361points.com/blog

I wrote a brief analysis on this new move:

(Link to the article)

I saw this move for the first time in the Takemiya Masaki - Yamada Takuji game that I already wrote a blog entry about.

I followed a live game on Cyberoro: Takemiya Masaki 9p against Yamada Takuji 7p.

Yamada was an A-class insei when I became insei in Japan, then he soon won the pro qualification. We both lived in the “Igo Kenshu Center” (Go study center) for a while (so did Kato Keiko who is currently defending her Meijin title against Xie Yimin).

Yamada played 2 unusual moves against Takemiya in the beginning of the game. First White 8 is unusual (normally White plays hane below Black 7):

Then look at White 38: tsuke against the hoshi stone!

I guess somebody was in a quite inspired mood

It payed off for Yamada, since he won the game by 2.5 points. Link to complete game record.

Xie Yimin (Female Honinbo) won the first game by half a point in her challenge for the Female Meijin title against Kato Keiko. Xie Yimin is on the right hand side in the photo.

Here is the beginning of the game (click on the diagram to download the complete game record):

I wrote a new article: Teaching game with Kato Masao. It is based on a 3-stones handicap teaching game I received from Kato Masao 9p back in 1990 when I was 3 dan and I represented Romania at the WAGC.

What motivated me to write the article at this point was the godiscussions.com thread “Asking professionals for serious games” - in particular Tommie’s request there.

I hope you enjoy it!

Here’s how to think about territory in Go:

1. If I like it, it’s mine.
2. If it’s in my hand, it’s mine.
3. If I can take it from you, it’s mine.
4. If I had it a little while ago, it’s mine.
5. If it’s mine, it must NEVER appear to be yours in anyway.
6. If I’m doing or building something, all the pieces are mine.
7. If it looks just like mine, it is mine.
8. If I saw it first, it’s mine.
9. If you are playing with something and you put it down, it automatically becomes mine.
10. If it’s broken, it’s yours.

(Strangely similar to the Toddler’s Rules of Possession)

Yamashita takes the lead again (2-1) after game 3: he forced Cho to resign.

The game started strangely, with a big fight on the left half of the board, while the right half was almost empty (the forth corner was occupied only on move 70!).

Apparently Yamashita had the upper hand when the dust settled on the left side, which prompted Cho to try his last chance by building a huge moyo in the upper right and then threatening to kill Yamashita’s invasion - but that didn’t work.

(Link to the tournament page.)

I added the possibility to play with handicap against the GnuGo computer-Go program, online. This should make games more interesting. Link to computer-Go page here.

Also, I owe an apology: I have introduced a bug that resulted in the board not to be displayed at all for the InternetExplorer users for the last few days. Fixed now. (By the way, why not use Firefox instead of InternetExplorer?)

Takao Shinji (on the right hand side in the photo) defeated Cho U in the playoff for becoming Judan challenger. (link to the game)

Cho Chikun is Judan title holder, and the first game will be played on March 6th.

This is a high-tech variation of the previous “No goban? No problem!” blog entry.

After a period when we didn’t hear much about him, Lee Changho seems to be coming back in top form: he won the Korean Siptan (10 dan) title against Mok Jinseok 2-0. (Games here and here.)

Lee also has a 13-0 score in 2008 so far (February 2nd, 2008), according to Go Topics!