Life In 19x19

It requires more skill to efficiently use the white position, whereas all black needs to do to use his position is count the game. Here is an example of Catalin Taranu using in the EGC a few years ago. See how it was sente there because of the b7 aji (and black can't answer b7 with the b8 tesuji which normally works because white has the descent or kosumi as sente.



Edit: I deleted this post because Catalin's game is a 4-4 corner so even bigger! But put it back because Elom saw it and maybe interesting anyway.

I made an account on IGS and ended up playing an even game with an IGS 1 dan from the netherlands (partly because I once read that it is best for a SDK to set your rank to 1D and fall to your correct level). I think I did okay, and held up fairly well for a while (partly becsue my opponent blundered-- um, but let's not talk about that, heh ) until I made a mistake near the end. Regardless of the result, I think that this game may point out differences between me and dan level players which I can't see yet.



At this rate the top London Open players should watch out! (not )

Elom wrote:Regardless of the result, I think that this game may point out differences between me and dan level players which I can't see yet.

At this point we can see White is stronger, not through fighting, but because White's position is just better organised.

Must be bigger to enclose the lower right corner, denying White's best extension.

No, you've lost a tempo: E15 would make more sense now.

The thought is OK, but you've given up too much on the left.

At H11 is the "natural flow".

Your was slow, though the reasoning is normal. This is wild. And it really contradicts to allow the lower side to be broken.

You needed to kill this group. Now you probably can't win ...

Pretty bad. Try not even to think of these plays!

Often people don't tenuki enough, but in the opening here I think you tenukid too much. Perhaps trying to be too clever? Focus more on making good solid shapes. Btw in the variation for 21 white can cut at c3 and kill the corner. I admire Charles' restraint in calling 51 wild .

Yeah, I went a little... well okay a lot overboard with the experimental stuff thanks for your comments.

For some reason I seem to be improving quickly. From February 2013 to February 2014 I stayed pretty much stagnant, gaining about just two stones (kgs 8k-6k, or EGF 10k-8k) but in may, during the MK, I was entered in as 8 kyu. Now I'm around EGF 5k, according to KGS and IGS geuss I can't complain, replaying lots of pro games seems to have done the trick!

PS: Move 51 can only be called, "Mad scientist"

This journal has been relatively quiet, but I might find time to post here a bit more now.

I may not be doing a Go demonstration, but I thought that the least I could do was to distribute an a4 page about Go with links to sites that give more information about Go. In response to Paul Smiths text about the problem with baduk in the UK, I decided to give a list of sites that would give a more wholistic view of the art. But I'm not sure weather I'm forgetting some good recourses:

I'm looking for 7 main types of links (the "seven seeds", I call them), and the percentage they will probably take compared to all links:

1: Martial Art 20%
Sites that portray Go as an ancient martial art, so that the unwitting recipient sees the link with Karate, Tai Chi, and so on.

2: Educational Go 20%
Sites the peer into the educational and health-related benefits of Go, as well as social aspects of Go.

3: Sport Go 20%
Sites that highlight the sporting side of Go, even as a spectator sport, and information world tournaments, and famous pros (or VIP's ). This may be especially effective in drawing even quite young children in, something which is vital in both improving the level of Go in britain and maximising the benefits Go has on people, at the very least setting up a future "baby boomer" generation.

4: Skill in Weiqi 10%
Links that try to show the true depth of Baduk, how people improve, and also the professional system and what it takes to become a pro or even insei, and a little about how ranks and ratings (do you know that every single Japanese martial art that uses a Kyu/Dan or belt colouring system probably owes a thanks to a Master Go player who invented the system? Type information) and the logarithmic nature of the kyu/dan system compared to ELO ratings.

5: World Go situation 10%
4 naturally leads to 5, the world weiqi situation. Anyone wouldn't mind knowing where their country stands, right? The history of Go in all the continents, and the current skill level of Go in Europe, North and south America, Asia, Oceania and Africa

6: How to play Go 10%
I'm sure you've read those words a thousand times. a combination of sites with straight-to-the-point teaching style, magnifying the simplicity of the rules, and sites which make it very interesting to learn Go, making sure that once they're on the Go train, it moves to fast for them to hop off

7: VEI and others 10%

Very Eye-opening Information and others. If two people can find common interests, they are more likely to be ready to be introduced to other disciplines by that person. Probably the single most important aspect in promoting anything is first impressions, and how the PEOPLE are like (sorry for the all caps ) I once read that in business, BRANDING is the most important thing. At the time I didn't understand-- how can stuff like Strategy, Ruthlessness Accounting, Mathematics, Office Location, and every other aspect in setting up products be second to... branding? Like on TV Ads?

Branding could be called the ONLY thing. In modern life, so many things call for peoples precious attention, and unfortunately using your brain in every aspect of your life is sometimes impossible. The subconscious comes into play, and looks and impressions about things that guide the day to day life of most people.

People aren't that interested in a bunch of 361 stones (as of yet, unless maybe you’re an antique specialist), they're interested in people. Sites that look into this aspect may be quite useful.

Some may understandably believe that the "Sport" section holds too high a percentage. Well, the reason for this is that the respect for board games/mind sports in Europe and North America is far lower than in Africa and Asia, Especially Asia. So if you want to make Igo popular without losing the spirit of Igo, you have to be somewhat revolutionary: Increasing the popularity of ALL Mind sports, changing the social perception in the country (in my case, UK). So we have to work with all the mind sport organisations in the country, including chess, rather than taking a "go is better than chess" attitude. Making Igo look as similar to a sport as possible will completely overhaul the western perception of board games— especially among children, and seems to be the best way to draw people in, and once they're hooked, we can pull out the other 6 Aces up our sleeve.

I could exonerate even more on the subject using my little knowledge, but I'll stop here. Hopefully it might give one person food for thought to improving his/her go-spreading abilities. One person is enough for me

PS: I used Igo, Baduk and Weiqi interchangeably because I believe that while Japan primarily spread Go to the west, and while Japan founded modern competitive Go, Our knowledge of go history is unfairly skewed towards Japan. Most people do not know much about the history of Go/Baduk/Weqi/CoVay in Korea, China and Taiwan, and certainly other Asian countries. Hmm, yet again this post outgrew my expectations

Please Learn Go! Learn Go Week.

A small while ago, I had a little accident when impatiently looking for a game on IGS--





It was quite strange, playing simultaneously against two 1 Dans, and both games ended in an accident too but at least I wasn't completely outclassed.

Also, do you mind it when you play a beginner, and they really, really don't want a handicap? You might be thinking to yourself, "how arrogant, just learned to play yesterday and doesn't get my point about handicaps".

Hmm, but why are you so eager to give a handicap? Is it not better for them to practice playing on even games? In any case, next time put 9 stones on the board and take BLACK against the beginner. You may be surprised.

When I was 30k-10k, I couldn't replay pro games. Why? Well I could. I could take Hng games and play out a crucial game in the plot, but as for learning? In the back of my mind, I felt that I shouldn't bother, because I am so far below they're level and I'm so useless on a Goban that I should just give up. So I could never replay pro games above "level 1". It would have been nice, however, if I hadn't been so demeaning of myself, because for even the most basic openings that I could learn from, my mind would overlook, as "I'm incapable of learning from pro games without commentary". So now I plan to put commentary for all of the games of the Samsung cup on this Journal, a series about studying pro games. It is intended for beginners, and I don't comment the games saying that I could understand much of it, but to say that the >20%-10% I can see on the surface, I at least try to understand. I also hope that by following the tournament, it would encourage more people to take up Go. So I put information that most Go players already know, just for people who might not know a lot about the Go world, like beginners.

I planned to comment all of the group stage games at level 2, but because I was writing them for beginners, They ended up taking longer than originally planned and being closer to level 3.

Here are 4 out of 36. Group A, round one:





Group B, round one:




Hopefully I would comment all of the games before the main draw starts.

Your variation on mv68 in the last game doesn't make sense as there are some black stones in atari in the middle of it that white should have captured. About l18 that is a tesuji to take sente to play the r13 hane like you said, but black can also choose to answer in the corner and that way later he can attack the top group (l18 helps it live). Move 50 white makes those exchanges to cut black first. Also 1 is quite important shape point for white's liberties.

Elom wrote:Also, do you mind it when you play a beginner, and they really, really don't want a handicap? You might be thinking to yourself, "how arrogant, just learned to play yesterday and doesn't get my point about handicaps".

Hmm, but why are you so eager to give a handicap? Is it not better for them to practice playing on even games? In any case, next time put 9 stones on the board and take BLACK against the beginner. You may be surprised.

No i don't mind it because i behaved and still do exactly the same way. It's not arrogance, it's pride at worst and desire to test one's strength at best. When i refuse to take handicap -or take reduced- it's mainly the latter. When a beginner refuses to take handicap against me i try to show him the difference in our levels by trying to kill everything. I don't do it because i'm a prick, i'm a fan of realism and sometimes it's more educational to be brutally honest. After the game i review and kindly say ''Next time please place 9 stones'' :p

Elom wrote:When I was 30k-10k, I couldn't replay pro games. Why? Well I could. I could take Hng games and play out a crucial game in the plot, but as for learning? In the back of my mind, I felt that I shouldn't bother, because I am so far below they're level and I'm so useless on a Goban that I should just give up. So I could never replay pro games above "level 1". It would have been nice, however, if I hadn't been so demeaning of myself, because for even the most basic openings that I could learn from, my mind would overlook, as "I'm incapable of learning from pro games without commentary". So now I plan to put commentary for all of the games of the Samsung cup on this Journal, a series about studying pro games. It is intended for beginners, and I don't comment the games saying that I could understand much of it, but to say that the >20%-10% I can see on the surface, I at least try to understand. I also hope that by following the tournament, it would encourage more people to take up Go. So I put information that most Go players already know, just for people who might not know a lot about the Go world, like beginners.

I planned to comment all of the group stage games at level 2, but because I was writing them for beginners, They ended up taking longer than originally planned and being closer to level 3.

Here are 4 out of 36. Group A, round one:

Thanks for doing these I will work through them all

Uberdude wrote:Your variation on mv68 in the last game doesn't make sense as there are some black stones in atari in the middle of it that white should have captured. About l18 that is a tesuji to take sente to play the r13 hane like you said, but black can also choose to answer in the corner and that way later he can attack the top group (l18 helps it live). Move 50 white makes those exchanges to cut black first. Also 1 is quite important shape point for white's liberties.

Thank you for letting me know, I've updated the file
Because it's a mass amount of commentary I'm trying to complete, there would probably be more errors and typos than usual.

Unfortunately, an unexpected situation has occurred, for the next couple of days I'll have zero time the game reviews would have to go on hold for a short while.

1/7,000,000,000 wrote:

Elom wrote:Also, do you mind it when you play a beginner, and they really, really don't want a handicap? You might be thinking to yourself, "how arrogant, just learned to play yesterday and doesn't get my point about handicaps".

Hmm, but why are you so eager to give a handicap? Is it not better for them to practice playing on even games? In any case, next time put 9 stones on the board and take BLACK against the beginner. You may be surprised.

No i don't mind it because i behaved and still do exactly the same way. It's not arrogance, it's pride at worst and desire to test one's strength at best. When i refuse to take handicap -or take reduced- it's mainly the latter. When a beginner refuses to take handicap against me i try to show him the difference in our levels by trying to kill everything. I don't do it because i'm a prick, i'm a fan of realism and sometimes it's more educational to be brutally honest. After the game i review and kindly say ''Next time please place 9 stones'' :p

I agree, I find it slightly strange that someone who wouldn't mind playing an even game with a pro, would be so fussy about giving beginners a handicap. Of course, you are most likely to be right, and they may have the chance to play a longer game when given a handicap, but at the end of the day, it's their choice, you teach for the student, not for your own ego (you'd naturally be rewarded by an increase in the students strength). You could choose to go easy on them, or add a little realism into the mix-- it depends on the person. It's not arrogance if you want to play against a pro even, it's a natural thing to want to do.

SamT wrote:

Elom wrote:When I was 30k-10k, I couldn't replay pro games. Why? Well I could. I could take Hng games and play out a crucial game in the plot, but as for learning? In the back of my mind, I felt that I shouldn't bother, because I am so far below they're level and I'm so useless on a Goban that I should just give up. So I could never replay pro games above "level 1". It would have been nice, however, if I hadn't been so demeaning of myself, because for even the most basic openings that I could learn from, my mind would overlook, as "I'm incapable of learning from pro games without commentary". So now I plan to put commentary for all of the games of the Samsung cup on this Journal, a series about studying pro games. It is intended for beginners, and I don't comment the games saying that I could understand much of it, but to say that the >20%-10% I can see on the surface, I at least try to understand. I also hope that by following the tournament, it would encourage more people to take up Go. So I put information that most Go players already know, just for people who might not know a lot about the Go world, like beginners.

I planned to comment all of the group stage games at level 2, but because I was writing them for beginners, They ended up taking longer than originally planned and being closer to level 3.

Here are 4 out of 36. Group A, round one:

Thanks for doing these I will work through them all

No problem I hope this helps you get stronger even a tiny bit and that you can follow the pro games with just slightly more understanding.

Unfortunately, for the past few weeks I've had a limited amount of time, so it's been diffiult to do any training whatsoever, and I couldn't comlete the pro game reviews. However, when I discovered that There was a Single Digit Kyu tournament happening on Online-Go.com I tried to set aside some time for that, and squeeze in 5 ranked games to enter.

For some reason, I'm struggling to find out why I lose ganes during game reviews. More specifically, it's getting harder to find my mistakes. And while it's been a long time since I felt I was stronger than my dislayed rank, I'm beginning to get fustrated every time I don't feel like I'm playing at "pro level"-- I don't really care weather I won the game. And of course, that means I'm fustrated with all my games.

I can't seem to figure out how I could have won this game below-- and because that says I'm not at pro level, for some reason, it makes be slightly upset I really want to get stronger for some reason, don't know eather it's because I can't study go as much these days...



I know that most 5 dans would be falling on the floor with laughter when when I say I don't know how I could have won the game but I'm not as strong as you guys as I seem to be making less blunders, which must be a sign that I'm improving, I seem to be losing more confidence in my Go I think my lack of basic joseki knowledge leaves me feeling slightly insecure, but I think the main problem might be something else. Even after replaying pro games, which usually makes me feel stronger, I still feel scared on the Goban well, it is what it is

Okay, it's All the way to 10 dan from here on! My kyu losses don't matter!

First game from the onlinego.com STW Tourney:



I got two byes in a row so lets see what would happen...

I came 5th in my first ever online tornament you can see the results here--

http://online-go.com/tournament/3153

These mini tournaments are fun ^^ a good way to help improve your go.