Go Dojo - thoughts so far

I have cranked through 3 of 4 sections in Contact Fights and 1 of 4 in Sector Fights. I like the concrete recommendations he makes. Things like, "if your group has 6 liberties you MUST play away". It feels like I have a bunch of new techniques to apply, but I haven't played any games to try them out. I expect to use them awkwardly at first, but we will see.

One other interesting thing has happened, my perception of the board and the game have changed again. The board no longer seems like a 19x19 area to place single stones, it is starting to feel more like a "field" that can support 20 or so groups. Stones work together as groups, so there is a more tetris-like feel as you build odd shapes and try to connect them on the board.

The game also feels to have shortened, because the endgame starts a lot sooner than I thought. Here are the three phases of the game (and their Japanese names):

Fuseki - Until there is a weak group.
Chubansen - Until there are no weak groups.
Yose - Post weak groups.

So, the whole game seems different. Each player builds a few groups. There is a struggle to exploit weak groups. Finalize the borders. Done.

Back to the Go Dojo - I really like the format and the style of presentation as well as the subject matter. It seems like it has revealed some of the principles of GO that I hadn't understood beforehand. I need to see if I gain any stones in real play, but at this point I would recommend Go Dojo to anyone serious about GO. The first sections of each seem applicable for players at an early stage of their GO career.

Ordered Go Dojo software

I lost a couple games last night, and I felt my skill at contact fighting and the resulting liberty races was my downfall (or major weakness).

So, I ordered Bruce Wilcox's Go Dojo: Contact Fights and Sector Fights today. Hopefully they will help me jump up a few kyu. There is a pretty complimentary thread about these programs on GoDiscussions.com, so I decided to get them.

I oredered them from YMI, so I think I will get CDs. You can get them emailed as a zip file more quickly, but the Wilcox website seemed a tad unfriendly. It' s hard to tell exactly how to order there, and you don't really know when it was last updated, or if anyone will respond to your paypal order. Apparently his site works fine, but I will happily wait a few days for my CDs.

"Are they here yet?"

Another move for the GO utility belt: the Clamp

Here is another move that can help out at times. It has miai as it threatens to put the clamped black stone into atari either from above or below the clamped stone. See more at Sensei's Library! http://senseis.xmp.net/?Clamp

Ko - still don't feel ready to post about

I have had games where there are kos. I have filled them or lost them. But I have never had a game where a group's life or the score of the game depended on winning a ko. I also haven't read up on it in any spot that makes me feel like I can talk on the subject with any kind of authority.

So, I am not forgetting about the subject, I just don't really have any good advise yet.

I need to find a game where a ko makes a life and death difference, and another where the score depends on winning a ko. Those examples should be instructive.

The other piece of the puzzle is "ko threats". To win a ko, you have to have more ko threats than your opponent. As I understand it, a ko threat is a move that (if unanswered) will hurt more for your opponent than losing the ko.

So stay tuned for more detail on ko, ko threats, etc. I will post that in another thread when I understand it better.

Bad shapes - ripped moves and Elephant's eyes

This post is almost directly "ripped" from a page on Sensei's Library. So, you can see the source here: (FourBasicShapes). I will talk about 3 shapes - Knight's Move, One Point Jump and Elephant's Move. The first 2 are good moves that can be exploited, the 3rd is not so good as we will see.
On the left side of the diagram below you see a knights move (or keima in Japanese) and a one point jump created by black. These are good, normal moves. But they can be "ripped" apart. One proverb says, "Attack the knight's move at the waist.". On the right you can see the same shapes build by white, but ripped apart by black. These show good shapes for black and bad shape for white.


Another possible move is the Elephant's Jump. It is named after the move in shogi made by the elephant. It is the One point diagonal jump seen below at the left. It has a weak spot called the "Elephant's Eye", which is right in the middle of the 2 stones (see the 3 stone group second from left). The 2 groups on the right show possible continuations. White can either play directly against the black stone or diagonally (doing a 'shoulder hit' on the black stone at the Elephant's Eye). In each case black has a continuation that makes one of the shapes above. The Elephant Jump leads to a ripped shape!

Creating bases and running to the center

Living on the side requires more stones than living in a corner. But sides have a lot of good territory to offer if you can figure out how to occupy them. Many times, you will attempt to grab territory on a side between two corners that your opponent has claimed. (If you don't break up the control of 2 adjacent corners, then your opponent will strengthen the side between then and claim it all!)

Here is a basic scenario:

1. Game Begins.
2. Opponent claims 2 corners while you claim 2 others.
3. You grab the star point on the side between your opponent's corners. Your intent is to grab part of the side.
4. Your opponent tries to stop your invasion on one side, while adding some strength to the corner.
5. You extend out toward the opposite corner to claim the area between your 2 stones and threaten the corner as well. This is known as a base or moyo or framework.
6. Now that you have a base, some time during the game you will need to defend it and make 2 eyes (while your opponent tries to stop you). With luck, you will end up with something like this:
7. That didn't get you a ton of territory, but it did reduce the area your opponent can claim. What if it looks like you won't be able to make 2 eyes? If things go bad, run to the center (using 1-point jumps or however you can)! The point is that the moyo you made will live if it is connected to stones with eyes in the middle, or some other group you have in a corner or side that also ran to the middle. Here, a failed invasion on the right side runs to the middle and tries to connect to that moyo on the bottom.
8. You can see that if the stones on the right connect with the bottom, they will be alive and will threaten white's right corner and side. If not, they have no eyes and are likely to be captured.

So, build bases on the side to invade and reduce your opponent's territory. When your opponent attacks your base, try to make 2 eyes. If possible, leave some room (and unsurrounded stones) to let you "run to the middle" in case your base can't make 2 eyes. Running to the middle also allows you other groups to attempt to run to the middle to connect with each other, share eyes, and all live!

BONUS NOVELTY: Here's a cool shape that is alive, even though it has a false eye in the middle. I could imagine something like this being created when 2 bases run to the middle and you opponent almost stops them from connecting:

Comfortable on 19x19

Like the title says, I am now comfortable playing on a 19x19 board. At first it seemed very big and intimidating. I had no idea what a good opening moved looked like, so it was uncomfortable placing a stone on a big empty board. I picked up the habit of playing on a star point (4-4) or a 4-3 point since it seemed a lot of other players do that. I still do - and for the most part it is due to convention rather than wisdom. You too can play those openings without a lot of background into why they are considered good. (If you want to dig into openings, there is a ton of info on where to start and why. Search for joseki or openings...)

Beyond the fear of an empty board, there is a need to get familiar with general whole board strategy. Looking at a board with 10 or 20 stones and having a basic understanding of what each player is trying to do helped make me comfortable. There are only a handful of basic strategies players seem to follow during the opening:

• Claim a corner - invade the other player's corner
• Build a base/framework/moyo on the side and try to get 2 eyes - stop opponent's base from getting eyes
• Run to the center in case a group on the edge can't make 2 eyes using the edge alone - block opponent from running
• Expand your influence (by putting stone in open areas near your other stones) - invade opponent's territory

The strategies in orange above don't require any contact with opponent's stones. Both players can pursue them for a bit before needing to start combat. Often though, at least 1 player will be looking for battle right away! The invade/block/stop side of the opening will generally lead to contact fighting.

So, understanding your basic options and being able to read what your opponent is thinking makes 19x19 less stressful.

Everytime I log into KGS it is like going to a big swimming pool. At first I don't want to "get in the pool" - I look around, hope someone else will put up a perfect game for me, check a few players stats, maybe view a game in progress - but eventually I end up setting up my own custom game. Playing with consistent time controls helps as well - I like the default 30 minutes each + 30 second byo yomi.

19x19 is big enough that you have to seriously commit to playing. A full game with the above time controls can take over an hour. That 1 hour of play usually gives me a few hours of analysis and review as well. I like to look over some other games my opponent has played, look at their rank graph, review the game and see what I did well and where I was weak, etc. 19x19 is the real game. It shouldn't take too many tries before it changes from seeming huge, to seeming to be a good size!

Gaining stones while not playing

I have gone from 20 kyu to 18 kyu on KGS without playing a game. I can only assume that my rank is being adjusted due to the progress of some of my opponents - especially those that were unrated or still had a question mark.

Although it is fun to see my rank increase magically, I am getting worried that I need to play a game soon to avoid having a question mark slapped on my rating. Maybe I can get a game in tonight!

ADDITIONAL NOTE: after about 10 days of inactivity I did get a question mark added to my rating, but 1 ranked game seems to have removed it again. I also read on KGS FAQ that the games you have played are weighted. So, older games must lose weight with time, which helps account for my drift up a few ranks while not playing. (My oldest games are ranked the lowest, so, at least for now, I will get a gradual lift as those old games lose weight in the ratings calculation.)