Go Puzzle Sundays

Black to play

For this week, we have this doozy of a problem.  It's actually quite simple, but the first move is key and might not be intuitive for some. If you need a hint, just think of a way to make the bottom not an eye, since White clearly has a solid eye on the right.

Solution for last week's problem:

 If you saw the tesuji of White 1 then you get a gold star!  We need to create miai (a two way street) to get rid of that second eye since the first one is rock solid.

What makes this problem fun is that that sneaky stone in the corner gives us a solid bridge out, so that our stones can take the vital spot without fear of being captured.  Try out other variations in your head too!  Just because we find the right first move, doesn't mean that we still cannot mess up the followup. comments

College Go Tournament Tomorrow!

Tomorrow (April 14th) is the first round of the Collegiate Go Association's Championship Tournament.  I haven't participated in the league at all, as I had been busy, but I decided my team needed me for the championship.  So far, we have a pretty strong team.  Seungjin, our resident 7 dan, is first board.  I'm second board, and Yizao Wang will be third.  We'll be facing off against Carnegie Mellon. I have no clue who I'll be facing off against, but it should be very interesting to say the least.  You can catch the games on KGS.  The festivities will be kicking off at around 1 p.m. Eastern Standard Time.  See you there!

comments

Thursday Go Tips

I love 10 second Go.  My account on KGS is "blitzkrieg" where I only play ten second games of Go.  It really gives you no time to plan ahead, study the board, count, or well...do anything besides read out as far as you can, as accurately as you can, in the least amount of time.  It gets your heart pumping to say the least.  I love blitz and I play it as often as I can because it really helps out my slow games a lot.  So, my advice for today is: play a 10 second game of blitz!  Set your main time to zero and give yourself 5 byo-yomi periods of 10 seconds.  This is not a lot of time to think, and it may be frustrating at first, especially if you're the type of player that likes to really consider each move.  Well, time to get you out of your comfort zone!  You'll feel weak at first, but for me, blitz is a zen experience.  It shows me where I am strong and where I am weak, and translates to more wins in slow games!

comments

Professional Profiles: Michael Redmond 9p

Michael Redmond 9p

Michael Redmond is one of very few Western Go players and plays in Japan.  He's the strongest Western professional, weighing in at a whopping 9 dan, and is the author of "The ABC's of Attack and Defense."  I had the pleasure of briefly meeting Redmond at the U.S. Go congress in 2006 when he was there.  It was kind of cool to discuss a board position, and then turn and say, "Well, what would Michael Redmond 9 dan think of this position?  Why don't we just mosey over and ask him?"  Redmond became a professional at the age of 18 in 1981 after having been an insei in Japan for four years.  He started off a lot later than your average insei, so he probably had to work twice as hard as the other children to catch up.  Redmond has racked up an impressive slate of wins and became 9 dan in 2000.  He still works hard at improving his Go even into his forties, and concentrates on studying the caste games of Shuusaku and improving his endgame accuracy.  In an interview with the AGA E-Journal, Remond said, The result was that I was reviewing very high-quality games, games in which the players were not being greedy, but were going for the balanced moves, and showing very good positional judgment, and I think that reflected onto my game and helped me a lot,” said Redmond. “I’m much more aware of what’s going on.”

comments

Go Puzzle Sunday

 White to kill

From now on, Sundays will now be "Go Puzzle Sundays," where I will give you a go problem to solve.  Go puzzles are called "tsumego" in Japanese, but you know me, I always use English whenever possible.  Doing lots of Go puzzles is the key to becoming better at the game.  Try this problem on for size!  It's harder than it looks.

comments

Thursday Go Tips!

Standard sequences (joseki) are a pain in the butt to memorize, especially when you're not as strong as you'd like to be.  It's important we really know them, however, because having a good basis of knowledge about standard sequences improves just about every area of our game.  We're often told, though, that we should never just memorize standard sequences, that we have to understand the principles behind each and every move so that when we are presented with a situation outside of the book, we still know what to do.  I personally still think you just need to sit down and memorize a pile of standard sequences.  There are a couple reasons for this.  Not knowing standard sequences can hold you back, because for some moves, it really is just knowing where the correct spot is.  Secondly, standard sequences give you ideas for new moves that you may not have thought of before.  Is there a way to make learning standard sequences interesting?  Should we just lock ourselves in a room with a pile of Go books and hope we don't lose our sanity?  Learning standard sequences doesn't have to be difficult.  It's basically just memorization, so flash cards would be ideal.  If that reminds you too much of school, then here's a goofy way to memorize sequences.  Find some music you really like.  I find that Motown works best, but to each his own.  While you play each move, sing out each word of the song.  For instance, the two space high pincer double approach standard sequence is "Chantilly Lace" while the star point one space low pincer is "We didn't start the fire."  You can of course pick music that fits your taste.  It may not be effective for everyone, but at least you can look like you're rocking out while playing Go.

comments

Professional Profiles: Xu Zhang

Xu Zhang (U Cho) 9p

Xu Zhang is Taiwanese, but is a professional at the Japanese Go Federation.  Xu was born January 20, 1980 and became a professional in 1994.  Xu was always good at strategy games.  His father felt that it was best for children to play strategy games like Bridge or Go to develop their minds and character, and Xu was especially talented.  He studied with Lin Kaifeng (Rin Kaiho) and worked very hard to earn his spot as a professional.  He actually left Lin Kaifeng's dojo and called his parents to come get him from Taiwan.  His parents came, and gave him a few days to calm down and make up his mind about continuing his studies.  That night, Xu had a dream about Go, and his father concluded that the boy had an inextricable link to the game.  Xu Zhang has been a force in Japanese Go and can compete on the international scene, which is welcome for Japan who has not seen much in the way of success in international tournaments.  Xu won his first major title, the Honinbo, by beating the "killer" Masao Kato in six games.  Xu Zhang then went on to win the 9th LG Cup, which was Japan's first international title since Chikun Cho's victory in 2003.  Xu Zhang has had some serious competition from Yuuta Iyama over the past year, but he is still a powerful force in professional Japanese Go.  His style is a lot of fun to study and I recommend going over his games with Shinji Takao.

comments