players, six responded to Question 9. Of the remaining fifteen players, onlyfour responded directly to Question 9, but their comments were not thatdifferent from the strong dan player group. I have distilled the comments inthe following list, picking out common features where these exist.

COMMENT POPA qualifier may defer attendance at Challengers’ for a year. 1

8 round Swiss over 2 weekends. Top 2 play for title. 1Exclude players who do not participate in other events. 1No change in Candidates’. 1Champion automatically qualifies for next year’s title match. 2The top 4 retain places in next year’s Challengers’. 4Reduce the title match to best of 3. 4

Table 3: Players’ comments

CONCLUSIONThe following conclusions can be drawn from the answers given to thequestionnaire:

• Results are not dominated by a few strongly held opinions. (%SCORE and%POP correlate well in each of Tables 1 and 2).

• There is no strong demand for serious change to the format. (AS IS in Tables1 and 2 scores the highest).

• There is some desire that the top four Challengers should retain their placesthe following year and that the title match should be reduced to best ofthree. (Table 3).

• There is a desire for some change in Challengers’ qualification. ( Question 9,Table 2)

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DISCUSSIONIn the Championship system prior to 2006, the top four Challengers automat-ically qualified for next year’s Challengers’, and the Champion was requiredto play only to defend the title. This had the effect that some strong playershad fairly low tournament attendances and it was this that led to some of thechanges resulting in the current system.However some players have felt that the tournament attendance required wastoo demanding and there was an interesting suggestion of allowing one’sparticipation in the Challengers’ to be deferred, say for a year. The problemwith this is that if several players defer, then the number of players needingto be chosen to qualify in the next Challengers’ could be very low. This couldseriously affect the attendance at the Candidates’ and undermine the potentialfor up and coming players to meet the strongest in British Go.Again, the downside of allowing the top four Challengers to automaticallyqualify is that rising players may then not get to play them. If the top fourChallengers maintain their strength then others may not get to see them foryears! We suffer in the UK from not having access to resident professionals, andso any reduction in exposure to strong players should not be encouraged.One special feature of the Candidates’ this year, that could not have beenincluded in the survey, was Matthew Macfadyen’s presence as game reviewer.People have said that they really enjoyed and benefited from his analysis aftertheir games. So, just as broadcasting games in the Title match is BGA policy, Ithink it would be of great benefit if teaching at the Candidates’ (through gameanalysis) also became BGA policy.

RECOMMENDATIONIn the light of the conclusions from the survey and the above discussion weshould consider the following recommendations. The last two are the newones, and the first three just tidy up some loose ends.

1. The Candidates’ remains as a six-round Swiss over the first May bankholiday with the current entry requirement i.e. achieve a GoR of 1900 by31st March.

2. The Challengers’ remains as an eight player all-play-all event over thesecond May bank holiday.

3. The date for the Challengers’ will nearly always clash with the date for theWorld Amateur. So the British representative to that event automaticallyqualifies for the next year’s Challenger’s as does the Champion for thecurrent year.

4. In order to reduce the load on the players, the Title Match could be reducedto best of three.

5. Teaching at the Candidates’ should become a regular feature.

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The BGA will be discussing these in Council meetings with the aim of modi-fying the rules for 2011. Any further feedback from players should reach theBGA by contacting [email protected] (or via the other channels)before 31st January 2011.

SIDEWAYS LOOKING PERSONS

We decided to run a round robintournament this year.

PROBLEM 5��

Black to play

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SOLUTIONS TO PROBLEMS

Yose Problem - A Matter of Sente and Gote

In the last two issues, Colin McLennanand Tim Hunt have provided articleson the relevance of sente and gote.These concepts are illustrated in thedeceptively simple yose problemgiven on Page 10.

��

Figure 1

White clearly has two options as towhere to play. In Figure 1 we see thefirst option. White 1 is worth eightpoints in gote; Black responds at 2 andwins by three points. Clearly white1 here is too small - but what is thealternative, for White to play at 4 inFigure 1, worth?

��

Figure 2

The answer (you’ve guessed it)depends upon whether it is senteor gote. Figure 2 assumes that Blackconsiders the move to be sente, where

it is classically worth four points, andresponds obediently. The result is awin for White by one point.

�� e d �� c��b��a��

Figure 3

Black’s mistake is to assume thatwhite 1 in figure 2 is sente. In Figure3, Black answers 1 with 2 immediately,but after white 3 Black has twoalternatives: “a” or “b”.“a” is (as we saw before) worth eightpoints in gote. “b” is worth sevenpoints in gote—Black gets two pointsin the upper left corner (points at “c”,“d” and “e”, less black 2 which iscaptured), instead of the nine pointshe gets in Figure 2.

��

Figure 4 ( @�)

Figure 4 shows Black making thelarger move, and the result is jigo (adraw). But can Black do better?

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The play of black 2 in Figures 3 and 4is usually correct; it loses a point, butslows down White’s incursion intoBlack’s territory. However, in this caseit is wrong. . .

��

Figure 5

Figure 5 shows the correct result, withbest play by both players; Black winsby one point. Note that White mustanswer 6 at 7; he cannot fight a ko ashe has no ko threats.In short, the lesson here is notto assume sequences which areclassically sente are always sente:they should be evaluated as gote,usually by ignoring the final movein the sequence. This last move shouldthen only be played if it is the largestmove on the board.Toby Manning

[email protected]

Solutions to the Numbered ProblemsThe .sgf files for these problems, showing a fuller set of lines, includingfailures, are to be found at www.britgo.org/bgj/current.All the .sgf files, and the answers to the problems set in the last issue, appearon the BGA website at www.britgo.org/bgj/issue152

Solution to Problem 1

��b��a��

Black can live by playing at ’a’. Whitedoes not have enough liberties tocapture the corner stones. If white’a’, Black can always approach fromthe top after playing ’b’, if he needs toremove the white stones.


��b��a��

The slapping move is the tesuji in thecase of the incomplete bamboo jointagainst a wall. If white ’a’, black ’b’(and vice versa).

42


��e��a��d��c��b��

Black can live with�. This allowsthe three black stones to connect out,leaving the white corner group dead.Black 1 at ’a’ is self-atari, ’b’ fails towhite 2 at 1 (If Black captures at ’a’it’s a snapback or if he captures at ’c’,White squeezes at ’a’ and cuts at ’d’).’e’ is too slow.


��

� @�

Black can kill. If White takes with 2,Black ataris and White cannot live.The corner is a well-known deadshape.


��Black can kill. Adding anotherpotential captured stone at 1 is thetesuji. The hane at 3 is crucial, andBlack adds a third stone inside at5, which either kills by shortage ofliberties or bulky eye. After 7, Whitecannot atari on either side.

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Glossary of Japanese TermsBefore BGJ 140 it was common to reserve a page of the Journal for a Glossary.Where space permits less common terms are nowadays explained in footnotes.If no explanation is provided then take a look at:

www.britgo.org/general/definitions

www.britgo.org/bgj/glossary.html

or search senseis.xmp.net/.

Please let the Editor know if the term is still not found.One of the experts can then write an article to explain it ,

USEFUL WEB AND EMAIL ADDRESSES

Journal comments and contributions: [email protected] for general BGA enquiries: [email protected] website: www.britgo.org/BGA email list: [email protected] for general discussion and announcements - control from:three.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/gotalk

For discussion of how the BGA operates: [email protected]/mailman/listinfo/bga-policy

Newsletter Distribution contact: [email protected]

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UK Clubs List UpdateUnfortunately there is no room in this edition for an update to the UK ClubsList. The up to date list can be found at www.britgo.org/clublist/clublist.html.

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