The last few folks I taught to play insisted on learning shape. I was not a good enough teacher to help them with that so we learned together. I showed them Janice Kim's chapter on haengma and I forced them to play those shapes and only those shapes when extending from their handicap stones. After a dozen games of seeing these shapes create stable groups and allow links to other groups, I asked them to play their black stones in order to prevent me from making haengma shapes with my white stones.

Worked well but it was obvious when we played a few weeks alter that much of what they had learned had been forgotten or replaced by the same old bad habits.

Conclusion: Good shape can learned and only retained with much practice.

_________________
David Bogie, Boise ID
I play go, I ride a recumbent, of course I use Macintosh.

I'm glad some people find "Shape Up!" useful. To some extent, finding a way to write about go around a concept like "shape" justifies itself as soon as players study what is written. Talk about shape is just one way to be looking locally at the game. I agree with the comment that tesuji is a way into shape: probably the biggest single influence on my approach. Play to keep alive the tesuji you can play, and destroy those the opponent has available.

The way to get strong quickly is to sleep with a tesuji dictionary under your pillow, rather than to study shape as such. But then you will have an unbalanced style, with bad habits to lose, I guess. Good shape is just an aspect of good technique. Technique is contextual: not pattern-matching.

On reading "Shape Up!", there are only three authorised sources in English: Gobase, a Korean site, and the GoGod CD-ROM. I have authorised some translations. All other web copies are piracy. I should say that I think piracy is killing the fragile ecological niche, of go publishing that is designed for the actual needs of Western players.

Hi Charles, glad to see you in the Go world again. About the availability of Shape Up! on Gobase: you need an account there to read it. It used to be that accounts on Gobase were free, but now they cost money, and I've even heard of someone paying money and not getting an account for ages if at all (it seems Jan is not very active anymore). Would you consider authorising its availability on another site that is free to access?

Yes, I would mind. The work is copyright, and was written jointly with Seong-June Kim. I bought his share of the copyright (in any first edition), because he was here in the UK and needed to buy furniture. Anyone who is a serious go player should buy the GoGod CD-ROM which has "Shape Up!" and other writings of mine included.

That's your prerogative and I won't distribute the book (and also notified admins that the earlier link should be removed), but please keep some perspective. If piracy of Shape Up is a threat to the go ecosystem, the fact that folks like me got Shape Up for free back in 2006 would be an equal threat.

_________________
Occupy Babel!

The "free" in "free software" was meant to stand for non-restrictive licenses, not free as in free beer. The rallying cry of those who founded thios movement was "software for the price of a book".

"...... should buy the GoGod CD-ROM which has "Shape Up!" and other writings of mine included ..."

That CD-ROM qualifies (if you think not, you haven't bought a book lately)

It's not obvious from the GoGoD website that Shape Up! is on it. There isn't a list of books available on the disc up on the website. If it was clearly stated that Shape Up was on the disc on the website it'd be pretty obvious that it hadn't been released into the community for free (though I can see how that mix up happened with it being free on GoBase for a period combined with wishful thinking by people).


Chris, I'm not sure if I would benefit from it now being so weak and inexperienced but I will buy GoGoD in the future so you get your share for providing me with such an interesting book.

Greetings,
there are excellent lectures on shape in the Guo Juan Internet Go School.
Cheers,
Buri

Could you please let us know which Korean site is the authorised source of your book?

_________________
http://tchan001.wordpress.com
A blog on Asian go books, go sightings, and interesting tidbits
Go is such a beautiful game.

Not necessarily. GoGod advertises that it includes Kombilo, and Kombilo is open source and free to download.

Good point.

Remember --- "free software" does not have to be available free for download.

What the typical licenses specify are conditions that allow it to be free for download if somebody out of the goodness of their heart wants to provide that to you. All that has to be available is ..........

The source code at a charge no more than what is customary for data on medium (these days that would be on CD or DVD for $5-$10). Again, the license would allow anybody who cared to
1) make that available for free download
2) compile run execs for use under various operating systems and do likewise
But nobody has any obligation to do so.

Similarly anybody who cared to could write users guides, etc. to be used in conjunction with some free software application. BUT (big but) this would be different in that normal copyright would apply even if these works created by the team that developed the free software. Please note that the original "free software" folks were expecting to make their livings from software. Just campaigning against exploitation. Things were different in those days. Hadn't settled down to just a few operating systems so they expected things like "compile it for your machine" to be a service paid for (if you think charging you too much, well you can get the source code and have somebody else compile it for you). They were expecting MARKET COMPETITION to keep prices for distribution and services reasonable, "software for the price of a book".

Mike, these are all excellent points about free software, but I'm not sure what point you're making about Shape Up.

Although I'd say that today, the customary medium is Github.

_________________
Occupy Babel!

http://www.badukworld.co.kr/biz/lesson2 ... shape.html is, I guess, an online version posted with my co-author's consent.

As for generalised rants about free software etc.: since I have spent now nearly nine years writing Wikipedia material, I feel adequately informed about all that.

Thank you Charles. I had found that earlier but didn't want to post any links until it was confirmed that it was an authorised source.

_________________
http://tchan001.wordpress.com
A blog on Asian go books, go sightings, and interesting tidbits
Go is such a beautiful game.

Another treasure trove on shapes is this Korean book: http://tchan001.wordpress.com/2010/05/1 ... ictionary/
RJ has a review of the book here: http://www.gobooks.info/jasiek/isbn-89-7067-162-5.html

_________________
http://tchan001.wordpress.com
A blog on Asian go books, go sightings, and interesting tidbits
Go is such a beautiful game.

I'm sure people remember minue622 korean kgs [7d] who used to actively teach go few years back. He liked "Shape Up!" so much, he was thinking of translating it to korean.

I guess it’s only appropriate that I, too, thank you. I’m just a weak kyu making very slow progress, but your »Shape Up!« is incredibly valuable for me, I wish there was a German version of this so I could give this to the kids whom I teach Go at the local school (voluntary work, not official school lessons) and to the people at the local Go club (who all, sadly, won’t read English).

_________________
“The only difference between me and a madman is that I’m not mad.” — Salvador Dali ★ Play a slooooow correspondence game with me on OGS?

I also love these kinds of books and find them crazy useful. Is there anywhere to buy printed books? Online is fine for a bit, but I really (REALLY) prefer printed books for intensive study. I get fewer headaches and can study for longer. Plus the battery life on print books is SO much better!

Yes, there are a few places. One is Kiseido -- they're having a sale until the 28th this month.