bgj125-1

Number 125 Winter 2001 Price £2.50

B R I T I S HGo J O U R N A L

Dec 2001 Cover 8/1/02 2:03 am

The CoverKirsty Healy with her substitute Pair Go partner MichaelRedmond 9 dan. The picture was taken during the 12thInternational Pairgo Championships held in Tokyo duringNovember 2001. Kirsty was partnered by Matthew Macfadyenfor the main event, in which they finished a very creditable12th out of 32, beating beating Turkey, Canada and one of theJapanese teams along the way. Matthew’s report of theChampionships appears on page 23 of this issue.

Dec 2001 Cover 8/1/02 2:03 am

UK News and Tournaments ~ Tony Atkins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

Go Tutor ~ Contact fights ~ edited by Charles Matthews . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Playing Magari ~ Seong-June Kim . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

President’s Report ~ professional interest ~ Simon Goss . . . . . . . . . . . 13

10 Years Ago ~ Tony Atkins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

A point here, a point there… ~ part II ~ Andrew Grant . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

Nakade & Ishi-no-Shita ~ Part Six ~ Richard Hunter . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

12th Pairgo International ~ Matthew Macfadyen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

The Go Ranking System of Klaus Heine ~ Franco Pratesi . . . . . . . . . . 24

Contrasts ~ part III ~ Charles Matthews. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

British Championship 2001 ~ Matthew Macfadyen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

Letters to the Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

Did it Happen to You? ~ Harumi Takeshi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

Life and Death ~ Rowan Wendes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

Championship Rules ~ Tim Hunt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

BGA Press and Publicity ~ Phil Beck . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

Journal Production ~ a call for help ~ David Woodnutt . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

Korean Problem Solution ~ Charles Matthews . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

Council House ~ 16 years of change ~ Tony Atkins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

Three Peaks Tournament ~ my part in Tim Hunt’s success ~ Francis Roads . 40

Match Report ~ Cambridge v London Koreans ~ Charles Matthews . . . . . 42

Book Review ~ Cross-cut workshop by Richard Hunter ~ Brian Timmins . . . 45

What The Books Don’t Tell You ~ part V ~ Simon Goss . . . . . . . . . . . 46

A Game from the Northern ~ David Ward . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

World Go News ~ Tony Atkins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52

Small Ads and Notices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

Forthcoming Events. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

BGA Officials ~ Postal, e-mail and Web Addresses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56

UK Club Lists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

Glossary of Go Terms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60

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BRITISH GO JOURNAL NO 125 WINTER 2001 ~ CONTENTS

Dec 2001 Journal 8/1/02 4:55 pm Page 1

UK NEWS AND TOURNAMENTS

Tony Atkins [email protected]

Going For GoldThe 5th London Mind Sports Olympiad wasrather a scaled down event after AlexandraPalace in 2000. The venue was a somewhatdown beat South Bank University buildingbetween Vauxhall and Clapham Junction inSouth London. Again it lasted ten days (fromthe 18th of August), but the Go events wereconcentrated on the weekends. The excep-tions to this were some of the BritishChampionship games between MatthewMacfadyen and Young Kim (won 3-1 byMatthew to retain the title). Adam Atkinsonbravely manned the teaching and book stallon all days. There were no cash prizes butthe usual gold, silver and bronze medals ablypresented by Lady Jane Tovey. The first Goevent was the six-round Main tournamentwith 28 players on the first weekend.Medallists were Matthew Macfadyen (6/6),Seong-June Kim (4/6) and Alex Selby (4/6).Also on 4/6 were Xiang-Dong Wang,Christian Nentwich and Phil Beck and kyuplayers Maciej Juszczynski (3 kyu), BillStreeten (3 kyu) and Richard Jones (10 kyu).The following Saturday the winners in the17-player Lightning were Seong-June Kim(5/5), Piers Shepperson (4/5) and FrancisRoads (the best 3/5 from ChristainNentwich). The best low kyu was HirokazuTatsutomi with 3/5 handicap games fromBrian Brunswick. The Youth winners wereShawn Hearn, Adam Eckersley-Waites andTom Eckersley-Waites; the fourth youth,Paul Blockley, won the handicap game prize.In 13x13 all-play-all (8 players), unbeatenMasashi Sugiyama won the gold, the first13x13 tournament for the 2 dan fromOxford. Silver was won by Francis Roadsand bronze Seong-June Kim (both 5/7). The14-player Rapid play on the Sunday sawSeong-June Kim winning 6/6 and complet-ing his set of medals. Alex Selby won silverand Francis Roads bronze for 4/6. The final

Go event on the bank holiday was the PairGo with a 4 pair top group and 3 pairhandicap group including some first timers.Medal winners were Sylvia Kalisch &Seong-June Kim, Jackie Chai & FrancisRoads and Natasha Regan & Alex Selby.Oxford’s Mihoko Isoda & MasashiSugiyama won the handicap section.

A Beginners (no medal event) had positions taken by Bruce Birchall, JeremyFraser-Mitchell and Charles Kerr (USA). Go players won medals in other events;Matthew Selby Bronze in theDecamentathalon, Oliver Riordan atBackgammon. Others games were traditionalgames and others such as GIPF, Twixt,Entropy and Settlers of Catan (won byDemis Hasabis). The Shogi EuropeanChampionship was won by Frederic Pottier.Only a demo game this year was Karuta(Japanese poem card snap) which turned outto be rather physical.

Sunday MorningFifty five players attended the Northern inManchester on 1st and 2nd September. Allen Hall was back in use for Go andAccommodation and the bar was open onFriday and Saturday evening for friendlygames and cards. This saved John Smithfrom further straining his bad back bycarrying in a supply of beer. T. Mark Hall (4 dan) was the winner with 5 wins and ajigo (draw). Second was Huddersfield’s MinYang (4 dan) with 5 and third was PiersShepperson (5 dan) with 4.5. Next placed on4 wins were David Ward (4 dan Cambridge),Ruud Stoelman (2 dan Bradford), AndrewMorris (1 kyu Lancaster) and Mike Cockburn(1 kyu St Albans). On 5/6 was Steve Bailey(3 kyu West Surrey) and 6/6 was PhilipAckland-Ward (8 kyu Barmouth). MartinCook (10 kyu York) was the best doublefigure kyu with 4 wins. Francis Roads took abye in Round 4, so he could watch himselfconduct a West Gallery choir on the SundayMorning worship program on ITV.

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Gardener’s WorldThe Matsuri festivals continued through theautumn. Helen and Martin Harvey attendedTatton Park (Cheshire) and helped TonyAtkins in Birmingham later. Gerry Millshelped the local players in Cheltenham andthe season ended when the BGA and theReading team attended two days at theGyosei College event. On 8th September afestival in Gunnersbury Park celebratedcommencement of rebuilding of a JapaneseGarden. The London International Teamswas scheduled for that afternoon and tookpart in the art studio in one of the oldbuildings. The four teams played each other,despite odd numbers, and Cambridge andLondon ended joint first on 11, ahead ofOriental on 9 and Reading 8. Getting thefirst choice of the wine and chocolate wereSeong-June Kim, Young Kim and AlanThornton.

CountdownThe 13th Milton Keynes on 16th Septemberwas held again at the Open University. 63 players took part, but a couple more werethere watching the ex-President’s baby. Afterthe lunchtime hot potato and gateau, a shortEGM approved the audited BGA accounts.Matthew Macfadyen (6 dan Leamington)was winner as expected. Francis Roads (4 dan Wanstead) was second was BillBrakes (3 dan Open University) proving hewas better at Go than TV’s Countdown onwhich he had previously appeared. Prizewinners for 3/3 were Natasha Regan (1 kyuEpsom), Helen Harvey (1 kyu Manchester),Ed Blockley (2 kyu Worcester), MatthewSelby (3 kyu Epsom) and Richard Mullens (5 kyu St. Albans). The side event, at TimHunt’s suggestion, was played on a map of Milton Keynes. As the twisted city gridplan gives rise to some 3 and 1 libertiedintersections, the game proved interesting.Alison Bexfield and Matthew Macfadyenproved best at annexing Bletchley andsurrounding Wolverton.

BaywatchFor a second year the Cornwall Tournamentwas held at the bay-watchable venue of theYacht Inn, Penzance. As before, two days ofGo meant that the players who travelledfrom outside the county could explore it orthe old port town. Again the Chinese restau-rant and the Bo’son’s Locker provided goodeating. The Cornwall Lightning Handicaphad 16 players. Winner this year was RogerDaniel (2 kyu London) with 4/5. Defendingchampion John Rickard had withdrawnbecause of a short spell in hospital. Secondwas Eddie Smithers (1 dan Leicester) 4/5,third equal were Toby Manning (3 danLeamington) and Tig Deal (14 kyu WestCornwall) on 3.5/5. The Sunday saw 11locals and the same from away competingfor the Devon Go Stone, which had spenttwo and a half years on Tony Atkins’ videoplayer. Alistair Wall (4 dan Wanstead) wentaway with the big stone, for the first timedespite having his name on it from the firstDevon. Winning small stones, like thehandicap winners, were with 3/3 Tim Varley(12 kyu West Cornwall) and with 2.5/3, JakeFinnis (17 kyu West Cornwall).

CrossroadsWanstead tube station stands on an EastLondon crossroads with George Green andthe High Street of shops. Just two minutesaway is Wanstead House where on the 6th ofOctober there were Saturday dance classesand, for the first time in the hall at the back,the Wanstead Tournament. Best of the 53players was Seong-June Kim (6 dan London)ahead of Dave Ward (4 dan Cambridge) andT. Mark Hall (4 dan London). On 4/4 wasErwin Bonsma (9 kyu Ipswich) and on 3/4were Mike Charles (2 dan St Albans), AlanThornton (2 dan St Albans), Weed (1 danBillericay), Brian Brunswick (1 kyu Epsom),Niall Cardin (1 Kyu Oxford), James Aspden(1 kyu Wanstead), Claudio Bartolini (12 kyuBristol) and Paul William Smith (14 kyuHastings).

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Room 101It would seem that most players have put theBritish 13x13 Go Championships into theproverbial Room 101 along with their otherpet hates. It is not known if this is becauseof the board size, the early start, the Miltonin Cambridgeshire location or the allegedlyunpleasant venue, or the fact that the venueis shared with Chess players. Only 14players from 4 dan to 31 kyu turned up on14th October and the switch from Novembermeant the numbers of Chess players weredown too. Anyway as usual Paul Smithdistracted the Chess youngsters with Go.Youth beginners winner was RichardVanneck (7 wins), second was Zach Roney(5.5) and third was Venice van Someren (4 wins). The Go puzzle contest had 11correct entries with winner Harry Marsh (8 years) randomly selected making a fourthprize for King’s School Cambridge. NationalSmall Board Champion was John Rickard (4 dan Cambridge) with 7/9. Second in thedouble elimination system (which sawMalcolm Hagan at 4 kyu beating a 2 dan)

were 2 dans Mike Charles and Simon Goss.Prize winners (including handicap games)were Shawn Hearn (8 kyu Brakenhale), PaulBlockley (20 kyu Worcester) with 7.5, JoeWalker (6 kyu Cambridge) and PaulMargetts (1 dan Epsom) with 5.5.

The Travel ShowOriginally friendship matches were plannedfor October against a party of touringJapanese amateurs as part of Japan 2001.Unfortunately this was cancelled and onlythe professional part of the party came.Magari and Haruyama, both 9 dans, visitedfor 10 days, along with Mrs Magari andYaeko Takano (whose Canterbury Congressexperience meant she could help with trans-lation). The group visited London,Cambridge, Bristol and Oxford, along withWales, Stonehenge, Blenheim and Windsor,for sightseeing, and Epsom club. At theCrosse Keys (twice) and Nippon Club,Queens’ College, HP Bristol and CorpusChristi they played a few simuls, lecturedand analysed games to groups of about 20 ineach place. Thanks must go to Messrs

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Magari’s lecture at Oxford, aided by Yaeko Takano, during the professionals’ visit.

Photo:Tony A

ktins


Tanaka, Matthews,Wedd, Cardin, Shiuand to Hewlett-Packardfor arranging thevenues, helped byAtkins and Goss at theBGA Travel Agency.

Time SlipAs usual the Wessexwas on the day thattime slipped back anhour, 28th October.Only 82 players madethe trek to the half wayfrom Bristol to Londonvenue of MarlboroughTown Hall (the lowestsince 1984). Still someold faces and pleasingly some new onesenjoyed the elegance of the hall and thetraditional communal meals. Winner for thefourth time was T. Mark Hall (4 dan Bristol)4/4. He beat Young Kim (5 dan) in the lastround, but did not play Jim Clare (3 dan)who also won 3/4. Division 2 winner wasSimon Goss (2 dan Bracknell) with 3/4 ontie-break from Mike Harvey. The Chineseplayer known as Michael (1 dan Bath) with3/4 won division 3. Division 4 went tounbeaten Jimmy Mao (1 kyu Bristol).Division 5 went to Sue Paterson (2 kyuBrighton), 6 to Matthew Selby (3 kyuEpsom Downs), 7 to Philip Ward-Ackland (6 kyu Barmouth), 8 to Neil Moffat (7 kyuCardiff) and 9 to Kevin Towell (10 kyuCheltenham) all with 4/4. Division 10 waswon by Paul Blockley (20 kyu Worcester) on3/4 tie-broken from Alan Cameron (13 kyu).The Fred Guyatt (13x13) Trophy was wonby Paul Blockley. The team prize was a tiebetween HP Bristol, Bristol and Winchester,all with 11/16, so the Bristol based organis-ers gave the prize to Winchester.

Ground ForceA record 58 players took part in the ninthThree Peaks Tournament on 10th and 11th

November. Despite foot and mouth and mistand drizzle, 15 walkers joined TobyManning for a morning hike past RibbleheadViaduct, across a pretty aqueduct to the fallscalled Scale Force. As usual the MartonArms was the venue and this year £230 wasraised for the fabric of St Oswald’s Church,also in Thornton in Lonsdale, where former2 dan and landlord Tim Hazelden is buried.As usual at Three Peaks nobody dominatedthe entire event. Tim Hunt (Open University)and Ruud Stoelman (Bradford), both 2 dan,got off to a good start beating higher gradedplayers. Tim then lost to Ruud, but thenrecovered, beating John Rickard and TobyManning to win the tournament with 4/5.Runner up was Alastair Wall (4 danWanstead) with 3/4 and a bye in the firstround due to late entry. Also with 4 winswere Mark Collinson (1 kyu Hull), MikeCumpstey (2 kyu Manchester), MartinHarvey (4 kyu Manchester), Ron Bell (4 kyuReading), Michael Pickles (8 kyu York) andStephen Streater (15 kyu Epsom). An oldThree Peaks tradition is messing up thescoring of a game. John Rickard continuedthis by filling his territory from the bowl, buton replaying from the game record he foundit was a one point loss.

5

Magari 9 dan takes on Moreno and Hitchins at Bristol watchedby Yaeko Takano

Photo:Tony A

tkins


6

A contact fight is asequence of moves playednext door to one another.The fight continues untilboth sides achieve stablepositions. One must learnsomething about what‘stable’ means here, at anearly stage. Close fightinghas its own set of impera-tives.Contact fights frequentlystart when one side plays astone in contact with anisolated stone of the othercolour (Diagram 1).

From such a simplebeginning can emergecomplex variations withmany pitfalls for theunwary. We set out toexplain basic principles ofcontact fighting, and later toshow the main variationsthat can develop.

LibertiesIn local fights any groupwith few liberties may be atarget. Many tesujis takeadvantage of libertyshortages on enemy groups.Tesuji is another centralJapanese Go term. It meansa skilful play which exploitsthe opponent’s weaknesses.

Stones with many libertiesare in general hard tocapture. Obviously groupsshould not be left with toofew liberties, but how manyare sufficient? A usefulguideline is that fiveliberties are usually enoughto remove immediatetactical threats. So, layingdown what ‘stability’ mightmean in close fighting:don’t leave positions untilyour groups have fiveliberties and their dangerouscutting points are protected(see the coming subsection).Next, when you play toincrease the liberties on agroup, try to make extraliberties as many aspossible. Diagram 2 shows

a joseki starting from a 3–3point. Playing at A Whiteincreases liberties by two;playing at B by one only. IfWhite A and Black B areadded, White still has fiveliberties. This suggests thatafter playing A White cananswer B at E, or C at D. Itis important to know when

these highly desirable hanemoves are playable. Whitecould play at B in thesituation of Diagram 2, forexample if shutting off thetop side matters strategi-cally. Locally A is superior.Finally suppose Black playsfirst in Diagram 2. Takingthe point A severely reducesWhite’s liberties (to three),and prevents White fromplaying there. White has tostart thinking aboutabandoning these stones.Black has six liberties andhas no reason to hold backfrom this hane move.

Cutting Points andConnectionsConnected stones fighttogether, disconnectedstones fight separately.Because disconnectedstones do not share liberties(or eyes) keeping them allsecure during a fight can betroublesome. The defenderhas no time to think ofmaking territory. Oftenenough there is no way outof trouble except by tryingto capture some cuttingstones.Unprotected cutting points,allowing the chance todisconnect groups, are ofgreat importance in fighting.It is strong players whoaccept gote (give up theinitiative) at the end of asequence and play a final

GO TUTOR ~ CONTACT FIGHTS

Edited by Charles Matthews [email protected]

! 1

1

! 2

1 23 4A

B

CD

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7

move protecting against acut, rather than leave behinda serious cutting pointwhich can return to plaguethem later in the game. In Diagram 3, a sacrificesequence has resulted in acutting point A for White.

It is White’s turn: a play atB protecting the cut isindicated. That securesWhite’s future. Safe againstcutting attack White canattack strongly in this partof the board without fear.Supposing White does notprotect the point A, Blackwill cut there in the nearfuture. When that happens,even though Black does notcapture White stones atonce, the strategic gain isvery large. Diagram 4 shows a cuttingpoint which has beenneglected and Whitefighting vainly after the cut.

The mistake of notdefending the cut (with aplay at A) is compoundedwhen White tries to saveeverything. The upper twostones here should be givenup, with White 2 at 3 (notethat they then give Blackpoints, but only add to whatwas anyway a secure group).In general if the cuttingstone cannot easily becaptured, or an indirectconnection made, thecutting point is dangerous.It should be defended assoon as possible, before theopponent cuts. If youropponent leaves behind adangerous cutting point, byall means cut. And cut in

earnest, rather than peep (a peep is a threat to cut,such as Black playing C inDiagram 3, a bad waste ofthe chance to play A). Thecases in which peeping iscorrect, when the cut alsoworks, are exceptional ones.

Starting the fightDiagrams 5a to c show basicmoves in a contact fight.After the initial challenge ofDiagram 1 Black can extendsolidly, or play a hanemove. The shoulder hit ofDiagram 5c also counts as away into a contact fight;when Black replies with 2there, we return to thepattern of Diagram 5a.

! 3

12 34 5

6

7

8

ABC

! 4

12

345

6

7

! 5a

12

! 5b

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! 5c

1 2

Professionals in the UKIn The Dark? this time looks a some of the professionalGo players who have visited or who are likely to visitthe UK in the period 1999 - 2002. Short biographies ofeach player are based on information in the new editionof the Go Player’s Almanac, available from BGABooks, and from other sources. In the case of orientalplayers, family name is listed first using the Japanese pronunciation.

Tony Atkins

IN THE DARK?


8

When your opponent playsthese contact moves youshould answer; andnormally these are the onlygood moves. A contact playis severe, and requiresimmediate attention; otheranswers are beside thepoint. Exceptions are rare:ko threats, ladder-breakers…Continuations fromDiagram 5a are in Diagrams6a to 6e. In Diagram 6aWhite extends in theopposite direction fromBlack, for better shape.

Both groups have a stablefive liberties. Black maynow turn at A gettingWhite’s reply at B, finishingthe sequence locally with noadvantage to either. If Whitegoes the other way as inDiagram 6b, Black choosesto extend conservatively asin Diagram 6c, or play the

more forceful hane ofDiagram 6d. Plays 6 and 7in that diagram are typical

ways to defend cuttingpoints with good shape.Finally Diagram 6e is apushing fight. One canimagine tactical reasons

constraining the playersdown this path. Butnormally they would eachtry to get ahead: Black byplaying 6 at 7, White byplaying 7 at A, and so on,exactly at the point wherestability sets in.After Diagram 5b there arethe three moves for Whiteof Diagrams 7a, b and c. In increasing order of

complication, White canextend, hane or crosscut.In Diagram 7a Black maydefend the cutting point at Aafter White extends, ortranspose to Diagram 6d.

The solid connection ofDiagram 7d offers no greatadvantage. The hangingconnection of Diagram 7e is

! 6a

12

3

A

B

! 6b

123

A B

! 6e

12345678910

A

! 6d

123

45 67

! 6c

1234

5

6

7

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1AB

! 7b

1

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! 7e

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5 67


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more promising than theother one of Diagram 7f –Black 4 there is rather tame.

After Diagram 7b the solidconnection of Diagram 7g isto be expected from Black.Black has two ways to playatari here, but it might be amistake to play either yet.

This sort of consideration isalso important whenresponding to a crosscut.Looking at the way to playafter Diagram 7c, there isthe ‘ideal’ pattern ofDiagram 7h, which may beseen in the middle of theboard and in the absence of

nearby stones. Each playerimproves the liberties on thestruggling groups to four,before anything else. Otherfactors do usually interfere.The extension of Diagram7i is though often best forBlack. Here near the side itthreatens one White stonewith capture in a ladder, theother with a chase down tothe edge.

In contrast playing atari asin Diagram 7j may be poor.In the continuation inDiagram 7k we have thepattern of Diagram 7h withone Black stone added. Thisstone might be better placedelsewhere (for example oneto the left).

Guidelines for real fightsWe all know that fightssoon progress beyond thelevel discussed. Then youare largely on your own,relying on reading abilityand your tactical antennae.Here are a few things tokeep in mind:! Attack or defend the

weakest stones first.That fight may not gowell, but through it,you may becomestrong enough forsuccess elsewhere.

! Near the edge of theboard, bear in mind thatplays on the fourth linegain influence fast whenexchanged for plays onthe third line; and playson the third line are verygood in exchange forplays on the second line.

! Make your movessevere. For example,play hane when youcan and jump ahead ifpossible. It all increasesthe pressure on youropponent.

! ‘Blocking’ plays aresevere. Separate theopponent’s groups, denyaccess to the centre bycapping moves, preventslides into empty spaceon the side.

! Build your walls parallel.In choosing a variationwhich develops an influ-ential position, alwaysconsider which directionit should face in order tobe most useful.

" 7i

12

" 7h

12

34

5

" 7g

12

" 7f

1

2

345

6A

" 7j

12

" 7k

12

34

56


This game took place at the Nippon Club onSunday 21 October; I was given a two-stonehandicap by Magari Reiki 9 dan. It wasplayed quite seriously, running to two and ahalf hours, and was tiring. The main featuresof the fighting were five major ko fights. In the end Black won by three points,somewhat luckily. The comments includesome by Haruyama Isamu 9 dan.White: Magari Reiki 9 danTwo Stones: Seong June Kim 6 dan

Figure 1 1 – 100Up to 10 is orthodox. This shoulder hitdoes give White good shape above, sois a little strange. Haruyama recom-mended the capping play (at 53)instead for 10. Up to 14 is OK forBlack, in that White has no obviouslygood play now.Black 16: after a succession of knight’smove replies (advice of Sakata) thisgives balance to the right side. It isstandard not to play the diagonalattachment here. Black 18 wasn’t criticised by the pros. Black 26 is aproper play. Now White must use thestones in the lower left to attack.White 27 is severe, but is handicapgame-style. Black would do best justto answer at 41. White 29 is a strongway to play, and at 33 Black is insome trouble. The nose play at 34 isintended as a sacrifice; White’s answerat 35 does offer Black some help. For36 it would still be better to move out withthe knight’s move at 41.With 40 Haruyama recommended that Blackpush out in vulgar style using atari plays.White 47 takes territory, and White hascentral influence too. Black has lost a lot ofground already in the game.

At 50 Black had intended to cut across theknight’s move, but changed his mind.White 51 is another honte (proper play).Black was under some pressure as he played52 and the following plays. Black’s sacrificetactic with 58 is aji keshi on the left side.Magari commented that 65 should be at 66.White now forces Black to live, and thefighting moves to the right side.The tactic with 76 wasn’t criticised. This is akind of inducing move: the exchange White87 Black 88 holds out some hope for Black.

Black played ko with 82 out of lack of otherideas. There is plenty of material for threatsin the lower left. White duly plays 87 as alocal threat. Black answers at 88, rather than97, leaving a gap, though that is certainly arisk. The threat with 91 is still big enough.Up to 100 Black is working hard.

10

PLAYING MAGARI

Seong-June Kim

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Figure 1 1 – 100 86, 92 at 7689, 95 at 83


Figure 2 101 – 150 (1 – 50)Black 106 would be better to the rightof 75 for eye space. With 113 it shouldbe enough for White to capture 110 ina ponnuki. I didn’t expect the calmplay 117. With 120 this first ko fighthas turned out well enough for Black.122 is correct shape, rather than at 123which doesn’t fix up Black’s problems.After 128 the corner is still ko (thoughI didn’t see this until later).At 131 the position seems good forWhite, who has a balanced game(territory lower left, plus centralinfluence). White 133 is big and keepsterritory about level.Black 138 threatens both to take thetop on a grand scale, and to revive twostones below. White 141 does look abit like an overplay. White 149 hasbecome necessary.Black 150 puts White into trouble.

Figure 3 151 – 200 (51 – 100)White 155 was inevitable. Whitecouldn’t simply connect solidly. Sothere was a serious ko with 156.Black 164 makes a good exchange.With 166 Black is possibly back inthe lead. The four black stonessacrificed in the centre aren’tcaptured on a big scale.Black 168 is presumably wrong. This might be better as the buttingplay 174. I wasn’t happy at 172. I had thought 176 was good, but it’snot that easy.At 184 the time might be right to sortout the ko in the lower right. White185 prepares threats for it. It isn’t easyto see the correct way to answer it.The exchange 195/196 appears to be aloss for White. Is the threat 198actually large enough?

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Figure 2 101 – 150 102, 118 at 76115 at 83

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Figure 3 101 – 150 162 at 156194, 200 at 130191, 197 at 129


Figure 4 201 – 326 (1 – 126)White 201 creates many threats here.With 205 White scorns a trade. Blackshould have answered the threat at 207.Magari said 209 is the losing move: it should be at 210 for life. Black 216is strong, and recaptures the corner.At 225 Black is perhaps five pointsahead. Black 234 wasn’t necessary.Black 242 is quite big.White 261 is good for territory. Black 264 is wrong for ko threats: it should be at 265.At 273 White is clearly behind. Black 286 is wrong and must be 287.Black was trying to minimise White’sthreats and instead made this cornerko. White 289 is strong.Black 306 dissolves the ko, leavinganother to fight.Black 320 was amusing, because justthis play had featured in Magari’slecture earlier; it makes an extrathreat, compared to playing 321.

12

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8990 91 92

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Figure 4 201 – 326 206 at 130 273 at A295, 301 at 291 298, 304 at 292

310, 316, 322 at 246313 319 at 107

After it was all over, Black won by three points.

Takana Yaeko, Magari and his wife enjoying a lobster platter in Cambridge

Photo:C

harles Matthew

s


13

!

We have been lucky to receive so muchattention from professionals recently.Magari Reiki 9 dan and Haruyama Isamu 9 dan visited London, Cambridge, Bristoland Oxford in October, giving lectures andteaching games. These included one to onegames with some of our strongest players,such as the game in Seong June’s article.

The first game of the Kisei title match is tobe played in London in January. There willbe a number of associated events, includinggame commentary, teaching and a youthtournament, all made possible by thegenerous support of the Yomiuri Shimbun,the sponsors of the Kisei title. Full detailshave been sent out with the Decembernewsletter and via the ukgolist e-mail list.Such events don’t happen here very often,and I hope as many people as possible willcome and enjoy them.

The organisation of these things takes hugeamounts of time and effort. Tony Atkins,

Tanaka Kiyohiko, Bill Streeten, CharlesMatthews, Simon Shiu, Nick Wedd, NiallCardin and Paul Margetts all did largeamounts of work to make the visit of Magariand Haruyama the success it was. Theydeserve our thanks.

Ratings ListThe time spent organising these professionalevents has meant that we have spent lesstime on internal matters than I had hoped.However, the promised ratings list went livein October. You’ll find it on the BGA website at

www.britgo.org/rating/list.html

and there is a page of Frequently AskedQuestions (FAQ) at

www.britgo.org/rating/krfaq.html

Several people have impressed on me theimportance of this to them, and I urgeeveryone to make use of it. The ratings listwill be updated each month.

PRESIDENT’S REPORT ~ PROFESSIONAL INTEREST

Simon Goss [email protected]

Furze Platt School won the eighth Schools’Championship on home territory, despite nothaving a teacher to help them. BirminghamTournament was restarted at HarbourneEducation Centre and was won by MatthewMacfadyen (6 dan). Zhang Shutai helped theBritish side win an Anglo-Japanese matchand Stuart Barthropp won his second WestSurrey Handicap. The London Open wassponsored by Ashai Shimbun, with represen-tatives of the newspaper presenting theprizes. Top of the list of winners was ZhangShutai on 7 wins. Second was MatthewMacfadyen and third was David Schoffelahead of three Russians by tiebreak. MikeCharles (1 dan) scored 6/7 as did Oleg

Gavrilov (2 kyu) from Russia. FellowRussian P. Lipatov (8 kyu) won all 7. Shutaialso won the 95-player Rapid Play tourna-ment and the Lightning.

Furze Platt organised a tournament at theirMaidenhead School at the start of 1992. Itwas attended by 84 players and won by JimClare of Reading. Promotions were AlanHornbuckle to shodan, Andrew Jones, DavidPhillips and Paul Christie to 2 dan. InGeneva Guo Juan was the winner ahead ofFrank Janssen and also won Prague ahead ifJurgen Mattern. Guo, Janssen andMacfadyen were jostling for the lead in theFujitsu European Grand Prix at this stage.

10 YEARS AGO

Tony Atkins [email protected]


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