Go Puzzle Sundays

I hope you got last week's problem.  It's actually a dan level problem, so if you did find the solution, your reading skills must be top notch.  Today's problem is a lesson in mutual life.  Oops, maybe I gave too much away?

Solution to Last Week's Problem

Seems all too easy, doesn't it?  You have to reduce White first before you can start using his weaknesses.  When Black takes at 7, this group is decided by a ko.

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Go Puzzle Sundays

Let's kick it up a notch for this week's Go Puzzle!  This one is actually not hard once you see the solution, but it might take a long time to figure it out.

 

Black to play

I know, it looks like White is alive, but he has some weaknesses.  This is one of those cases where the first move is everything.

Last week's solution

Black 1 makes an eye in the corner.  This problem relies on your knowledge of false vs. real eyes, because you might think this is the right move but worry about your second eye in the center.  Nothing to fear!

 

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Thursday Go Tips

So, as I may have mentioned, I did really poorly at the Chicago tournament and lost 4 out of 5 games.  That was a pretty humbling experience.  It's kind of difficult to think that one can work really hard and still not even achieve average results, but such is life and the way of competition.  My mindset is simply to learn as much from my mistakes as possible and move on.  I do have a difficult time brushing off losses, as I really hate to lose, but being disciplined and maintaining the correct mindset helps me pick myself up and move on.  This brings me to today's Go tip: How to take your loss and have it make you stronger.

I like to scrutinize all the games I've lost to really pick out where I made a mistake.  This is also rather cathartic, because I can go over my thought process and realize I'm not such a bad player; I just make mistakes and misjudge situations like any other homo-sapiens.  Now, some of you may be wondering how effective self game review is, especially without a stronger player present to watch over you.  It can be quite effective, as no one knows your thought process better than you!  What I do is I pick out three moments in the game where I clearly screwed up.  You don't need a strong player to tell you losing a 30 point group is bad.  I then work through these situations and try to find better moves.  It's a lot easier to see your mistakes when you're less emotionally invested in winning.  This part will take time, as you don't really know how your opponent will answer, so do this part slowly.  Find a good sequence, and satisfy yourself that the new sequence you found is better than the old one.

If you need help, websites like Eido Go and Gobase.org have pattern searches so you can look up board positions and joseki, so that you can compare them to your game.  If you search through Gobase's database and find not one pro who played your move, you might want to either rethink it or call the AGA and let them know you've found a new joseki!  After you're all done reviewing, forget about the game and move on.  This will make it so that you are more flexible in the future and that you see your losses as learning experiences.

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Belated Sunday Go Puzzle Part Deux!

Sorry, I was busy from the Chicago tournament and forgot to set my blogger update to automatic!  I endeavor to get next week's Sunday Go Puzzle published on...well...Sunday!  As for the Chicago tournament, I did very poorly.  I only won one game out of five.  My Go has really gone south.  I'm making bad mistakes, playing poor shape, losing on time, and all around not having a good go at it. In any case, on to the Go puzzle!

 This one should be fairly easy, if you think about vital points.  Black to live!

Last week's solution

If you saw the diagonal move at 1, then pat yourself on the back.  We know that this is a capturing race, and since there is no way Black can make an eye with one move, we need to make sure White can't.  Also, we're utilizing the fact that White has to waste moves capturing a stone that's not connected with the important group.  After 7, White's toast.

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Chicago Tournament this Saturday

I'll be in Chicago this Saturday for a tournament!  Wish me luck! comments

Belated Go Puzzle Sunday

My apologies for not having the Go puzzle for Sunday yesterday.  I had such a hectic, awful day at work I spent the rest of the day recuperating and forgot completely about the blog! :P  Without further ado, here it is:

So far the problems we've done have been...really simple.  Let's turn up the difficulty level!

Ah, a good old fashioned capturing race.  Neither opponent can make two eyes, and since they don't share an inner liberty, it looks like someone is going to have to die.  How can Black win the capturing race?

Last Week's Solution:

This problem is easy if you know the throw in tesuji.  Black plays at 1, and White cannot ensure that he has a real eye here because if he plays that way, he'll run out of liberties and be captured.  Black 1 is a basic tesuji that I hope all beginners learn. comments

American Go Professionals

So, some thoughts on the new system for American Go Professionals.  This has been weighing on my mind, because I always thought it would be cool if there was more international participation in the professional Go world.  It'd be nice to see someone in the top three other than Sedol Li, Li Gu, and Changho Lee.  However, when I heard news that there would be a professional system coming to America, I felt skeptical, not excited.  Don't get me wrong, I'm glad the Korean Baduk Association is going ahead with it.  They're putting up some serious money to make sure that this endeavor comes out. It should be done sooner rather than later, but it feels like it's way to soon and that there just isn't going to be enough support from the general population for it to be popular.  Most Americans have never seen Go, and only a small percentage of those that have actually play.  To top it off, even only a small percentage of those that play have any aspirations to become a dan level player, let alone a professional.

The first American professionals are going to be Chinese and Korean immigrants or American born Chinese.  It will probably be someone who came to the United States when they were four.  I have no idea what the salary would be, as the first American professionals are not going to be in line to win the Samsung Cup anytime soon.  The strongest American players would be doing it as a side thing; they'd have their own professional life in some other area worked out and just play Go as a professional for a trip to Asia.  Putting a hold to life for a few years to take the necessary amount of time to really study Go is out of reach for someone not already in a secure financial situation.  Plus, the KBA is going to be subsidizing this for awhile to come.  I'm not sure how much money the AGA pulls in from membership and donations, but they're not going to have a lot of help.  I can maybe picture a Chinese or Korean businessman whose lived in the United States for a number of years sponsoring a tournament, Cotsen style, but that's going to be few and far between.  

As for the future, I think the best way to go about making America more similar to Korea or China, in terms of the number of people who play Go, will require some grassroots effort.  As it stands, I cannot imagine an American parent with no connection to Asian culture let their kid study twelve hours a day to professionally play a game they neither understand nor respect.  You'd have to have a massive cultural perception change.  Even Hikaru no Go has not made an appreciable dent in this regard.  I'm personally thinking of some was myself, and when summer  rolls around I can take some of my secret projects and make them into a reality.  We'll see what happens in the future.

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