go · 2009. 12. 22. · uk news and tournaments ~ tony atkins . 2 wings go club ~ john c stephenson...

Number 130 Spring 2003 Price £2.50

B R I T I S HGo J O U R N A LMarch 2003 Cover 7/4/03 2:14 pm Page 1

Cover: A pupil of the Shanghai Sports MansionWei Chi club, photographed by Neil MoffattFebruary 2003.

March 2003 Cover 7/4/03 2:14 pm Page 2

UK News and Tournaments ~ Tony Atkins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2Wings Go Club ~ John C Stephenson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6Go Tutor ~ Richard Hunter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7From a Beginning to an Education ~ Mark Buckley . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9President’s Report ~ Simon Goss. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10Hans Pietsch ~ Alex Rix. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11Nakade & Ishi-no-Shita ~ Part Eleven ~ Richard Hunter . . . . . . . . . . . 12The GoZone Project ~ Peter Wendes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17Snatches of GoTalk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18A Problem from Furze Platt ~ Tim Hunt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19What The Books Don’t Tell You ~ Part IX ~ Simon Goss . . . . . . . . . . . 20Memory Test ~ Tony Atkins. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21London Open Round Three ~ Game Commentary by Yuki Shigeno . . . . . 25A Latin English Description ~ Franco Pratesi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26Ten Years Ago ~ Tony Atkins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30Go and Skiing in Zermatt ~ David Hall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30Ing Memorial Tournament ~ T Mark Hall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31The Way to Go ~ Brian Timmins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32Diary of a Go Plonker ~ Ian Marsh. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34London Open Round Five ~ Game Commentary by Yuki Shigeno . . . . . . 36Solution to the Furze Platt Problem ~ Tim Hunt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39Ing Memorial Tournament Answer ~ T Mark Hall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40Harmony and Warfare ~ Roger Daniel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41A West Surrey Problem ~ Steve Bailey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42Yet More Travels ~ T Mark Hall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44World Go News ~ Tony Atkins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46BGA Officials ~ Postal, e-mail and Web Addresses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48UK Club Lists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49Notices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51Glossary of Go Terms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52

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BRITISH GO JOURNAL NO 130 SPRING 2003 ~ CONTENTS

March 2003 Journal 7/4/03 2:16 pm Page 1

TrainingThe first day of December saw the firstGoGoD/BGA Seminar at the OpenUniversity in Milton Keynes. Organised bymain GoGoD promoter, T.Mark Hall, thiswas a training day for about a dozen strongplayers with a unique format. A variedprogramme of seminars was arranged, withleaders Charles Matthews, John Fairbairnand T.Mark, looking at professional gamesaided by the 20000-game GoGoD database.The following Saturday was the West Surreytraining day where the emphasis was on kyuplayer training as usual. With teachers DavidWard, Simon Goss, Tim Hunt, AndrewGrant, Paul Clarke and Paul Barnard theusual variety of subjects were taught to 25students from beginner to 1 kyu in a relaxedtimetable that allowed a trip to the award-winning Burpham chip shop at lunchtimeand a small group retired to organiser SteveBailey’s house for some fellowship after-wards.

RoadmapThe following day was the usual WestSurrey Handicap Tournament again atBurpham. 38 players took part but noneentered the quiz on the British road andmotorway systems, as even a sneak look at aroadmap would not help. Taiko Nakamura,the Japanese 5 dan from Epsom, won theTournament. She forced Tim Hunt (3 danOpen University) into second place. Playerson 4/4 were Kay Dackombe (35 kyuOrpington) and Guy Plowman (12 kyuEpsom). On 3/4 were Alan Thornton (2 danSt. Albans), Geoff Kaniuk (2 kyu London),Bill Streeten (5 kyu Wanstead), DavidDenholm (5 kyu High Wycombe), ErwinBonsma (6 kyu), Toby Anderson (8 kyuBournemouth) and Chris Dunthorne (19 kyuReading). Three Reading players won prizesin the 13x13: Chris Dunthorne, for best

percent Richard Brand (11 kyu) and forpersistence Ron Bell (4 kyu).

Big wheelThe second Saturday in December saw anew event north of the border. The firstScottish Bar-low was open to all 1 dan andbelow, and 17 players from 1 kyu to 15 kyufrom Edinburgh, Aberdeen, Dunfermline,Newcastle and Cambridge took part. Thevenue was the UCW Club in BrunswickStreet not more than 15 minutes away fromWaverley station and the city centre with theGerman market, ice rink and tallest bigwheel in the country. This of course did notdistract the locals and Edinburgh’s Jim Cook(2 kyu) was the winner with a perfect four.Runners up were also locals: Art McEndrick(1 kyu) and Shinpei Tanaka (3 kyu). Also on3/4 were locals Phil Blamire (5 kyu) andGeorg Martius (12 kyu) and from NewcastleClaas Roever (5 kyu). The four highestplaced Scottish residents qualified to play abest of three knockout for a new ScottishChampionship.

FriendsThe London Open is always a good place tomeet old friends and this year was noexception. Held on the last four days of theyear, the venue was the same in theInternational Student House in GreatPortland Street. Again the main tournamentwas a major in what is now the Toyota-Pandanet European Go Tour with 98 playerstaking part. Several other players dropped into visit including None Redmond fromAmerica who able to swap stories aboutkid’s Go with new friend Peter Wendes andold friend Yuki Shigeno who were luckilyboth visiting on the same day. The Friends ofthe London Open Fund supported accommo-dation for some of those who otherwisecould not afford it to the sum of just over

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UK NEWS AND TOURNAMENTSTony Atkins [email protected]


four hundred pounds. As usual there were agood contingent from the continent and agroup of strong players after the top cashprizes and grand prix points. After 4 roundstop players unbeaten were Vladimir Danekand Li Hiaou. After six rounds Li had a clearlead. Vladimir was one behind. This orderdid not change so the winner was Li Hiaou(6 dan) the Chinese from Liverpool. Secondwas the Czech Vladimir Danek (6 dan) whoonly lost to Li. Marco Firnhaber (5 dan) theonly German representative from Berlin wasthird with 6/8. TMark Hall (4 dan) was thetop local in fourth. Oleg Mezhov (5 dan)aged 15 from Russia was fifth. Sixth wasAlex Rix (4 dan London) also on 5/6, butjust missed the cash prizes. Top winners alsowon London Open wooden go stones, as didother important winners. Other prizes werebottles of good wine or prize certificates for

5/8. Jonathan Englefield (15 kyu HighWycombe) was top junior with 7/8. Playerswinning 6/8 were Marco Firnhaber, NatashaRegan (1 dan Epsom), Fabien Letouzey (2 kyu France), Conny Irl (4 kyu USA),Richard Mullens (5 kyu St Albans) and AlecEdgington (8 kyu). Best newcomer wasDavid Upsdale (14 kyu) on tiebreak fromMatthew Bolwell (10 kyu), both fromLondon. The Best Game Award went toDavid Ward for his game against SergeiMezhov, which particularly caught theattention of organiser, Geoff Kaniuk. Bestimprover was Weiguo Sun (3 dan Norway).The evenings were filled with other events tostave off boredom and to avoid residentsfrom having to go out in the unseasonalheavy rain. Winners of the 16-player PairGo, played at London for the first time, wereMihoko Isoda and Masashi Sugiyama

3

Li Shen, winner of Hitachi sponsored Furze Platt with Simon Goss, BGA President

Photo:Tim H

unt


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(Oxford) and the runners up were SuePaterson (Brighton) and Piers Shepperson(Slough). The 4-team Rengo was won bySaber Khan (13 kyu) and Tom Urasoe (3 dan)from London, with Anglo-French PaulBarnard (1 dan), Fabien Letouzy (2 kyu) andMike Nash (1 kyu) second. The youngChinese boy Li Shen (4 dan) living inLondon beat Saber Kahn on time in theLightning final (a 16 stone game). Losingsemi-finalists were Masashi Sugiyama (2 danOxford) and Martin Gomilschak (4 kyuAustria). 28 took part. In the continuous 9 x 9Roger Daniel (2 kyu London) was runawaywinner having played more than 60 games.Celia Marshall (11 kyu Isle of Man) wassecond. Guest of honour was professionalplayer Yuki Shigeno, who came from Italyfor a long-promised first visit to the Open.She analysed kyu-players games and the topgame before prizegiving. After the close, shewas main guest at the popular New Year’sEve meal that was restarted this year andtook place at a good Italian restaurant inGoodge Street.

BuffetThe Hitachi Europe Headquarters was againthe home of the Maidenhead Furze PlattTournament on 18th January. 83 playersattended fighting to see who be the twelfthname on the shield. It turned out to be 11-year Li Shen (4 dan London) who forcedDes Cann to take second again. Winning 3/3were Steve Bailey (3 kyu West Surrey), MattPiatkus (5 kyu Oxford), Chris Price (7 kyuOxford), Pauline Bailey (16 kyu WestSurrey) and Chris Dunthorne (17 kyuReading). Thanks to generous sponsorshipfrom Hitachi all on 2/3 got prizes toovarying from wine to objets d’art to HitachiCDs, and all enjoyed the lunchtime buffet.The winner chose an attractive aeroplaneclock. Getting the delicious huge cookieswere team winners Reading (90 percent) andcontinuous 9x9 winner William Brooks (7 kyuCambridge) with 14 wins out of 17.

ColtsThe British Youth Go Championships movedfrom Oxfordshire to Cambridge on 2ndFebruary. 22 children assembled at MeadowsCommunity Centre Cambridge for a day ofGo games and puzzles. There were tenlocals, six from Bloxham and others fromaround the country. As usual the BGA coltsbattled it out for age group titles, handicapgame prizes and for the puzzle prizes.Overall Champion and Under-18 winner wasJimmy Mao (1 dan Bristol) beating ShawnHearn (5 kyu Sleaford) into second. Under-16 winner was Jonathan Englefield (13 kyuHigh Wycombe) whose tournament experi-ence put him at an advantage over secondplaced George Matthews (15 kyuCambridge). Under-14 was a local winner asWilliam Brooks (7 kyu) was placed ahead ofPaul Blockley (15 kyu). Under-12 winnerwas Oscar John (23 kyu) with runner upLuke Barron, both from Cambridge.Matthew Harris of Cambridge was under-10

Tony Atkins awards himself the prize forwinning the 6th Cheshire Tournament

Photo:Tim H

unt


champion and Orpington’s 8 Ken Dackombetook the under-8 ahead of Rory Bragginsfrom Cambridge. Ken, Shawn, Jimmy andGeorge also won 5 handicap games, andTerry Wong (18 kyu Bloxham) won 4 likeMatthew and William. At the puzzles theprizes went to Luke Gymer of Cambridgeand Andrew Haine (16 kyu Bloxham), withgood scores from Matthew, George andWilliam as well. In the match for theCastledine Trophy Bloxham and Cambridgedrew 3-3 so share the trophy the first timethe system allowed such an event. Also newwas a primary schools trophy, which was atie between Cottenham Primary and LionelWalden Doddington. To split the result adoubles game was played, won byCottenham by 5 points.

BentleyThe 6th Cheshire Tournament was held on8th February again at Crewe during theChess congress at the same canteen venue,though only Bentley use the factory now asRolls Royce has moved out. Only 22 playersattended but it was a chance to show Go offand pick up a few new players, whilstsharing the free venue and the usualexcellent snack service. Winner of the opensection was the organiser, Tony Atkins (2 dan Bracknell); second was Tim Hunt (3 dan Milton Keynes). Winner of thehandicap section was Robin Hobbes (3 kyuManchester). Also on 4/5 were Ben Swann(9 kyu Manchester) and Chris Kirkham (2 kyu Manchester). George Leach (10 kyuLiverpool) won the 10x10.

BrunchOxford Tournament again had a spring-likesunny morning and use of the now tradi-tional venue of St. Edmund Hall. Differentthis year was the abandonment of the diningroom as a playing area so that one couldavoid the sights and smells of studentsenjoying brunch (though tickets wereavailable to join in). Paintings of pastmasters looked down on the kyu players in

the Old Dining Room and the dan playerswere elevated to the Emden Room. Thebottom group were allowed the old danplayer’s room next to the bookshop providedby the local game shop. Taking his secondUK tournament win was Li Shen (4 dan)beating Wuge Briscoe (6 dan Oxford), DavidWard (4 dan Cambridge) and Young Kim (5 dan London). Winning books for threewins were Michael Charles (2 dan St. Albans),Claas Roever (4 kyu Newcastle), MalcolmHagan (5 kyu Winchester), John Pusey (5 kyuOxford), Phil Hand (7 kyu Cambridge),Steve Burgess (9 kyu Cambridge), GeorgeLeach (10 kyu Liverpool), JonathanEnglefield (13 kyu High Wycombe) andAbhijat Sarawat (28 kyu Maidenhead). Itwas a busy week for the Oxford students asthe following weekend they visitedCambridge for a delayed 2002 varsity match.Cambridge won 6-4 with top scorers PaulTaylor (1 kyu) and Simon Frankau (8 kyu).

5

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6

Li Shen wins another tournament, this time at Oxford

Photo:Tim Hunt

I’d like to make you aware of an online Gocommunity I help organize, Wings AcrossCalm Water Go Club (Wings), located on theInternet at www.wingsgoclub.org. Wings is an American Go Association(AGA) Chapter that serves a diverse groupof Go players. It’s particularly useful tothose AGA members who do not have alocal club nearby, but who would like to bemore tightly connected to the AGA via achapter.Wings’ mission is to promote the enjoymentand fellowship of Go in the form of

– Online teaching and game review– Leagues– Tournaments– Team matches and Events

Wings leverages existing Go Servers to hostthese activities.

The club’s regular weekly informal and openon-line meeting is held in the Wings roomon the Kiseido Go Server (kgs.kiseido.com)Wednesday 8:00 PM EST (GMT –5). Pleaseconvert the above time into your local GMTtime and stop by.Wings produces English language Go books,some freely downloadable and some tradi-tionally printed and bound.Membership in Wings is free. Volunteersoperate Wings for the benefit of its member-ship and the larger Go playing community.All donated labor and funds producedthrough our projects and events are allocated100% back into supporting the club’s pursuitof its mission.Do visit the Wings website and have a lookaround. You’re most welcome to takeadvantage of what we have to offer.

WINGS GO CLUBJohn C Stephenson [email protected]

Thank you!Thank you to all of you whobought the BGA Puzzle andQuiz book so far.£203 was sent to the BritishLiver Trust this week, whoreport the total donated in thememory of John Rickard isnow £1833.

Tony Atkins


7

Black’s block at 1 inDiagram 1 is a big move.Later, Black can expect toplay the first-line hane andconnection in sente (Black A,White B, Black C, White D)because it would be gote forWhite to hane at C. Blackwill end up with a big cornerterritory worth 20 points.

It’s tempting to think thatthe Black corner is worthalmost that much beforeBlack 1, but that’s toooptimistic. What usuallyhappens is that just as Blackis thinking of blocking at 1,White plays around therefirst. White’s slide to 1 inDiagram 2 is the infamousMonkey Jump. Even ifBlack answers correctly, hewill end up with a muchsmaller corner, as shown in

Diagram 3. Here, Blackonly has 14 points. Themonkey jump reducesBlack’s corner by six pointsin sente.One reason the MonkeyJump is such a powerfulmove is that it can’t be cut.If Black plays 2 in Diagram4, White simply links upwith 3. Black 2 in Diagram

5 is no good either. Whitecan capture this stone byplaying 3. Once White hasplayed the Monkey Jump,

Black should not try and cutit off, but just limit theincursion. Diagram 3 showsthe goal. Let’s look at themoves that produce thisresult.Black 2 in Diagram 6 is thebest response in thisposition. The first questionyou should ask yourself is:

does it stop White fromadvancing with 3? In thiscase, it does. Black canblock at 4. Note thepresence of the markedstone which protects againsta white cut below 4. Thismarked stone is what makesthe diagonal move at 2 agood response.White has no choice but topull back to 3 in Diagram 7.Now Black can block on thefirst line. What happens if

GO TUTOR ~ THE MONKEY JUMPRichard Hunter [email protected]

1A BCD

❏ 1

1

❏ 2

❏ 3

123

❏ 4

1 23

❏ 5

12

3 4

❏ 6

1234

5678

❏ 7


8

White cuts at 5? Black 6and 8 separate the whitestones, which cannot live inthe corner.White 5 in Diagram 8 is areasonable continuation.Next, Black 6 is atari. After

White connects at 7, Blackshould also connect at 8,otherwise White will cutthere. The moves 1 to 8 inDiagram 8 are the basicMonkey Jump sequence.They are well worthlearning.Sometimes the shorter slideof 1 in Diagram 9 is better.Here, the black stones are

arranged slightly differently.Sliding in one point furtherwould not be good forWhite. White 1 here isanswered by Black 2 andBlack is quite safe.Diagram 10 shows theposition introduced in thelast Journal. The colours are

reversed, so it’s Blackmaking the Monkey Jump.Also, the white stones arearranged slightly differently.There is a gap in the whitestones along the third line.In this position, White 2 isnot a very effectiveresponse. It doesn’t stopBlack from extending to 3. If White blocks at A next,Black can cut at B. Comparethis with Diagram 6. Sohow should White answerBlack’s Monkey Jump?White 2 in Diagram 11 iscorrect. White 4 is asacrifice that enables him toplay 6 and 8. Blackconnects with 9 at 4 andWhite connects at 10. This

is the optimal play for bothsides. The sacrifice at 4 issometimes useful in otherpositions too.If White gets to play first inthis position, then 1 inDiagram 12 is wrong in thisposition. Although Whitemight expect to hane at 4 in

sente, actually Black willhane at 2 first. This is sentefor Black because Whitemust defend at 5 or get cutthere. This is different fromDiagram 1 because of thegap in the third-line stones.After White 1, the positionis double sente. White has abetter move than 1.

Jumping down to the firstline is a high-level tesuji. Itworks here because of themarked stone. Blacknaturally pushes in at 2 andWhite blocks at 3.Next, if Black blocks at 1 inDiagram 14, White willignore it and play elsewherewith 2. Black 1 is gote.Black can capture a stone

12

34567

8

❏ 8

12

❏ 9

12

3 AB

❏ 10

123 4

56 7

810

❏ 11 9 at 4

123 4

5

❏ 12

123

❏ 13 Tesuji

134

❏ 14 2 elsewhere


9

with 3, but White can blockat 4. Although this is gotefor White, don’t forget thathe already played one moveelsewhere with 2. Because Black 1 is gote,Black is unlikely to rush toplay it. In fact, it’s morelikely that White will get topush at 1 in Diagram 15because this is sente forWhite.

This article has given a briefoverview of the MonkeyJump. Things can get a bitcomplicated when the blackand white stones arearranged differently. But ifyou learn the moves inDiagram 8 and understandthe reasons for them, thenyou will have made signifi-cant progress.When you get stronger, ifyou are interested in a moredetailed analysis of theMonkey Jump, there is anentire book I’ve written onthe topic: Monkey JumpWorkshop. It’s availablefrom BGA Books.

1 234

❏ 15

This is a simple tale of how I learnt about the game of Goand tried to spread it to others. My name is Mark, originallyfrom Southampton but currently a second year student,studying International Politics and Strategic Studies at theUniversity of Wales, Aberystwyth.At the end of last year I received a phone call from mymother telling me at her school governors meeting they hadbeen given a talk from a BGA spokesman about the game ofGo. She had been very impressed at the idea and decided tobuy a 9 by 9 board, and was awaiting my return for thesummer so she could teach me. I finally returned home andafter a quick tutorial found I could beat her 9 out of 10games. I was taken by the game very quickly and soondiscovered it on Yahoo Games where for the last 6 months I have been trying to improve.I found it a shame to learn when the school (ApplemoreCollege near Southampton), that had introduced the idea ofGo to me, returned after the summer holidays there was noattempt to set up a club. So I decided I would make it aproject of mine to try and establish one. Next time I washome I coordinated with one of the teachers who is meant todeal with gifted children, but made it clear I wanted a rangeof kids to come along and learn the game.The next day there I was, Go board in hand stood in front ofabout 20 unsure children. I explained the simple rules andthen let them get on with it. I wondered round the roomchecking on their progress and offering advice wherenecessary. I was challenged a few times and tried to begentle with them but each time one of them lost it seemed tofire everyone else up and make them want to improve. Afteran hour they had to return to class but all said they wouldlike me to return.I did the next day and when talking to them found that mosthad told their parents who seemed interested and one lad hadstayed up half the night playing Go on Yahoo with peoplefrom all over the world. I felt a sense of achievement aseveryone returned for the second meeting and were stillreally keen.I am looking forward to revisiting them at Easter and seeinghow they have progressed, as well as in the mean time tryingto improve my game.

FROM A BEGINNING TO AN EDUCATIONMark Buckley [email protected]


In January 2002 we witnessed the playing ofthe first game of the Kisei title matchbetween O Rissei Kisei and Ryu Shikun inLondon, together with commentaries byKato Masao, Michael Redmond and ShigenoYuki. Michael and Yuki also attended ayouth tournament at the Nippon Club, wherethey taught and gave simultaneous games.Thanks are due to the Yomiuri Shimbun, theNihon Kiin and Japan 2001 for their spon-sorship and active support of these events.

Member ServicesThe ‘BGA Policy List’, an email list fordiscussion of BGA policies by members,was set up last Summer as promised in lastyear’s report. It currently has 44 subscribers.The list has been quite active and very usefulin suggesting ideas for us to pursue.The Ratings page on the BGA web site hascontinued to be updated monthly, andimprovements have been made so thatmembers can see their progress in the formof a graph. Further enhancements are underdevelopment. The data still shows atendency to optimistic grading on our part,though this is gradually improving.Members will have noticed a gradualreduction in the size of the Journal duringthe year. This reflects, not policy, but areduction in the number of contributions,perhaps a result of the increasing use of theinternet for writing about Go. The Journaldoes rely on members’ contributions, andneeds them from all levels of player. Aparticular need is for commented games. The BGA Analyst, David Ward, wouldwelcome more games to comment on, andthis is one way of obtaining game commen-taries for the Journal.At the end of the year, 57 members hadchosen to receive their newsletter by e-mailinstead of on paper. The e-mail version is all

text, with no attachments that could carryviruses or other dangers.The Pair server, to which we moved theBGA web site early in the year, hasdelivered a reliable service and good perfor-mance. We intend to continue using it.

Player DevelopmentA women’s weekend was held at the homeof Sally Prime in November, with an atten-dance of 17. Guo Juan was present to do theteaching. I lack the main qualification forattendance, but have been told that it was agreat success.A seminar for dan players, based on writingsby Go Sei Gen and O Rissei, was held inMilton Keynes in December. It was conceivedand led by the GoGoD team, John Fairbairnand T Mark Hall, together with CharlesMatthews. About 20 players attended. We hope to follow this up with further eventsto disseminate the ideas more widely.The teaching day that regularly takes placeon the day before the West Surrey Handicapwas attended this year by about 20 peopleplus 6 teachers.

OutreachIt has once again been a very successful yearfor outreach, thanks to the members whohave gallantly manned stands and taught Goat Mind Sports Olympiads, freshers’ fairs,computer trade events, clubs and societiesand elsewhere. This effort, together with ourMembership Secretary’s diligent follow-up,is probably the main reason for the increasein membership reported this year.Gerry Mills deserves special recognition forthe contribution he makes to outreachthrough his management of BGA Books Ltd.Those who see the things he brings totournaments will be aware of the nice boxedsets he has designed, which make Go sets an

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PRESIDENT’S REPORT 2002Simon Goss [email protected]


attractive present. He also stocks very goodinexpensive equipment suitable for schools,for example. These things go to games shopsas well as to BGA members, significantlyhelping to bring Go to the attention ofpeople interested in games.The Hampshire Go Project, initiated as partof Japan 2001 to spread Go to schoolsmainly in the Southeast, will complete itstarget of 80 school visits at the end ofFebruary 2003. We owe a debt of gratitudeto Peter Wendes for carrying out theseschool visits, to the EGF / Ing Chang-KiFoundation for sponsorship, and to GerryMills for his energy in making sure thatbooks and sets got quickly where they wereneeded.During the latter part of 2002, when it wasclear that the Hampshire Go Project wasgoing to be a success and that further suchresults would be achievable in future, westarted putting together plans for an evenmore ambitious outreach programme alongsimilar lines, and seeking sponsorship for it.This preparatory work culminated in theannouncement of the GoZone programme onthe 8th February 2003. The first two majorstrands of GoZone will be the continuationof the Hampshire Go Project, and a similarproject in the North-East that MatthewHolton is setting up.

FinancesThe BGA’s finances remain very healthy.The increase in subscription rates agreed in2002 has had the desired effect of bringingsubscription income close to the cost ofmember services. Tournament income remainsslightly short of tournament expenditure. Theshortfall for 2002 was acceptably small, butthis is partly because the level of depreciationon equipment was lower than usual. Councilwill continue to watch this situation.In the light of these facts, Council proposesno change to the subscription and levy ratesin 2003.

Taking these results together with theexcellent contribution made again in 2002by BGA Books Ltd, the accounts show asubstantial surplus. £1000 of this surplus isin fact a sponsor’s donation to GoZone.Council’s intention is not to hold theremainder as an increase in the reserves,but to use it in support of added-valueprojects for player development andoutreach. Council made a first allocation of£2000 to GoZone on 23rd February 2003.Council will also welcome requests tosupport player development events and anyother suggestions for added-value eventswe could support.

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HANS PIETSCHIt is shocking to hear of the murder of HansPietsch in January during a robbery. I hadthe opportunity to play Hans only once, wayback in 1986 when he was an amateur 4 dan.I thought it was highly interesting that hechose to become a professional Go playerand followed his progress with interest. Given that he turned professional fairly late,his achievement in reaching professional 4dan is significant. Others have written of hisgenerosity in helping and teaching otherEuropean players who followed his lead ingoing to Japan to study Go. His influencehas contributed much to the development ofEuropean Go. His early death is very sad.

Alex Rix

Hans Pietsch in Zagreb 2002


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The previous article in thisseries ended with twoproblems. The first was adifficult classic cornerposition.Diagram 1. Moves 1 to 3are a standard sequence.

Next, White 4 is too simple.Black 5 makes one eye onthe side and another in thecorner by recapturing at !.This dogleg ishi-no-shitashould be familiar by now.White must do something toavoid this.Pushing at 1 in Diagram 1ais correct. Black must block

at 2. Next, White turns at 3.Black can’t atari from eitherside, so he captures twostones with 4. White pushesagain with 5, making a bentfour shape.

Now Black can play atariwith 1 in Diagram 1b.White needs to play 2. Next,making an eye on the sidewith Black 3 is correct. IfWhite captures the blackdogleg with 4, Black makesa second eye in the cornerby playing ishi-no-shitawith 5 at !. The timing ofthese moves is crucial.Making the eye with 1 at 3is no good: White fills anoutside liberty at A andBlack is trapped in ashortage of liberties.Black must resist thetemptation to capture thefour white stones with 1 inDiagram 1c instead of 3 inDiagram 1b. Although aperfect bent four would giveBlack a live shape, he has aweakness here. White’s placement with 2 at! leaves A and B as miai, so

Black dies. White cananswer Black ❍ with ❏.Diagram 2: Black to playand kill. This position isalso from the GengenGokyo. If you grasped

Diagrams 1 to 1c, then youshould understand thisposition at a glance. Thekey is the marked blackstone on the first line. Whateffect does this have on theposition?Moves 1 to 11 in Diagram2a are just the same as

Diagram 1b. Next, Whitewants to make an eye with 1in Diagram 2b, but themarked stone foils this plan:White 1 is self-atari.Instead, if White uses 1 tocapture the four blackstones in the corner, then

NAKADE AND ISHI-NO-SHITAPART ELEVEN: MORE SQUARES AND DOGLEGSRichard Hunter [email protected]

❏ 1 Too simple 7 at !

12

34

56 ❏ 2 Black to play

❏ 2a Same so far…

123

4

567 89 10

11

❏ 1a Correct123 45

❏ 1b Continuation 5 at !1

2

34 A

❏ 1c Don’t capture here

1 BA


13

Black can kill him with theplacement that we saw inDiagram 1c. In conclusion,the marked stone inDiagram 2 makes the cut atthe 2-2 point work.Diagram 3 Black to play.This is similar to an examplewe saw in the last part. White

has eye-making potential onthe side and in the corner.What can Black do?Diagram 3a: If White plays1, he’s threatening to gettwo eyes in the corner byfollowing up with 3. Toprevent this, Black firstpushes with 1. When Whiteblocks at 2, Black 3 is thekey move. Next, if Whiteplays 4 to secure an eye onthe side, Black 5 reducesthe corner to zero eyes. IsWhite 4 necessary?

If White connects at 1 inDiagram 3b, making oneeye in the corner, Black 2 isa tesuji that stops Whitegetting an eye on the side.

After 3 and 4, White A isanswered by Black B. Onthe other hand, if White C,Black D, White B, Black A;next, if White captures thetwo stones, Black throws inagain at A. This is a standardeye-stealing sequence thatyou should learn.Diagram 4: Black to play.The hane of Black 1 inDiagram 4a is the keymove. When White cuts at2, Black extends at 3. This threatens to connectout at A, so it’s no good for

White to capture the blackstone. What can White do? Consider A, B, and C.White A obviously failsbecause it doesn’t fill aliberty, so Black can justconnect his single stone.White B is answered byBlack A. Although Whitecan throw in at C, he getstrapped in a shortage ofliberties, so this fails.

The hane of White 1 fills aliberty, but Black makes adogleg and kills the cornerby ishi-no-shita. This is notso hard to see at the stage ofDiagram 4a, but seeing itearlier, in Dia. 4 is moredifficult. If you succeededin doing that, you’re making

❏ 2b Self atari

1

❏ 3 Black to play

❏ 3a 7 at 5No eyes in the corner

123

4

56

❏ 4 Black to play

❏ 4a What next?

12

3A BC

❏ 4b Ishi-no-shita

1 23

45

6❏ 3b Eye-stealing tesuji

1

234

A

BC D


14

progress. Diagram 4a is aposition we encounteredbefore, in BGJ 127.

Answer to Problem 2 Moves A to E in Diagram 5all look plausible, but theyare fairly easily refuted:

Black A is answered byWhite F; Black B or C byWhite E; Black D by WhiteC; and Black E by White B. What’s left? This problemalso requires a combinationof two clever sequences.

The placement of Black 1 inDiagram 5a is the correctmove. This threatens to cutat 5 (so White cannotanswer at 4) or connect outat 4 (so connecting at 5 isno good) or 8 (so White 3 isno good). With 2, Whitefills a liberty. Blackconstructs a dogleg with 3to 7, but when Black cuts at1 in Diagram 5b, Whitecaptures a black stone with2. Black extends to 3, butWhite 4 is atari. Now Blacksprings the second tesuji ofthis combination. Thethrow-in of 5 is anotherstandard eye-stealing movethat takes advantage ofWhite’s liberty shortage.White 4 at A would also beanswered by Black 5. Thefinal result is that White isunable to approach fromeither side and cannot makea second eye in the corner.

Diagram 6

Black 1 and 3 in Diagram 6acapture two stones in thecorner, but White lives with4. Black cannot breakWhite’s other eye with 5because White 6 is atari, soBlack doesn’t have time to

throw in again at 5. Startingwith 1 at 3 runs into thesame problem.Black can break the eye inthe middle with the throw-inat 1 in Diagram 6b, thesame move we saw inDiagram 5b. However,White lives with 2.

Diagram 6c: After playingBlack 1, Black 3 is themove that works. Next, ifWhite secures an eye in thecentre with A, Blackextends to B: his move at 3

❏ 5 Answer to Problem 2

AB

CDE

F

❏ 6 Black to play

❏ 6a White lives

12

3

4

5 6

❏ 6b White lives

1

2

❏ 6c Correct

12

3

A

B C E

D

❏ 5a Correct

1 23

45

6

78

❏ 5b Continuation

12 3

4

5A


15

enables him to answerWhite C by recapturing atB. If Black plays 4 at B tosecure this eye, Blackthrows in at D to break theone in the centre. Next,Black answers White C withE and the dogleg ishi-no-shita leaves White with noeye here.Diagram 7: Black to play.How can Black exploit theweakness in White’sposition? Can you read it allthe way out?

With 1 to 7 in Diagram 7aBlack constructs a dogleg.

In this type of situation, theopen liberty to the left of 6is the deciding factor. Itmeans that White cannotplay 6 at 7 because Blackcan increase his liberties byextending to 6.When Black plays ishi-no-shita with 1 in Diagram 7b,White captures a stone with2 and the result is ko.

Capture in senteDiagram 8 Black to play.This is not usually classifiedas an ishi-no-shita problem,but it does involve seeingunder the stones. Itcontinues with the conceptthat we touched on in thelast part.

If Black captures one whitestone, he dies by nakade(Diagram 8a). If he plays 1in Diagram 8b, then Whiteincreases his sacrifice totwo stones. When Blackcaptures these with 3, Whitethrows in at 4, giving Blacka false eye. Black 1 and 3 inDiagram 8c fail too:

White’s three stones are anakade shape, so capturingthem does not make Blackalive. What can Black do?Black 1 in Diagram 8c wascorrect, but the follow-up at3 was wrong. The answer isto hold back from capturingand play 1 in Diagram 8d.

❏ 7 Black to play

❏ 7a Correct

123

4

56

7

8

9

10

11

12

❏ 7b Becomes ko

1

2

❏ 8 Black to play

❏ 8a Nakade

12

❏ 8b Dead 4 at !

12 3

A

❏ 8c Nakade 4 at !

123


16

This catches White in aliberty shortage. He cannotconnect at A, so his onlymove is to fill a liberty withB. Then Black A capturesnot only the two stones butalso the three stones. Whitecannot play back at bothmarked points with onemove, so Black is able tomake life. The trick is tocapture in sente, so thatWhite does not have time toplay back under the stones.

Diagram 9

Black 1 in Diagram 9a fails.White has time to extend to4, limiting Black to one eye.

Black should capture thesingle white stone with 1 inDiagram 9b. White 2 isatari. Black plays 3 as

before and White capturesthree black stones with 4.Black 5 threatens to makelife by playing at A next.However, if White plays 1in Diagram 9c, Black 2catches two white stones.The marked stone creates aconnect-and-die situation.

This is easy to see after thethree black stones havebeen removed from theboard, but seeing under thestones is quite difficult. Diagram 9 is one of thosepositions that is instantlyrecognisable if you’ve seen

it before and very hard tosolve if you haven’t. Checkfor yourself that othermoves all fail, such as 2 at 3in Diagram 9b.Here are some problems foryou to think about beforenext time. Both are Black to

play. Problem 1 continueswith the theme of Diagram9 and Problem 2 reviewssome of the ideas presentedin this part.

❏ 8d Capture in sente

1B A

❏ 9 Black to play

❏ 9a Fails

123

4

❏ 9b Capture in sente 4 at !

1235

A

❏ 9c Black lives

1 2

Problem 1 Black to play

Problem 2 Black to play

Update – Fujitsu CupIn BGJ124 the Fujitsu Cup was described. The EuropeanFujitsu Cup, the qualifying event for the Cup proper, hasnow had to stop as the sponsor has suspended sponsor-ship. The new system for qualifying for Europeans hasnot been announced, but it should give some status totournaments formerly designated as Fujitsu Qualifiers.

Tony Atkins

IN THE DARK?


17

For reasons which are not yet clear, Go hasbeen effectively a well-kept secret in theWest for over a hundred years. This is apity, since its unique qualities can enhancethe lives of people of all backgrounds, agesand abilities. Whether we look at theseattributes from Western perspective asbearing on an individual’s body, mind, andspirit, or from an Eastern one where theseare often seen as a continuum, Go has muchto offer. It requires the use of both brainhemispheres. It offers a perhaps uniquelydifficult challenge, yet it can be taught in abasic form – the capture game – to a childof four years old. It provides an opportu-nity for social interaction even where this isdifficult because of emotional problems.And all members of a community can takepart because it is easy to handicap in acontrolled way.The GoZone programme grew out of theHampshire Go Project, which introducedthe game to some 80 schools and othereducational establishments, involvingaround 1500 individuals. I am very gratefulto Simon Goss and the many others whohelped make it a success. GoZone seeks tocontinue the outreach work, not only inmainstream education, but to any organisa-tions who wish to include Go in their work.I feel it is important to state from the startthat the programme is not only aimed at thevery intelligent – we ran a very worthwhilesession in a school for children with severelearning difficulties the other day, using theYasuda method, and foresee considerableopportunities in a variety of special needsprovision. GoZone is also available to thecommercial sector, as a useful addition tostaff training and personal development.

For those with severe physical problems,just picking up and placing a stone correctlyon the board might require weeks or monthsof practice. Many find it difficult just to sitstill for a while, so that facing a partner,considering their actions and responding tothem with respect and self control can be asvaluable as any of the intellectualchallenges of the game, especially in theclassroom or workplace where tranquilityhas to be introduced as a discovery.Go is of course one of the world’s greatcultural treasures in terms of its intellectualchallenge – for many this will be its keyfeature – there is a fascination in enjoying agame that computers do not play very well,and this last year has seen a crop of articlesin the media on the subject. Our brains havelittle in common with computers, so that Gohas a uniquely human feel compared toother strategy games.There is also a spiritual dimension to Go –it is a Way (kido) on a par with Japansesearchery (kyudo) the tea ceremony (chado)or the sword arts such as iaido or kendo.This aspect might have fallen a little by thewayside, and certainly would not beobvious to a newcomer, but for some it isthe ultimate purpose of the game. I feel weneed to reconnect Go with some of the vastrange of art and literature which it hasinspired, and hope that GoZone will makewhat Kawabata called ‘the fragrance of Go’available to many more people in years tocome.Further details of GoZone can be found onthe BGA website at:

www.britgo.org/gozone

THE GOZONE PROJECT ~ BODY, MIND AND SPIRITPeter Wendes [email protected]


18

Dropped StonesIn a tournament game recently my opponent(Black) dropped a stone on the board wellinto the game and scattered stones all overthe place in one part of the board. We wereso lacking in memory we could not restorethe board to how it had been and White hadbeen weakened.We sought high placed advice but they couldnot correct a board when they had neverseen it before, merely offer suggestions. Inthe end we placed the stones as best wecould and White had the next move, thoughit was actually Black’s turn (what could wehave done if White was actually next toplay?).Someone said later that the stone droppershould have been disqualified and the gameawarded to their opponent with no furtherplay. What do others think (especially theweaker players)?

Pauline BaileyI think that there are enough weird thingsthat could happen during a game of Go thatit is just not possible to have particular rulescovering each possibility. In these situationsthe best possible outcome is when the twoplayers can agree a fair way to resolve thematter themselves, perhaps in consultationwith the tournament director.The most notable case I can remember is atthe European Go Congress in Dublin.Matthew Macfadyen and his opponent hadfinished the game. A stone was droppedduring the counting, and the result came outthat Matthew had won by one points.However both players had thought duringthe game that Matthew was losing by a smallamount. So they replayed the entire game

from memory, re-counted, and indeedMatthew had lost by 1 point, so that was theagreed result. I consider this exemplarysporting behaviour.The danger of accepting mutual agreementbetween the players is that one person brow-beats their opponent into accepting an unfairoutcome. Of course, agreement is not alwayspossible and that is why serious tournamentsneed an appeals committee.This is why you should not sit theredithering, holding a stone over the board. If your fiddling around during a game causesthe position to be disturbed then you haveonly yourself to blame, since the properbehaviour is clear.

Tim HuntIt can take a while to reconstruct the positionif the accident happened late in the game andthere is no record. So we need to ensure thatthe next round is not delayed.If time was running out and we were nearthe end of the round, I would ask the playersto give their opinion as to who is ahead. Ifthey both agree on the result then award thegame accordingly, otherwise award a jigo.If there was time left, say half the normalplaying time, then reconstruct the game asfar as is mutually agreed even if it is only 10moves. Continue (with the correct colour)from that point on with reduced time limits.Accidents will happen, and I agree with Timthat one cannot legislate every eventuality.As teachers of beginners we should try toinculcate good habits from the beginning:such as the correct way of picking up andplacing stones; not hovering with hand overboard; not rattling stones in bowls. Thenthese accidents will be less frequent.

Geoff Kaniuk

Go in literatureI am a new Go player, still weak butenjoying learning about the game and Idelight in seeing Go mentioned in the media.

SNATCHES OF GOTALKThe GoTalk e-mail list sees discussionon a wide range of topics connected withGo. This column dips into the list for ataste of the debate. Instructions forjoining GoTalk are on the BGA website.


19

I notice that Charles Matthews has a sectionin his Teach Yourself Go book about Go inthe media but there are two omissions to myknowledge. I thought this mailing list mightbe a good way to draw Go enthusiastsattention to two books in which Go ismentioned. You probably already know thatGo is mentioned as a pastime of infamouserstwhile hashish smuggler Howard Marksin his excellent autobiography Mr Nice.However, what with all the recent talk ofintroducing larger boards, you might beinterested in reading Walking On Glass by

Iain Banks. In it, two of his characters mustplay a series of impossible games in order toget the chance to answer an impossibleriddle to gain their freedom. One such gamethey play is infinite Go, played on an infiniteboard, which against all odds, they succeedin doing. Any thoughts on how this might bepossible? Both books are excellent reads which I hopeyou go on to enjoy. Peace to all Go playerseverywhere.

Tony McFadden

The Furze-Platt tournament came down tothe final round clash between Des Cann andLi Shen. After the game, Shen recorded thegame, and did not object to me watching.Towards the end of the game, it seemed thatDes was comfortably ahead, and I could notunderstand how he had lost. The answer isthat Li Shen (White) found a tesuji in theposition shown here. Where did White play?For some reason, people found it surprisingthat Li Shen could record the entire gamefrom memory. This should not really be asurprise. I have been able to perform this‘feat’ since I was about 5 kyu. It is notparticularly difficult – it just requires a bit ofpractice. These days, if I cannot rememberwhat happened in a game, it normallyindicates I was not concentrating properlywhile I was playing, and this usually corre-lates with me playing badly.Anyway, it should not be surprising that aserious student of Go can record his gamesafterwards. It would be surprising if he couldnot. That said, Li Shen was able to recordhis game with enviable speed and accuracy.Answers on page 39.

A PROBLEM FROM FURZE PLATTTim Hunt [email protected]

❏ 1 Spot the white tesuji

❍


20

Before we can understanddouble sente very well, weneed to be clear about whatwe may or may not meanwhen we say that a move issente.Problem 1: Black to play,with no komi and noprisoners captured. Whatoutcome do you expect?

Let’s remind ourselves of acouple of technical points.Firstly, the upper left corneris unsettled. White can killit using the sequence indiagram 1a, after whichBlack cannot play x becausehe is short of liberties.Secondly, the lower side is a3-point one-sided sente for Black.That’s howany endgamebook woulddescribe it.The upper leftcorner in the problem isvery much bigger than the

lower side, so an honestBlack will play as indiagram 1b. But this Black player losesby 1 point.If Black is trying to win, hemight therefore try the haneon the lower side. If Whiteis kind enough to reply tothis, the game wouldprobably go as in diagram1c, where Black wins by 2points.White 2 in diagram 1c iswrong, though. What he

should do is to ignore Black1 and play as in diagram 1d.Then White wins without

needing any points at allfrom the lower right.Are the endgame bookswrong, then? Is Black’shane gote after all? Not atall. But when we talk of anendgame play being sente,we mean that the localfollow-up is bigger than thefirst play. Let’s call this‘local sente’. Problem 1illustrates the possibilitythat local sente isn’t neces-sarily sente in a globalsense.When your opponent playsa move that is locally sente,it will usually be correct toanswer it if he has played itat the right time. But it’s amistake to answer itautomatically, for a coupleof reasons. The first issimply that he may not haveplayed it at the right time.It’s up to you to discoverwhether there’s somethingelse on the board biggerthan answering youropponent – don’t justbelieve him.

WHAT THE BOOKS DON’T TELL YOUIX: THE TRUTH ABOUT DOUBLE SENTESimon Goss [email protected]

32 1x

❏ 1a

1

3 2 4

❏ 1b

5

43 1 2

❏ 1c

2

1 3

❏ 1d

❏ Problem 1


21

To illustrate the secondreason, consider problem 2.White to play after Black 1.Again, there is no komi andno prisoners have beentaken.

If White responds to Black’slocal sente, diagram 2ahappens, and Black wins by3 points. What White shouldhave done instead, ofcourse, is to mirror

whatever Black does on theopposite side of the board.Then the result will be jigo.In diagram 2a, Whiteoverlooked that Black’snext move after the localsequence at the bottomwould be a reverse sente.Had he spotted that, hewould have been in aposition to get his own sentein before responding toBlack’s.To summarise so far: whenendgame books talk about Xpoints in sente, they meanlocal sente. It’s yourdecision whether to respondor not. More often than not,it will be correct to, butthere’s no guarantee of it.And that is the insight thatmakes sense of doublesente. ‘Double sente’ meansthat either side’s move has alarger follow-up – it’sdouble ‘local’ sente. Just asbefore, when one side playslocal sente the other sidehas to consider the wholeboard before decidingwhether to reply locally.There is no way to makethe decision automatic.

Problem 3 illustrates fordouble sente the same thingthat problem 2 showed forone-sided sente.

White’s losing strategy ofanswering Black’s ‘sente’moves is shown in diagram3a. What White needs to do,of course, is to play mirrorGo all the way.

1

❏ Problem 2

6 5 7

43 1 2

❏ 2a

❏ Problem 3

2 1 34

86 5 7

❏ 3a

MEMORY TESTWhat do you do if you are stuck in a jam onthe North Circular with no Go board but aprofessional for company? The answer is toplay a game using a virtual board, calling outthe coordinates and memorising the moves,visualising the board position in your head.To keep it simply we played 9 x 9 and to helpthe professional the moves were announced inJapanese. The game started I remember with

my san-san (3–3) move being covered on theyon-yon (4–4) point. A few moves later theprofessional spotted a peep of mine and didnot allow me to cut, so I shortly had to resignwith less territory. The following day wereplayed the game, but unfortunately I did notkeep the game record. So next time you are ina jam, with or without a professional, why notgive it a go?

Tony Atkins

❍


Problem 4 allows us to set up a basictheory about how early to play a‘double sente’ move and whether itshould be answered. What is thetemperature of this position?To answer this question, we need toconsider four diagrams, 4a–4d. Thefirst two of these show that thediagonal move is a 2-point doublesente. But in these two diagrams,when the second player answers, thefirst player has got the points withoutinvesting a move to get them – theyare free.This means two things: first, eachplayer has a strong motive to playhere as soon as he can; second, whenone player has played the diagonalmove, the other player would prefernot to answer, but to find somethingequally good to do elsewhere.Suppose that, instead of White 2 indiagram 4a, White plays elsewhere.Then we’re left with a position whereBlack has the one-sided sentemonkey jump of moves 11-18 indiagram 4c. Considering that Whitecan later exchange Black A for WhiteB, the count at the end of thisdiagram is 7 points to Black.Similarly, if Black ignores White 1 indiagram 4b, then White gets the one-sided sente of 11-18 in diagram 4d.Considering that A and B are Black’ssente now, and that White willeventually have to play X, Y and Z,the count at the end of this diagram is 8points to White.Now, what we’ve said is that if we couldassume the diagonal move in problem 4 tobe gote for either side, then it would be a 15-point gote, with temperature 7.5. I shall callthis value the TAG (temperature as gote).You can calculate it for any double-senteposition quickly by adding together the valuein double sente (here 2) and the temperatures

of the follow-up positions (here 7 and 6,since move 2 in diagrams 4a and 4b are 7-point and 6-point reverse sente respectively).In this position, you see that the tempera-tures of the follow-up moves (7 and 6) areboth less than the TAG. When this happens,the double sente move is equivalent to a gotemove with a temperature equal to the TAG.Problem 4 therefore really does have temper-ature 7.5, and is miai with a 15-point gote.

22

❏ Problem 4

1 2

❏ 4a

2 1

❏ 4b

AB 1 15 16 12 18

17 13 11 14

❏ 4c

B14 A 1 Z12 11 X 13 Y

❏ 4d


23

Problem 5: Is this positionequivalent to some goteposition, or what?

We begin by working outthe TAG. Problem 5 is a 3-point ‘double sente’ as youcan verify for yourself.If Black plays at 1 indiagram 5a, we’re left witha gote position. If Whiteblocks at A and connects at

B we get a net score of 1point to White. If Black isallowed to extend to A,getting an exact countrequires a rather fiddlycalculation with very smallnumbers. Let’s dispensewith that and guess that, onaverage, White will be ableto retain just 1 point of histerritory, for a net score of 6points to Black. On thisassumption, the situationafter Black 1 is a 7-pointgote, temperature 3.5.If White plays at 1 indiagram 5b, we again have

a gote position, albeit areally huge one. If Blackanswers at A, we end upwith a count of 5 points toWhite. If White is allowedto capture at A, he killsBlack and scores 29 points.This is a 24-point gote,temperature 12. 3 for thedouble sente plus 3.5 plus12 for the follow-up temper-atures gives 18.5. Dividethat by 2 to get a TAG of9.25.We now know that thefollow-up temperature of 12in diagram 5b is bigger thanthe TAG of 9.25. What thismeans is that White doesn’thave to wait till the biggestthing elsewhere has atemperature of 9.25 or less.He can play his move at anytime where the ambienttemperature is less than 12,and Black will answer. Sothis position is not equiva-lent to a big gote; it’sWhite’s one sided sente. Infact, it’s roughly a 7-pointsente, as you can checkyourself.Problem 6: We’ve coveredthe basic theory now, butthis problem illustrates adifficulty that most of ushave. Is it gote or one-sidedsente, and what is thetemperature? If you find this

hard to calculate, can youestimate it by instinct?From the almost-symmetryof the position, we mayguess that the follow-uptemperatures after bothsides’ initial hanes will beroughly the same, whichwill mean that this positionwill almost certainly beequivalent to a big gote. Buthow soon can you play it?To know this, we need toknow the follow-up temper-ature when each side’sinitial hane is ignored.Let’s consider just Black’sfollow-up. To know itstemperature, we need tofind out what Black 3 indiagram 6a is worth, andwhether it’s sente or gote.To work that out, you haveto know the right follow-upto Black 3, and the follow-up to that, and so on till allWhite’s territory is gone.Then you have to calculatethe values of all thesebefore massaging themtogether into one numberwith an ‘in sente’ or an ‘ingote’ appended to it.If you find that taskdifficult, laborious andreally rather boring, you canrest secure in the knowledgethat so does almosteveryone else. We’re notgoing to do it here, becausethere’s actually a way ofthinking that will get you towithin a couple of points ofthe right answer.The trick here is to figurethat, if Black plays 3, White

❏ Problem 5

B1 A

❏ 5a

A1

❏ 5b


24

wants it to be worth as little aspossible. So White will treat it aswhichever of sente or gote makes itstemperature less. Therefore the value ofBlack 3 as a sente move is the highesttemperature it can possibly have.Go ahead and calculate its value insente. This is easier than the valuein gote, because you only have toconsider alternating play, nottenukis and their follow-ups. As faras I can see, if Black 3 is sente thenit’s a 9-point sente.It’s plausible that further Black incur-sions after Black 3 would get graduallysmaller and smaller, because each one leavesless white territory for Black to steal. Ifthat’s true, then Black 3 may in fact be gote.But if it is, you have to add in the effect ofthe follow-up moves before you cancalculate the temperature. The effect inpractice, for such a large territory, is that theresulting temperature will come close to thetemperature in sente, but not quite reach it. I think it’s a fairly safe bet that, if Black 3 isgote, its temperature will still be at least 7.When you’ve thought about it like this, pickwhatever value your instincts tell you. I liketo pick a value in the middle of the believ-able range, so I’ll go for 8.

With that value, and a similar one for thefollow-up value of White’s hane, we cantake 4 for the double-sente value, plus 8 foreach of the follow-up values, all divided by2, to get an estimated TAG of 10.So this double sente seems to have about thesame priority as a 20-point gote. My valuecould easily be out by 4 points, perhaps evenmore. If this worries you, you’ll need to getinto some heavy calculations to get a moreaccurate figure. But if you know just thatdouble-sente positions looking like this tendto be comparable with moves of around 20points in gote, you’ll understand when toplay them better than most kyu players andlow-dans.

1 3

❏ 6a

❏ Problem 6

Update – OteaiIn BGJ122 In the Dark described theOteai, the Japanese professionalpromotion tournament. This has recentlybeen abolished, quoting lack of interestfrom public and players (but probablyalso cost) as the reason. This has beenreplaced by a system based on normalprofessional tournaments. There are nowthree ways to get promotion. Winning a

world class title (Honinbo, Kisei, Meijinor World Championship) earns 9 dan;winning a slightly lesser one (Judan,Gosei, Oza, Tengen) earns 8 dan or 9 danif won twice. Secondly winning a settarget of games – for example 200 for 8to 9 dan, 30 for 1 to 2 dan. Thirdly beingthe top prize money getter at a grade (toptwo for 1 dan grade).

Tony Atkins

IN THE DARK?


25

Black: Sebastian Olsson 18kWhite: Johnathan Englefield 15kHandicap: 2 stonesComments kindly recorded by DavidWard who accepts responsibility forany errors!W17: White has a whole board plan!Good, most players have to be at least12 kyu to have a plan (even if it is notthe best one). W19: Contact moves – this comes up anumber of times in most games of thislevel. These moves are not generallyused for attacking or stopping youropponent from coming into a looseformation.B26: Black is making White strong butnot getting very much in return.W27: White should connect. W31: Contact move.W35: Another contact move – better tosurround to attack, not to play direct contactmoves.B36: Black should hane and break into thecentre. B40: Black should hane to break into thecentre – this leaves a weakness (Diagram 1).W49: No good – this gets captured. W51: Better left unplayed.

W53: Good but unlikely to be enough to winthe game. W75: Black should hane in the variation ofDiagram 2 as the White stones are weak. B76: This only helps White connect.W79: Now the White stones are strong andBlack’s corner is looking a bit surrounded.Black was still ahead at this point butWhite invaded Black’s positions ratherunreasonably to win. Such is life!

❏ 1 White cuts Black

12

3 45 67

❏ 2 Black hane

1234

567 8

9

1011

1213

29TH LONDON OPEN GO CONGRESS ROUND 3Commentary by Yuki Shigeno

1

2

34

5

67

8

9

10

11

12

13

1415

16

17 1819

2021

2223

2425

2627

28

29

3031

3233

3435

36373839

4041

42434445

46

47 484950

5152

53 5455

5657

5859

6061

62 6364

656667

6869

7071 72

73 7475

76 777879

Figure 1 1 – 79


Thomas Hyde (Billingsley, Shropshire 1636– Oxford 1702) was a renowned scholar,expert in Oriental languages. He was at thesame time University Professor in Oxford,chief Librarian of the Bodleian Library andofficial Interpreter of Oriental languages tothe King. His interests were many but, different fromother scholars, they fortunately included thehistory of board games. With him we thusfind both useful requirements present:attention to our topic, high-level education,allowing to approach the original sources.Actually, most civilisations, to begin withthe ancient ones, have used their own boardgames, some of them forgotten – often onlytheir names are kept. It is thus hard to under-stand if a given game was present amongdifferent populations, how its name and ruleschanged, or in which direction it passedfrom one region to another.Hyde studied this specific subject in depth,with many discoveries from the originalsources. Moreover, he took the opportunityto enlarge his knowledge of exotic boardgames, whenever a foreign envoy visited theCourt and he was officially engaged forassisting in the conversation. Working on historical and linguistic bases,Hyde provided us with a milestone work, De ludis Orientalium libri duo, Oxford 1694,which can be considered as the first treatisein Europe on board games and their history.Obviously the language is Latin, theuniversal European language at the time, butfrequent quotations have been inserted in alot of ancient and Oriental languages. The merits of this great work have beenacknowledged by most historians of games,who often have used it for their own descrip-tions or investigations. For our game (let meuse its current name of Go, even though here

clearly out of place) already EdwardFalkener, in his book of 1892, reproducedmost of Hyde’s information, which was alsoquoted by W.D.Witt in his bibliographicnotes of 1931. More recently, attention toHyde’s text has been called by Theo van Ees(Go. Tijdschrift van de Nederlandse GoBond, 1981. Jrg. 19, nr. 3, p. 14-16). Of course, Hyde’s description could not beabsent in the several articles on earlyEuropean Go literature written by Jaap Blom,summarised and updated in The Go Player’sAlmanac 2001, published by Kiseido. It may be useful to double check Hyde’s textagain, for some additional detail andcomment. The section devoted to Go isrelatively small, only seven pages, 195-201in volume two. However, the very fact that aspecific section is present is rather surpris-ing, because nobody in Europe knewanything about this game, in addition to theundefined news coming from the Jesuitmissions and a few other sources.With Hyde, the situation is for the first timedifferent. The information provided by himon Go is not incidental as before (and as itwill usually occur also later on, withtravellers to the Orient). In those cases,information is provided on the culture of thecountry, religious beliefs, traditional habits,ways of dressing, eating, getting married,burying and honouring the dead, and so on.If some information is added to typicalgames, it usually cannot be more than apassing mention. On the contrary, Hyde iswriting an all-embracing treatise precisely onboard games! For each game, Hyde usually investigatesboth current and unusual literary sources. Inthis case, he behaves differently: he got intouch with a Chinese, who was familiarenough with the game and could explain it.Let us summarise his description, with

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A LATIN ENGLISH DESCRIPTIONFranco Pratesi [email protected]


comments added in square brackets. Alreadythe place in which Go has been inserted(owing to similar characteristic features)may be significant, just after discussingDraughts, and Ludus Latrunculorum, themuch discussed – and little known – boardgame of the old Roman civilisation.

– o –Hyde’s description of Go actually beginswithin the previous section, with somegeneral information outlining its frequentpresence in China among high publicfigures, dignitaries and magistrates. People expert in the game are honoured, as also mentioned by Purchas, because itimproves political and diplomatic skill. Hyde himself owns a playing set, brought tohim by Mr. Gifford, a merchant active inAsia, where he had been Governor of Fort StGeorge, in Madras. Thanks are given him forsuch a big favour.Hyde notes at once that, in the case of Go,descriptions in the literature are inadequateand moreover not concordant. He begins byreporting a few quotations – Semedo inItalian, Trigault and Legatio Batavica inLatin – but soon introduces his new source,without copying further descriptionsavailable of the same kind. [We know thatsome lack of definition was already presentin the original description by Matteo Ricciand that many later versions becameincoherent, due to mistakes inserted whilereprinting and especially while translating inother languages.]Hyde is proud to announce from thebeginning that he is able to give a betterdescription of the game, both more completeand truer. [It is significant that this greatexpert of board games had performed aspecific search for improving existingdescriptions, and eventually became awarethat his contribution was remarkablyimproving our knowledge of the subject.]His information has been provided by aChinese native, Shin Fo-çung, an educated

person. [An essential problem for us isunderstanding the education level of thisinformer. Hyde himself gives a witness, ‘nonindoctus’, not uneducated. Of course, thesame witness would have been moreconvincing if expressed with the correspond-ing positive term, such as ‘doctus’ oreducated – indeed, there can be severaldegrees of education included, and left indis-tinct here, between these two expressions.However, if he was able to write andespecially to give a description of Go, heshould have received a better-than-averageeducation.]Then Hyde provides a few diagrams, mainChinese words involved, and a new descrip-tion of the game, all coming from hisChinese informer.This game is a game of war and in particularthe board reproduces the battlefield betweenChinese and Tartars. The game is usuallyplayed by Chinese dignitaries with 360 glassstones [let me here call them so, instead ofdiscs or soldiers, as found in the book] on aboard of about two feet, correlated to thedimensions of the stones, so that its edgecorresponds to a chain of 18 of them. Two different names are provided for thegame, either Hoy Kî or Wei Kî, with thesame meaning of circle, or circular, or circuitgame. Actually the meaning may be betterintended here as encircling, which isconnected with the game rules, according towhich a stone encircled or surrounded byfour adversary ones can be captured. A diagram (with a stone surrounded by fourenemy ones) is used to show this way ofcapturing, and at the same time for introduc-ing the concept of an eye, indicated with itsChinese name of Yèn. It is explicitly statedthat players tend to produce this figure andthus to build eyes – any player wishing towin the game should do it.Another diagram indicates a kind of simpli-fied initial position [here outlined on areduced 3 by 3 goban] with white stones in

27


the central position of left and right edgesand black ones in the same position at topand bottom. There is an initial position withalternate placement of two stones for eachplayer in opposing corners [fortunately wedo know this historical position, correctlydescribed in many other sources, otherwisethe corresponding diagram here could bemisleading]. Then players continue, withthe aim of building eyes and capturingenemy stones. In particular, each player has 180 stonesand takes them from a little vase, one byone. It is not necessary that they be allentered initially on (the mid of) the board.The game usually begins around the centralpart of the board and playing skill consistsin placing stones, and then promoting [?]them, so that they can easily surround andcapture enemy stones. The probability of capturing and winning isthe same for both players, because stones areadded one by one in turns, where each

player thinks they may be useful forcapturing some of the enemy stones, whichprocess can begin before the stone placementis ended. As a matter of fact, this game representstwo armies competing for a given regionand enemies take every opportunity tosurround and capture all enemies, as wellas individual ones. As stated above, eyesare formed and stones captured wheneverthey have no escaping path free, withexclusion of the diagonal directions. It isthus necessary to occupy and close allescaping ways.If an eye has to be formed and stones on theboard are not enough, new stones are takenfrom the container to that aim. If manyenemy stones occupy a region of the board,it is better to lead own stones in anotherpart. However, the enemy will follow himby alternatively placing his stones, so thatbattles may develop either by direct attackor by laying traps.

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When the result cannot be changed, thewinner says: Game over, Huán leáo. As itoccurs for the term Wei, also the Chineseterm Huán can have various meanings – theend, or to end, or ended – and the distinctionis only possible through the construction ofthe sentence; leáo is instead just a particleindicating the past tense. Then players count both occupied territoryand surviving stones. If the regions of thetwo players are clearly different, then it isenough to count the stones. A playerhaving the larger territory says: I havethese points, you have less, and thus I win.However, even if a player has less territory,he wins if having more surviving stones.[The traditional Chinese way of countingtogether free intersections and thoseoccupied by own stones can be understoodhere, once one knows it already.]From the description, it is apparent how thegame is entirely of pure skill, without anyintrusion of chance or fortune. No doubt thateverybody should consider it among theallowed games.It is also noteworthy that the characterindicating the game has been written in twodifferent ways by the Chinese informer. This

can be seen by comparing the character inthe text with that written within the diagramof the board. Hyde indicates this differenceso that nobody believes it to derive from aninaccuracy of his own.

– o –If a few further comments are allowed on thedescription, there is no clear explanation thatthe way of capturing explained may be, andusually is, applied to whole groups. Whereasthe concept of building eyes for winning isclear, there is no suggestion that having twoconnected eyes implies safety for any group.The concept itself of connection is notexplained, even if one of the diagrams couldhave been used for it. There is no indicationof ko situations, or similar topics, rathersecondary, but nevertheless required beforecoming to actual play.When indicating that surrounding stones areclosing the exit ways (and thus leading tocapture) it seems in reading this text that, inthe contrary case, these escaping ways couldactually be used for moving away the stonesto the next free intersections. In other words,a way of playing by placing stones in a firststage and moving them in a second one isnot explicitly excluded, and in a couple ofsentences seems to have been intended. In conclusion, the channel found by Hydewas the best possible one: an Orientalperson familiar with the game explains it tosomeone who knows nothing about it, butis at the same time an expert in similargames. It is thus true that Hyde’s descrip-tion is remarkably more advanced withrespect to previous ones. What was stilllacking for playing the game had beenreduced to a couple of points. In order toexplain them clearly enough, Hyde neededjust to have the additional opportunity toplay a couple of games by person. It is apity that just a few additional lines of textwould have been enough for having thegame played in Europe, two centuriesbefore it actually has been!

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Update – Toyota TourIn BGJ124 the Toyota European GoTour was described. Now it is jointlysponsored by Toyota and Pandanet.Pandanet are the owners andpromoters of the Pandanet Go Servermore normally known as IGS in theWest. Britain’s contribution to theToyota-Pandanet European Go Tour isthe London Open every New Year.

Tony Atkins

IN THE DARK?


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Shun Nagano, a Japanese student staying atCambridge, won the 1993 Wanstead andcompleted a hat trick with a win at theCambridge Trigantius. In between, EdmundShaw had won his local event, the OxfordTournament held at Wolfson Hall. TheBritish Youth Go Championships were atStowe School. Furze Platt’s Chris Dawsonwas the under-18 winner. Brakenhale’sAdelberto Duarte and Daniel Cox won thenext two age groups, followed by Culcheth’sDavid Bennett taking Under-12 and JohnEllul from High Wycombe winning under-10. Matthew Macfadyen won the BritishChampionship last game in Leamington andalso the Coventry Tournament, provinghimself invincible on home ground. ShutaiZhang took part in the Candidate’s and wonwith 5 and a bye; second was Bob Bagot. Keith Osborne took the British Go Congressto Norwich, despite not living there at thetime. Winner of both the British Open andthe Lightning in the UEA Sports Hall waslocal 3 dan Matthew Cocke. Norwich alsowon the Nippon Club Cup, but the StaceyTrophy was won by Des Cann.

The British Go Journal reported that it waspossible to play Go on the Internet using thenew Go server called IGS. It was alsopossible to use e-mail to send postal movesand possible to read news and discussions ona usenet news group called ‘rec.go’.In Europe, UK’s Gerry Mills won the IrishOpen. The Czech GP event was in Plzen asthe European Go Congress was scheduledfor Prague. Czech Vladimir Danek won, butwas second in Copenhagen behind Russia’sVictor Bogdanov on tiebreak. Both thesefinished behind two unknowns in Vienna:winner Lee Hyuk (a Korean from Moscow)and Leon Matoh (from Slovenia). ShenGuangji won Paris and the German Open. At the Ing Cup in Amsterdam MatthewMacfadyen only managed one win whereasPiers Shepperson won three. A four-way tieat the top was between Shen Guangji,Ronald Schlemper, Shutai Zhang and RobVan Zeijst.In Japan Kobayashi Koichi extended his runin the Kisei to eight years; this time he beatKato Masao 4-3.

10 YEARS AGOTony Atkins [email protected]

Can a skiing holiday get any better than this?Well, if you call morning tea brought to youin bed by a beautiful chalet girl, then serveda full English breakfast followed by 6 daysof glorious sunshine and perfect snow condi-tions, then no, it can’t! Zermatt is a carbonmonoxide free town. All the vehicles are runon batteries, including the police car! Butexcluding the doctors – they are allowed topollute.There were nine of us in total, two of thegroup non Go players. I was very fortunateto have a view of the morning sun gleaming

on the Matterhorn from my balcony. Awe-inspiring!On our first day we had a guide who showedus around the slopes. After that we broke upinto groups: intermediate, advanced andmogulling daredevils. I managed a black run.To my delight, I got to the bottom withoutfalling. There was the usual Go tournamentwhich, after five years of losing, I won. Theonly person I lost to was Evil Uncle Clive[this is the Bracknell Go Club’s nicknamefor Clive Hendrie].

GO AND SKIING IN ZERMATTDavid Hall

❍


On Friday 28 February 2003, 23 of thestrongest European Go players and T MarkHall gathered in Amsterdam, to play in theIng Memorial Tournament 2003. I wasnominated as the British representative andwas very much the lowest ranked player.Among the favourites was Catalin Taranu, 5 dan professional from Japan, AlexanderDinerstein and Svetlana Shikshina, both 1 dan professionals from Korea and GuoJuan 5-dan professional from China, nowliving in the Netherlands. I travelled byEurostar to Brussels on the Thursdaymorning and then caught one of the regulartrains to Amsterdam, arriving at about 3 inthe afternoon, which gave me a chance to dosome shopping before going to the GoCentre.The tournament was played in the EuropeanGo Cultural Centre in Amstelveen nearAmsterdam and the draw for the first tworounds was unusual. For the first round thestrongest ranked player in the Europeanrating system could place his/hername on any point of the 24 placesavailable and then the second playercould choose a place and so ondown the list. There was analgorithm for those players who hadnot yet arrived. As the lowestranked player, I had no choicewhere I placed my name. Curiously,Alexander Dinerstein (number 2)decided to play Catalin Taranu(number 1) in the first round.Players were in a little group of fourfor the first two rounds, so that inthe second round the two winnersand the two losers played eachother. I was drawn to play ChristianPop from Romania in the first roundand the choice of Christoph Gerlachor Oleg Mezhov in the second. So

my first two opponents were a 7 dan fromRomania and a 6 dan from Germany.Diagram 1 shows the position in my gamewith Christoph, where I had just played thecontact move in the corner – 109. White nowhas the opportunity to wrap up the game andwin easily. How should he do it? His actualanswer caused complications and gave me achance to pull off an upset but I was notgood enough at yose to exploit the situationand still lost. The answer appears on page 40.So I went on, still losing and still missingchances. I was not helped by the fact that thenearest hotel to the EGCC happened to alsobe a pub which stayed open rather late,playing disco type music until 2 o’clock inthe morning on Friday and 3 o’clock onSaturday morning. This convinced me that Ihad to move out and find somewhere quieter,which I did in Amsterdam itself and Icommuted by Sneltram for the Saturdaynight and Sunday. It was also convenient forcatching my train back to Brussels on the

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ING MEMORIAL TOURNAMENTT Mark Hall [email protected]

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Monday morning, since I stayed near thestation.I then went and lost the game on Sundaymorning by 1 point (could I have filled thatdame and won under Ing rules?) but theround was rather delayed and disrupted byVictor Bogdanov suffering a stroke andbeing taken to hospital on a stretcher. Wewere told that they were operating on him onSunday night, but at the time of writing Ihave heard no more. I therefore was giventhe credit in my last game of winning agame by default against Victor.

Among the real strong players Taranuseemed to be cruising until he was stoppedby Pop, my first round opponent. Then in thefinal round, Pop against Mero (Hungary),Pop misread a situation and allowed a 5group seki to occur, rather than allow threestones to be captured and take a larger groupfor himself. This was unfortunate since Poponly then came 4th. He was rather handi-capped by my low SOS.There was also a side tournament and a kidstournament, all to promote the use of the Ingrules.

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There was a television series in 1967called The Man in Room 17, in whichan armchair detective solved crimeswhilst contemplating a game of Go. I never saw the series, my interestbeing attracted much more by quite agenerous spread in the Radio Timespurporting to give the rules of thegame. I quickly drew a board onpaper, and rather less quickly sawedup a couple of dowel rods to supplythe stones, half painted black and halfpainted yellow.All that I discovered about Go was thatthe fighting, captures and running ofgroups towards escape were intrigu-ing. Playing solo, I could never workout why one colour fared better thanthe other. Unfortunately my work onan MA, the novelty of our first childand efforts to find a better job led tomy putting the game away as low onmy list of priorities, incomprehensiblebut good in parts, and undoubtedlyfascinating. Anyway, why should Isuppose that an association existed topromote Go?

Seven years later – seven lost years!– during lunch break a colleagueremarked that I was known to be fondof board games and so perhaps Iwould be interested in… Ten minuteslater I realised that the Radio Timeshad omitted to explain several aspectsof the game, including life and death.After that, we played Go duringlunch break at least once a week,both being weak players as I couldreach a reasonably even result givenfour stones. Then came the discoveryof the BGA, a Go club only a fewmiles away at Alsager, and within ayear my first tournament, atLeicester. I thought driving for overan hour just to play Go showed truededication until I found that some ofthe contestants had come from as faraway as Bristol and London. I gotone thing right, though: it was afascinating game, and after nearlythirty years of playing, it grows evermore fascinating.

Brian Timmins

THE WAY TO GO


WANTEDPROBLEM SECTION EDITOR

I would like to introduce a problem section in the Journal and am looking for avolunteer to undertake the editorial function for this.The duties of the Problems Editor will consist in collecting problems suitablefor all grades of player, writing short introductions to each problem and expla-nations of their solutions, and producing the diagrams for them.The size of this section is not predetermined and will depend on the materialavailable but I would like to include at least two pages in each issue, consistingof solutions from the previous issue and new problems.Apart from an interest in Go problems and accuracy of reading, the main quali-fications for this task are reliability, a computer running Windows and an abilityto write clear and concise explanations. This will be a rewarding job for theright person and I’m sure it will be appreciated by the many readers of the BGJ.If you are interested in taking on this task, please contact the Editor by phoneon 01544 231 887 or by e-mail: [email protected]

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❍

BREAK THROUGH TO SANDANHow, after 13 years at the same grade, doyou get promoted? Firstly you follow theexample of Francis Roads who some yearsago went down a grade from three dan totwo and shortly after got promoted to four.Last summer my European rating had sunkout of sight so I did the decent thing andplayed a couple of tournaments at one dan.Secondly you read and take note of MichaelRedmond’s excellent book ABC of GoStrategy. Thirdly you win a few games,especially at an international event (forexample London), and win the odd tourna-ment (for example Cheshire). Buying thegrading committee drinks or beating themcan help as well, but it seems to be the firstnamed method above that is the real trick.So why not check you rating and follow suitif appropriate?

Tony Atkins

PROMOTIONSAt the BGA Council meeting on

23rd February, the following dan

diplomas were awarded:

Li Shen – 4 dan

Tony Atkins – 3 dan

Christian Scarff – 2 dan

Brian Brunswick – 1 dan

Congratulations to all of them.


When our Go Club meets at someone’shouse, the evening invariably ends in someculinary delight, Go playing stops, and ageneral conversation (not necessarily aboutGo) ensues. Last evening the conversationranged from how a $100 note can improveyour skiing stance (all I will say about this isthat it is an in-joke with the skiing fraternityof our club) to quantum physics andSchrödinger’s cat.Schrödinger’s cat demonstrates theweirdness of quantum mechanics 1. Supposea living cat is placed in a thick lead box. Avial of cyanide is added to the box, which isthen sealed. We do not know if the cat isalive or if it has broken the cyanide capsuleand died. In quantum physics terms the cat isboth dead and alive, it is in both statessimultaneously 2. It is only when we breakopen the box and observe the cat that theNewtonian world re-asserts itself. The catbecomes one or the other (dead or alive).This multiple alive and dead status is oftenquoted as being a concept alien to ournormal understanding of things…but hangon, isn’t there a Go equivalent here.I am not suggesting that Go should beplayed inside a lead box or that the oddloose vial of cyanide be introduced, but thereis a common occurrence of players seeingbut not observing what is going on 3.A typical oversight happened that evening atthe Go Club. After a lot of in fighting Whitefinally reduced an important but weak blackgroup to one eye. Both players having readthat only one eye was possible then playedaway for the rest of game, unaware that thefight had created a potential ko for life in thecorner.Understanding the ko sequence was wellwithin the capability of both players, butthey had both convinced themselves that thereduction to one eye was decisive 4. In this

case the state of the stones is indeterminate,rather then alive and dead simultaneously. Inthe actual game neither player noticed and atthe end of the game the Black stones wherecounted as dead.Nor am I referring to that other, but notunknown, ‘dead and alive’ occurrence offorgetting to remove captured stones on theboard. Depending on the rule set, either anillegal move has been made or the status ofthe stones is defined. It is not unknown forsuch unnoticed dead stones later to resurrectthemselves by eventually helping to capturesome opponent stones (this is a ‘dead thenalive’ scenario).I am referring to that quite legal state wheretwo adjacent groups have been reduced to noeyes with a single common liberty butneither player has noticed this joint atarioccurring. Nor have they noticed the kibitzerwho is inevitably drooling over the boardwai

go · 2009. 12. 22. · uk news and tournaments ~ tony atkins . 2 wings go club ~ john c stephenson...

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