Last week was the first of hopefully many wonderful evenings of cake and rengo. This time, r4d had to step in for my newly-appointed official rival (more on this to follow), but in theory, there are four of us who play at roughly the same strength, so I’m looking forward to some good games.
A highlight of the evening was definitely the 9×9 marzipan with chocolate and mint imperial pieces. Many prisoners were devoured….
Just for the record, no trip to Madrid can be considered even near complete without a visit to the Nam-Ban Go Club. Directions and meeting times are on the website (which helpfully has French, English and Spanish language options).
I visited on a Friday evening. Numbers were down because of the World Cup (Spain versus Chile), but there were still a number of players there, and the club went out as a group for dinner and drinks after the games.
The go club meets Monday, Thursday and Friday at Círculo Catalán, Plaza de España nº6, Madrid. If you’re looking for the venue, you can take the metro to Plaza de España, although don’t do what I did and wander around underground and end up emerging at Noviciado. I got a bit disoriented in doing so, and ended up being a bit late!
The building itself can also be a bit of a challenge to navigate – I wasn’t sure if I had the right place; there was a big lobby on the ground floor, but no one there. I climbed a set of stairs and met some people who were perhaps involved in a dance class or theatre performance of some sort. They didn’t know anything about go, but suggested I carry on up the stairs. Sure enough, I found Nam-Ban on the next flight up.
I was welcomed by the incredibly generous Masaru Mikami, 6-dan. Everyone was paired up when I arrived, so he played me a game with a 9-stone handicap. I tried to play strong, attacking moves while reinforcing my position. At the beginning, I think I did reasonably well at keeping the white stones separated. Of course, my position ended up crumbling and groups died that seemed oh-so-alive just moments before, however, it was a great experience and I learned a lot. We reviewed the game and Mikami pointed out a few places where I could improve. So useful!
I then played a mathematician (yay!) around my level (and lost – I misread a life-and-death situation) and watched a review of another player’s game. I think I doubled my Spanish vocabulary – ‘poco’ and ‘grande’ came up quite a lot, as did ‘importantisimo’ and ‘conectar’. (Oh dear – I’ve already forgotten the word for ‘cut’ – this does not bode well for my Spanish go career!)
I also learned the word ‘pichones’ which means something like ‘pigeon’ or ‘small chick’ and is a word used affectionately within the go club for beginning players or for not-so-good moves made by stronger players who should know better. (One of the women in the club had made a ‘Pichones’ t-shirt in the style of the famous Ramones logo for a team tournament – it was ace!)
Everyone in the club was extremely friendly and welcoming despite my very (very!) poor grasp of Spanish. I’m looking forward to meeting up with this lot again, either in Madrid or at other European tournaments. Thank you to all for a wonderful evening!
Recently, I came across an article called “Playing opponents that outrank you” at Lose 100 Games. The author talked about how he had been hesitant to request games from stronger players and mentioned that one place where he has felt comfortable challenging stronger opponents was in the ladder tournaments on OGS (Online Go Server) . He gave great instructions about how to join, so I won’t repeat that here; suffice it to say, I followed his advice and started an account on OGS.
I must say, I really, really like OGS. I like it so much that I’ll use the word ‘really’, and I’lluse it twice in a row.
I’ve always preferred face-to-face games to playing on online real-time servers. I’ve played a lot on KGS, but I usually end up playing quick games against bots on those types of servers. These games always feel like ‘throw-away’ games; I’m plonking stones down rather than doing any thinking. I do play real people occasionally, but somehow, I feel more like I have to work up to it; I tend to do it mostly when I know I’ll be playing in a real-life tournament soon, and want to get some practice in.
OGS is set up for turn-based games, so the pace is slower and less hectic than real-time go servers. This really appeals to me as I can take some time thinking over moves. I sometimes feel a bit time pressured on real-time servers; I’m sure a lot of this is in my head, but I still sometimes rush into moves because I worry about making the opponent wait…particularly if that opponent is stronger.
OGS has a wonderful ‘analyse moves’ link that you can press which opens up a board that lets you play out variations. You can also download the .sgf at any time and play out sequences on your favourite .sgf editor. (I’ve found this very useful for games that move reasonably slowly. I work through a sequence and keep a record so that I can quickly refer back to the paths I’ve worked out for each possible variation, should I so desire. I hope this isn’t considered ‘bad form’!) One can also enter conditional moves in advance, so that you don’t need to be online if you’re playing pretty predictable hane-connect endgame moves or that-3-3-invasion-of-a-4-4-point-sequence or whatnot.
Although I am quite shy about playing people in general online, somehow the OGS ladder tournaments feel much less intimidating to me. I think it’s because they’re set up so that anyone can challenge anyone, and there’s the expectation that people lower down the ladder will challenge you. I’ve only just started and I’ve already challenged and been challenged by multiple people of all different sorts of ranks.
Also, the structure of the ladder tournaments gives one a nice sense of purpose and progression. I have only just started playing in the ladder tournaments, but so far it’s been a wonderful way to play a variety of people of different strengths. You can choose who you play, so you can choose weaker, stronger or evenly matched opponents…and anyone can challenge you.
My main goal is to improve my game, but I must admit, it’s nice to see my rank in the ladder change as well. I suppose it’s a sort of shorter-term reward. I get the sense that encouraging tournament play is important to the developers, which I really appreciate. I’ve found real-life tournaments to be very motivational organising study, and I expect the ladder tournaments will be very good in terms of keeping me in the habit of playing actual games online.
This isn’t to say I don’t like real-time servers. I’m sure I’ll spend just as much time on KGS, winding down after long days by playing quick games with GadgetoBOT and NukoBot and whats-his-face-bot who is always trying to avoid the headcrabs. Watching games between strong players unfold before your eyes in real time is also pretty nifty.
However, the bottom line is that on OGS, I feel more inclined to play real games of go against real people, in a format that I find very enjoyable. I’m hopeful that this relationship will last long after the honeymoon….
There are a couple little practical things to note about OGS.
First, the ratings don’t quite match KGS or BGA ratings. (I’m back to being a double-digit kyu on OGS! If that’s not motivation to improve, I don’t know what is!) There are several bots that you can play anytime who respond reasonably quickly; these guys were really useful for establishing and solidifying one’s rank. (I believe one needs to have finished two ranked games to start the ladder tournaments; playing a couple bots are a quick way to do this.)
Second, you can send a personal message to people to thank them for a game. You can also rate them by clicking on their name and going to their profile page. (I think it may be a good idea to add a subject to any personal messages. I’m not 100% sure my subjectless messages were actually sent…at least, they didn’t appear in my outbox.) Most of my opponents so far have been quite friendly and helpful. So far, it has felt like a very welcoming place.
Finally, I wanted to say thanks again to Lose 100 Games which introduced me to OGS.
I have not been slacking off; I have been playing go online.
The BGA KGS Tournament has started and will last all of August.
There are only 27 of us so far, but players can sign up any time during the month and can participate without being BGA members, so perhaps the numbers will increase a bit.
(This accounts for one online game; the others I have been playing at OGS. I’ve rather fallen in love. More on this soon.)
Unlike the previous chapters of Lessons in the Fundamentals of Go, “Life and Death” includes a number of problems for the reader to solve.
Kageyama states that the fundamental rule for living or killing is to increase/reduce eye space. Look at trying to do this first. If it works, great. If not, is there a “central eye making point” that could be occupied? If these two things fail, fanciness may be involved, but Kageyama recommends starting here when approaching life and death problems.
After some problems, Kageyama looks at an opening where there is a two-space jump along the side that is beginning to be surrounded. He demonstratesa situation where one can gain a lot more by surrounding a group of stones and letting it live than by killing some stones but making the opponent strong elsewhere:
“If Black can surround White successfully and gain outward influence, that is enough. If at the same time, he can contrive to inject some uncertainty into the question of whether White is alive or dead or what, then he will be ecstatic.”
He then gives some examples of handicap games in which he demonstrates how black should use the handicap stones to ensure that he doesn’t get surrounded and forced to live small.
Kageyama also enjoins the reader not to continue to waste stones on a group that’s alive or to play to many stones in one’s own territory once a group is alive. Sente is important, he reminds us, so don’t give it up!
The section on the enclosed two-space jump is extremely useful. In my own games, when I see two-space jumps that are beginning to become surrounded, my heart starts racing. There’s surely some way to play with these, I think. I get quite excited and then usually make some silly moves that end up helping the opponent. Or, if it’s me becoming enclosed, I panic and flail about until I ensure that I’m dead.
Of course, Kageyama has words to say about over-excitement as well:
“Does the blood rush to Black’s head at being thwarted? I have seen a traffic safety poster that says ‘Temper causes accidents.’ Driving a car and playing go are both human activities, so what applies to one applies to the other.”
I’m sure over-excitement and anger have both caused many road accidents. Kageyama, I shall work on becoming a better driver.
I was visiting my sister in Wrocław, so thought I’d see if I could find some Go players.
Wrocław has two active Go clubs and some wonderful players, some of whom have been playing since the 1970s!
The vice-president of Sente was extremely helpful in connecting me with some Go players in Wrocław, even though he wasn’t around. The website for Sente is here:
Another club, Gokurabu, meets at the University of Wrocław’s Institute of Theoretical Physics. This site has information about this club, and a section on the history of Go in Wrocław:
Unfortunately, neither club was meeting during my stay; it is the summer holidays, and many of the Go players were attending a summer Go Camp out of town. However, I met up with some players individually for several games and cups of coffee. (Amusingly, I’ve ended up playing more face-to-face Go on holiday in Poland than over the past couple months at home!)
One nice location was an old water tower that had been converted into a cafe. Another location was the ‘chess club’, a nice little cafe/ice cream parlor where they didn’t mind us taking over tables with gobans.
Many thank-yous to Sente and to the Go players of Wrocław for the warm welcome and many games of Go!
Go Commentary: Huang Longshi & Influence
I want to improve at Go. Often, stronger players suggest reviewing games by professional or very strong amateur players. When I’ve tried to do this in the past, I’ve very often ended up feeling mostly confused and frustrated. My sense has been that I’m usually better off reading a book aimed at my level or doing problems.
Today, all that changed.
A few people on the OGS forums suggested the go lectures at Go Commentary, so I found myself at a page with commentary for a game between Huang Longshi and Jiang Tianyuan – game four in the site’s small but hopefully growing Greatest Games Ever Played series.
I clicked the first of the four videos and was instantly hooked. I don’t know who the commentator is – he seems to go by countsheep in the guest book comments – but I am officially now a fan.
Countsheep went through the entire game, step by step, and gave a very clear and thorough explanation of what was going on at each step. He explained the thinking behind the moves, and he also spent time showing what might look like ‘natural’ moves at each step and explaining why they weren’t played in this particular game.
The game itself was presented as an example of how to utilise influence in a game and, I must say, it is a perfect game to illustrate this concept. In the first third of the game, I couldn’t image how white was going to turn around and compensate for all the stones he (seemingly) sacrificed in building up his great white wall.
I reviewed the .sgf before reading the commentary and felt completely lost, but I had no trouble following the commentary. Somehow, countsheep managed to make most of the moves feel normal and natural. In the end, there were only three moves that seemed rather magical to me. I now understand why they work, but they were so far off my radar that I don’t know if I’d be able to find them again in a similar situation.
I’ve just started watching some of the other videos on the site. There are several short videos that are aimed at kyu-level players and are less than 10-minutes long. There are also a few more in-depth game analyses. Everything I’ve watched so far has been very helpful and interesting. Also, the website tagline, “Love Life, Love Go” immediately makes one feel welcome.
I particularly like learning a little bit about Go in China and about Chinese Go players. I hope that more classical games are discussed in the future.
Thank you, countsheep, for taking the time to make these excellent videos – I look forward to the next instalments!
PS Huang Longshi is my new hero.