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I added a new lesson today: “Direction of play… and bad habits (2)”

It is about what to do (and what not to do) with black in the following position:

For the first lesson with the same topic follow this link.

And here is the index of all lessons I published so far. Most of these are lessons that I learned - the hard way - but I think others can benefit from them, too.

I added some details to the “play a lot of fast games” advice - see this page. Just briefly, it’s not about playing with time limits that make you cry all the time, but it is about pushing yourself to play with lower time limits than what you are comfortable with.

I think every Go player knows about Catalin Taranu - one of the very few Europeans to became professionals in Asia. He is 5 dan pro at Nihon Ki-in (in Japan). Catalin is currently living in Romania, on an extended leave from Nihon Ki-in, in order to promote Go.

I recently discovered Catalin’s website. What I like in particular is his concentrated Guide to Go - which summarizes in very few words and examples a lot of key concepts - make sure you read it!

While I was insei starting in early 1994, Catalin came as an insei to Japan next year, in 1995, together with Mirel “Tsurukame” Florescu. There was quite some concentration of Romanian insei at Nihon Ki-in that year

They literally came to Japan together (I picked them up from the airport in Narita) - but while Mirel stayed, just like me, at the Igo Kenshu Center near Tokyo, Catalin was to become an insei at the Western branch of Nihon Ki-in, in Nagoya.

We did meet, all three of us, during the summer vacation in 1995 for a great vacation in Kyushu - thanks to the wonderful, late Nishimura-san - I am sure many European players remember him from several European Go Congresses. (Mirel and I also met Catalin during the same summer of 1995 at the annual insei Go camp at Hakone).

Soon after that great summer of 1995 I returned home from Japan, after a little more than 18 months as an insei - to continue my University studies - while Mirel and Catalin enjoyed many more years in Japan.

Yamashita won the 3rd Kisei game by resignation, just like he did in the first two.

Looks like Kobayashi Satoru is not in good shape. I don’t know the professional verdict on this third game, but it seemed to me that after the first day, with black so strong in the center and white struggling for life on the lower side, white had a difficult game already. Please let me know if any of you followed the pro comments!

One interesting position in the second day of the game was the following, after move 83: it is white’s turn.

The position is complicated, so it is very instructive to pretend you are white and decide where to play next - this is actually the basis of studying pro games, just pretend it’s yourself playing, think what you’d play, then compare with what happened in the game.

Another interesting question, about the same position: analyse the status of the white group in the lower right: it has 2 eyes, right? Well, there is a small catch: there is something that black can try, only it doesn’t quite work yet. What’s the furthest black stone that, would that be present on the board, the attack would succeed?

This is a good question to ask, because in the heat of the game we often forget that the status of a group can change when the surroundings change.

It is still day 1 in the third Kisei game - but a major fight was already consumed, and another one is about to begin.

Here are 2 quizzes from this first day of playing.

Problem 1

Black to play - choose from A to G. Pay attention at both areas of influence and potential territory, but also at groups and balance of power. Shall black play in the largest open area (A), or invade and put pressure on white in the lower left (B), or make a base for his own weak group (C), or attack from the center (D), or connect below (E), or take white’s base away while expanding (F), or strengthen his main area, the right side (G)?

Problem 2

Black to play - choose from A to F. Since the lower side is a hot area, all suggested moves are concentrated here. Shall black connect with A (to get strong before attacking), or attack from the outside (B or C), or take white’s base away (D or E), or play a large territorial move, threatening white from a distance (F)?

The third game of the top Japanese pro title, Kisei, starts today.

It “starts” today because it’s a 2 day game, so most of the excitement usually happens in the second day. I’ll watch it on Cyberoro and update my Kisei 2007 page as the game develops.

I intended to write my thoughts on the 2nd game as I watched it live on Cyberoro, but that good intention was “ruined” by the fact that Cyberoro published live variations to each move, which I believe to be the comments of the professional(s) following the game, and I just impatiently opened each one as it became available, so I only added my thoughts on those - which was definitely entertaining, but not the best learning experience for me.

So what I plan for this third game is to try to think, at each and every move, what I would play, and write down my thoughts, and only later look at the variations on Cyberoro.

… page ratings, that is.

At the end of most of my pages on 361points.com I added a simple feedback form, something like: “If you haven’t already, please rate this page” and there are 3 choices. For instance, have a look at the end if this article. The purpose is for me to track what’s good and what’s not, and figure out what to improve on the site.

This is the first dynamic feature I added to the site, so please excuse the looks and eventual bugs - I am learning these things as I go, I am something like 30 kyu at web programming

The intended functionality: once you click submit, the page is refreshed and you won’t see the feedback form again, at least not for a while, while you view the page from the same computer. If you have cookies disabled, I guess you’ll see the form again - no need to submit again, though.

Please let me know if you see anything out of order - thanks!

I saw this yose tesuji twice in the last few months, and I was surprised it didn’t ring any bell for me - there are not so many yose tesuji out there. Must be my memory making fun of me…

Here is the yose problem: black to play in the following diagram:

Dia 1

Check the new article I added on the website for the answer and some more detailed diagrams about this position. (Of course, try to find the answer by yourself before for the maximum learning experience).

I don’t even want to think about how many times I might have missed this relatively easy trick…

Oh, and if I’ll be writing yet another article on the same topic, please let me know

I got a request from someone on godiscussions.com to have a look at a game he played and comment on it - which I did. The game is between 2 players who recently learned Go.

That inspired me to write some steps that people who are just starting Go should follow in the beginning to speedup their learning process and to make sure they are moving in the right direction. I posted them in the end of my “What is Go?” page, and I’m reproducing them here:

If you just learned the rules of Go, you may wonder what are the next steps in your Go career. Here is what I think you should do:

1. Play something like 50-100 games with another beginner. Teach the rules to a friend, or a family member, or a coworker - and play a lot of games together, just concentrating on capturing stones. Whoever captures more stones wins. In case you cannot find someone to play with, see step 4 below: play on an online Go server instead.
2. Read the “Lessons in the fundamentals of Go” book. It will not only mention the step 1 above, but it also provides a lot of very useful information about Go: fundamental concepts, how to study, and many interesting things about the professional Go world.
3. Read the Graded Go problems for beginners book. This will teach you about basic Go tactics.
4. Play a lot of games online. Try to apply what you read from books in your games. Register with some online Go server (there are links to several of them here) and get to play with various opponents of different levels - it is important to get exposed to various playing styles.
5. Follow my “how to improve” list
6. Check the list of books I recommend - some of which I consider “must reads”.

Yamashita just won the second Kisei game - I feel very sad for Kobayashi Satoru. I sure hope he will be able to recover in the following games.

I am not only sad on a personal level (he’s the brother of my ex-sensei in Japan, Mrs. Kobayashi Chizu) - but also since he’s one of very few “old boys” from the Kitani school that can still put up a fight with the new generation of players in Japan.

Go, Satoru sensei!