How to study shape?

[Bill Spight]

Thanks everyone for their comments.

When I was an SDK I bought a book on shape, which was an eye-opener, but now I do not have a book that even has shape in its title. I was fond of that book, but lost it along the way.

It wasn't "Tesuji and Anti-Suji of Go: Playing in Good Form and Making Correct Shape" was it? Because that was out of print but was recently released on SmartGo Books and looks interesting.

It was a book by Maeda. I still have the Sakata book (in Japanese). It is an excellent book. (I had completely forgotten the subtitle. )

[Joaz Banbeck]

Ohira Shuzo 9 dan says,( translated by John Fairbairn ):

"Good shape is when stones are arranged in such a way that all the vital points are guarded."

[RobertJasiek]

Ohira Shuzo 9 dan says [...]
"Good shape is when stones are arranged in such a way that all the vital points are guarded."

This describes only a special case of shapes: one-colour, thick shape, where the objective is not necessarily thickness but could also be (local) life. It does not say what "vital point" means, but let me make a suggestion:

For the local shape of a player's stones, a "vital point" is an intersection on which the player's play transforms a -1-, 0- or 1-connection to a higher degree connection or transform a -1-life to a higher degree life, so that the best possible improvement of connection degree, life degree or efficiency (preferably of all) is achieved.

(Efficiency has several aspects, so the definition is still generic.)

http://senseis.xmp.net/?NConnection
http://senseis.xmp.net/?Nalive

[RobertJasiek]

Shape can be studied especially for fulfilling purposes, positional contexts, visual types, kinds of dynamic processes, fulfilling strategic concepts (in particular, connection, life, influence, thickness, efficiency (e.g., territory efficiency), mobility (e.g. mobility difference), haengma, stability, aji, tenuki), analysis (tewari, local positional judgement), recurring techniques, tesujis and tactics. See Joseki Vol. 1 + 2. Literature studying almost all of those aspects for the topic shapes does not exist yet. Therefore one needs to study both shapes literature and literature explaining those aspects regardless of the shape topic.

For beginners, start with

- Connect your stones!
- Keep your stones alive!
- Achieve the same with the smallest possible number of stones!

[Boidhre]

You can read Shape Up by Charles Matthews.
It is a series of articles about shape, I found it intresting.

You can find the pdf here:

[Mod edit: The link to the pdf "Shape Up!" has been deleted as it is not an authorized copy as explained by the author later on in this thread. Please look for the sources mentioned by the author of this book if you are interested in this book.]

Note to the admins: I think he made it open to the public, if not i'll remove the link.

Hope that helps;

Otenki

Thank you so much for this, it's utterly fascinating!

[bogiesan]

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.

[Charles Matthews]

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.

[Uberdude]

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?

[Charles Matthews]

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.

[hyperpape]

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.

[Mike Novack]

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)

[Boidhre]

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.

[Buri]

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

[tchan001]

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.

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

[jts]

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...

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