Archive for March, 2007
New “Sydney Go Journal” issue
Wednesday, March 28th, 2007
You can read the latest issue of the “Sydney Go Journal” – number 10 - at the regular hosting page.
This issue also contains a lesson from 361points.com.
The fact that the journal is published as a PDF document means that it makes for an easy and good looking printout.
The art of sacrifice
Tuesday, March 27th, 2007
I wrote a new lesson titled “The art of sacrifice” – inspired by a game I watched on IGS today.
It is about the following position (White to play):
Dia. 1
Read it if you want to find out how Dia.1 above is related to Dia.2 below
Dia. 2
Go World Archive in digital format
Saturday, March 24th, 2007
I heard a while ago about Kiseido’s plan to digitize the Go World archive, but today it’s the first time I actually saw their website at kiseidodigital.com.
They say that soon there will be 3 DVDs for sale containing the whole archive (which will cost $100, according to some other source). For now they sell individual items, in PDF format, for $2.50 each.
Here is a sample issue they offer.
Go World magazine is awesome, I learned a lot from it over time, mainly from the game commentaries, but also from the many articles on Go theory. I enjoyed a lot “The Great Joseki Debate” series (which was later published as a book) and the 2 series article “The Magnificent Obsession: Sakata Eio and Go”, among many, many others…
Here is the index of this wonderful Go magazine. Also, gobase.org has a searchable index.
I bought from Kiseido all the back printed items I could find about one year ago, but since I’m still missing a lot of issues I think I’ll also buy the DVDs when they come out.
Zhou Junxun of Taiwan wins international LG Cup
Wednesday, March 21st, 2007
Taiwan is catching up with the top 3 Go super-powers: Zhou Junxun 9p of Taiwan just won the 11th LG Cup international tournament. He defeated in the final match Hu Yaoyu 8p of China, 2-1.
While several Taiwanese born players moved to Japan as kids, became insei and then became top professionals in Japan, this is the first time that a Taiwanese trained professional had such a great success in an international title. There is an old article about Zhou Junxun’s earlier Go career at Mindzine.
The first game of the final match is commented at gogameworld.com – it is one of the several free sample commented games.
After Zhou Junxun won the first game by resign, the next 2 games were very close: both were half-pointers.
Here is a diagram from the last game:
American Go Yearbook
Tuesday, March 20th, 2007
I got my new and shiny “American Go Yearbook” in the mail yesterday.
It looks very nice (except for the quality of the diagrams, yikes for that… looks like something printed with a printer from 15 years ago).
I liked a lot the “where should X play next” problems taken from top US games, with short comments by the players.
Also, I was sad to read the very bad review for the new “The Go Master” movie (it’s about the life of Go Seigen) – I want to see the movie anyway, hope it will become available.
Lee Changho lost the Guksu title
Sunday, March 18th, 2007
Lee Changho lost the Korean Guksu title to challenger and newcomer Yun Junsang (19 years old, 4 dan).
Lenius corrected me: Yun Junsang is not a newcomer to the top professional Go: in 2002 when he was only 1p (and 14-15 years old!) he only lost 2-1 to Cho Hunhyun in a playoff to decide the challenger to Kiseong title (equivalent to the Japanese Kisei).
I wrote my thoughts on the 4th and last game.
It was interesting how kosumi-tsuke appeared in the opening, how White sacrificed a group, and how Black played 3 moves in a row on the second line, in the middle game.
Kosumi-Tsuke: Use and Abuse
Wednesday, March 14th, 2007
I just finished a new article/lesson, titled “Kosumi-Tsuke: Use and Abuse”.
It is longer than the normal lessons on 361points.com and it is more targeted towards fundamentals, I hope – both of which are requests made by users via the feedback system on the website.
I hope you’ll find it useful!
It is longer than the normal lessons on 361points.com and it is more targeted towards fundamentals, I hope – both of which are requests made by users via the feedback system on the website.
I hope you’ll find it useful! How to study professional games
Tuesday, March 13th, 2007
I wrote a detail page for the “Study professional games” advice.
It also touches on subjects as “to read comments or not to read comments“, and “try to understand or learn by heart“.
Also, do you know this Google search trick to look for SGF files of Takemiya’s? Just google for Takemiya filetype:sgf and see for yourself. The filetype:sgf part of the search string is a special Google operator that limits the search to files with the sgf extension. Of course, you can replace Takemiya with your favorite Go player.
Judan game 1: Cho – Yamashita 1-0
Thursday, March 8th, 2007
Yamashita has a much harder time in the Judan title, so far, compared to his Kisei title defense: the Judan title holder Cho Chikun won this first, fighting game.
I wrote my thoughts on a nice sacrifice sequence that occurred in the game on the tournament page. It is about the “Sacrifice two stones instead of one” Go proverb that White can apply in the following position, after Black played the triangle-marked move:
