Life In 19x19

Thanks for keeping the 19x19 going. It is a good place left on the Internet.

I finally caught up to the ING cup games, watching Michael Redmond's commentary. What an exciting thing even when the news is late for me.
I haven't been following too much lately but I did pick up the nihon kiin year book and went through some games between Iyama and Ichiriki.
It's amazing how ...

It seems like a very 1 sided (2 sided?) tournament but then there's also the really cool factor that some of these players from smaller countries (or without long Go history) get the chance to share a game with top players of the Go-pro countries. Were there any pictures of the event?

The first game looks fun. But maybe I missed something -- what are "Journal games"?

[*]Are there any reputable sources for clamshell & slate stones besides https://kurokigoishiten.com/? They seem very good but also quite expensive. Yes, yes, and yes.

Basically, you throw money at a set of shell/slate and you never look back because you will never need another set.
Yes. Except ...

Yes, my white player is several ranks weaker than my black tsumego player.

But if we are talking about studying in general then maybe ancient Chinese joseki is the wrong thing to study?

I read similar comments about the stones getting stained. My impression from reading comments online was that it was more due to the wooden bowls being new rather than the stones sitting in them. The wood has been polished and finished and some of the chemicals remain. However, Kurokigoishiten's ...

I got the book a few days ago and enjoyed the history lesson and journalistic entertainment. I did not know much about Okinawa except the tragic battles taught in history class. It's unfortunate to hear how so much was lost. But I enjoy handicap games and this was a pleasant surprise.

A quick ...

Japanese rules (say 1989) require significant expertise to apply when needed the most, which may not be available.
Is that true? I do not think it is publicly available but my understanding is that the Nihon Kiin maintains a list of rulings and precedents. The situation can be recognized and ...

If I'm not mistaken, I believe a player would need to hold the Honinbo title longer (5 times in total?) to earn an honorary title.

With great foresight Fairbairn's new book Go in Old Okinawa features handicap games with the first two games being 4 stone games against Dosaku. The commentary is aggregated from pros with occasional quotes.

Perhaps they have no choice

Sounds interesting! Thank you for putting this book together. It was easily found by copying the ISBN into Amazon.

Somehow related... Professional handicap games. That I know of, there's a book through Utopian on pro handicap, and some games peppered along Go World (the Sekiyama-Michi series comes to mind), plus some odd games in the big books (Invincible; Itinéraire d'un maître de Go), but there's not much ...

Yesterday I had a bit of free time on a nice day and Kamakura was my choice. I was going through Game 1 and that was what finally peaked piqued my 5 year old son's interest in Go. We playing a bit of the 4x4 Go Puzzle (the Japanese one with apples on the apple tree) but he was already asking to play ...