Friday, December 20, 2013

Master play

Yay! Today I received these five books from Slate & Shell, plus the extra pocket life & death book (thank you S&S), I guess I'll start with Lee Changho, I'm quite intrigued with his calm and solid style.


The books are part of the Master Play Series:

Wednesday, December 18, 2013

Mega seki

The following seki involving four groups could have occurred in one of my games.
Whoever plays at A, B or D puts himself in atari.


Sunday, December 15, 2013

Go by Borges

Jorge Luis Borges, distinguished Argentine writer, dedicated a poem to the game of Go! Find it below in it's original Spanish an translated to English (extracted from here).

El Go

Hoy, nueve de setiembre de 1978,
tuve en la palma de la mano un pequeño disco
de los trescientos sesenta y uno que se requieren
para el juego astrológico del go,
ese otro ajedrez del Oriente.
Es más antiguo que la más antigua escritura
y el tablero es un mapa del universo.
Sus variaciones negras y blancas
agotarán el tiempo.
En él pueden perderse los hombres
como en el amor y en el día.
Hoy nueve de setiembre de 1978,
yo, que soy ignorante de tantas cosas,
sé que ignoro una más,
y agradezco a mis númenes
esta revelación de un laberinto
que nunca será mío.
 
Today, the ninth of September of 1978,
I had in the palm of my hand one small disc
of the three hundred sixty-one that are needed
for the astrologic game of Go,
that other chess of the East.
It is older than the oldest writing
and the board is a map of the universe.
Its black and white variations
will exhaust time.
Men can be lost in it
as in love and day.
Today, the ninth of September of 1978,
I, myself, who am ignorant of so many things,
know that I do not know one more,
and I thank my poetic inspiration
for this revelation of a labyrinth
which will never be mine.

Image to SGF

Keeping track of a game record when playing on a physical board is somewhat tedious. Either use pen and a game record sheet available here and write down each move, or use a tablet/computer and replicate each move, or take a picture of each move from a fixed standpoint and then generate the SGF file using software such as image2sgf.

image2sgf is a Perl module that takes a photograph depicting a position on a go board, and returns an SGF description of the position.

It's pretty cool software, but If you're not a programmer, you may find it daunting to use.  Besides the picture, one must provide certain information for it to work (the 4 board corners), Using a fixed point for the camera is important because all pictures will share the same corner coordinates.

Unfortunately this makes it unpractical for our original purpose. Also if a players hand was over the board when taking the picture, it obviously won't work.

Before getting to know this software, me and some friends were toying with the idea of producing our own software to do this. For that purpose we (even though I didn't play) shot two blitz game videos with a camera facing down, lying on a table with a hole in the middle, and the board was on the floor. Watch them here and here.




Saturday, December 14, 2013

Onegaishimasu

If you ever tried to say this Japanese greeting before a game but had no idea how to pronounce it as you never even saw it written, well, I finally found it. It means "Please do your best" or "Please have a good game".

Resignation is "Makemashita" and pronounced like this.

Stone simulation

Prior to buying my Go stones, I did some research and bumped into this crazy site. It's a Go board and stones simulation project by a guy named Glenn Fiedler. If you're into physics and programming you'll find it an interesting read.

You can watch the end result here.

Tuesday, December 10, 2013

Game review

The following game is the last in a series of 6 consecutive wins in IGS, after my epic failure. I was quite proud of myself this time as I strove to stay calm. Before the battle in the center, I felt that I was far behind, maybe because I was playing mostly in gote, or maybe because of the saying that we tend to see our opponents prospects better than our own.

At the end of the game, we didn't fill in every dame, as a result, point 'A' in the diagram wasn't filled. Is it considered a dame or not? IGS scored W+129.5 but Quarry W+130.5 instead! This is the answer given by a friend: when both players pass, the game may resume if there is a dispute. So in this case, if black wants to consider A as part of his territory, players should continue play until black has no choice but to connect at A. Notice also that in this particular case white could have made an extra point in the dame area.


Monday, December 9, 2013

Are you a bot?

I believe that beginners should not resign in games, instead they should play until there is almost no possible move left. Why? Well because the assumption that something is possible or not, either a successful invasion or the life/death of a group, is based on little experience, and is probably wrong. Even though this may irritate experienced players, among beginners it should be accepted.

In the following game, my Japanese opponent, followed this principle to the extreme. Many of his moves where absurd to the point that by move 312, after passing 11 times! I asked him "Are you a bot?", but received no answer. Looking at his game history, he had an enormous amount of games played, and his level hadn't improved, so I am 99% sure I was playing against a computer, after all, he definitely didn't pass the Turing test.

In move 249 I passed for the first time, but the game continued for another 100 moves! In situations like this, the fastest way to end the game is to kill any aji that's left even though we loose some points. Notice, however, how white managed to live in the upper right corner from move 320 onwards.

Maybe next time I could politely ask at the beginning of the game: "Are you human?".


Game review

This 2 stone handicap game was played about a month ago on IGS. I was ranked 16k+ playing black against a 14k+.

I felt quite confident the whole game, and I was pretty much ahead until the endgame, when my excessive confidence, pride, and greediness, took over me. From move 276 onwards, I kept making silly endgame moves without taking into account that my groups where loosing liberties. I almost laughed at my opponents pretensions of killing my group, ignoring his threat to the limit until I couldn't handle it. Don't be a hot shot, less if your opponent is stronger. I was ahead but put everything at risk because I didn't want to give away a single point. You only need half a point to win at Go, anything above that is superfluous. I'm not saying that you should give away the points you don't need, what I'm saying is that you shouldn't put groups at risk to gain unnecessary points. Just play calm and conservative, let your opponent take the risks. This is where greed knocks at the door. I was being a hot shot against a stronger player, and he certainly game me a lesson. I felt so bad for losing this game, it hurt so much, that I promised myself not to be so fool again. Fortunately, loosing hard like this can bring great benefits, and I'm pretty sure it did, as it heavily influenced my future games.

Sunday, December 8, 2013

Game review

I played this even game a few months ago on IGS, against another BC ranked player. What's interesting about it is that it illustrates how a bad move can have such terrible consequences.

I was playing white, and was behind in territory by move 180, but I had managed to almost kill an important center group, and I say almost because a bad move not only helped black rescue his endangered group, but also kill mine. I lost by resignation, check it out from move 183 onwards.


Stone soup

Ever tried stone soup for dinner? Grrr...delicious!





Saturday, December 7, 2013

Cross-fuseki

This tip may be regarded as a no-brainer. Anyway I still think it's worth mentioning. When playing white, to avoid a cross-fuseki you must play on the diagonal corner. Cross-fuseki games usually end up being territorial instead of moyo based, so a further corner enclosure is a good idea. (Thanks Ben!)



W 2 avoids a cross-fuseki, if B wants a corner he must play at A or B




Go search engine

I added a new entry on the links section for find.gogame.info. It's a special search engine, based on Google Custom Search, which searches information only on Go-related sites. Cool!

Low for development

The following diagram is a common joseki when approaching the 3-4 point.


Maybe I missed the part in the books where black 6 is explained, or it's not explained because it's assumed to be obvious, but it wasn't obvious for me until a friend explained it to me.
I asked myself why black would play 6 instead of playing at A, and the answer is that black 6 trades territory for further development, and the potential for development is key in Go.






This is what happens when white plays at A:


Black can continue to develop along the 3rd line and white is left with bad shape.











On the other hand, if black played at A instead of 6, these are possible continuations:



On the left diagram, black's development along the right side is blocked, and on the right diagram, black is kept low while white gains influence towards the center.

Shimari

Whenever I played the shimari on the left, I felt like giving away too much, but when I played the one on the right, I felt uneasy for some unknown reason. Then I learned the main difference between them, and it's very simple.


On the left, black can tenuki white's approach (marked with square), whereas on the right, black must respond whites approach (marked with triangle) or else white will slip into A, and take some part of the corner.

Friday, December 6, 2013

Lines

Who has more territory in the following diagram? 


If you said white, pat yourself on your back, the answer is White: 136, Black: 121.

Obviously it's an impossible situation as white has more stones laid out than black, but it's purpose is to illustrate the following: White moves along the 3rd line, which is the limit that keeps the balance between influence and territory. Below the 3rd line favours influence territory, and above it favours territory influence. That's why the 4th line is called the line of victory and the 2nd line is the line of defeat.
See here for more details.

Thursday, December 5, 2013

Rengo

In our last study group meeting, we decided to play Rengo. I was reluctant at first, but since we would play while eating pizza and having some beer, I thought it would be fun to try it out. I was expecting a fast paced game, but boy was I wrong. The game lasted about 2 hours, and ended up in one huge battle that determined the winner.
We were behind in territory, and our only hope was to invade our opponents territory and make sabaki. In the end we lost, so close of making that second eye... I tried to distract my opponent showing sighs of despair, and walking around, in the hope that my partner would know how to follow the underlying tesuji that gave us life, but my opponent smelled something strange and discovered what would have cost them the game.
I was accused (in a friendly way, of course) of being light-headed by my partner. In all honesty he was right, I never thought it would turn out such an intense game, so I played out some novel moves I would never dare to play when playing alone.
We're certainly gonna give it another chance on our next meeting. I highly recommend it.


Tuesday, December 3, 2013

Bamboo

After 4 months of playing, I dared to play my first 19x19 online game on KGS. It wasn't a good start, as expected, but at least I learned something that I would never forget: the bamboo joint, which I should have played on move 38.

Bamboo joint
Now I notice that I seemed to like starting my games in the 3-5 point mokuhazushi!

When the game finished, two folks entered the "room" and went through the whole game. The review lasted about 2 hours! It was a pleasant surprise. Thank you folks!

Here is the game, I'm playing white:

Download kifu

Kageyama - Take 1

This weekend I started to reread Toshiro Kageyama's excellent book 'Lessons in the Fundamentals of Go'.
Not only is it an educational read, but I find it fun also. Toshiro speaks bluntly and uses a strong and outspoken language, I believe to cause a deep impresion and get the message through. For example:

On studying:
"So much for these lazy students, let them do as they please. They are not going to get anywhere. They need to be grabbed by the scruff of the neck and have some sense knocked into them."
page 14.

"Of course one cannot make progress in any discipline without effort. 'There is no pleasure without pain.' Pleasure is progress, and pain the pain of effort. Study in the wrong way, however, and the result may be just pain with no pleasure at all. One must, without fail, learn the correct way to study."
page 12.

True words indeed, if only I had read this during my university career and my piano lessons.


"It may not take years of devoted study to the exclusion of all else, but it does take effort piled upon effort to become strong at go. The only ones who fall by the wayside are those, be they gifted or otherwise, who forget the word 'effort'."
page 22.

"We are getting into difficult terrain now, but even a beginner should not give up. [...] If you cannot guess even the first move, then, well --"
page 32.

"They are also the people [...] who take fright without cause; who tremble when they sit down at the go board; who play through the whole game with a sullen expression; who lose every fight; who eventually come to hate go. Sorry wretches, through choice they have abandoned the most interesting and enjoyable of all games."
"No matter what age he is, a man's brain cells are sharpened and work better the more he uses them. Go is a perfect mental exercise. It is worth a few leisure moments. Think of it, if you like, as a game that prevents brain degeneration."
page 34. 

By the time Toshiro wrote this, he surely didn't know scientifically about this: Does Go Provide Cognitive Benefit?

On ladders and nets:

"When it looks as if you can capture something, ask yourself two questions: (1) Can I catch it in a ladder? (2) Can I catch it in a net?'
[...] the net captures with one stone, while the ladder would require two. This is the main reason why nets are better than ladders."
page 23.

On intuition:

"How can professionals have such widely differing views? It comes from two different ways of looking at the game: the intuitive approach and the profit approach. Professionals in general tend to stress the intuitive approach at the expense of the other, which may be only natural since it is the intuitive players who usually have in them some spark of genius."
page 25.

Monday, December 2, 2013

Stones

I never imagined that stones other than the cheap plastic ones I've been using could make such a huge difference. It's the look, the feel, the weight, the size, the temperature, the sound...

It was a tough decision when buying the stones, primarily because there are no stores where I live, so I had to choose by pictures, and we all know the huge gap between a picture and the real thing. I wanted good quality stones, after all they would probably follow me for the rest of my life, but I couldn't exceed my budget.

There are also so many sizes to choose from! In the end, by July this year, I decided to buy these 6brothers size 36 double convex stones from GoGameGuru for usd 75 with shipping. I had no references with regards to shape, brand or size, but I trusted the site, and I'm so happy with them!

Unpacking the stones

On Books

There are lots of free online sites to practice go problems (GoProblems and GoChild, just to name a few), including software (Gobandroid and WeGolgo Lite among my favorites). But I'm pretty fond of books, and I prefer practicing from a book when I have the choice. Why? Because instead of having the stones arranged on screen with one click, I have to manually setup the stones on a physical board myself. And instead of starting over with another click, I must remove the stones and set it up again. This tedious labor is what fixes the pattern more easily into my brain. An analogy would be copy/pasting a piece of text versus typing it in. This is part of the "Learning the hard way" movement.
Of course you can read from a screen and use a physical board also, but the temptation to place the stones on the screen is too high, at least it doesn't work for me. When left alone on the board, nobody tells you if the first stone you placed is wrong, as happens when using software.
For documentation purposes, I do believe software is great, it allows storing each variation with comments in full detail.

Even if I knew a whole book by heart, I still like to have it around. I believe that authors when choosing the problems, strive to maintain them cohesive, and not leave corner cases untouched. I fear that studying random problems from different sources may take longer to cover all aspects.

This is my book collection so far, there are many great reviews already online, so I won't add another one here, instead just a few personal comments.
My first book
Many books have overlapping subjects, but chapters 7 and 8 of this book alone are worth it's value. They cover the subject of counting liberties and winning capturing races. Even though I haven't studied them thoroughly (I should someday), I know where to go when I need it.
Vol 1. is way too basic, I bought it only to complete the series.
I promise lot's of quotes from this excellent book in future posts.
Books that haven't arrived yet:

Sunday, December 1, 2013

KGS Analytics

KGS Analytics is a site that shows any KGS user's statistics, in the following format.


Screenshot was modified to fit screen.
What I find particularly interesting is that it let's you subscribe to the users RSS. Now I can follow my friends games. Nice!

Thursday, November 28, 2013

Awkward IGS Ranking?

Here is the IGS ranking table, I find it a bit awkward that 15k is stronger than 16k+, which is stronger than 16k that is, in strength order: 15k 16k+ 16k. Anyway, uh... never mind, if it were 15k 16k- 16k I'd find it awkward too.

Wednesday, November 27, 2013

My first online game

I finally left my fears behind and played my first 9x9 online game in KGS. I had played many times against the computer, but never against a stranger. It was a good experience even though I was crushed! Check out the game below, I'm black.

More than a game

So what is the underlying philosophy that caught my attention?

Consider these principles: simplicity, elegance, depth.

It's simple because it's very easy to understand, and the elements are only white and black stones on a grid.

It's elegant because with very few rules (less than 5), that constitute the axioms from which other implicit rules are deduced. An example of this would be that a group with two eyes cannot be killed, but that is a corollary of the fact that a stone cannot be placed where it has no liberties.

It's deep because the consequences of every move cannot be exhaustively analyzed. Even though the game is 4000 years old, there is still lot's of place for study.

Living groups have eyes for the Japanese and lungs for the Chinese. The stones form good and bad shapes. Opponents stones must not be captured unless necessary. All these things I find very poetic and artistic.

I once heard someone say that a game of Go is like a conversation taking place between two people. Interesting isn't it? In the same way that you need two people for a great game, you need two people for a great conversation.

In my short experience the game has given me so many lessons (and we'll see them in future posts) that I can apply directly to proper life matters: among them are humility, greediness, balance, sacrifice, detachment. I'm not exaggerating, I can come up with examples for each.

Balance is for me the most representative word, while playing, I struggle (yes, I struggle) trying to maintain balance between:
  • territory vs. influence
  • heavy vs. light
  • thick vs. thin
  • attack vs. defend
  • stay calm vs. be aggressive
  • logic vs. intuition
  • ambition vs. satisfaction
  • flexible vs. rigid
Each of these concepts relates to decisions we make in life and they also build our personality. We can never have it all, and must learn to negotiate with the opponent.

These reasons make me consider Go much more than a game.

Follow this link (in Spanish) for a much better description by Franklin Bassarsky.

Tuesday, November 26, 2013

So I started playing...


A friend of mine, chess player hobbyist, went to live abroad, so he decided to give me his never used go board and plastic stones. I accepted the offer, with the hope of playing it some day, although I wasn't so convinced myself.

Even though I am a board game fan, my preference relies on Eurogames, that is, casual games for the occasion, preferably those that gather family members. Go is certainly not that type of game. Besides, some years ago I had started studying chess but my enthusiasm didn't last long (less than 2 months I guess), so I imagined that the same would happen with Go.

Another board game pal once told that he was playing Go a lot, and I thought: "How can anyone be so addicted to such an abstract, visually unappealing game...", while I nodded to him quite perplexed.

It wasn't until I went to a board game gathering, where a guy whose name I can't remember, gave a talk about the philosophy underlying the game of Go, and I immediately felt attracted to it.

So, the first thing I did was buy a book: 'Elementos de Go', by Fernando Aguilar. It's an excellent book but only covers the bare basics, as the title suggests. It took me more than 3 months until I dared to play on a 19x19 board. I was only playing 9x9 and then 13x13, against the computer mostly.
A few days later (Dec 2012), I spread this Go disease to 2 coworkers, and we formed a study group. We started off very excited and felt just like in the anime 'Hikaru no Go'.