CONTENTS · Tony, as usual, provides all the News, Problems, Photos, and a Book Review. Ron Bell...

British Go Journal 146 Autumn 2008

CONTENTSEDITORIAL Barry Chandler & Jon Diamond 2LETTERS 3UK NEWS Tony Atkins 4WORLD NEWS Tony Atkins 7THE CHINA WEIQI LEAGUE Joss Wright 9HOW TO RECOGNISE A WEAK GROUP Ron Bell 11ATTACKING WEAK GROUPS Sandy Taylor 17WORLD MIND SPORTS GAMES Jon Diamond 20A VIEW OF THE BIRD’S NEST Jon Diamond 21INTERVIEW WITH MATTHEW MACFADYEN James Davies and Chen 28WMSG – A PLAYER’S EXPERIENCE Simon Shiu 30GO AND SHOPPING Helen Harvey, Maria Tabor and Sue Paterson 31THOUGHTS FROM THE LAUNDRY ROOM Martin & Helen Harvey 33WMSG RESULTS Jon Diamond 38APPEAL FROM THE BGA SUNSHINE HOME Ian Marsh 40HOLIDAY IN JAPAN Neil Moffatt 41DVD REVIEW: THE GO MASTER Sandy Taylor 44BOOK REVIEW: TOP PLAYERS TRAINING Tony Atkins 46AN OUTRAGEOUS 5 STONE GAME Ian Davis 47SUPERKO’S KITTENS Geoff Kaniuk 51AU STATUS SOLUTION Tim Hunt 5410 YEARS AGO Tony Atkins 57BGA OFFICIALS 58USEFUL WEB AND EMAIL ADDRESSES 59UK CLUBS LIST 60

Copyright c© 2008 British Go Association.

Articles may be reproduced for the purposes of promoting Go and ’not forprofit’ providing the British Go Journal is attributed as the source and thepermission of the Editor and of the articles’ author(s) have been soughtand obtained in writing.

Views expressed are not necessarily those of the BGA nor of the Editors.

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EDITORIALBarry Chandler & Jon Diamond [email protected]

Welcome to the special bumper 146th issue of the British Go Journal.

The reports in the centre of this issue are focussedaround the recent World Mind Sports Games inBeijing, where a 22-strong UK contingent waspresent, assisted by sponsorship from WintonCapital Management.

Authors include the team captain’s report from Toby Manning, a diary, teamphotos and the results by Jon Diamond, and many more...Every Journal brings new challenges; in this case Joss Wright wanted pinyinChinese via unicode (and full Chinese characters, which Barry failed to do).Then having loaded basic unicode support, found many other strange thingshappening – just hoping the proof-readers found them all.Tony, as usual, provides all the News, Problems, Photos, and a Book Review.Ron Bell provides a follow up to the Weak Group Theory of BGJ 140. SandyTaylor sent a follow-on article to the double-digit kyu advice of the previousjournal, and also a review of the DVD of the life of Go Seigen.

There is an amusing status problem from TimHunt; appearing both as a photo quiz on the insidecover from somewhere in Australia, and here tomake it clearer.The analysed solutions are later in the Journal.There was also an ’Au’ for Oz or Gold debateduring proof-reading.

Jon Diamond1 is truly the co-editor of this Journal, having championed the ideaof a WMSG, once in a lifetime, special journal. He then contributed more ideas,articles, and photos; and montaged all the photos into the centre spread.Big thanks also go to Edwin Brady, chair of the Journal Team and mentor, forhelp with the typesetting, despite his own work pressures. Sandy Taylor, again,for his ready formatted articles.Ian Davis provides a game record, again supplied with the diagrams. Thoughthere must still be a ’spot the error’ somewhere given the number of revisionsthat were made ,.Martin Harvey (& Helen too) joined in the proof reading circle, Martin does a lotfor the Website as well.Our sincere thanks to all the other proof-readers. Edmund Stephen-Smith againfinds dozens of errors at the last minute.Therefore, the remaining mistakes are all the fault of your Editors.

Barry Chandler & Jon Diamond1Jon was the founder of the BGJ — see http://www.britgo.org/history/bgj.html

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ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

The Annual General Meeting of the BGA will take place on

Saturday 4th April 2009, at Westminster Hotel, Chester.

Proposals for inclusion on the agenda should be submitted to theSecretary, Edwin Brady, at [email protected].

LETTERS TO THE EDITORLondon Open 2007

New Year at the London Open mustbe one of the biggest highlights ofthe European Go Year. December2007 was our fifth visit and we hada great time. There is loads of Go forthe serious players, and exciting sideevents like the Pair Go and Lightningwhich I enjoyed.

The professional teacher, Guo Juan,was really excellent. She had greatadvice on not becoming parentallyattached to your stones!!

But I consider myself a ’social’ Goplayer, and it is a great location for theless proficient players as well. You canstay in the ISH (International StudentsHouse) on site, although we prefer thefive minute walk through Regent’sPark to the ’Annex’; where, if you arelucky, you can get a room overlookingthe park. The newly relocated BritishLibrary just along the Euston Road isa ’must’ if you have an hour to spareat lunchtime. So we will definitely begoing again.

Celia Marshall, Isle of Man

BACK NUMBERS [email protected]

Go World issues from 20 to 100 are now for sale at £2.00 each, inc. p&p.There are plenty of interesting articles including tesuji problems;professional games; and life and death problems.Can you really afford to miss out on such a good deal?Contact David Hall for further information.And see http://www.britgo.org/bgabooks/goworld.html for furtherinformation on back numbers.

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UK NEWSTony Atkins [email protected]

Epsom

The 7th and possibly last EpsomTournament was held on 19th July atthe usual venue. It was supported byVicky and Stephen Streater, so all 51players won something. Tournamentwinner again, after a year gap, wasLi Shen, 6d; he beat Alistair Wall inthe last round. Those with three winswere: Graham Philips, 5k, MichaelWebster, 7k, Gary Gibson, 8k, KarstenStarke, 10k, and Jonathan Green,9k. The 13x13 was won by Xinyi Luand the 9x9 was won by Oscar Selby.The Team tournament was won by”OGS Team”, comprising GrahamPhilips, Jonathan Green and AndrewCohen. The booby prize was won by adelighted Pauline Bailey.

Mind Sports Olympiad

The 12th MSO was held near Victoriain London in the conference roomsnext to the Royal Horticultural Halls.It spanned the week of the Isle ofMan Go Congress, but avoided theirplaying days. The first Go event wasthe Rapid on 16th August. Five playersplayed a round robin. Winner fromReading was Tony Atkins, 2d, whowas unbeaten. Taking the silver placewas Paul Smith, 2d, and bronze placeXinyi Lu, 5k.The National Small BoardChampionship was the secondevent, 8 days later. Paul Smith fromCambridge was winner of the nationaltitle on 13x13 boards. He beat PaulTabor in the final; third was NickKrempel. Also Tony Atkins did wellbut could not win as arbiter. Winner ofthe handicap prize was Xinyi Lu, thebest of the 11 who took part.

The main and final event, the MSOOpen, took place on the Bank HolidayMonday. Again 11 players took partand three of them ended on 3/4 andwere split by mutual game and mutualopponents tie-breaks. Gold went toPaul Tabor, silver to Yangrang Zhangand bronze to Natasha Regan.

SIDEWAYS LOOKING PERSONS

The Mindsports OlympiadStage 1

On your marks

Isle of Man

Forty-nine players enjoyed the Go,music, quiz, games, teaching byMatthew Macfadyen, sandcastles,scenery and fun that was the Isleof Man Go Week. It was held againat the Cherry Orchard in Port Erin,starting on 17th August. Winnerof the carved 9x9 Goban for theOpen was Matthew Cocke, 5d.Joint runners up were MatthewMacfadyen and Piers Shepperson.Also on 4/5 were Natasha Regan, 1k,

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Geoff Kaniuk, 3k, Wim Verstegen, 5kfrom the Netherlands and DavidWildgoose, 14k. On 3.5 wins wereEdmund Stephen-Smith, 5k, andJil Segerman, 10k, and on 3/4 wereDavid Phillips, 1d, and Pita Udo, 15kfrom the Netherlands. The winner ofthe afternoon tournament was RichardHunter, 4d. Runner up was SimonBexfield, 1d, also on 3/3, as wereEdwina Lee, 5k, Kathleen Timmins,12k, and Pita Udo. The winner ofthe Handicap Tournament was IanMarsh, 1k, with 5/5 and on 4/5 werePaul Margetts, 2k, Jenny Radcliffe,8k, Jil Segerman and Celia Marshall,11k. Jenny Radcliffe won both theContinuous Lightning and the 13x13Tournament and, in addition, won theRengo with Edmund Stephen-Smith.The Diehard Tournament was wonby Paul Barnard, 1d, and second wasGerry Mills, also 1d. The Quiz waswon by the Manx Kippers team andthe Sandcastle competition was wonyet again by Charlotte Bexfield andfamily.

NorthernThe Northern Tournament took place,like last year, at the Masonic Guildhallin Stockport on the first Sunday inSeptember. Overall winner was BobBagot, 1d. Other prize winners on 3/3were Robin Dews, 9k, David Szotten,9k, Brent Cutts, 11k, and PatrickRidley, 15k. Twenty-eight players tookpart.

CornwallThe following weekend, on a sunnySaturday, 15 players took part in theCornish Handicap Tournament inPenzance. Winner for a second yearwas Swindon’s Eric Hall, 6k. He beatCornwall’s Robert Churchill, 12k, inthe final. Twenty-one players took partin the Cornwall Tournament on the

Sunday. Winner of the tournamentwas Yaeko Takano, 2d, from Japan.She beat Toby Manning in the final.Also winning the usual wooden stoneswere Eric Hall for 3 wins and PhilWilloughby, 8k, the lowest gradedplayer on 2 wins.

SwindonOn the next Sunday, the 12th editionof the Swindon tournament was held,like last time, at the Even SwindonCommunity Centre. Thirty-six playersentered and the winner for a secondyear was Jaeup Kim, the Korean 5dliving in Reading. Prizes for 3 winswent to Andrew Smith, 2k, MarkNubbert, 4k; Fred Holroyd, 5k, andEmma Benjamin (formerly Marchant),12k.



Get Set

ArundelThe first ever Arundel Tournamentwas held in the historic NorfolkArms in the shadow of the castle the

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following Sunday. Twenty playerstook part and enjoyed a sunny dayand a good pub lunch in the ancientSussex town. The winner was JaeupKim, his second win in eight days.Runner up was Francis Roads,3d, and prizes for 3 wins went toMark Nubbert, 2k, and for 2.5 to JilSegerman, 10k. The South Coast teamwon the team prize.

BelfastDuring the same weekend, this yearthe Belfast Open was played by 14players over five rounds. Only oneplayer from Britain discovered it wason and travelled to take part. Thatwas Yohei Negi, 1k from St Andrews,and he was the joint winner withDaniel Paraschiv, 1k from Galway,both on 4 wins. Equal third were ClaasRoever, 1k, and Tiberiu Gociu, 1k.Also winning 4 was local player JamesDonnelly, 10k.

ShrewsburyGerry Mills restarted the ShrewsburyTournament after an 8 year gap: atthe same venue, The Gateway, on thefirst Saturday in October. Twenty-eight players took part and winnerwas Bill Brakes, 2d. Also winning 3were Ian Price, 9k, and Reg Sayer, 15k.The three prizes in the 13x13 komi-handicap tournament went to Astonboys: Jack Drury (most wins), StewartSmith (best percentage) and CalumHealey (for effort).

Milton KeynesEight days later, a hot and sunnySunday saw 40 players attendingthe Open University for the 20th

Milton Keynes Tournament. David

Ward, 4d from Cambridge, won thefinal this year against Sam Aitken,4d from Warwick. Also winning all3 were David Buckley, 1k, GrahamPhilips, 3k, and Andre Cockburn, 7k.Unfortunately the MK Go Boards weretoo small for the stones and so the sideevent was cancelled. However therewere still Concrete Cow Biscuits givenaway to give all a taste of the localculture.

London InternationalThe autumn team event was held atthe Nippon Club on 19th October,home of their Igo Kai and the CentralLondon Go Club. As expected a strongChinese team was the winner with15 points. Second was Wansteadwith 12, third Nippon Club with 6and Cambridge scored 3. Winning3 for China were Qing Du, Shi Tang,Yangran Zhang, Felix Wang and StuartBarthropp. Takuya Ogino was the onlyplayer winning 3 not on the Chineseteam.


GO


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WORLD NEWSTony Atkins [email protected]

European Go Congress

The 52nd European Go Congresswas held in Leksand in the centre ofSweden. If you liked lakes and treesit was great and the congress washeld in various buildings arounda central school. The week startedsunny and the congress had a greatholiday atmosphere, with muchplaying outside. Six hundred andsixty-seven players took part in thefirst week of the main tournament,including some strong Koreans asusual. Lai Yu-Cheng of Taiwan wasin first place after the first five games.The Brits were doing quite well withbest results in the first week to HelenHarvey and Kath Timmins on 4/5.Ninety-six pairs took part in the PairGo Championships. The final waswon by Daniela Trinks and Lee Seung-Geun, beating Kurebayashi Meien, 2p,and Marc Stoehr by a small margin.At first it was thought the others hadwon but the live broadcast correctedthe counting error on the result.At the rather damp weekend theEuropean Masters was held. Eighttop Europeans competed for placesin professional events in the Orient.Surprisingly three of the top Russians(Shikshin, Shikshina and Dinerchtein)lost in the first round. The final endedup being between Andrei Kulkov andFranz-Josef Dickhut who won. PalBalogh (beat Shikshina) and OndrejSilt (beat Dinerchtein) were equalthird. Alongside, 421 players wereplaying the weekend tournament.Winner was Kim Joon-Sang fromKorea. Because of the Masters, theonly Europeans near the top wereCatalin Taranu and Cornel Burzo with3 wins. Best Brit was John Cassidy,

who lives in Leuven, with 4/5.In the end a record 718 played inthe main event. Open winner wasPark Jong-Wook with 9/10. Secondwith 8/10 was Hong Seok-Ui, whoalso won the Rapid for a second yearrunning. Lai Yu-Cheng was third.European Champion was CatalinTaranu for the first time. He toppedthe group on 7 wins by one SOS pointahead of Dinerchtein, Shikshin andBalogh. Brits winning 6 were PaulBlockley, Kevin Cole and MartinHarvey.

US Go Congress

The 24th US Go Congress was held inPortland, Oregon, with another largeattendance.

Feng Yun won the Masters andMyungwan Kim won the Open.There was a quite large party of Britsattending: T Mark Hall was third inthe 4d section and Steve Bailey wonthe 4k section.

European Student GoThe fourth European Student GoChampionships were held at the endof August on the Ile Saint Marguerite,off Cannes, south of France. Twentysix students from seven countries tookpart in a six round McMahon. �

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Three players ended on 5/6. Aftertie-break the order was first Russia’sIgor Nemly, 5d, second Czechia’s JanHora, 6d, and third France’s JeromeSalignon, 4d. Top female was againManuela Marz, 3d, from Germany.UK’s Mark Nubbert, 4k, ended well on4/6.

Brno TournamentAgain the Czech event in Brno was amajor in the Pandanet Go EuropeanCup. A huge 164 players attended.Hong Seul-Ki, the Korean fromGermany, was again the winner.

European Women’s GoeChampionshipThe European Women’s GoeChampionships was held in mid-September in Koblenz in Germany.Twelve women from six countriestook part. Unbeaten winner was KlaraZaloudkova from Czechia. Secondwas Manuela Marz from Germany andthird was Laura Avram from Romania.UK’s Anna Griffiths won 1/3 to taketenth place.

NEXT ISSUE

Latest updates to the printing schedule can be found athttp://www.britgo.org/new the Site Updates page.

The next issue is planned for Spring 2009, hence Technical articlesshould be with the Editor by January 2009.

It is most appreciated if contributions arrive already typeset in LATEX .The recently updated http://www.britgo.org/bgj/guidelines.html

provides all you need to know, and suggests many free softwarepackages you might want along with bgj.cls definitions used to build

”your” Journal.

ADVERTISEMENTS

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Contact the Advertising Manager [email protected] for the fulladvertising rates, terms and conditions, or any other advertising relatedpromotion with the BGA.

Privately placed small ads, not for profit, are free.

Discounts are available for a series.

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THE CHINA WEIQI LEAGUEJoss Wright [email protected]

One of the most exciting aspects ofprofessional weiqi in China is thenational team league, similar to theUK’s own football leagues. Every year,small teams of professional playersrepresent a city or region in a round-robin tournament that attracts highlevels of sponsorship and interest.Teams consist of six professionalplayers. In order for some fluidity,and presumably to encourage bothfan interest and sponsorship deals, asmall number of inter-team transfersare permitted at the end of each year.One international player may also beinvited to each team; the most notableoutsider currently taking part beingYi Se-tol, who is representing TeamGuizhou.

FormatThe A-league (wei jia lian sai) teamstake part in an all-play-all round-robin tournament that runs fromApril until December with a shortbreak in the summer. Each team playseach other twice in the competitionfor a total of twenty-two rounds.In each match, four members fromeach team each play a single gameagainst an opposing team member.A-league games are played with threehours of main time, followed by tenperiods of 30-second byo-yomi. Ofthe four games played per match,one is a “speed” game under strictertime limits in order to be suitable forbroadcast on television.The A-league functions on a pointssystem; the team with the highestscore at the end of the year takesthe title. Winning a match gains thewinning team two points, with no

points awarded to the losing team.In the case of a draw each team gainsone point, however a bonus point isawarded to the team whose captainwins their game.

SponsorshipEach team in the league has itsown corporate sponsor, with thecompetition as a whole currentlybeing sponsored by Jinli Mobile(Jınlı Shoujı). There is also a level ofgovernment sponsorship from theChinese Department of Sport.The B-league (wei yı lian sai) is muchless formal than the A-league, servinglargely as a qualifying tournamentfor teams to enter the A-league. Theformat is much more compressed,with seven rounds played over thecourse of ten days. The two highestranked teams in the B-league are thenpromoted to the A-league, whilst thelowest ranked teams of the A-leagueare demoted. Despite its less formalsetup, competition in the B-league isfierce with international players beingemployed by teams at this level inorder to earn promotion to the morelucrative A-league.

Current EventsThe current league leaders areChongqing represented by the currentTianyuan and Mingren title-holderGu Lı. They are closely followed byChina Mobile-sponsored Shanghai,captained by the Samsung Cuptitle-holder Chang Hao. Hebei arecurrently trailing in the league, riskingrelegation to the B-league along withone of the three Beijing teams. �

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Results of the league, with both scoresand game records, are availableat Mr. Kin’s Go News website1,although this site does not appearto have been updated recently.Results and stories about the leagueare also reported, in Chinese, athttp://weiqi.sports.tom.com.

Quick Facts• Teams: 24, 12 each in the A- and

B-leagues.

• Tournament Type: Round-robin(A-league)

• Sponsor: Jinli Mobile (Jınlı Shoujı)

• Cup Title: Jinli Mobile Cup(Jınlı Shoujı Bei)

• Current Leaders: Chongqinq(Chongqıng leng suan lıng)

• Current Losers: Hebei(Hebei jın huan gang gou)

Note

This is an updated version ofinformation that I originally wrotefor Sensei’s Library. Thanks are dueto Chia-Hung Lin and Du Ke from theYork Go Society for Chinese-languagehelp in researching this information;and to John Fairbairn who wrote theoriginal article on the Chinese leagues,gave helpful background information,and suggested a more satisfactoryEnglish name for the competition. Anyinaccuracies, mistakes or downrightlies are, of course, entirely my ownfault. (It is only by the narrowest ofmargins that I have resisted the urgeto invent names such as ”ShangaiUnited” and ”Chongqing Rangers”.)

This article represents everything Iknow about the leagues, based onlong hours of research with poorknowledge of Chinese. I wouldwelcome any more information fromproficient Chinese speakers!

PROBLEM 1��

Black to play

1http://igo-kisen.hp.infoseek.co.jp/al.html

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HOW TO RECOGNISE A WEAK GROUPRon Bell [email protected] is the first of an occasional series of articles answering some ’Agony Aunt’style queries from DFKs (Double Figure Kyus).

This one, from Colin Maclennan,relates to the article on ’Weak GroupTheory’ that I published in BGJ 140:

Dear Ron,Your weak group theory is allvery well, but my problem isrecognising when a group isweak, or when it becomes weak,especially when playing against astronger player.In this game, I play opening movesby the book. Moves 6 through to

10 are joseki and the book says,’Black gets a solid position rightaway’, so I felt I could leave themto look after themselves for a bit.Then later in the game, with move68, White pushed in and I foundit wasn’t solid at all. In fact thewhole group went for a burton!When did that group becomeweak? And what should I havenoticed about it that meant I hadto defend it?

Figure 1. Full board position at Move 68

Figure 1 shows the board positionColin refers to at Move 68. White hasjust played the marked stone and thegroup consisting of the three black

stones in the top right died. I do notknow whether there was a way tosave them. Starting moves at A, B,C, or D look possible. In the game,

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Black played at D and the group died.But the question is irrelevant to thepresent discussion. At the DFK level,the group is now ’probably dead’and this article is about how a simpleapplication of Weak Group Theory(WGT) rules would have avoidedgetting anywhere near this situation.

Weak Group Theory — reminderHere is a reminder of the WGT rules:

1. Never have two weak groups ofyour own on the board.

2. If you have a weak group, the mosturgent thing is to settle it quickly.This takes precedence over almosteverything else.

3. ’Settling’ does not mean makinga tight two eyes. The best way tosettle a weak group is to extendfrom it and attack an enemy weakgroup.

4. If you want to attack an enemyweak group by squeezing itbetween your weak group andone of your strong groups, alwaysextend from the weak group andnot the strong one. That way,assuming the enemy squeezes outand lives (as he usually does) yourweak group has been strengthenedin the process. This also applieswhen you are trying to connectyour weak group to a strong one:play from the weak side, not thestrong one.

5. If the enemy has a weak group,make territory by threatening it(from the direction of your weakgroup if you have one).

6. If the enemy has TWO weakgroups, then attack them both

simultaneously (e.g. by splittingthem) then see which one hedefends. If appropriate, go allout to kill the other. Do not shillyshally continuing to attack both.Go for the kill and ignore smallthreats to you.

7. Finally, if, in the opening, you haveno weak group and you have sente(ah that I should ever be so lucky!)then do not extend from existinggroups. Leave them to look afterthemselves and start operationselsewhere — launch an invasioninto the middle of an open side, forexample.

Why is settling a Weak Group sourgent?

In the WGT article, I defined a ’weakgroup’ (WG) as one that could bekilled (or put under very severepressure) if the opponent played twounanswered moves in successionagainst it and said that, if you have aWG, you should settle it urgently. Thequestion then arises: If the opponentneeds two moves against a group tokill it, why shouldn’t you just waituntil one move is made against it andthen defend?Think about it before reading thenext paragraph. Any DFK aspiring tobecome an SFK either should knowthe answer or should read on andlearn and remember.The answer is that leaving the WG andplaying elsewhere gives the opponentthe opportunity to attack the groupin sente. If you are forced to replysubmissively to the attack, whateverbenefit the opponent gets from theplacing of the attacking stone, he getsalmost for free because it is still hismove. If your group is still weak,he can do it again. . . and again. . . !

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If you have already committed thecardinal WGT sin of having twoWGs on the board, your opponentmay well be able to create a situationwhere attacking (not killing) one WGstrengthens his position so that yourother WG becomes not so much weakas dead.

Exception to the ’Settle the WeakGroup’ rule.The exception occurs when you cansee that any conceivable attack on thegroup would not give the opponentany significant strategic advantage.The main case where this occurs iswhere a group is already fenced in andhas one eye plus two half eyes. (A halfeye is an eye in gote.)

Diagram 1

In Diagram 1, for example, the whitegroup would die if Black played atboth A and B. Black could play ateither of these points in sente but itwould give him no advantage do soand would simply deprive him ofa ko threat. This is classic miai andplaying here is non-urgent for bothsides. According to my definition, thegroup is technically ’weak’ but, if it isWhite to play, he should not make asecond eye until forced to do so — it isalready ’settled’ and alive.

Answering the question: the grouplost in the game.The group lost in the game is not oneof these exceptions and provides

a classic example of how a groupprogresses from strong to weak todead.

Diagram 2: Initial formation of stronggroup.

In Diagram 2, as the book says, Blackhas a strong position immediatelyafter the group is formed in the fuseki.It would probably take White three orfour unanswered moves against thisgroup to kill it. Nevertheless, Blackshould analyse the group and workout why it is strong. The first thing tonote is that it only has one sure eyeagainst the upper side. However, asecond eye can come from at leastthree directions: an extension roundabout A, for example, or an extensionout into the open centre around B ifthe extension gets blocked, or a pushat C. �

Diagram 3: The point where thegroup becomes weak.

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In my opinion, the group becameweak at the point shown in Diagram3. White has just played the markedstone and this gives him theopportunity, if Black does not defend,to (probably) kill with two furthermoves: one around A or B, fencing thegroup in, and a second at C, reducingit to one eye, as happened in the game.

I’m afraid there is no simple rule thatwill allow you to spot when a grouplike this first becomes weak. You needto evaluate the effect of each of youropponent’s moves on the status of allyour groups and, for any weakenedgroup, ask yourself the question ’If Idon’t defend this group now, wouldtwo further unanswered moves bymy opponent kill it?’ if the answer is’yes’ or ’probably’, then you now havea WG and settling it is probably themost urgent move on the board.

Settling the group

Diagram 4: How to settle the groupimmediately after it becomes weak.

OK, so the group has just becomeweak and now is the time to settleit. In Diagram 4 (same as Diagram 3except for different lettered points),two possibilities (corresponding to thetwo moves Black needs to kill) exist:either extend out into the still opencentre at A or push at B.

The position in the corner is a verycommon one. It is important to learnthat White can deny Black a secondeye in the corner by pushing at B.Black can strongly prevent this byplaying at B himself. Not only doesthis guarantee Black a second eye andlife but it also threatens to capture themarked white stone.So where should Black play inDiagram 4, at A or B?The answer is A: jumping out intothe centre. Many DFKs would playB, arguing that it is sente because ofthe threat to capture the marked whitestone. And many DFKs playing Whitewould dutifully answer Black B bydefending at C. If White does do this,then Black B has ’worked’ brilliantly.This is how bad habits are acquired.Capturing the marked White stoneis gote for Black and sente is wortha lot more than capturing one stone.Consequently, if Black plays at B,White should take sente and playelsewhere. In fact, B is almost purelydefensive.Black’s jumping out to A, on theother hand is a good multi-purposemove. It strengthens the WG almost aseffectively as B but also puts pressureon the two white stones along the topand firmly separates these stones fromthose along the right.This is an important general principle.In the fuseki or early middle game,it is usually better for a group witha one-eyed base against the side tojump out into the centre rather thandefensively make two eyes along theside.

Consequence of not settling the WGIn the game, Black also failed torespond to the next attack on thegroup. Consequently, he allowed

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the killing position, already shownin Figure 1, to develop. Let’s have alook what should have happened afterWhite’s next attack.

Diagram 5: The unsettled WG isattacked again.

This is shown in Diagram 5. WhenWhite plays 1, Black must recognisethis as a possible threat to kill. Thegroup died in the game because Blackdid not defend at this point. Whiteactually held back from trying tokill until later when his position wasstronger — but this was the point atwhich Black should have defended.Before this stage, the group was still inno danger of actually dying but, nowit’s an emergency, and Black has tomake the defensive gote play at 2.

The key point is that, as has alreadybeen explained, White got to play 1 insente. Let’s suppose he simply usesthis sente to make the big move at 3.What was the effect of the attack onthe black group?

The effect was that the exchange of 1and 2 took place before White madethe big move at 3.The benefit White gets from 1 maybe difficult for a DFK to see, but itis considerably greater than Black’sbenefit, which is merely the endgamepossibility of capturing the markedwhite stone in gote. White 1, onthe other hand, is fencing in theblack group and is forming a largemoyo with the white position onthe right hand side. It could alsobe instrumental in defending thetwo white stones at the top if theycame under attack. Seeing andunderstanding the merits of playinga move like 1 in sente is key to gettingstronger at Go.This 1/2 exchange happened solelybecause Black ignored WGT andfailed to defend his group when it firstbecame weak. �


Something made black sense thatthe game was not going well

15

PostscriptOn reading a draft of this article, Colin sent me a follow-up query:

Dear Ron,Your reply to my question is mostinstructive. I look forward to yourpromised article on the subjectof sente. It is something I havestarted to think about thanks tomy Shodan Challenge mentor.However, with regard to thequestion I first raised, ”Whydid my group die?”, I wonder ifyour answer underestimates theimportance of one factor — thelimitations on the DFK player’scapacity to read out sequences andweigh up options under pressure.What the DFK player needs aresimple moves that he or she canrecall under pressure and which dothe job.In the case in point, a move likeB in Diagram 4 that does the job(guarantees two eyes), albeit ingote, may for the DFK player bepreferable to a sente move like Awhich will have to be followed upand maybe in the end doesn’t.

Well, it’s much better to play B inDiagram 4 than to ignore it and die.But, if you want to get stronger, youhave to start to ’feel’ that A in Diagram4 is a much better move than B. I knowit’s easier to see the effectiveness of Brather than A – but no-one ever saidthat Go was easy!

In this situation, you can just learnit as a rule: ’If you have a groupwith one certain eye against the sideand are confined on both sides, it isusually better to jump out into anopen centre than to make a secondeye tightly against the side’. Or, better,understand it as an example of thepowerful but often overlooked dictum:’Try to make multi-purpose moves’.

In this case, jumping to A makes asecond eye almost as well as B, but italso weakens and separates the Whitestones as explained in the text. It is notthat jumping out is sente rather thangote (though sometimes it can be); it’sjust that it’s a better move.


I’m glad I wasn’t played on thetwo-one point. I hear strange things

are happening there!

16

ATTACKING WEAK GROUPSSandy Taylor [email protected]

The last British Go Journal includedthe first part of this double digit kyuguide to one or two of the things thatI often see problems with. This time,I have done my best to simplify theprocess of making a group weak byattacking its base.

The methodology of creating andattacking weak groups is far fromset in stone, and ultimately dependson the reading ability of the playersinvolved. The steps in this article areonly suggestions, and should not betaken as a substitute for good reading.

The game situation presented in thisarticle comes from a real game, playedon KGS, between two 18k players. Itshows an almost ideal situation whereWhite can have his base attacked ifBlack takes the initiative to do so.

Now, how can I remove that group’sbase?A group can be called weak if you arestrong locally, and it does not haveroom for two eyes. Attacking weakgroups is complex, but removinga base to make the group weak is amuch simpler part of this whole.

To attack the base of a group, follow these steps in order:

1. Does the group have a two space extension on the third line (see Diagram 1),or something similar?

• Yes? This group has a basic base. Only try to prevent two eyes if youare very strong locally.

• No? Attack! Try to prevent two eyes.

2. Play stones to reduce the eyespace available

3. Try to see where White might form eyes, and plan to remove them.

4. Chase the fleeing group for profit.

These steps verge on oversimpli-fication, but do map out the basicpath you should take when trying toremove a group’s base. The diagramson the following pages apply theseprinciples to a real game situation, asa suggestion of how the ideas mightwork. In this case they ultimatelyleave White with just one eye on theside, so he must run to find his second.Black has accomplished his goal ofremoving White’s base.

The most important thing for Black isjust to remain calm. Often a playerin a situation like this will becomebloodthirsty and let White tear aparthis position as he chases after a kill.Instead, remember that with a largelocal advantage it will be hard to gowrong! Even if White’s stones live,Black will be able to take profit aroundthem as they are forced to play gotemoves for eyes. �

17

Finally, a player in this situationshould also consider whetherremoving White’s base is the bestway to go about profiting from hisweakness. Profit can just as often be

taken by forcing White to live locallyin return for black thickness. Neverchase after a group heedless of thesurrounding position, or you may loseout by far more than you profit!

��A��

Diagram 1

Diagram 1 shows the situation in one corner of a DDK game. The white groupmay be vulnerable to attack. In this case removing the base leaves Whitenowhere to run, and so may actually kill the white group.Inspection reveals that the vital point, if any, is that marked ’A’ on the diagram.If White takes this point he will have plenty of room to make two eyes, as Blackcannot act to both remove eyespace and prevent further White moves to secureplenty of eyespace elsewhere. If Black wants to remove two eyes, A is the onlymove.

��D��E��A��BC��

Diagram 2

In Diagram 2 Black has reduced White’s eyespace, and turned the area into alarge tsumego1 problem. White has many responses to try and make two eyes,such as A-E in the diagram. These suggested moves all have slightly differentaims, and each leads to several possible Black responses. �

1See http://senseis.xmp.net/?Tsumego for glossary18

Regardless of White’s selected response, Black’s aim is to make White run bylocally removing his base. This guide shows White trying to make his eyespacelarger on the side to get two eyes there (Diagram 3), so removing these eyes is avictory for Black in the area.

��C��A��D�B��

Diagram 3

Diagram 3 shows White choosing to simply block at A from the previousdiagram. Now Black needs to do some reading to decide how White mightget two eyes. � has been omitted as the move that Black must use to removeWhite’s second eye.Removing the eye is ‘simply’ a matter of reading, and selecting the best path tocontinue with. I suggest going about this by trying to see where White mightform a live shape (� and�), and then noting where Black needs to have playedto prevent this.In the Diagram White has eyes at A and B, so� should be placed to remove oneof these. This will leave White with just two eyes, making him run. Black willhave accomplished his goal of removing White’s base. Black might thus play� at C, letting him later play at D to remove White’s eye. You may like to readthrough yourself to find other black moves that also work.

The .sgf files for games printed in this journal appear on

http://www.britgo.org/bgj/current

All the .sgf files, and the answers to the other five problems set in the lastissue appear on the BGA website at

http://www.britgo.org/bgj/issue145

19

WORLD MIND SPORTS GAMESJon Diamond [email protected] special issue of the British Go Journal contains many articles that focus onthe recent highly successful World Mind Sports Games held in Beijing. We hopeyou will enjoy the varied aspects highlighted that add to the daily news andpictures already presented on the BGA website.Below we show the players representing Great Britain in front of the banner atthe entrance to the Go playing area; and before anyone writes in querying whyKirsty and Matthew aren’t wearing the team uniform, the rules for the MixedPairs required men to wear a suit and tie!

20

A VIEW OF THE BIRD’S NESTJon Diamond [email protected]

Having been involved with the pre-event organisation and following whatwas going on during the first week onRanka and the Press Releases, togetherwith many pictures from Toby andRon it was with anticipation that I setoff for Beijing, having allowed myselfa couple of days for acclimatisationbefore the Men’s team event started.Arriving at Beijing’s large new airportit was a relief to find the WMSGWelcome desk actually manned at6:30am and, having had my nameticked off the expected arrival list, Iand another draughts player fromBrazil were escorted to a shuttle totake us to the playing centre.It was strange, observing Beijing fromthe freeways, it hardly felt like anOriental city, apart from the Chinese

characters on the buildings. Almosteverything seemed high-rise withlittle architectural reference to Chineseculture and history, and for the mostpart this was a continuing theme –the replacement of the old by the newwith no backward glance. Also, Beijingis clearly as flat as a pancake, but thenumber of bicycles was an order ofmagnitude lower than I expected.As we arrived at the ConferenceCentre the Bird’s Nest Stadium thatwe’d seen often during the Olympicscoverage in August appeared –astonishingly (well I hadn’t looked itup on Google Earth) it was just acrossthe road, no more than 200 yards awayand the weather was just perfect! �

21

Never mind, there would be plentyof time(?) to see the Stadium close-up later – it was time to check-in.Clearly, after Toby had sorted themout last week, this worked pretty well;although as I was going to stay in ahotel for 2 nights I obviously didn’t getany accommodation or a sticker on mybadge to give me access to free food.Well, I was in a rush since I knewthat Toby had organised a GreatWall excursion to leave at 8:30am, sodashed over to the hotel, managedto check-in in record time, dump mybag in the room, and return to theConference Centre with my cameraand 10 minutes to spare. Failed to fallasleep on the bus as predicted after theflight – obviously the company wastoo stimulating...The Wall actually does have someVERY, VERY steep and uneven stepsand pedestrian traffic jams and it’sjust like it is on the TV, but goodexercise. Leaving, we got our tourguide upset as we were 30 minutes

late, due to a couple of us gettinglost on the Wall(?!). Anyway, wehad lunch at a cloisonne shoppingopportunity (sorry, factory) and thenoff to the Ming Tombs. The day ended,typically, in the Tea House, whereLing Ling and the rest greeted us likeold friends before playing Go anddrinking tea/beer.

Saturday left some free time, afterthe morning team meeting. Tobyand Martin helped me to negotiateRegistration to get my meal tickets andeven get my real room allocated a dayearly, so I needed to check out of thehotel and move my stuff to ApartmentBlock R. Then there was still sometime left over for sightseeing, beforeour 12pm scheduled departure to theSino-European Friendship Match, so Iwandered off around the Olympic site.It’s much larger than you would think,with a vast wide pedestrian street,stretching for several miles and all themain Olympic venues being very closetogether.

22

Then a quick visit to see how theWomen’s Team was doing, don myuniform, and off in a fleet of taxisfighting the notorious Beijing trafficjams. We don’t know where we’regoing, but give the drivers the addresswritten in Chinese and hope... and weall eventually arrive where we shouldbe.The games have been well organisedand the English part of the Europeanside is polite in losing one of the tworounds, although Europe wins thematch overall. The young Chinese

lady referee came over and countedeach game Chinese style – it wasmagic seeing all the territories beingrearranged and disappear and stillgetting a result at the end. I hopedthat I’d got all of my losses (2) out ofthe way for the week! Then off to agrand banquet and the prize-givingceremony and finally off to one ofmany bars on a lake somewhere thatwas in a very busy area, pushingthrough what felt like ordinaryBeijingers dancing in a plaza.

On Sunday my new room mate, JohnHobson, and I decide to do someserious sightseeing – the ForbiddenCity and some hutongs. Fascinatingstuff, but we really needed about twiceas long – so next time then. Returnedback in time to depart to a ChineseOpera experience, with dinner. Thetaxi driver got lost and drove usthrough a building site in the dark(about 12 high rise apartment blockwe think). The gymnastics and actingwas fascinating, but we’re all glad theydidn’t do much singing...

Monday was back to the Go boardproper – the Men’s Team eventstarts with us playing, and losingas expected, to China Taipei’sprofessionals. �

23

The Japanese team are on the nexttable to us, so I get some nice pictures,especially of Yoda who’s not wearingthe team uniform, but looks good intraditional dress.

Can I tell you how much I dislikethe speaking Ing clocks, especiallyen masse saying ”Black/White has30 seconds three times” in English,Chinese, Japanese or Korean?

We’re playing with Ing stones, the firsttime I’ve seen these also, and they’requite neat; with exactly 180 stones ineach pot. Since the referees rush overto ensure that each game is countedand recorded correctly, we don’t haveto worry about this phase of the gametoo much; despite the unfamiliar ruleswe’re using. Although I did have toget a score corrected in another game,because it had been written in thewrong column – it was quite difficultfor the players to work out whether itwas correct or not as the form was allin Chinese.

We beat the Portuguese as expected,so finish the day 1:1. I rush over tothe Women’s Team and arrive as thelast two games against France arefinishing. (I’ve broken the rules, asspectators are only allowed in for thefirst 20 minutes of each round.) It’s anexciting, but unfortunate finish to amatch, but they’ve won!Ranka, written by James Davies, says”the British team scored a dramatictriumph over the French. Afterwinning on the first board (VanessaWong beating Monique Berreby), theylost a heart breaker on the third boardwhen Natasha Regan overlookeda move that let Anne Tombarellobring a large dead group back to lifeduring the dame-filling stage. Thenon the second board, after havingvictory sewed up for most of thegame, Alison Bexfield began makingmistakes under time pressure andgave Geraldine Paget an unbeatablelead. But Geraldine was also undertime pressure, and let Alison capturea large group of black stones. At thispoint Geraldine resigned and beganclearing the stones from the board,ignoring the fact that a rather largewhite group was also in a capturablecondition. The resignation wasaccepted.”As it happens the referee had writtenthe result of the final game in beforethe game had actually ended. Thiswasn’t spotted by the players, luckily,but he had to hastily correct hispremature evaluation of the result –after all the players were amateurs.The evening turns out to be anunexpected exploration of Beijingin search of a specific Peking Duckrestaurant. Despite the Wong’s effortswe fail and light upon a fast-food duckrestaurant in a tourist street, just southof Tiananmen Square. When I say

24

tourist, I mean Chinese tourist, so itlooks like a Disney version of Beijing,having knocked everything old downand rebuilt in a variety of old styleswith new materials and new shopsand restaurants. Just too clean andtidy for my taste.Day 2 of the competition startssmoggy and gets worse – you canjust taste it. We’re playing Germanyin the morning and although gradedweaker perform well, losing by theclosest of margins; 2 wins and 3 losses.The afternoon is not so good; we’replaying the young team from ChinaMacau and should win, but lose 1-4disappointingly and so we’ve onlywon one of 4 matches. It’s hard tokeep track of what’s going on in thegames, since the results are postedvery slowly a considerable time afterall the games are over, but we do ourbest.Did I tell you that mobile phonesare banned and that you lose thegame if yours goes off? Well, thatmessage doesn’t seem to havegot across. Several have rung andsomeone playing the Japanese actuallyanswered their phone in front of areferee without penalty.On Wednesday the weather improvessomewhat, as does our play. We beatArgentina and Belgium, leaving uson 3/6. I wander round to have abrief look at the other events going onand there seem to be at least as manypeople playing the Chess, Draughtsand Xiangqi as Go. The Daily Bulletinkeeps us vaguely up to date withwhat’s going on around the WMSG,but there do seem to be many featuredpeople who’ve been playing theirgame for less than 6 months. Hmmm...The Women’s Team lost their last gamein the Group stage as expected, to theChinese professionals, but qualified

for the Knock-Out stage by winning4 of the 7 games – a fantastic resultas they only lost to two professionalteams and one semi-professional one(Australia). Unsurprisingly, havingdrawn Korea as their opponent in theQuarter Final they lost 3-0.We find another restaurant locally andon the way back stop off to buy sometea and Natasha some local firewaterfor 50p. This is deemed to be trulyawful by everyone sampling it, so thenext day we splash out and spend £5for a large bottle of something meantto be better. This comes with a bottleof Chinese red wine as a free offer...Thursday will be the final day of ourcompetition as we’re not going toqualify for the Knock-Out stage. Welose to France easily, which is slightlydisappointing, so end up with only 3wins and well down the order board– about where we expected at thebeginning of the event though.After lunch the team decide to be atourist group for the afternoon. Westruggle to find the subway, but do soin the end, spending 20p on a ticketand get to the centre in about the sametime that it would have done in a taxi.Our first visit is to the World of Weiqishop/club. We get spotted as playersin the WMSG and are asked to signtheir copy of the Programme! I thinkit’s the first time I’ve been asked formy autograph. The shop is slightlydisappointing, not many differenttypes of sets and most of the booksseem to be old Japanese ones – some ofthem I’m know I bought 30 years ago.Then wandering through a hutongbeing rebuilt, shopping in the silkmarket, the others buying chopsticksand a few other things and Alex Selbya cheap Rolex Percision(sic) watch. Ihope this lasts longer than the one hebought only 24 hours ago. �

25

Eventually we end up in TiananmenSquare almost at sunset, to see theguards arrive for the flag-loweringceremony. We get bored waiting andhead off to find somewhere to sit andget a drink. Afterwards, a taxi findsanother recommended Peking Duckrestaurant with the duck kitchen asa feature in the entrance lobby andwe spend all of £20 a head, probably20-25% of what we’d pay in London.Then back to the Tea House for anight-cap.

It’s hard to watch the other gamesas a) they’re being played in the VIPRoom with individual game recordersand broadcasting and b) the spectatorfacilities for viewing these games isinadequate. The reports from Week 1imply that more is going on – where iseveryone? So the Friday finals day isanother day dedicated to tourism forme!Matthew Macfadyen seems to be pre-occupied with watching the Go andtalking to people he’s met many times

before, so Kirsty and I decide to gooff to the Summer Palace. It’s anothermisty, going on smoggy day, so notideal, but there’s so much historic stuffto see. (Shame about the Anglo-Frenchforces burning most of it in 1860 asrevenge for the killing of some of theircountrymen.) Anyway, we do get backin time to watch some Go, have dinnerand meet up with John Gibson fromDublin, who was playing in the Men’sIndividual, and who’s another regularat the Tea House (did I mention thisbefore?).Saturday is the Closing Ceremonyday and I’m getting a bit tired, sodecide just to wander gently roundlocally. Inside the Stadium is a displayof some of the costumes used in theOpening Ceremony, but it’s full ofChinese who’ve paid £4.50 a head toget in – a very large sum for them.Then I spot some ’old’ buildings alittle further away; they turn outto be a Chinese Ethnicity Museum,celebrating the 56 nationalities inChina and actually fascinating. Thebuildings aren’t old at all of course,but built in 2001.The Closing Ceremony was heldoutside the Conference Centre on alarge grassy area and consisted ofa few speeches, some presentations(including sacred water forrepresentative of the 6 continents)and a flag hand-over ceremony. Theevent closed with food, drinks andmusic provided by the hosts as theparticipants enjoyed the atmosphereand partied well into the evening.

Sunday: We say goodbye to theEnglish Chess people that we’veshared an apartment with, but almostnever bumped into, spurn the airportshuttles that the organisation made acomplicated feat to arrange and get ataxi to the airport. Having checked-

26

in over the Internet it’s a doddle todrop the bags off, wander around andcatch the plane to arrive in a quietand peaceful Terminal 5 at Heathrow.

Home again and now perhaps we’dbetter think about a wrap-up PressRelease and the next issue of the BGJ.

Actually we thought about the latter way after the deadline (sorry Ed!!!) and theeffort that it took to process the vast quantity of pictures, select the right onesand create the collages..............All in all a fantastic experience, an extremely well organised event, albeit with afew hiccups, and a great achievement by Matthew Macfadyen and our Women’sTeam.Many thanks to the IMSA and the Chinese for organising it all and also oursponsors Winton Capital Management for supporting our British team with,amongst other things, a uniform worthy of the occasion.I hope we’ll see it repeated in 2012 and we’ll all definitely be better prepared.


Equality, Fraternity, more LibertiesFrench Revolutionary Stones

27

INTERVIEW WITH MATTHEW MACFADYENJames Davies and Chen http://ranka.intergofed.org/

Ranka: How did you start to play Go?

Matthew: My father was a biologist.He learned about Go from a colleaguein the USA who had some Japanesestudents. I used to play a lot of chesswith my brother at that time. Myfather thought maybe we would beinterested in Go. So, he bought us aGo set. With this set and a very basicknowledge of rules, I started to playGo with my brothers and some schoolfriends. Then when I was 17 yearsold, I went to Oxford University inEngland. There was an active Goclub there where I could go to playwith other students. I was about 15kyu at that time and didn’t make anyimprovement in the first year. Thestrongest player in the club gave me6 stones and still beat me. I didn’t playso much in the university, about onceor twice a week.Ranka: How did you become 6 dan?

Matthew: After I left the university, Istarted to work in weather forecastingand the London Go Centre opened.I now lived in the city where someof England’s strongest players lived.For the three years that the Go Centreremained open, we used to live at theGo Club on weekends, playing anddiscussing games. Then during therest of the week we would read Gobooks at home. Quickly I jumped from1 kyu to 3 dan, and I began playing intournaments. Once I wanted to takea week off without pay to attend atournament. I was told I couldn’t dothat, so I said, ”Yes I can. I resign.”After that I travelled around Europeand played in many tournaments. Ibecame 6 dan in 1980. I learned a lotfrom the Japanese books and gamerecords.Ranka: Which style do you prefer,Japanese style or Korean Style?Matthew: Well, I enjoyed a lot the pairgames played by Chou Chun-Hsun 9pand Hsieh Yi-Min 4p from ChineseTaipei. It seems that Chou Chun-Hsun’s only interest is in life anddeath. In the semi-finals, the Taipeipair tricked their Chinese opponentsinto trying to kill a group that theycouldn’t kill and finally won the game,which had been favorable to theiropponents. My favorite player is GoSeigen. I’ve been influenced by hisshin-fuseki. I also like Honinbo Jowavery much. He would develop manygroups on the board, each of themquite weak, and then launch an attackfrom his ”weak” groups and crush hisopponents. This is not very often donein modern Go. Kato Masao sometimesattacked from weak groups when hewas young, and you sometimes see

28

this style in O Meien’s games, butmost players attack from strength. Ilike to attack from weak positions. Theaccuracy of professional players likeLee Changho, who can calculate theendgame when there are just 50 stoneson the board, is amazing, but that’s nothow I like to play.Ranka: Which tournaments did youplay in the WMSG? Which is the mostinteresting one?Matthew: I played in Individual Menand Pairs. I was very excited to playwith a Korean 9p. I got a nice game inthe first 40 moves. After that, it wasjust like holding onto a ledge withyour fingernails and just trying tosurvive. The most enjoyable game Iplayed was with Jan Hora 6d fromCzechia. We had played before inthe World Amateur Championship inTokyo. It was a very interesting game.He started on the 7-9 point This timeI started with 5-5, and he played evenhigher at 6-6. Go is an experience youshare with your opponent. There aredifferent kinds of players: some playto win; some play because they love it.I love this game. The word ”amateur”comes from a Latin root meaning ”tolove”. An amateur is someone wholoves what he does. When I knew thatI was going to play with Jan, I had avisceral feeling that it was going to bea good game.Ranka: Do you play this 5-5 openingvery often?Matthew: I got good results withthis opening first in a game withLiu Xiaoguang (China) in the WorldAmateur Championship in 1981.It was good for me over the first50 moves, in the next 20 moves webecame even, and then at the end Imissed a connection at the edge and

my position collapsed. I used to spenda lot of time studying openings. I liketo try invent new moves. Some strangemoves work well when there’s anextra stone in the right place, so if thatsituation arises, you can use them.

Ranka: Do you teach beginners now?

Matthew: Not really. After I quit myfirst job, I didn’t have regular jobs for20 years. I used to stay at home to dohousework, look after my childrenand study and teach Go while mywife went out to work. Now mywife stays at home and I work as anelectrician. So I don’t have much timeto teach. Another thing is that I’mbad at teaching beginners. When youare teaching beginners, you have tokeep from getting interested in theposition yourself, because then thingsquickly get over their heads. That’s themistake I can’t avoid making. I usedto teach by e-mail, sometimes teachseminars, and even have people cometo stay at my home for lessons, but Idon’t teach much any more.

This interview appears on the Ranka website and is re-printed with permission.29

WMSG – A PLAYER’S EXPERIENCESimon Shiu [email protected]

Playing in the WMSG was a greatprivilege and experience. I had neverbefore been in a tournament withprofessionals and had pinned myhopes on getting an opportunityto play one. I was playing in themen’s individual which had around190 entries, including around 30professionals, and some spectacularlystrong kyu players from North Korea.We were broken into 8 groups, eachof which was to play a 6 round Swissstyle tournament before a knock-outphase for the top 16.In common with the rest of the eventthe organisation was impressive andpeople intensive. Boards, stones,flags and names were always laidout well in advance of the start time.Photographers were ceremoniallyremoved after 20 minutes of play,officials seizing on completed gamesto ensure they performed the ritual ofcounting and that the players signedtheir official results sheet, and all theresults carefully transcribed onto an

elaborate wall sized tapestry. Quitedifferent from the neighbouringbridge tournament which had gonefor multiple hi-tech screens.The tournament therefore had thechatty camaraderie of a typical largeamateur congress. Most players foundreasons not to be at the table untilthe precise time their game was dueto start, and often a minute or twoafter. This contrasted (to my eyes)with the professionals who tendedto be sat down 10 minutes before theirgame was due to start; transfixed asif in the middle of their game already.This demeanour carried through totheir games, where they took everymove seriously and used steady andreasonable amounts of time on theclock, whether they were playinganother professional, or a kyu player.Perhaps the relentless number oflightning (30 second byo-yomi) gamesthey play, make it natural for them toplay at this pace.I had a couple of 9 Dan professionalsin my group, including Gu Li, the topChinese player and so, for the firstcouple of rounds, thought I mightjust get my chance, but then myrecent form kicked in and the momentwas gone. Anecdotally I gather theprofessionals were very generouswith their time and comments afterthe games and so it was a real missedopportunity. Even amongst theamateurs there was a large range inability, and so most of my games werequite one sided (normally againstme /) but despite this the range ofstyles made for some really fun games,although the time limits (1 hour, withstrict overtime conditions) were quitetough.

30

GO AND SHOPPINGHelen Harvey, Maria Tabor and Sue Paterson

Back in a rainy English August thethree of us were getting extremelyexcited at the prospect of a trip toChina to play in the First World MindSports Games. Now we are writingthis on a sunny Beijing October dayin the Olympic village overlookingthe Bird’s Nest Complex. Our gamesare now finished and we can relaxand enjoy watching our team-matesin their competitions.All three of us played seven rounds inthe Women’s Individual Go Event.Our opponents came from all overthe world and ranged from 5p downto 17k. The representatives from 34countries were split into four groupsso that no one could play a team-mateand within each group there was a fullrange of strengths.As we were all kyu players, we werefeeling a bit daunted at the start ofthe competition, knowing we couldbe up against some stiff opposition.However, between us we got eightwins from our 21 games, including

beating representatives from Ukraine,Serbia, Bulgaria, Thailand, Belarusand Sweden, and we feel proud ofour results. A huge bonus whencoming to a competition like this isthe chance to meet and play a varietyof nationalities, rather than the ’usualsuspects’ when we play in the UK.The UK team have all stayed invarious parts of the Olympic villagewithin walking distance of the playingvenue. There has been tight security —ID cards have to be worn at all timesand our bags are scanned each timewe enter the playing venue.Throughout the complex there hasbeen a 24 hour security presence andwe have always felt safe here — evenin the early hours of the morningwhen we stagger home from thepub/tea house. While walking roundthe complex we have come acrossother mind sport players and haveoverheard intense discussions aboutalternative cards that should havebeen played and Chess moves thatshould have won the game.

The team has gelled well together andare usually to be found in the pub/tea

31

house in the late evening playing andreviewing games, learning Chinesecard games and, of course, samplinglocal beverages.We have mastered the Beijingunderground system and taxiservice enabling us to visit themain tourist attractions without toomany problems. The signs in theunderground have been in Chineseand English, but for the taxis we haveneeded to present our destination inwritten Chinese.Highlights have been tours to theGreat Wall, Tiananmen Square andthe Forbidden City. Women’s teammembers have also developed ataste for hard bargaining in the silkmarket and we are nearly as proudof our purchases as we are of our Gosuccesses!

We have thoroughly enjoyed ourselvesand feel that we have become muchstronger — so watch out you Britishkyu players!

PROBLEM 2��

Black to play

32

THOUGHTS FROM THE LAUNDRY ROOMMartin & Helen Harvey [email protected]

There’s no better way to play Go than in a tournament – better than on a PC andeven better than going to your nearest club.I wasn’t strong enough to play in the WMSG, but did the next-best thing – spenta fortnight with the team. Somehow, I’d managed to wangle a place on ’Staff’.This came with such delights as managing the team laundry – but sharingHelen’s free accommodation, as she was playing in the Women’s Individual,in the Beijing 2008 Olympic Village enabled us to have an unforgettable Chineseexcursion. I thought you might like to share some memories, so here goes.

Dubai

Strange fashions and items (smokingjars etc.) on sale at the airport, wherewe stopped over briefly each way;took advantage of duty-free scotchas presents on the way out, and avideo-recorder on the way back (yes, Inow realise it would have been better

to buy it on the way out!); electrictaxis zooming among the throngs ofpassengers, hooting at the latter toget out of the way; insufficient loos;spending Pounds and getting changein Dirhams (about 6 to the Pound). �

33

Flights

Emirates Airlines used huge aircraft,with each engine about 5 metres indiameter; plentiful red wine and food;jet-lag; played Tetris on their ICEentertainment system while Helenwatched films; followed outsideevents on the plane’s forward anddownward cameras.

Visuals

Some team members gave me theirphotos and videos as backups, so wereturned with some 6,500 files (22Gb)!

Go Ceremonies

Whilst our holiday allowance didn’tpermit our attending either theOpening or Closing Ceremonies, wesaw the pictures from team membersand the rehearsals for the ClosingCeremony. Much pomp to accompanythe impressive ceremonies.

Go

The Village venue was great. Securitywas very high, such that one had towear ID cards and have them andbelongings scanned when enteringthe playing building. No mobiles wereallowed on in the playing rooms onpain of automatically losing the game.(Of course several phones DID ring,with one person actually taking acall(!) and nobody actually had a loss.)We had the pleasure of meeting upagain with some famous people – theGo author James Davies from Japan,and Michael Redmond, USA 9 danProfessional.

Staff duties

Daily team meetings at 9:00 meantearly shower at 7:00 for me – Helengot more sleeping time before playing.

Collected and distributed the cleanlaundry – mainly the team uniformshirts. Collected dirty laundry,ensured items tagged with names,then took laundry to be paid forand cleaned. Took as many photosas possible of GB players in action(people with appropriate passeswere allowed in the playing area, butfor the first 20 minutes only of eachgame); transferred my own photosonto laptop; took back-up copies offother team members; passed photosto Toby’s PC for use in write-ups asattachments for publicity and to sendto Tony Atkins for updating the BGA’sWMSG web-site.

Olympic Village

Stayed and played within sight (and5 minutes’ walk) of the NationalStadium (better known as the Bird’sNest); all the sleeping apartmenttowers had large letters on them, foreasy directing – we stayed in Block A;guards were on watch round the clock;the playing areas had huge floatingballoons and arches outside them.

Performances

Most of us saw many local culturalshows during the evenings. Theseincluded men changing faces in theblink of an eye (just how do theydo it?), and at the Peking Opera weenjoyed the singing, playing of localmusical instruments, and flyingacrobats.

Culture

The team’s semi-official hangout mostnights was one of the local tea houses.Don’t panic – we’d not gone tea-total, in fact the Tsingtao beer flowedfreely. The staff put on intriguing teaceremonies for us. Have you heard

34

about Chinese loos? It’s the one partof tradition that’s being changed – butnot fast enough. Much more tastefulwas the joyous tai chi and singingby locals in the parks. It was also

flattering to be accosted by youngladies, whose boyfriends wantedphotos of them next to a foreigner! Thekiddies’ colourful kite-streamers werealso a fine sight.

FoodThe free hotel food was generally fine.One day we ventured to a famousdown-town food area, popular withyoung folk and foreigners. We werein for a surprise – brave Sue Patersonate a fried scorpion, which we’d seenwiggling on a skewer beforehand.Also on offer were locusts, grubs andsea-horses. Not our cup of tea! Butelsewhere we had dragon fruit, greentangerines (which are orange inside),flower (petal) salad; and even ducks’feet at the most famous Peking Duckrestaurant on Tiananmen square;hot rice dishes were one option forbreakfasts!

Cost of livingBeer from supermarket was 45pfor large bottle; John Gibson’s Irishbartering tips enabled Helen andothers to buy Go sets and other itemsat good prices; taxis were about £3for a 30-min. ride, the very modernand clean underground cost 20p pertrip, with buses just 10p; entry feesto attractions were about £5, withevening performances for £5 to £10and dinners out say £10; there areabout 11 Yuan (aka Rembimbi) to thePound. �

35

Drink

Apart from the Tsingtao lager, manytried the charming varieties of local tea– oolong, white chrysanthemums, redjasmine flowers.

Transport

Taxi rides – often without seat-belts –were not for the faint-hearted, bicyclesnever had lights on and indeed taxisand cars left it very late before puttingtheir own lights on or signalling. Therewere many suburban motorways,and pedestrians regularly took theirlives into their hands when crossingroads; The Metro was clean andvery modern, with videos and audioannouncements of each station, inChinese and English; buses wereaplenty.

Communications

Had free wi-fi at the Go-playingvenue, the Beijing InternationalConference Centre (BICC), but onlyvery slow Internet, so sending emailstook yonks, with surfing not muchbetter. However, you could pay forconnection in your room or at theInternet Service Centre.

Weather and smog

We generally enjoyed very goodweather – only one lot of rain. Thebad side to that is that smog builds upduring the sunny days. Just learnt that’smog’ is a ’portmanteau’ for the twowords of smoke and fog. The smog gotbad, but cleared up with rainfall.

SanitationShowers drained very slowly;apartment bathrooms smelt a little;street manhole covers sometimessteamed and usually gave a whiff.

PeopleIt was nice for us to meet the Wongsand spend time with them and theTabors; we also met again the Germancouple Michael Marz and Manuela(nee Lindemeyer) and their sonFerdinand.

Sight-seeingWe had unmissable tours of theForbidden City, Great Wall – itreally IS as steep as people tell you– and the Ming Tombs. We alsovisited the Heavenly Temple, LamaTemple, Summer Palace, Bei Hai Park,Tiananmen Square,Yuanmingyuan Park (Old Palace), andof course the Olympic Park. There,we enjoyed the Bird’s Nest and themannequins sporting all the costumesworn at the Olympic ceremonies, andthe Water Cube – although dealingwith the aggressive touts for the latterwasn’t an enjoyable experience. Allthis sight-seeing – on top of the Goconcerns (not to mention staying upfar too late in the Tea House) – meantfor 15 very busy days. We seem tohave slept a lot since returning toManchester!

PostcardsSent 17, as you don’t often get newsand stamps from China!

36

Thank You

To:

• IMSA for arranging the games;• China and Beijing for being such great hosts;• the IGF and Chinese Weiqi Association for their organising the Go event;• the BGA for all their arranging;• Winton Capital Management for generous sponsorship;• Toby Manning for all his constant work for the team both before (aided by

Jon Diamond), at and after the event;• Felicity for supporting Toby throughout;• Ron Bell, who committed nearly all his time to taking photos for the team,

liaising with Toby and sending info back to Tony for the BGA website;• those people who took purchased items back for others who’d used up their

flight weight allowances;• those who turned up for the daily meetings (especially if we had clean

clothing for them to collect);• those who kept up with the group, when we were moving somewhere en

masse;• the people who turned up at our regular rendezvous spots on time (those

who didn’t know who they are ... );• the people who took photos and gave them to me to collate/back up;• Jon Diamond and Tony Atkins for sending out innumerable Press Releases;• Tony Atkins for his tireless and prompt updating of the BGA’s WMSG

website pages;• the People’s Bank of China for their hosting the first Sino-European

Friendship match and providing a splendid banquet;• Vanessa Wong for spearheading the Ladies team to their impressive quarter-

final spot;• Vanessa’s parents Rose and Julius, for all their help for the team and

Toby, sorting out Chinese trips, meals, finding a guide for us and otherarrangements;

• Piers Shepperson for bringing and teaching us his ”Frank’s Zoo” card game(To Ed: not sure about whether this should be thanks though ... );

and, of course, to the ladies at the Tea House!Apologies to any others I’ve temporarily forgotten!To summarise, we took back many great memories. We’d happily visit Chinaagain. We look forward to the WMSG in 2012. It looks like there’ll be one, andmaybe somewhere other than London, so this time we’ll save up some holidays,just in case!

37

WMSG RESULTSJon Diamond [email protected]

All the results are in the Preliminary Groups prior to the Knock-Out stage,except for the Women’s Team, who reached their quarter finals.The grouping system was designed to avoid players from the same countryplaying each other, so was necessarily complex: not all groups were the samesize, nor was the number of games per group consistent either. In total therewere 88 players in the Women’s Individual, 184 Men, 98 in the Open, 24Women’s Teams, 39 Men’s Teams and 38 Mixed Pairs. The competitions arepresented in chronological order, team results are given in board order.

Men’s Individual (4th - 8th October)Gold Kang Dong-Yoon (Korea)Silver Park Jung-Sang (Korea)Bronze Li Zhe (China)

Matthew Macfadyen: 5 wins from 6 games, 2nd=, beating Finland, Germany,Czech Republic, Netherlands, Denmark; losing to Korea.Failed to qualify for Knock-Out stage on second level tie-breaker.

Jonathan Chin: 3 wins, 9th=, beating Belarus, Mexico, Israel; losing to ChinaTaipei, Azerbaijan, Hungary.

Piers Shepperson: 3 wins, 9th=, beating Azerbaijan, Slovakia, Sweden; losing toUSA, Netherlands, Israel.Simon Shiu: 2 wins, 17th=, beating Belgium, Costa Rica; losing to China HongKong, New Zealand, Finland, France.

Paul Tabor: 2 wins, 15th=, beating Spain, Portugal; losing to China Macau,Australia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Switzerland.

Women’s Individual (5th - 9th October)Gold Song Ronghui (China)Silver Lee Min-Jin (Korea)Bronze Park Ji-Eun (Korea)

Sue Paterson: 3 wins from 7 games, 12th=, beating Ukraine, Thailand, Serbia;losing to Hungary, Australia, Poland, China Hong Kong.

Maria Tabor: 3 wins, 11th=, beating Finland, Bulgaria, Netherlands; losing toSlovakia, Ukraine, Hungary, Canada.

Helen Harvey: 2 wins, 19th=, beating Belarus, Bulgaria; losing to Poland, Russia,Canada, New Zealand, Spain.

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Open Individual (6th - 10th October)Gold Jo Tae-Won (North Korea)Silver Ham Young-Woo (Korea)Bronze Lee Yong-Hee (Korea)

Matthew Cocke: 3 wins from 7 games, 14th=, beating South Africa, Ireland,Czech Republic; losing to China twice, Ukraine, Germany.

Tony Goddard: 3 wins, 13th=, beating China Macau, New Zealand, Slovakia;losing to Netherlands, Germany, Norway, Spain.

Women’s Teams (11th - 15th October)Gold ChinaSilver KoreaBronze Japan

Great Britain: 4 wins from 7 matches, 4th= in a group of 12, beating Slovakia 2:1,Argentina 3:0, France 2:1, Hungary 2:1; losing to Australia 0:3, China Taipei 0:3,China 0:3.Losing in the Quarter Final to Korea 0:3.[Individual scores: Vanessa Wong 4; Alison Bexfield 3 and Natasha Regan 2]

Men’s Teams (13th - 17th October)Gold KoreaSilver ChinaBronze Japan

Great Britain: 3 wins from 7 matches, 11th= in a group of 19, beating Portugal5:0, Argentina 4:1, Belgium 3:2; losing to China Taipei 0:5, Germany 2:3, ChinaMacau 1:4, France 0:5.[Individual scores: Tony Goddard 3; Alex Selby 3; Alex Rix 2; Jon Diamond 4and John Hobson 3]

Mixed Pair Go (13th - 17th October)Gold Fan Weijing & Hang Yizhong (China)Silver Hsieh Yi-Min & Chou Chun-Hsun (China Taipei)Bronze Lee Ha-Jin & On So-Jin (Korea)

Matthew Macfadyen & Kirsty Healey: 4 wins from 7 games, 4th out of a groupof 8, beating Argentina, Finland, Italy, Belarus; losing to Korea, North Korea,Russia.

Go Medals TableCountry Gold Silver Bronze Total All SportsChina 3 1 1 5 26Korea 2 4 3 9 9North Korea 1 0 0 1 1Chinese Taipei 0 1 0 1 1Japan 0 0 2 2 2

39

APPEAL

FROM THE BGA SUNSHINE HOME

Blacky is one of the fortunatestones. He was found languishingin the corner of a dark and dingypub and mistakenly identified fromthat game with M&M’s R©. Luckilythe Sunshine Home heard of hisplight and have given him a goodhome.Most people do not realise thehardships often endured by Gostones.Many owners, rather then keeptheir stones in the comfort of theirown bowls and lids, let their GoStones wander all over the place.No wonder that these ’latchkey’stones go missing.The lucky ones end up in otherowner’s bowls, or even get to takepart in the counting of an adjacentgame. The unlucky ones of thisgregarious species are doomed fora solitary life far removed fromtheir natural habitat on the Goboard.Then there are the indignities thatare often inflicted on Go stones.There are those owners who cruellybang their stones down on theboard or rattle them together intheir hands. Do such owners notrealise that other owners noticesuch mistreatment.Some owners specialize in keepingstones in overcrowded conditions(called Dangos), or leave theirstones to spend entire games inpointless positions (empty trianglesand such like). The Sunshine Homeencourages owners to shape upand look after their stones.

Then there are those owners whoprematurely try to mix the differentvariety of stones on the Go board.Owners need to be educated thatthe white and black stones are twodistinct species, and while theymay make eyes at each other theydo not interbreed. If an ownerreally wants to keep both speciesin a confined space then there aretimes and methodologies for doingthis. Stones that are not givenenough of their own space or feelthey are outnumbered by the otherspecies often do not thrive and soend up departing the scene.Of course there are exceptionsto the above, and experienced’stonedologists’ know when andwhere to break the rules. When anowner is a relative novice howeverthen we implore them to learngood stone husbandry first.

The Sunshine Home appeals to allowners that the next time they playGo to treat their stones well andto look after them. Remember ahappy stone has a happy owner.

40

HOLIDAY IN JAPANNeil Moffatt [email protected]

In mid-April this year, I had the goodfortune to travel to Japan for a 17 dayholiday. My good friend Yuka Sato,now a resident in Saitama, near Tokyo,but formerly a friend in Cardiff, wasmy escort for the Tokyo end of mytrip.

She met me at the airport on a day ofalmost constant rain and heavy cloudcover. Fortunately, this was the lastsubstantial rain I was to encounter.

A few days later, whilst in a districtof Tokyo, whose name, alas, eludesme, Yuka pointed to the sign of an Igoclub. We had no time to visit then,but I came back on my own a day ortwo later. And of course could notfind it. So I asked lots of people andeventually journeyed to the 10th floorof a building where I found a fewplayers busy playing in a room witharound 30 Go boards on tables.

Whilst there, I played a lady who wasa little weaker than my 5k, whom Iwas able to beat relatively easily.

This was not the case with my nextopponent, a 5 Dan, even bearing inmind the likely reality that grades inJapan are inflated 2 or 3 stones higherthan their European counterparts.

However, before my inevitableresignation, I was able to exertsignificant pressure on two of hisgroups, stretched as he was incountering my 5 stone handicap.

I was made to feel reasonablywelcome, but my efforts atconversation in my limited Japanesewere mostly ignored.

The serious demeanour of senior Goplayers in Japan, I was to discover,differed somewhat from the overtlyfriendly and courteous manner of theJapanese people in general. Indeed,the gentle friendliness of the Japanesewas one of the lasting memories of myholiday, and would readily draw meback to Japan in the future.I travelled on Shinkansen – thebullet train – to Kyoto. I was initiallysuspicious that I was being dupedabout the famed speed of the train– surely it was too smooth to betravelling that fast? But a closeinspection of the pace with which theoutside scenery shot past confirmedthe bullet status of the train.On my first day in Kyoto, I believe Iwalked for around 8 hours, revellingin the many sights and tastes of thisfamous city. �

41

At the end ofthis marathonday of exercise, Ieventually foundthe Igo salon incentral Tokyo,very close to themain station.

Which remindsme to tell you thatthis station is likeno other station Ihave ever seen.Not only doesit contain 31restaurantsand a 10 storeydepartmentstore within itsvast structure,but it just looksfabulous in itsopen architecture.

Whilst I was content to watch thesolitary game being played at 9pm inthis little salon of about 8 boards, theowner, [see photo on inner rear cover]had other ideas. In the few wordshe spoke to me, I learnt that he wasShodan, and that I was therefore totake 2 stones handicap.

So I was duly chuffed to play a solidfighting game, read accurately for achange, and win by resignation. Thenext game was even, but I prevailedagain, by resignation. I declined theoffer to take white, preferring insteadto leave with a 100% record intactagainst this perfect stereotype of aJapanese senior citizen.

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During mysubsequenttravels, Isaw thisadvertisingboard in asubway.

You wouldrarely see theequivalentChess advertin the UK.

My travels took me to Hiroshima,Nara, and back to Tokyo, and to aplace called Arawa, near Saitama.It was the home of Yuka’s friendAya, and the location of a final Igosalon. This was the most friendly – Iwas even given a fan and sweets as Iplayed against another Dan player.

My style of play was commentedupon, and all deemed me to be Danlevel. Now it just might be that I wasconcentrating better than normally, butI am fairly entrenched at the 5k level inthe UK, so feel again that the Japanesedo indeed exaggerate their grades.But for the amateur, it is a game andpastime, so why not enjoy it with anelevated sense of prowess?

You can read the full story with more photos at http://tinyurl.com/5awr83[22mb download] and move up to Neil’s home page; excellent website.Tony Atkins adds that the subway advert is for: Sunshine City Igo Salon (a largeshopping complex near Ikebukuro in Tokyo).

MEMBERSHIP REMINDER

BGA membership runs on an annual basis, based on quarter start dates.Whilst most members do run on calendar years, have you checked yours?Are your details are up-to-date? Contact [email protected].

43

DVD REVIEW: THE GO MASTERSandy Taylor [email protected]

The Go Master is a 2006 film fromdirector Tian Zhuangzhuang aboutthe life of Go prodigy Wu Quingyuan,better known to the Western world asGo Seigen. The film has recently beenreleased on DVD.

Watching the film, I wasn’t at all surewhat to expect, but it certainly didn’tdisappoint. From the very beginningthe scenes are beautifully constructedimages of Japan’s culture, even as theviewer is thrown in at the deep end ofthe plot. Two tense Go players meetand sit to play a game, and the viewerhas set off on their journey through GoSeigen’s life.

The plot documents the life of GoSeigen. Go as a game hardly featuresat all, ultimately being so central to GoSeigen’s story that it is hardly worthincluding. The film is about the Go

Master, not where he put the stones onthe board! Games of Go are naturallyimportant in many scenes, but arenever the focus. Attention is insteaddrawn to Go Seigen’s composureand indomitability; even as Kitanicollapses coughing up blood in frontof him, his attention never waversfrom the board.

Readers may ask how a film aboutGo Seigen could leave Go as just abackdrop. After all, Go Seigen wasresponsible for some of the greatestever revolutions in Go theory, andhas made a massive contribution toGo theory as a whole. It is almostsurprising to watch a film that focuseson his humanity. I certainly hadn’tpreviously thought of Go Seigenspending a quiet evening readingthe newspaper in his conservatory,an activity that even I can enjoy!

The answer is that, unexpectedly, themost interesting part of the film isthe detail it goes into regarding GoSeigen’s avoidance of Go. Assumingthe film is reasonably accurate inits portrayal of events, Go Seigen’slife was fascinatingly varied, evenincluding an extended period in hisprime during which he didn’t playGo at all! It can be quite difficult tofind information about Go players,so an entire film devoted to the life ofone of the most famous is an unusualopportunity.

The Go Master covers the politicsand challenges of Go Seigen’s life,mostly over the course of his pathto domination over professional Go.Within the first few scenes Go Seigenis shown beginning to make his firstwaves in the waters of professional

44

Go. His tengen based fuseki issomething immediately new andunusual, and from this point on theviewer is as surprised at his actions asthe Japanese Go world on the screen.The Go Master is made up mostlyof short clips, moving photographsthat describe specific situations fromGo Seigen’s life. These range fromthe powerful and dramatic downto the mundane and saddening. Ascene showing the ‘Atomic BombGame’ played in Hiroshima justas the bomb was dropped appearsamongst mundane scenes of Go Seigenconversing with friends. There aresad depictions of Go Seigen’s declinein health due to tuberculosis, butalso scenes of happiness, surpriseand drama. None of these elementsare overplayed though and the filmretains a good balance of themes tokeep the viewer interested.As a film, The Go Master is very wellmade and produced. It puts across

a great deal of information aboutboth Go Seigen and what surroundedhim during his life, whilst remaininginteresting throughout. There istension and interest in the events inthe film, but this is created by worryfor the characters themselves ratherthan exactly what they are doing. TheGo Master is a film about people, andnot ultimately about Go.

The Go Master is likely to appeal asa film to anyone with any interestin Japanese culture, the history ofGo, and Go Seigen himself. My owninterest in this era of Go historywas enough to keep me interestedthroughout, but would not have beenhad I approached the film lookingfor an epic about the game of Go orabout Go Seigen’s games. I definitelyrecommend the film to anyone notsure about the content, as its beautifulcamerawork and skilful directingalone are probably enough to sustainan interest in the content.

PROBLEM 3��

Black to play

45

BOOK REVIEW: TOP PLAYERS TRAININGTony Atkins [email protected]

Catalin Taranu is another one of thoseauthors I know, but only a very recentaddition to the list, as this is his firstbook. Some of you will rememberhim from Canterbury EGC in 1992,when he was 5d. Since then he studiedGo in Japan, entered the professionalranks and rose to 5p. He is now backin his native Romania, teaching andplaying Go around Europe. There is agroup of strong European players whohave also studied Go in Japan, but not

made pro. Five of these (Pop, Hora,Mero, Nechanicky and Silt) cametogether with Catalin for a weekend ofstudy at the home of Vladimir Danekin Prague. The idea came from JanaHricova and the book is published byPromoGo, the Czech Go promotiongroup that she started.Over the weekend the players studiedprofessional games together andplayed a series of games for analysis,with the idea of raising their standardto meet the challenge coming fromKorea and elsewhere. The bookcontains 13 such games, with analysisby Catalin. Each has a good number offigures and diagrams, but the wholebook only has 68 pages so is quiteexpensive for its length. Howeverif you like to study games, then itmust be beneficial to study these topEuropeans; finding out how theythink and why they are so muchbetter than us; without the problemof professional games that can beanalysed at too high a level.The front cover shows the authorseated on the floor going over a gamefrom Go World with Christian Pop.The rear cover shows Pop and OndrejSilt undertaking a different form oftraining on exercise machines. As thebook says for good performance intough games also physical strength isnecessary.

The book is available from the BGA Book Seller (code ZEPT) at £12.

46

AN OUTRAGEOUS 5 STONE GAMEIan Davis [email protected]

The following game was betweenJames and James, but they’ve askedfor their surnames to be withheld.

However, I can reveal that one ofthe players is the same James whofeatured in BGJ 144.

Figure 1 - Moves 1 to 50

�was originally played at, but after a severe reprimand an undo wasplayed.

� is an overplay, do not be attracted by the star points.

� and�were good punishments, but� felt like it had been washed in mildgreen Fairy LiquidTM. White cannot cut here without damaging his own side. IfBlack wanted to safeguard the cut then at least a keima1 at A was better.

1knight’s move

47

If�weren’t played and Whitewere to try the cut, this wouldactivate the aji in his ownside. Connecting with� isso painful for him. The resulthere is clear. White’s side ispressed down, while Black’spotential is expanded.

� again a keima at B was better here.

* Black commented that he was unhappy with the aji remaining in his lowerside, and refused to admit that around 70 points rested within the walls.However the joseki choice was clearly favourable to Black, so perhaps attachingto�, at C, with�would have been a better choice.

If Black chooses thenormal joseki, he endsup overconcentrated.

1 seems suspiciously far, but2 helped removed the aji White left behind,making it more awkward to invade.

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5 beginning a Roundhead sequence2.

C following the advice of ”Conceited proverbs for White”3: ”When nothingworks, fake a ko.”

D taking the offered stone5was correct, this would prevent White fromsetting up a capturing race later.

H Black claimed to have read out the ladder here, but he failed to notice thatJwill be in atari when it is played out.

N offering White some chances in the push and cut lines to come, betterV atonce.

V Incorrect - Black had to block White’s haneU.

\ Black could have considered connecting here at], pushing up his libertycount to four. But in the game he began a good sequence, taking sente to seal offhis single territory.

2The Cavaliers were unsuccessful, despite their ’dashing plays’, but the Roundheads, despitetheir blunt plays, were successful.

3http://senseis.xmp.net/?ConceitedProverbsForWhite

49


e there is some aji on top, but nothing seems to work for Black.

u despite the graveyards on the top side, White (no time to count) still felt heneeded more.

v the wrong empty triangle, better| to eliminate the suggestion of aji.

~ fear, Black should live at once with A, White’s floating group is in no positionto do anything other than die.

� Black begins a sequence which erases the chance to make life for his group.

� Black correctly resigned after seeing this move. White still has the two bigyose hane on the lower side. The central white group will still die, but Black willnow need to capture it.

50

SUPERKO’S KITTENSGeoff Kaniuk [email protected]

In the previous British Go Journal (BGJ145 Summer 2008) Toby Manning,reporting on the triple ko incidentat Durham, gave full marks to theorganisers for awarding a jigo as a“. . . pragmatic, sensible result, evenif it was against the rules.” Now I haveno problem with the result given —after all the Tournament Director’sdecision is final! However I think wewould be taking a backward step if weretreat into previous rulesets as soonas we encounter a difficulty.One of the strong points about theAGA rules is the way it handles playerdisputes. In essence, players must playout any disputed situation until it isresolved. If they cannot resolve thedispute, then all stones are deemedalive. I believe that by applying theseideas to the superko problem we canobtain a satisfactory outcome. In thisarticle I will give my own opinion onhow to resolve the problem.The AGA rules are clear: You mustnot play a stone which creates a boardposition that you created on an earlierplay. So the only time a dispute canarise is when Black, say, claims thatWhite has played a stone to repeatthe board position, but White deniesthis. If there is no game record and theplayers cannot reconstruct the game,then there is a dispute about the factsand there is no proof of any violation.In this case the players have no otherrecourse but to call the referee (whomI shall call Reff). We are now outsidethe framework of the AGA rule setbecause the players cannot agreethat the previous move was illegal.We can also encounter the situationwhere the players are just confusedand think they may have repeated

the board position and call Reff foradvice. So how does Reff set aboutresolving the dispute or shedding lighton confusion?First of all, Reff should try to get theplayers to agree some basic facts: whatexactly is the position giving rise to theissue, who is to play next, and what isthe questionable play. Note that I usethe word ’play’ rather than ’move’ —it is always legal to pass under AGA,and move means play or pass.If we can achieve the aboveagreement, then since we know theplay under question, the players oughtto be able to unwind it. I hope no onethinks I am being deliberately unkindhere, for obviously to unwind a play,you just remove it from the board.True, but don’t forget to replace anystones that were captured by the play!Once the move is unwound, youmay find that the players are thenable to unwind a further move, andwith some coaxing it may be possiblefor the players to unwind the entiresequence to an agreed earlier startingpoint. This is always worth trying!If this happens Reff’s job is doneand the players can now resolve thesituation by themselves, within theframework of the AGA rules. In thiscase I would recommend that theplayers just continue from the agreedstarting point without having to payany pass stone penalty. I would alsorecommend that the players nowrecord the game move by move lestthey fall into the same trap.Let us consider some examples. Ihave chosen just three to illustratesome aspects of the superko rulethat we may not have encountered

51

in actual tournament play. In thisarticle I will consider the simple ’sendtwo, return one’ problem, then insubsequent journals consider how onecan repeat the board position withoutrepeating the starting play and finallythe dreaded triple ko.

Scene 1

Diagram 1

Diagram 1 shows what at first sightlooks like bent four in the corner, butwith one more internal liberty. Thiscreature is found lurking in HarryFearnley’s bestiary1.

The players have reached the positionshown in Diagram 1; White has justplayed� and Black thinks that thisis a repeat board position created byWhite, who doesn’t believe it. Neitherplayer agrees to any reconstruction ofan earlier position. Since the playershave reached an impasse, Reff hasoffered them the following options:

1. The game is voided — meaningthat it is treated as never havinghappened, the players are eachgiven a bye for the round. Theycould be paired in the next round, ifthere is one..

2. The game is stopped and all stonesare treated as live.

3. The players resume with Black toplay.

White really wants to win so 1 and 2are not acceptable. The only hope is aresumption with the possibility thatBlack makes a mistake in the ensuingplay, so they agree to resume withBlack to play while Reff watches andrecords.

Diagram 1.1

Black plays�, capturing� fromDiagram 1. White has no useful move,so passes. Black now legitimatelyataris with�.

Diagram 1.2

Diagram 1.2 shows the resultingposition. It is natural for White tocapture the triangled stones by playingat A, but if he does so . . .

Diagram 1.3

. . . we get the board position inDiagram 1.3 created by White. This

1http://www.goban.demon.co.uk/go/bestiary/molasses ko.html

52

is the same as the position createdwhen White played the triangled stonein Diagram 1! White cannot answerBlack’s atari at� and so must acceptthat the group can be captured.

Scene 1 ConclusionWe have shown a superko situationwhich is not the usual ko position.One may ask how Diagram 1 cameabout — why and when did Whitefirst play the triangled stone? Thereare many possible answers of course,which I leave as an exercise for thereader. One answer is that Whiteintended to play the 1-2 point butblundered and played 1-1 instead.Why should White be able to arguefor a jigo in the face of such a blunder?

Scene 2

Diagram 2

In this example, the game in Diagram2 has just had the exchange� for~.With 4 points of territory, White wasexpecting Black to pass. However,Black is one point behind, so playsatari with�.

Diagram 2.1

White of course captures at�.

Diagram 2.2

Black now captures at�.

Diagram 2.3

The sharp reader will notice that thisposition is exactly the same as in thestarting diagram, Diagram 2, so maywonder if this is a superko violation.However the starting diagram wascreated by White, but this diagram iscreated by Black, so this is a legal play!White has no useful move, so passeshanding Black a pass stone —remember that a pass is always legal.Black however cannot play at Abecause that would repeat Diagram2.1 which was created by Black.So Black passes, handing over a passstone. The players agree that the topleft is seki with an eye point so Blackhas three points of territory and Whitefour. However White must pass lasthanding Black a further pass stone andconsequently the game ends with anequal score.

Scene 2 ConclusionThere was no need to call Reff inthis game, but it is possible thatDiagram 2.3 may have triggered aquestion. If Reff was consulted, thenan explanation of the superko rulerequiring the same player to re-createthe position with a play should suffice.

53

AU STATUS SOLUTIONTim Hunt [email protected]

This analysis uses ideas from ’Eyespace Values in Go’ by Howard A. Landman1,a paper that will probably appeal to Go players of a more mathematical bent.However, the explanation below should make sense to non-mathematical Goplayers.

The position has three areasof eye-space that can beconsidered independently:The bottom of the ’A’ is halfan eye. That is, if White playsfirst, there is no eye here, whileif Black plays first, then thereis one eye. Is there really nochance for Black to get morethan one eye here? No, asdiagram 1 shows.

Diagram 2 shows that the top of the ’A’ turnsout to be three-quarters of an eye. That is, ifWhite plays first, at�, there is no eye here;but if Black plays first, he can get one and ahalf eyes.

1http://tinyurl.com/3qw39x

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Already, this is enough to solve the position if Black plays first: If Black turnsthe three-quarters of an eye into one and a half eyes then, with the addition ofthe half eye below, this is two eyes, and so alive.The situation is more complicated if White plays first. White had better dosomething in the ’A’ to stop black living. It is always better to play in three-quarters of an eye than in half an eye, so White should play at�. Then thequestion is, can Black do enough with the ’u’ to live. Black needs to make an eyein sente here, then go back and convert the half eye to a full eye. I believe thatthere is no way for Black to do this, but there are a number of interesting lines toconsider and I am not able to present a complete analysis.

Diagram 3 shows just onerepresentative line. Go problemaficionados may like todetermine whether a blackstone at in this diagram, oron another nearby point, wouldaffect the status of the originalposition.

THE BGA ANALYST [email protected] Ward would like to remind the membership of the analysis serviceavailable to members.

ANSWER TO PHOTO QUIZ 145

John Barrs was the founding father of British Go.He was the first British dan player and received a shodan certificatefrom the Nihon Ki-in. The certificate has taken pride of place in theBGA archive since his death in 1971.

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Benjamin Franklin experimentswith Lightning Go

HISTORY QUESTION

The last time a British team visited China was in 1979 when they werepictured on the cover of the BGJ #46, a whole 100 editions ago, playing

Go on the Great Wall. It is good to see a repeat.

What card game, much loved by BGA members, did they discover andbring back to Britain?

Again, apparently a new card game has returned with this year’ssquad.

PROBLEM 4��

Black to play

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10 YEARS AGOTony Atkins [email protected]

September started as normal with theNorthern at Allen Hall in Manchester.However it was a week later thanusual and unusually included aSpecial General Meeting to change theBGA constitution. The tournamentwas won by Michael Zhang fromLondon. The tenth Milton Keyneswas won by Des Cann; in a side roomMatthew Macfadyen won the thirdand deciding game of the BritishChampionship against Edmund Shaw.Matthew however lost at Shrewsburyto Simon Shiu, but won the Wessexat Marlborough and tournament atSwindon. Francis Roads won theThree Peaks and Tony Atkins won theWest Surrey Handicap.The London Open at Highburyfeatured three strong women: GuoJuan, Liu Yajie and Nam Chihyoung.Guo won the tournament by winningthe final against Lee Hyuk. LiuYajie was in the middle of a threemonth teaching visit to the UK.Nam Chihyoung was visiting theevent from Korea, researching fora magazine article. A strong VictorChow from South Africa won theLightning Tournament.The European Fujitsu Cup was inAmsterdam and was won by ex-

Chinese pro Guo Juan. She beatCatalin Taranu, 3p, in the final. Thelosing semi-finalists were Hans Pietschand Christoph Gerlach.Helen Harvey was our representativeat the Women’s World Amateurin Yokohama in November. Shewon three games to place 12th. Thefollowing week at the Pair Go in Tokyowe were represented by Sue Patersonand Des Cann. It was the last yearbefore Swiss system came in and theylost to a strong Japanese pair in roundone. They then entered the specialhandicap group which also featuredTony Atkins playing as a special guest.The Ing Computer GoeChampionships were held in Hendonin North London and 17 programstook part. David Fotland’s ManyFaces of Go won on tie-break from theChinese program Wulu.In Japan, Cho Chikun beat O Rissei towin the Meijin; O beat Yamada in theOza. Kobayashi Koichi was also doingwell winning the Tengen against Kudoand becoming the Kisei Challenger.Korean titles were still dominated byCho Hoon-hyun and Yi Chang-Ho. Mawon the Chinese Mingren and ZhangWendong won the first Chinese Kisei.

PROBLEM 5��

Black to play

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BGA OFFICIALS

The administrative body of the British Go Association is the BGA Council. TheHonorary President, Honorary Secretary and Honorary Treasurer, are electedby AGM and become ex-officio Council members. Five other Council membersare also elected and further members may be co-opted by Council. In additionthe AGM appoints an Auditor. The Council also creates a number of committeesand appoints a chairman and members to each.At the AGM in 2008, Edwin Brady succeeded Stephen Bashforth as secretary.Joss Wright was elected to Council, while Fred Holroyd and Tim Hunt stooddown after several years service. Toby Manning was co-opted in April 2008.Council would like to thank Stephen, Fred and Tim for their work for the BGA.The current list of Council members, Committees and Officials is givenbelow. Full and up to date details, including full contact information and jobdescriptions of all committee members, can be found on the BGA web site, athttp://www.britgo.org/officers/.

CouncilPresident Ron Bell [email protected] Steve Bailey [email protected] Edwin Brady [email protected] Members Brian Brunswick [email protected]

Anna Griffiths [email protected] Kaniuk [email protected] Lu [email protected] Manning [email protected] Wright [email protected]

Other officialsMembership Secretary Phil Beck [email protected] Seller Gerry Mills [email protected] Editor Barry Chandler [email protected] Alison Bexfield [email protected]

CommitteesBook Seller’s Steve Bailey ([email protected]),

Gerry Mills, Bob Bagot, David Hall.

Clubs and Membership Anna Griffiths ([email protected]),Xinyi Lu (assistant chair), Phil Beck, Edwin Brady, John O’Donnell, GerryMills, Robin Hobbes, Jenny Radcliffe, Toby Manning, Geoff Kaniuk, TonyAtkins, Paul Margetts, John Gibson.

External Relations Toby Manning ([email protected]),Peter Wendes, Sheila Wendes, Les Bock, Adam Atkinson, Paul Smith.

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Journal and Newsletter Edwin Brady ([email protected]),Barry Chandler, Jil Segerman, Ron Bell, Jon Diamond, Tony Atkins, SteveBailey, Stephen Bashforth.

Player Development Brian Brunswick ([email protected]),Tony Atkins, David Ward, Matthew Macfadyen, Tim Hunt, Peter Wendes,Geoff Kaniuk.

Tournaments Geoff Kaniuk ([email protected]),Tony Atkins, Steve Bailey, Stuart Barthrtopp, Jim Clare.

Website Joss Wright ([email protected]),Anna Griffiths, Brian Brunswick, Tony Atkins, Jon Diamond, Ian Davis,Jochen Fassbender, Dave Denholm.

World Mind Sports Games Toby Manning ([email protected]),Jon Diamond, Ron Bell.

Youth Toby Manning ([email protected]),Peter Wendes, Ron Bell, Tony Atkins, Sue Paterson, Ian Davis, Alex Selby,Neil Moffatt, Bob Bagot, Jenny Radcliffe, Mike Lynn, Tony Atkins, PeterWendes, Francis Roads.

USEFUL WEB AND EMAIL ADDRESSES

Journal comments and contributions: [email protected] for advertising related matters: [email protected] for general BGA enquiries: [email protected] website: http://www.britgo.org/

specifically http://www.britgo.org/bgj/recent.htmlfor links to current issue .sgf files.

BGA email list: [email protected] for general discussion and announcements - control from:http://three.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/gotalk

For discussion of how the BGA operates: [email protected]://two.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/bga-policy

Newsletter Distribution contact: [email protected]

BGA Tournament Day mobile: 07506 555 366.

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UK CLUBS LIST

The up-to-date clubs list, with a map of the UK, many ’phone and emailcontacts, and links to club webpages, is available at:http://www.britgo.org/clublist/clubsmap.html

Please send corrections and all new or amended information to the Journal andNewsletter editors and Website maintainer via [email protected]

Recent changes are at: http://www.britgo.org/clublist/update.txt Allsignificant changes between full lists will be published here.The previous full list appeared in BGJ 142.Please subscribe to the email Newsletter for more frequent updates.

ARUNDEL Sue Paterson’s new email address is [email protected].

BRISTOL now meets at King George VI, Filton Avenue.

CANTERBURY now confirmed as deceased.

EDINBURGH Mondays from 19:00, the Meadows Bar on Buccleuch Street.Wednesdays from 19:30 in Alan Crowe’s flat (1F1) at 34 Haymarket Terrace.No longer meeting on Thursdays. Web page: www.edinburghgoclub.co.uk.

EPSOM now meeting on Monday or Wednesday, by arrangement.New web page: http://www.yuhong.demon.co.uk/egc.html.

GLENROTHES New go club!Contact Alan Stewart Tel: 01592 772247. Wednesdays from around 19:00at 63 Braemar Gardens, Glenrothes, Fife KY6 2RFWeb page: www.glenrothesgoclub.co.uk.

LONDON NW (GREENFORD) sadly ceases to exist.

LONDON (TWICKENHAM) Web page: www.britgo.org/clubs/twick.

NOTTINGHAM UNIVERSITY now meets Tuesday term time at 19:30 in theTrent Building.

OXFORD UNIVERSITY club is no longer meeting regularly.

READING has moved to Eclectic Games, at the base of Thames Tower, 37-45Station Road, Reading, RG1 1LX (opposite Reading station) where it meets onMondays (except bank holidays) from 18:30.

SWINDON also meets on Sunday nights in the Beehive on Prospect Hill.

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CONTENTS · Tony, as usual, provides all the News, Problems, Photos, and a Book Review. Ron Bell...

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