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Number 164 Summer 2013 Price £6.00
Michael Redmond visits the UK
Simultaneous against Cambridge Juniors
Strong Players’ Training Weekend
British Go Journal 164 Summer 2013
CONTENTSEDITORIAL 3LETTERS TO THE EDITOR 4MICHAEL REDMOND’S TEACHING WEEK Toby Manning 6CONSIDERING THE POSITION: PART 6 David Ward 9MICHAEL REDMOND’S TEACHING SESSION Francis Roads 10SQUEEZE ME Chris Oliver 12VIEW FROM THE TOP Jon Diamond 15BGA NEWSLETTER NO. 190 Jil Segerman 16MISSING A ROUND IN THE BAR Geoff Kaniuk 18COLLECTING GO XVII: CLUB NEWSLETTERS Tony Atkins 20PROFILE: ROGER HUYSHE Roger Huyshe 22PROFILE: FRED HOLROYD Fred Holroyd 23UK NEWS Tony Atkins 24COMPUTER GO – GAMES AGAINST ISHIDA YOSHIO Nick Wedd 28WORLD NEWS Tony Atkins 30TRUSCOTT VS. COLLINS – ONLINE LEAGUE Tim Hunt 32CONSIDERING THE POSITION: ANSWERS David Ward 38SOLUTIONS TO THE NUMBERED PROBLEMS 42CONTACT INFORMATION 44
Copyright c© 2013 British Go Association.Articles may be reproduced for the purpose of promoting Go and not forprofit, providing that the British Go Journal is attributed as the sourceand the permission of the Editor and author(s) have been sought andobtained in writing, in advance.Views expressed are not necessarily those of the BGA, nor of the Editor.
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PHOTO CREDITS
Front Cover — Andrea Smith
Inside Front Cover — Andrea Smith, Tom Urasoe (Nihon Ki-in).
Inside Back Cover — Kirsty Healey, Paul Barnard, Pat Ridley.
Back Cover — Tony Atkins.
UK News — Trigantius — Helen Ward.— British Congress winner — Tony Collman (USGA).
All other photographs were provided by the article authors.
The .sgf files for problems and games printed in this journal appear onwww.britgo.org/bgj/issue164
Links to electronic versions of past issues of the British Go Journal,associated files, guidelines for submitting articles and information about
other BGA publications appear on the BGA website atwww.britgo.org/pubs
EXPLANATION OF JAPANESE TERMS
Where space permits, less common terms are explained in footnotes.If no explanation is provided then take a look at:
www.britgo.org/general/definitions
www.britgo.org/bgj/glossary.html
or search senseis.xmp.net/?GoTerms.
Please let the Editor know if the term is still not found. One of theexperts can then write an article to explain it ,
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Welcome to the 164th British Go Journal.
This IssueThe highlight of the last few months was the teaching visit by Michael Redmond 9p.There is an article by Toby Manning, who was responsible for the overall organ-isation of the tour, and one by Francis Roads on the Strong Players’ TrainingWeekend, at which Michael was the trainer this year. Some photographs fromthe visit are on the front and back covers.
Old JournalsYou will find some references to old Journals in this issue – there’s some greatmaterial in the old Journals and I recommend browsing them. You can find alleditions that are more than one year old on the website atwww.britgo.org/bgj/bgj, starting with the very first, BGJ 0, in 1967. See alsoView From the Top on page 15 for plans to give members online access to therecent and current editions as well. Printed copies of many (up to BGJ 130) arebrought to most tournaments by Tony Atkins or me to be given away (thoughwe do ask in exchange for a small donation to the Castledine-Barnes Trust,which supports youth Go). Contact us if you are after a particular one. Formore details on the availability of backnumbers, seewww.britgo.org/bgj/backnumbers.
Request for FeedbackIn this edition you will find another of our articles for Double-Digit Kyus(DDKs), this time on two useful tesuji – the ‘two-stone edge squeeze’ and the‘two-stone corner squeeze’. We introduced this series in response to feedbackthat the Journal needed to provide more material suitable for DDKs. If you areenjoying this series and would like to see more, or for that matter, if we aremissing the mark, please drop me a line on the email address above. If youhave any suggestions for future topics we should cover, please let me knowabout those too.
CreditsMy grateful thanks to the many people who have helped to produce thisJournal:Articles and Letters; Tony Atkins, Alison Bexfield, Jon Diamond, Fred Holroyd,Tim Hunt, Roger Huyshe, Geoff Kaniuk, Toby Manning, Chris Oliver, FrancisRoads, Jil Segerman, David Ward, Nick Wedd, Li Zixiao and our anonymouscartoonist, Sideways-Looking Persons.Proof-reading: Tony Atkins, Barry Chandler, Martin Harvey, Richard Hunter,Neil Moffatt, Chris Oliver, Isobel Ridley, Edmund Stephen-Smith and Nick Wedd.
Pat Ridley
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LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
The Snowball Effect
In a rash moment I thought it mightbe a good idea to organise the BritishOpen. Before I knew it, I had found avenue, the BGA council had approvedit and it had been announced at the2012 AGM – I was committed to theventure.In organising the British Open I madethe rash comment on the website thatit was supported by the LetchworthGo Club. This club had met in thedim and distant past but had beendormant for a considerable number ofyears. I was approached by some localplayers, asking where this club met.Before I knew it, I had committed torestarting the Letchworth Go Club.
While planning the re-launch of theclub, I explored grants availablefrom the local council and localheritage foundation. Finding therewas only one day left to submita grant application for the nextawarding committee, I hastily filledout an application form. I reasoneda grant was more likely if we alsostarted a Junior Chess and Goclub, so this was added in to theplanning. I was awarded a grant forstart up equipment (chess sets anddemonstration boards), which alsoincludes some conditions aroundthe junior club. I was committed tolaunching two new clubs.
At this point I had to confess to thefamily what I had done. Fortunatelythey have been very understandingand are supporting the new ventures.We will now have to see if these clubsare successful.The moral of this story – do nothesitate, organise a major Go congressin your area and Go clubs will sprout
up like mushrooms around thecountry. The wiser owl (your spouseor partner) might advise – be verycareful when you volunteer to run theBritish Open.
Alison [email protected]
Tournament Sub-culture
What has happened to the old sub-cultures of British tournaments? Timewas when you could easily get gamesof Pits or Liar Dice going in the pubor restaurant after a hard day’s Goplaying. Now there seems to be ageneration of players who haven’teven heard of these once popularactivities, let alone know the rules.And where are all the Go songs,British in origin, but which have nowspread to other parts of the world,even Japan? Go songs are still sungregularly at the European and USGo Congresses. The Americans takethem rather seriously, with an annualcompetition for the best new song. Butin Britain the custom of singing themafter tournaments is being kept aliveonly at the Isle of Man festival.
There is a link to the rulesof Pits on the BGA website(www.britgo.org/links/classic.html)but only historical references toLiar Dice and Go songs. You canfind the latter on my own site atwww.rodingmusic.co.uk/frwebsite/gosongs/gosongs.htm.What a shame it would be if thesequintessentially British customs wereallowed to die!
Francis [email protected]
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Trigantius – Origins Rediscovered
A few days after the tournament Iwas back at CB11 for one of our usualFriday evening thud and blundersessions. The cafe sometimes hasFriday events and so we are sentdown to the basement. While I amdeep in concentration, two newfaces manage to find us and, in myperipheral hearing, the usual chatbegins as to strength and wherethe new players come from. Muchto my surprise, an American fromKentucky announces he has notplayed competitively for morethan 30 years, but it was he whooriginated the name of the CambridgeTournament, and sends his regards toCharles Matthews.Intrigued, I asked a little more andlater googled ‘Trigantius latin’ tofind BGJ 37, July 1977, which givesa short paragraph. Trigantius was aJesuit priest who might have been the
first Westerner to discover Go, on histravels in Japan. To verify this youwill have to refer back to the originalLatin text, which apparently can befound in the rare books room in theuniversity library. So thank you DaveErbach, we are still going!
I share an attributed homespun truthabout the game from the same BGJ 37.
Dan player to kyu player: ‘Territoryis like women – the harder you chase,the less successful you will be’.
And two of my own, both overheardafter losses.First loser: ‘That was the worst gameI have ever played’. Winner: ‘Don’tflatter yourself!’
Second Loser: ‘I should have treatedhis move with mild derision, ratherthan absolute contempt’.
David [email protected]
˜ ˜ ˜
PROBLEM 1
Does White need todefend the corner?
1The CB1 cafe, where the Cambridge City club meets.
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MICHAEL REDMOND’S TEACHING WEEKToby Manning [email protected]
In December 2011, Tom Urasoe,Overseas Coordinator of the NihonKi-in (the Japanese Go association)1,spoke to the BGA concerning apossible professional visit to the UK.We welcomed the offer and said that,to get maximum benefit, we neededplenty of notice – at least three monthsand preferably six – and that anyprofessional who came to the UK hadto have a reasonable grasp of English.
Further correspondence anddiscussion took place over thefollowing six months, and a meetingtook place at the European GoCongress in Bonn, August 2012.At this time the BGA proposed thefollowing timetable:
• the visit would take place overabout 10 days, covering twoweekends;
• during the first weekend therewould be training for strongplayers;
• during the second weekend theprofessional would attend atournament taking place in theUK;
• in the intervening week he wouldvisit various clubs within the UK.
The Nihon Ki-in accepted thistimetable, and Michael Redmond 9pcame to the UK for a week inMarch/April 2013, with financialsupport from the Great BritainSasakawa Foundation2.
Michael RedmondBorn in California, his grandparentswere British and lived in Birmingham,so Michael visited the UK severaltimes in his youth. Michael learnt toplay Go as a child and spent a fullyear in Japan at age 13, learning thelanguage and going to a Japaneseschool. One of the conditions wasthat he returned to the USA, but whenhe did so it was with a return ticket(bought with money he had savedfrom living expenses), telling hisparents afterwards!His enthusiasm for Go was clear toeveryone.
The Teaching Week Details3
The first event was a trainingweekend for strong players inCambridge. Attendance was limitedto 20, with playing strentgths from 1kto 5d. We asked participants to bringalong a game for Michael to commenton: this meant that he could discussthe sort of mistakes commonly madeby British amateurs.While this event was restricted tostrong players, the other events wereopen to all members of the British GoAssociation.While Michael was in Cambridge hevisited the Cambridge Junior Chessand Go Club. In his two hours there,he spoke to an enthusiastic audienceof a dozen youngsters of school age(nine boys and three girls). He gavea talk about how he came to be aprofessional, and then he played allthe children (and one parent) usinga mixture of 13x13 and 9x9 boards,
1www.nihonkiin.or.jp/index-e.htm.2www.gbsf.org.uk.3See also the article by Francis Roads on page 10
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with handicaps. The handicaps werereasonable and the speed of playwas good. He made lots of positivecomments, especially to the weakerplayers. Tom Urasoe gave some giftsto the children, which were very muchappreciated.
The second event was at Swindon,where Michael taught 14 players from10k to 2d. The late afternoon sessionof simultaneous games was followedby dinner, game analyses and variousquestions through the evening. Theevent finished with a game betweenMichael and a 2d, with commentary asthe game progressed and afterwards.Feedback from attendees was verypositive.
The third event was at Chester,where there were also 14 attendees,with strengths ranging from 3d to25k. In the afternoon he revieweda number of games from recordsbrought by participants and discussedthe opening moves of a recentprofessional game. In the evening heplayed all the participants, makinghelpful comments at the end of eachgame, winning 12 and losing only toDan Gilder and Helen Harvey.
At Barford (near Leamington) therewere 23 participants. Michael gavea lecture based on some of his owngames. He was very open andexplained his mistakes honestly, andencouraged questions. He talkedabout using counting in real gamesand during the second part of theevening he analysed games of variousstrengths that had been sent inpreviously.
Mike Lynn did an excellent job withpublicity at Leamington, with areport in two local papers, while
Matthew Macfadyen gave a six-minute interview on BBC Coventryand Warwick local radio.The British Go Congress, heldin Stevenage, traditionally startsat about 19:30 on Friday with aLightning Tournament; then theMain Tournament is on Saturday andSunday (three games each day). Thisyear the Congress was expanded sothat it started on Friday afternoon at14:00 with a teaching session, whenMichael gave a lecture/demonstrationto about 30 people.Michael played simultaneous gamesagainst 14 players on the Fridayevening, and on the Saturday andSunday, during the Open, he waskept busy providing comments onparticipants’ games.For most events, participants wereasked to bring along their own gamesfor comment: it was generally thoughtthat people would learn more fromthis than by playing simultaneousgames against Michael.Also for most events, a laptop plusprojector was used, ensuring allparticipants had a good view. Thisalso meant that records (in SGFformat) of the commented games wereavailable for everyone4.Through the week there wereopportunities to show Michael someof the tourist sites in the UK. Wearranged visits to:
• some of the Colleges of CambridgeUniversity;
• Stonehenge;
• the old Roman city of Chester;
• Warwick Castle. B4The records from the Strong Players’ weekend can be downloaded from
www.britgo.org/node/4231.
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Michael had some spare time inLondon at the start and end of his trip,and he planned to visit some of thecity’s attractions, including the TateGallery.We were aware that this was astrenuous schedule for Michael, andwe hope he did not feel it was tooonerous.Audience ReactionThe feedback received was verypositive. Everyone found Michaelvery friendly and easy to get alongwith, and it was notable that he washappy to be flexible in how thingswere arranged.Several participants commentedafterwards on the clarity of his
comments and explanations, in whichhe focussed on the basic principles ofgood play; this was ideal for the levelof his audience.
I would like to thank Paul Smith,Paul Barnard, Roger Huyshe,Martin Harvey, Pat Ridley,Kirsty Healey and Alison Bexfieldfor assisting in the organisation ofthis successful visit, and especiallythe Nihon Ki-in and the Great BritainSasakawa Foundation for making thisvisit possible.
Some photographs taken at the variousevents are on the front and (inside) backcovers of the Journal.
˜ ˜ ˜
PROBLEM 2
Does White need todefend?
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CONSIDERING THE POSITION: PART 6David Ward [email protected]
This is the sixth instalment of ’Considering the Position’, based on a Chinesetranslation of a Korean text by Cho Hun Hyun, and in turn translated intoEnglish by Li Zixiao (‘Purple Cloud’, aka Dani Ward).’(DW)’ indicates a comment by me rather than one translated from the book.
The starting position1
Moves 1 – 16
(DW): I have chosen this position as it involves a very simple starting positionand one that many of us will have played before. The basic question Blackneeds to consider is whether to enlarge his position or keep an eye on theopponent’s position.Here there are five alternatives, A-E, to be considered.
The answers are on page 38.
1The SGF file is at www.britgo.org/files/bgjgames/164-considering.sgf.
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MICHAEL REDMOND’S TEACHING SESSIONFrancis Roads [email protected]
It is not often that one’s plans arethwarted by a pack of wild dogs. Thishappened to me at about 08:45 on31st March, when the train in whichI was travelling to Cambridge forthe Strong Players’ Teaching Sessionwith Michael Redmond 9p slowedto a halt. We were told that the trainin front, a Stansted Airport Express,no less, had hit such a pack, andthat the remains of the unfortunatedogs had rendered the train’s brakesinoperable. My train reversed backto Tottenham, whence I was able toarrange alternative transport whichgot me to the Doubletree Hotel inCambridge just in time. Another Goplayer on the same train was lessfortunate.Attendance had been limited to 20,and the strength range was about 1kto 4d. The policy was to take mainlythe strongest currently rated playersto apply, plus one or two wild cardplayers at the organiser’s discretion.I had been bumped off the previousStrong Players’ session, presumablybecause I hadn’t been strong enoughthen (though I was never told), so Iwas pleased to be there at all. Perhapsthe £60 fee put off some people; there
were quite a few graded below methis time. Organisation, pretty slick Ihave to say, was by Toby Manning.
Michael Redmond is American bybirth, though now resident in Japan.He is the only Western player tohave reached the top professionalrank. He also happens to be a verygood teacher, aided by his nativeEnglish and understanding of WesternGo players’ mindsets. Like anygood teacher, he had more materialavailable than he was actually goingto need. He was able to select from along list of amateur games emailedin beforehand by participants, anumber of his own games, and someby Cho U and Iyama from a recentKisei tournament.
Michael’s teaching style is to gothrough a game, commenting onthe moves and inviting questionsand comments from us, aided bya data projector and CGoban 3software. Thus, like all good lectures,they are interactive, rather thanconsisting of material which couldjust as easily have been writtendown and emailed around. Abouttwo-thirds of his time was spent onthe amateur games, which I foundhelpful, as there is plenty of materialon professional games availableelsewhere. SGF files of the games heused, with comments, are available atwww.britgo.org/node/4231.
In many cases, especially whendiscussing the opening phase, Michaelgoes into considerable detail aboutalternative lines currently favouredby professionals. Did you know, forexample, that the three main linesof the onadare (big landslide) joseki
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are now almost completely out offavour? I have thought for some timethat the second player has a poordeal in this joseki, and I was glad tohave my opinion confirmed by theprofessionals. That’s the way I look atit, at least.In some of the professional gamesMichael set questions; where wasthe next move? Sometimes he gaveus alternatives, A, B and C etc., andsometimes we had the whole board tochoose from. These generated muchinterest and discussion.There was more such teaching fromMichael on the Friday afternoonpreceding the British Go Congress atStevenage, a week later. Michael alsogave game reviews between rounds,and here another of his strengths as ateacher became apparent. He is adeptat varying the pitch of his commentsaccording to the playing strengthof his audience – something whichcannot be said of all sensei that I havecome across.The teaching sessions were prettyintensive, with only short breaks forrefreshments. I can understand thedesire to make as much use of thesensei’s time as possible, but as ateacher myself I did wonder whetherthe ‘less is more’ principle might haveapplied here; that if we had had a little
more time to rest our brains, reflectupon and maybe discuss what wehad learnt, we might actually haveretained more of it.Another point which occurred tome afterwards was that althoughI came away feeling that I learntmuch about the opening and middlegame, and had identified some badhabits that I had fallen into, my yoseknowledge had advanced barelyat all. This is because many sensei,not only Michael, tend to abandondiscussion of an amateur game atsome point during the middle game,often when the result is clear, or somegross blunder has occurred. Theconsequence can be that teachingabout the yose phase of amateurgames is given short shrift. Andwhich of us does not need to improveour yose?
As always, the teaching weekendwas a social occasion as well as aGo-playing one. On the Saturdayevening 18 of us, including Michael,sat around a table in a Thai restaurantand made merry. Something similarhad happened the preceding evening.If I, like many others, had gone toCambridge the night before, I mighthave avoided the wild dogs.
More information about MichaelRedmond’s visit can be found on page 6.
˜ ˜ ˜
Erratum in BGJ 163
Considering The Position: the Contents (page 1) and article (page 22): ‘Part 4’should have read ‘Part 5’.
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SQUEEZE MEChris Oliver [email protected]
This article, aimed at Double Digit Kyu players (DDKs), looks at two tesuji1
called the ‘two-stone edge squeeze’ (also known as the ‘tombstone squeeze’)and the ‘two-stone corner squeeze’. Now, having two squeezes got me introuble once, but understanding these tesuji should stand you in good stead– even if you find it tough to spot opportunities to use them in a real game.As usual, to follow this you will probably need to play through the sequenceson a board or use an sgf editor. The SGF file may be found atwww.britgo.org/files/bgjgames/164-squeeze.sgf.In Diagram 1 we see the first five moves in the two-stone edge squeeze, with the location of�, whichcaptures the two White stones. The ‘two stones’referred to in the two-stone edge squeeze are theBlack stones at the top, below�.
� stops Black from being able to put the Whitegroup in atari by playing at ‘a’, as this would allowWhite to immediately capture the Black stones byplaying at 6. Diagram 1
Diagram 2
This sequence includes the throw-in,� – atechnique which was covered in the previousarticle in this series. White’s use of sacrifice andthrow-in in this tesuji here is excellent – exploitingthe cutting point at� to it’s fullest and forcingBlack to make a very bad shape.
In the conclusion of this sequence, White winsthe capturing race by a single liberty, and after , Black should realise that there is no chance tosave these stones. In fact, if he has seen this tesujibefore, he should play� at� in Diagram 1 above,accepting that White will live and limiting his lossto two stones.
Diagram 3
The ‘two-stone corner squeeze’ is a variation on the two-stone edge squeeze.As an exercise, you may wish to try to set out the starting position of Diagram 4and try to read how the ‘squeeze’ will be played out.
1A ‘clever move’ or ‘skillful tactical move’.
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Diagram 4
The principle is the same, and the execution isvery similar – but differs in that White can makeuse of two different edges of the board. A minordifference with the two-stone corner squeeze isthat the two black stones in the very corner areimmediately short of liberties – this makes life alittle easier for White, especially with the relativelyweak white groups shown here.
Diagram 5 Diagram 6
After , Black should again realise that the game is up. A limited set ofcircumstances on the right may allow Black to connect the corner group tofriendly stones, but the three stones (marked with triangles) cannot be saved,and White will be able to connect both of the white groups shown here. It islikely that White will capture all of the black stones in the corner.
In real life, opportunities to deploy these techniquesare harder to spot than you might expect.
A genuine example is shown in Diagram 7 andfollowing diagrams, and is taken from a DutchChampionship game between Herman Hiddema(4d) and Andreas Drost (4d).
Can you see which black group White can target here?
Diagram 7B
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White (Herman Hiddema)targets the isolated two-stoneBlack group on the left side,and sets up the two-stone edgetesuji.
The continuation in Diagrams8 and 9 should now appearfamiliar, and all that remainedfor Hiddema was to close offthe potential escape routesat the side, as shown inDiagram 10 below.
Diagram 8 Diagram 9
Diagram 10
The completion of the sequence.
Both� and�make captures. After�, the actionmoves elsewhere, and Drost resigned 35 moveslater.
CreditsDiagrams 1-3 are reproduced from or based on content on the Sensei’s Librarypage ’Two-Stone Edge Squeeze’ – senseis.xmp.net/?TwoStoneEdgeSqueeze.Diagrams 4-6 are reproduced from or based on content on the Sensei’s Librarypage ’Two-Stone Corner Squeeze’ – senseis.xmp.net/?TwoStoneCornerSqueeze.All diagrams are reproduced in accordance with the Open Content Licence,which can be viewed here: senseis.xmp.net/?SLCopyright.My thanks to Sensei’s Library, Yee Fan (a.k.a. Unkx80), and ‘tapir’ for theirassistance with the licencing of the content.
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VIEW FROM THE TOPJon Diamond [email protected]
Michael Redmond’s recent visitturned out to be the most successfulprofessional visit to the UK. He visitedmore clubs and played and taughtmore players than anyone else hasdone before, so we hope he’ll comeback again soon!
Thanks should go to Toby Manning,who organised the whole trip, andall the other local organisers thatensured its success. We also thank theNihon Ki-in for organising Michael’stime and travel expenses, with theSasekawa Foundation providing someof the funding, and of course Michaelhimself!
Next year’s British Open is confirmedto be held at Butlins in BognorRegis from Friday 28th to Sunday30th March, in parallel with theEuropean Youth Go Championship,which we will be hosting. So now weneed to raise the number of our youngplayers to provide a decent playingshow, as well as good tournamentorganisation. Over to you . . .
You may have noticed some changesto our comprehensive websiterecently. These were in preparationfor launching a Members Only area,which debuts on 1st August.In this area we’ll be providing onlineaccess to the last year’s British GoJournals, in addition to the SGFs forgames and problems from recent BGJsthat are already accessible. Furtheradded-value items that we developwill typically be available here, ratherthan to the world.We’re also taking this opportunityto hide a number of items from non-members which we think should bepart of the value of being a member.These include some organisationalstuff such as Organisers’ Material,our Policies, Council minutes andAccounts (for the first time).However, more noticeable will bethe fact that we’re making our UKrating list members access only. Ofcourse, we’re aware that the sameinformation, although in not such auseful format, is available from theEGF site. In future you’ll have to login to our site to view our list.Paul Barnard will shortly be emailingout to every member their user nameand password (not unique onesthough). If he doesn’t have your emailaddress, or it’s out of date, then this isthe time for you to tell him the correctone!Finally, congratulation to the twoAndrews for coming top in theChallengers League. Andrew Kay willdefend his title as British Championagainst Andrew Simons this Autumn.
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BGA NEWSLETTER NO. 190Jil Segerman [email protected]
The next Newsletter will be distributed by email. The deadline for contri-butions is 3rd August; please send them to the email address above. If youremail address has changed, please advise the Membership Secretary [email protected].
IN BRIEFFor the full set of news items from the last three months see the BGA NewsPages: www.britgo.org/views/newsletterfull. If you prefer to scan theheadlines and pick-and-choose what to read, see www.britgo.org/views/news,which covers the last twelve months.
• European Youth Go Championship: The BGA is to run the European YouthGo Championship 2014. It is being held on the weekend of 28th to 31stMarch 2014 at Butlin’s in Bognor Regis, West Sussex. Young players fromall over Europe are expected to attend and compete in three age categories.BGA members will be able to join the weekend, as the British Go Congressis to be run alongside.
• Twitter: Jonathan Green has taken over responsibility for monitoring andadministering our britgo Twitter account.
• Pandanet Go European Team Captain: Chris Bryant has become captain ofour team in the Pandanet Go European Team Championship.
• Youth Teacher: Roger Huyshe now organises online teaching sessions forpromising junior players.
• Junior Web Site Editor: Martin Harvey now edits the junior section of theweb site.
FUTURE EVENTSFor July to December, the Tournament Calendar(www.britgo.org/tournaments) features:
Milton Keynes, Saturday 6th JulyMind Sports Olympiad, London, Saturday 17th – Friday 25th August
– MSO Small Board, Saturday 24th August– MSO Open, Sunday 25th August
Isle of Man Go Festival, Port Erin, Sunday 18th – Friday 23rd AugustNorthern, Stockport, Sunday 1st SeptemberCornwall, Penzance, Saturday 14th – Sunday 15th SeptemberShropshire, Hinstock, Saturday 21st SeptemberSwindon, Sunday 29th SeptemberEast Midlands – not yet decidedInternational Teams, Sunday 13th OctoberBelfast, Saturday 26th – Sunday 27th OctoberWessex, Sunday 27th October
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Three Peaks, Grange-over-Sands, Saturday 16th – Sunday 17th NovemberCoventry – not yet decidedEdinburgh – not yet decidedLondon Open, Saturday 28th – Tuesday 31st December
CLUB CHANGESThese are the latest changes to the clubs on the BGA web-pages. This updatesthe complete list in BGJ 162 and changes in BGJ 163.Brighton: now meets at 20:00 on Tuesday evenings at The Southover Pub,Southover St., BN2 9UF, near Queens Park. Local parking is free after 20:00.Nottingham: meetings are on:• Tuesday, the day before the first Wednesday of the month;• second Wednesday of the month;• Thursday, the day after the third Wednesday of the month;• the fourth Wednesday of the month.
Seaford: new club, meeting on the last Thursday in the month, 19:00-21:30,at 149 Princess Drive, BN25 2QT. Please phone Keith Osborne, 01323 492158,before coming.Swansea: not currently meeting.For many months there has been no active Go club in East Sussex, but nowthere are three places where you can get a game. The Brighton and Seafordclubs are listed above. Also there is the ‘Brighton Abstract Strategy Gamers’which is not affiliated to the BGA. According to their website,www.meetup.com/Brighton-Abstract-Strategy-Gamers, they play variousabstract games. Some of the members already play Go and some others wouldlike to learn.
˜ ˜ ˜SIDEWAYS LOOKING PERSONS
Are you sure it’s De Rigueur to tieourselves up with string like this
for the pairs event?
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MISSING A ROUND IN THE BARGeoff Kaniuk [email protected]
Missing your round in the bar canhave dire consequences, both in yoursocial life and in the life of tournamentGo. If a strong player above the barmisses a round, the effects can varywildly, depending on which round ismissed.Dropping the last round when youare so far ahead that you win thetournament, even if you lose yourlast game, is taboo. It deprives theremaining finalists of the experienceof playing the leader, and perhapseven more importantly, affects thesecond and third positions via the tie-breaks that will probably need to bedeployed. However there are alwaysexceptions, and any organiser wouldconsider allowing it only for the mostserious of external reasons.A possibly more common incident isa strong player, ‘Amelia’, 7d, missingthe first round because of transportproblems. For some tournaments likethe European Go Congress and theLondon Open, EGF rules expresslystate that players above the barcannot miss a round. The BritishChampionships rules also insistthat all players commit to playingall rounds in the various qualifyingevents. For other tournaments thisgives the organiser, ‘Otto’, a dilemma,as he feels nervous about askingAmelia to play at 3d when the bar isat 4d.In a three-round event with eightplayers above the bar, exactlyone of the eight will have won allthree games: it can’t be Amelia, sowhere’s the problem? In a four-round tournament you need 16
players above the bar to guarantee aunique winner, and in five rounds youneed 32.As Ian Davis has pointed out1, thingsgo seriously awry when the range ofplayers above the bar is too wide, sothere is usually a much smaller barpopulation than the ideal – betweenfive and ten, as recommended bythe BGA for a four-round event, forexample. This is not enough for aunique winner, and by the end of thetournament Otto may have severalplayers on the same top McMahonscore, all of whom have won just threeof the games they played. This groupcould include Amelia – and that iswhere the problem lies.
The result has to be decided by tie-break, and the most commonly usedone is SOS. But how can one get agood SOS by missing a round? TheSOS for a player is the sum for eachround of the opponent’s McMahonscore, except that where there was noopponent for a particular round, weuse the players own initial McMahonscore instead. The SOS penalty formissing a round is therefore not asbad as one might think.
Many of our events are three rounds,where there is no problem, but 42%of our tournaments in 2012 weremore than three rounds, so thisissue does not fade away. I wasable to construct a pairing whereAmelia misses the start of a four-round tournament and goes on towin the SOS tie-break because of thefollowing circumstances. By the endof round three there is only one player,‘Dustin’, on three wins; Amelia and
1BGJ 162, Winter 2012-13
18
five others above the bar have twowins, but she is chosen to get drawnup. All Dustin’s opponents have donepoorly, mostly losing every game afterplaying him. But Amelia’s opponentsdo well and generally win after losingto her. She beats Dustin in the finalround to level on McMahon score.She picks up Dustin’s McMahonscore to add to her own SOS, andsqueaks through to win by just oneSOS point! If you want to see the fulldetails of my contrived tournament,please email me and I will send youthe results.
Is it fair that everyone else playsfour games, but Amelia only playsthree and yet wins? Furthermore, thedownside for Otto is that althoughhe now has a unique winner, he alsohas three runners-up on the sameMcMahon score and the same SOSas well. He only bought three prizes!
My personal view is that the defaultposition should be: players above thebar are not allowed to miss rounds.In Amelia’s case, if the tournamentschedule allowed it, I would considerletting her game start late, with heropponent’s agreement of course.After the Oxford tournament, NickWedd asked a question about thisand I discovered that our normaltournament rules do not mentionthe issue. Subsequently, the BritishGo Association has recognising thedilemma placed on organisers andintroduced2 a more relaxed form ofthe rule:‘A player who would qualify to wina tournament through the normalBGA rules must have played everyround in the tournament. Players whomiss rounds but qualify for prizes canstill gain them at the discretion of thetournament organiser.’
˜ ˜ ˜
PROBLEM 3
Does White need todefend?
2Section MISSING ROUNDS in www.britgo.org/rules/approved
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COLLECTING GO XVII: CLUB NEWSLETTERSTony Atkins [email protected]
Back in the 1970s and 1980s, before the advent of the Internet, one of the mainways Go clubs kept in contact with their members was through a newsletter.Production of these usually relied on a keen editor, and those who had one ranfor many editions.Nottingham Go News had already had two editions when I took over as editor in1981. The first edition was hand-written by the club committee and featuredthe smash-glass cartoon copied from BGJ 49, a drawing of The Go ClubGroupies, letters, teaching material and a free game record sheet. The secondedition was also A4 and was mostly a reprint of the latest edition of Go Tutor1.
From edition three, Iswitched to A5 bookletformat and introduced textprinted on the latestcomputer technology. It alsoincluded a specialsupplement on Gonomenclature and had theclub’s shield and motto(‘Cut First - Think Later’) onthe back.
By edition six, use of Letraset transfers improved the titles; murky photosappeared too and my last edition (number 10) contained a profile of my Gocareer to date.Mentioning ‘18 Lambolle Place’ will bring back happy memories for some. Thiswas the address in NW3 of the London Go Centre, which ran from 29th March1975 until 31st October 1978. Issue two of its newsletter wishes the centremembers ‘A Me-ari Xmas and a Hamete New Year’. Later editions were A5booklets, mostly giving details of forthcoming events and courses, but alsotournament and book news. It reported on birthday parties, professional visitsand the London Open, until issue 19 reported the imminent closure of thecentre for financial reasons.
From January 1978 the CLGC Newsletterbecame the source of news about Go inLondon, with a very similar booklet givingnews of the Central London Go Clubmeetings at the King’s Head, Swinton Street(near King’s Cross). By July 1980 they hadsettled down in Covent Garden (at theIntervarsity Club) and the newslettercontinued at least until 1992.
1A BGA publication designed to help the novice. It was reproduced in BGJs 113 to 132.
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Reading Go Club Newsletter was edited for many years by David Sutton. Editiontwo from June 1974, within its four A4 pages, talks about the Open Doorprogramme on the BBC, has news, a Go problem and one of the Reading GoPoems.
Often there was across-table of results fromthe Reading OpenChampionship or anotherevent on the front page,and sometimes a gamerecord pasted in, togetherwith the latest news andladder positions. The lastedition I have is number 26from April 1979 and it hadstopped long before Iarrived in Reading in 1984.
Other clubs have produced newsletters, such as Tesuji from CambridgeUniversity and Cambridge Go Clubs, the Chess and Go Newsletter from theCambridge Juniors and the intriguingly named Swingoclep from Swindon.
˜ ˜ ˜
PROBLEM 4
What is Black’sbest move here?
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PROFILE: ROGER HUYSHERoger Huyshe [email protected]
Roger was elected to Council at the BritishGo Congress in April.This was, of course, after theconventional but slimly-documentedBGA arm-twisting process.I first encountered Go in my gap yearat work, where I was writing bits ofthe operating system for thelong-defunct mainframe computercompany English Electric-Leo-Marconi. I was struck by the noveltyof the game and immediately went tothe limit of my teenage budget andconstructed a board, drilled with 361pinholes, with coloured drawing pinsfor stones.With less than a dozen games of Gounder my belt I took up Bridgeinstead at university, but returned toGo a few years later. I founded theCorby Go Club, moved to Manchester,where I became the Secretary of theManchester Go Club, and reached aweak 1k grade. Marriage, childrenand other hobbies intervened, andalthough I occasionally looked at Gobooks, that was it for some 30 years.
I had always valued in Go both thefriendly community and the mentalchallenge from the huge range ofstrategic concepts. So, comeretirement from a varied life in I.T., Ithought it would it would be fun tomake one more push – from mysupposed 1k level – and reach shodan.Big shock. Even after getting back intopractice, I was just 5k. In my absence,somebody had moved the goalposts –as seems quite clear from anecdotes,player graphs and Toby Manning’searlier BGJ article Why am I gettingweaker?1
It has also been a surprise – after my30-year gap – to find so many of thefaces unchanged and the BGAmembership at its lowest level sincerecords began. This despite theevidence from the website of a hugeamount of effort and professionalismfrom those running the BGA. Nodoubt we have to blame the Internetand other competition for people’stime, but I’ll see what I can contributeon this front.
I have found tournaments a joy,particularly the two-day ones, whichallow more time for socialising andlocal exploring. I recently took overthe small Shropshire tournament andhope to quietly develop that as anattraction for kyu players and Staceypoints2.
As far as Council goes, I have nowtaken on the roles of online YouthTutor and DDK support, and I chairthe Player Development Committee.
1BGJ 155, page 16.2Refers to the Stacey Grand Prix – see www.britgo.org/hof/stacey.html.
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PROFILE: FRED HOLROYDFred Holroyd [email protected]
Fred was elected to Council (for his secondspell) at the British Go Congress in April.Fred is Chairman of the TournamentsCommittee.Although I was born in Scotland, Ispent most of my childhood in Africa,my parents being in the Colonial CivilService. Though I don’t really mindthe cold, I still find British wintersridiculously dark. Still, the LondonOpen always cheers things up a bit.
I think I first encountered Go in theearly 1970s. Roy Nelson and I starteda club at the Open University, Milton
Keynes, in about 1978 as I recall,which, as ‘The OU and Milton KeynesGo Club’, is still afloat.I was Minutes Secretary of the BGAfor three years between the 2004 and2007 AGMs, and edited Issue 152 ofthe Journal in 2010.My first and only job, from which Irecently retired, was as amathematician at the aforesaid OU.I’m still an Honorary Visitor at thisexcellent institution. Currently I havethe (probably) completely madself-imposed task of proving thatsomething that was proved in the 80snot to be provable, actually isprovably provable (if you see what Imean). Maybe my re-election to theBGA Council will cure me of this!Up until 2005, the OU had mathssummer schools and I always broughtalong a set or two, introducing Go toseveral good people over the years.A variable player, I seem to havepeaked at 2k in 2001 and beenwandering in the 5k-8k region inrecent years. I no longer possess thehat in the photo. If anyone has pickedit up at a tournament since 2009 or so,please let me know. . .
PROBLEM 5
Does White need to defend the corner?
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UK NEWSTony Atkins [email protected]
Welwyn Garden City
Twenty-six players attended the thirdWelwyn Garden City Go Tournament,held in the Bridge room of the GoslingStadium, on 23rd February. Prizeswere again awarded by Barbara Kimefrom the Bridge Club, who this yearprotested at the lack of female players.With a surprise win overAndrew Simons (4d Cambridge) inround three, the tournament winnerwas Michael Webster (1d London).Also on three wins wasMichael Charles (1k St Albans). Prizeswere also given to those with twowins: Andrew Simons,David Ward (2d Cambridge),Francis Roads (1d Wanstead),Chris Hodge (1k St Albans),Simon Bexfield (1k Letchworth),Stephen Bailey (4k West Surrey), GeoffKaniuk (4k Cambridge), RichardMullens (5k London City),Patrick Batty (6k London) andDavid Lorking (6k Billericay).Afterwards several of the playersjoined Derrick and Barbara Kime, andorganiser John Collins, for a meal atthe Chinese Buffet in the centre oftown.
Trigantius
Despite the venue having staffingproblems that caused a late changefrom the Sunday to the Saturday, forty
players attended the CambridgeTrigantius at Parkside CommunityCollege on 9th March. Andrew Simons(3d Cambridge) was again the winner.This time he beat the new organiser,David Ward (2d Cambridge) in thelast round. Equal second with Davidwas local student Jamie Taylor(1d Cambridge University), a formerunder-18 champion. Tim Hunt(2d Milton Keynes) also won two tocome fourth. Two local students,Tom Eccles (5k Cambridge University)and Joe He (9k Cambridge University)won all three games and they, and allthose on two wins, were rewardedwith prizes.
Megan Davies-Wykes vs.Geoff Kaniuk at the Trigantius
British YouthThe 2013 British Youth GoChampionship on 17th Marchattracted 27 competitors aged from 7to 18, with strengths from 37k to 1d.
Table 1 – Winners and Runners-up in the British Youth Go Championship
U18: Tian-Ren Chen (Loughborough) Matei Mandache (Loughborough)U16: Melchior Chui (Cambridge) Peran Truscott (Cambridge)U14: Hasan Nisar (Aston) Hugh Banes (Bloxham)U12: Dylan Zhu-Dong (Leamington) Max Kirkham (Bloxham)U10: Oscar Selby (Epsom) Anthony Ghica (Newmarket)U8: Edmund Smith (Cambridge) Margot Selby (Epsom)
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The kind hosts this year were KingEdward VI School, Aston,Birmingham. The organisers wouldalso like to express their gratitude tothe Castledine-Barnes Trust forfacilitating the entry of certain players.The best player was againTian-Ren Chen (1d) fromLoughborough who retained theyouth title, beating schoolmate MateiMandache (5k) into second.Loughborough School was again thewinner of the Castledine Trophybeating Aston 2-1. The Best PrimarySchool was newcomer Sandilandsfrom South Manchester.Those not winning age group prizescould also win prizes for handicapgames. Winning four games each wereLydia Adissu (Sandilands),Adam Zanan (Aston) andColin Putman (Swindon); with threeeach: Andrew Coles (Loughborough),Robbie Jesson (Sandilands) andIbraheem Hussain (Aston). TheFighting Spirit prize-winner wasLucas Gray (Sandilands), with aspecial prize being awarded to HughBanes. As usual there were Gopuzzles, with all answers correct fromEdmund Smith (Cambridge), ColinPutman and Thomas Meehan(Solihull).
British CongressThe British Go Congress was held onthe weekend of 5th to 7th April. Thisyear it was held in the CromwellHotel in the very pleasant old townarea of Stevenage, with the first springsunshine to warm players if theyexplored outside. It was organised byAlison and Simon Bexfield from thenearby Letchworth Club, who gave allplayers name badges with cryptic
symbols, according to a code whichhad to be solved. The event wassponsored by Puzzle Shed and most ofthe prizes were puzzle Go stones; themajor ones being large Go stonesconsisting of geared plastic elementsproduced by a 3-D printer and theothers being large or small flying Gostones.
Zebin DuWinner of the British Open
Special guest for the weekend wasMichael Redmond 9p, the Americanprofessional who was concluding hisweek-long training tour of England1
(thanks to the Nihon Ki-in and theSasakawa Foundation). He ran atraining session on the Fridayafternoon, played simultaneousmatches and analysed gamesthroughout the weekend. The specialprize for the best move/improver waschosen by Michael to go to youngOscar Selby (12k Epsom).
Oscar also won the British Lightningon the Friday evening with a perfectfive wins, including some closehandicap victories over dan players. B
1See articles on pages 6 and 10
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Prizes from the British GoCongress
Stones made up of three pieceswhich turn using gears, printed
using a 3-D printer
Winning four were Zebin Du, YuanboZhang, Andrew Simons and PaulBarnard (1k Swindon). The weekendalso featured the BGA’s AGM and aCongress dinner on the Saturdayevening.The main event was the British Open,with 67 players in all taking part.Zebin Du, a Chinese 4d fromNottingham University, won the Opentitle by winning all six games. Secondwas Yuanbo Zhang, also 4d, with fivewins. A group of 4d players came nextwith four wins: Andrew Kay (SouthLondon), T Mark Hall (Bristol), andAndrew Simons (Cambridge).Winning five games lower down wereAlan Thornton (1k St Albans),Peter Collins (3k Bristol), PeterHarold-Barry (5k St Albans), AndrewRussell (6k Birmingham), Pat Ridley(10k Chester) and Oscar Selby, butprizes were awarded to the winnersand runners up of divisions.The team prize went to Andrew Kay,Andrew Simons andKlaudia Kleczkowska (1k Olsztyn,Poland), whilst the best club team forthe Nippon Club Cup was judged tobe Epsom. Andrew Simons also wonthe Stacey Grand Prix for the yearwith 29 points, second wasToby Manning (2d Leicester) with 26points and third, Richard Hunter (3dBristol) with 17. The continuoustournament was won by Roger Daniel(5k London City) and the CongressesQuiz was won by Toby Manning.
International TeamsCambridge ran away with the OpenDivision at the Spring LondonInternational Teams at the NipponClub on 14th April. All three membersof the team – Andrew Simons (3d),David Ward (2d) andJonathan Chin (2d) – won all threegames. The South London Go Clubwon a very closely contestedHandicap Division by their matchresult against second placedTwickenham. Ryohei Oda(18k CLGC/Amigo) came within apoint of winning all three games,leaving match organiserJonathan Turner (1d TfL) to overcomehandicaps of six, seven and eightstones to be the only player in thatdivision to win all his games.
BirminghamThe first Birmingham Tournamentsince 2002 was held on 20th April atNewman House, the University ofBirmingham Catholic Chaplaincy.There were 38 entrants from manyareas of the UK, including Scotland.Andrew Simons (4d) from Cambridgewon the tournament, beatingAndrew Kay (4d South London),Martha McGill (1d Edinburgh) andToby Manning (2d Leicester). Othernotable performances wereby Patrick Batty (6k London) andAnthony Pitchford (11k Chester) whoboth won all three games,
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Table 2 – Division Prizewinners at the British Open
Div 1 (1-3d): Christian Scarff (1d Swindon) Harry Fearnley (2d Oxford)Div 2 (1-4k): Alan Thornton (1k St Albans) Peter Collins (3k Bristol)Div 3 (5-8k): Peter Harold-Barry (5k St Albans) Andrew Russell (6k Birmingham)Div 4 (9-12k):Patrick Ridley (10k Chester) Oscar Selby (12k Epsom)Div 5 (13k+): Luis Sousa (14k London City) Kathleen Timmins
(13k Shrewsbury)
and Oscar Selby (10k Epsom) andFassal Mahmood (5k Birmingham),who jointly won the 13x13 side event.
Bar-LowFourteen players attended the 2013Cambridge Bar-Low at its usual venueof the Junior Parlour, Whewell’sCourt, opposite Trinity gatehouse, on5th May. Mike Cockburn(1k St Albans) won the tournamentagain, 12 years after he previouslywon it; he scored an unbeaten fivewins. Prizes were also awarded toRoger Daniel (5k London) for fourwins and to Richard Mullens(5k London City), third by tie-break,with three wins.
CandidatesThe Candidates’ Tournament, the firststage in the British Championship,was held for the first time inEdinburgh, to allow more Scottishplayers to take part. Indeed there were23 participants, including morewomen and more Scottish playersthan ever before. The venue was theEdinburgh University Students’Association buildings in the old partof the city.The British Champion, Andrew Kay(4d Cambridge), requested to takepart, despite by the rules beingguaranteed a place in the Challengers’League, and convincingly won theevent, for the third year running. Thetwo players qualifying for the
Challengers’ League on five wins wereDes Cann (4d) and Matt Crosby (3dEdinburgh). Those on four winsqualifying were Tim Hunt(2d Milton Keynes), Andrew Simons(4d Cambridge University),Boris Mitrovic (1k Edinburgh),Alex Kent (2d Durham) and Alex Rix(2d Central London). Richard Hunter(3d Bristol) would have been firstreserve, but declined his place,allowing Francis Roads (2d Wanstead)to be reserve again.
Bracknell
Jon Diamond regained the Bracknelltitle after a four-year gap. Jon (4d)beat Sandy Taylor (2d Bristol) in thelast round on 12th May to win the38-player event, held as usual in theWoosehill Community Centre inWokingham. The only other player towin all three was young Oscar Selby(11k Epsom), but some others withtwo wins were rewarded with prizestoo. Oscar also won the 13x13.Wanstead won the team prize, whichincluded retaining the Broken GoStone Trophy for the Thames ValleyGo League. The Go problem-solvingprize was won by Malcolm Walker(7k) and there was a difficult Gonumber quiz to keep players amused.The caption contest was won by TonyAtkins, who thought that watching agame with your right foot on a chairmight give a secret message to one ofthe players.
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COMPUTER GO –GAMES AGAINST ISHIDA YOSHIONick Wedd [email protected]
In March, the ‘UEC Cup’, atournament for computer Goprograms, was won by Crazy Stone,with Zen finishing in second place.Both these programs then playeddemonstration 19x19 games againstIshida Yoshio 9p, receiving fourhandicap stones. Readers may recallIshida’s name: he is the author of thethree-volume Dictionary of Basic Joseki.Crazy Stone played normal-lookingterritory-based moves against him,and won its game. Zen played itsusual strategy of aiming to makecentral territory, which Ishida foiledby living inside Zen’s central moyo,and beat it.This article is about Zen’s game withIshida1. As a kyu-player, I amcertainly not qualified to comment onthe moves in the game. My purpose isonly to write about the mis-evaluationof the position which Zen madethroughout the last stages of the game.What I have written below is anexpansion of an explanation given byDavid Fotland, progammer of ManyFaces of Go.
The diagram shows the final positionof the game, in which Zen’s operatorKato Hideki resigned for it. The threemarked white groups are alive, andWhite is ahead. The group markedwith squares has miai for life: Whitecan play either at A to make two eyeson the top edge, or at B to cut off theblack stone at N18 and make an eyethere. The group marked withtriangles has miai for life: it can playeither at C to make a second eye, or atD to connect to White’s lower-edgegroup. The group marked with circleshas enough eyespace to ensure that itis alive, so long as Black does not playtwo consecutive moves against it.With these groups alive, White isahead.
In this position, Zen assessed itschances of winning as 50%. Otherleading programs (all leadingprograms are now MonteCarlo-based) also get this assessmentwrong. Crazy Stone assesses it asaround 70%, Pachi as 70%, and theMonte Carlo version of Many Faces ofGo, 60%. My purpose in this article isto explain how this happens.
I am not saying that these programscannot read the status of these groupscorrectly. Insofar as ‘Can Zen read thestatus of the triangled groupcorrectly?’ is a meaningful question,the answer is ‘Yes’. If Zen is in a gamewhose result depends solely on itssaving a group like the triangled one,it will reliably save it. The problem isnot in the reading, it is in the roll-outs.
1The SGF file is at www.britgo.org/files/bgjgames/164game1.sgf.
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Monte-Carlo programs compare themoves they might make essentially bydoing thousands of ‘roll-outs’ for each,and picking the move with the highestwinning percentage. A ‘roll-out’means that it plays out the rest of thegame almost at random, with a fewsimple heuristics such as avoidingeye-filling, and sees who has wononce the game is over. Of course thereare many enhancements to this basicidea, which I cannot describe here, butroll-outs are still involved. Now let’slook at the result of roll-outs when agroup with miai for life is involved.
The position in this diagram is a verysimple ‘miai for life’. Black is alive. IfWhite plays at A he will play at B, andvice versa. But here is what happenswhen a roll-out is done. Neitherplayer will play at C1 or A3, thesimple heuristic prevents this. Bothplayers are playing at random, so it isa toss-up whether Black or White firstplays at one of the lettered points. If itis Black, the group definitely lives. If itis White, the random play continues,and it is again a toss-up who firstplays at the other lettered point. If it isBlack the group lives; if it is White,again the group dies. So in theroll-outs, this group lives 75% of thetime.The same applies to the triangled andthe squared groups in the diagramfrom the game, which likewise havemiai for life. The circled group is moredifficult, but the result is similar; the
group survives in about 75% ofroll-outs. So the Monte-Carloprograms evaluating the position inthe main diagram were finding thateach of the three marked white groupshad a 25% chance of dying, andtherefore there was a 58%2 chance thatat least one of them will die. As noneof the black groups is likely to die,even in a random roll-out, and thedeath of any one of the three whitegroups will put Black in the lead, theybelieved that Black was ahead.So Zen was seriously overestimatingits winning chances, and had beendoing so ever since Ishida firstestablished a live white group in thecentre of the board. This will haveinduced it to play conservatively,which may have contributed to losingthe game.Zen has a 6d rating on KGS, earned byplaying 19x19 games against humanusers. You may be tempted to ask‘How can anyone say that Zen is 6d,when it gets such a simple thingwrong?’ I prefer to say ‘Zen’s resultsshow that it is 6d, despite getting sucha simple thing wrong. Think howstrong it will be once things like thisare fixed!’.Footnote: on March 29th, Shogiprofessional Sato Shinichi, 4p lost aneven game to computer Shogiprogram ‘Ponanza’, written byYamamoto Issei. Each player has fourhours, and 60 sec byo-yomi. Ponanzaruns on 10 machines, and searches 30million positions/sec. This is the firstever win by a computer against anactive human Shogi professional.(Information from Hiroshi Yamashita,who wrote ‘Aya’, another leadingMonte-Carlo Go program.)
2100(1− 0.753)
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WORLD NEWSTony Atkins [email protected]
World Student Oza
In the autumn a tournament is held onPandanet to select the best students torepresent different parts of the worldat the World Student Oza, held inTokyo at the end of February. Theplayers winning places in the Oza forEurope were Antti Tormanen (6d)from Finland, Dusan Mitic (6d) fromSerbia and Laura Avram (2d) fromRomania. As expected, Korea andChina took the top two positions inthe 16-player tournament, but Antticommendably took the third placewith three good wins, only losing tothe winner. Dusan won two gamesand Laura one.
Irish Go Congress
The Irish Go Congress was again aninternational event, part of theEuropean Cup, and was held at theusual Teachers’ Club venue in Dublinat the very start of March. The Fridayevening handicap Rapid Tournamenthad the usual speeding-up of roundsand had 16 players. It was won byYuanbo Zhang (4d) from China, withfive straight wins, while RomanPszonka (3d) from Poland camesecond and Cork’s Thomas Shanahan(7k) came third, both with four wins.Hungary’s Csaba Mero (6d) won themain tournament, The Confucius Cup,for the second time, with a perfectscore of five. In second place wasZebin Du (4d) from China, and thirdwas Antoine Fenech (5d) from France.Roger Daniel (6k) from London andMikulas Kubita (15k) from the CzechRepublic won all five of their games,while Thomas Shanahan won four.Thirty-eight players in all took part.
European Teams
Since the leagues started in 2010, theBritish team had been firmly in themiddle of the B League. However atthe end of 2012 this started to change,and the team slipped to the bottom ofthe League. Sometimes there wereproblems with the software or theInternet, and in one case the teamcaptain missed the date of a matchand it was defaulted. However mostlythe team was outplayed, despite somevaliant fighting and the occasionalgood win.
In December the match againstNorway was lost, though the gameswere close. Jon Diamond took the topboard and, facing a tough opponent inJie Lin Xia (5d), had a weak group thatwas saved, but had to resign aftersome stones were cut off in the yose.Andrew Simons had a comfortablelead against Øystein Vestgarden, butlet the game become close again.However lag caused a loss on time onwhat would have been a half-pointloss. Des Cann provided the sole winof the evening with an 8.5 pointsvictory over Sverre Haga, but MarthaMcGill lost to Tomas Hjartnes by halfa point.
After the unfortunate forfeit againstthe Netherlands in January, Polandwas the opponent in February. On thefirst board Andrew Simons waslooking forward to getting revengeagainst Marek Kaminski, to whom hehad narrowly lost at the Polish GoSummer Camp, but Marek forfeited.Des Cann played his game the nightbefore, but had to resign against theyoung Polish champion, StanislawFrejlak. Martha McGill’s game against
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Roman Pszonka ended up with thedead groups being once again British,so she resigned. Henry Clay, on hisdebut for the team, scored a good winagainst Sebastian Pawlaczyk, enablingthe match to be drawn.The March match was against thetable-topping Finns, who won allthree games played. As Vanessa Wongagain had problems with connecting,Jon Diamond was on top board to faceAntti Tormanen, just back from theOza. Andrew Simons faced JuriKuronen, but ended up as the loser by5.5 points. Des Cann tried hardagainst Jesse Savo but had to resign.David Ward, filling in at the lastminute, also had problems with thesoftware and ended up defaulting thefourth game.The third draw of the season wasagainst Belgium in April. AndrewSimons played a day early, but did notsettle down and lost to KwintenMissiaen. Bei Ge won by default, butJon Diamond got into a poor positionagainst Jan Ramon and eventually hadto resign. Des Cann retrieved some ofthe team pride, capturing many stonesto beat Dominique Versyck.The final match in May was againstItaly. This match was a draw, withboth Bei Ge and Jon Diamond losingand Andrew Simons and David Leewinning. This left the team clearbottom, with no wins and four drawsfrom the nine matches. Jon Diamondnamed himself as the main culprit,with no wins from six games.Ireland, however, were already in theC League and managed to win theodd match. In November they lost allfour boards against Slovakia, butGavin Rooney managed to win agame against Slovenia. In Januarythey beat Croatia, with JamesHutchinson and Eoghan Barry joiningGavin on the winners list. However
they then lost four close games againstTurkey, but beat Cyprus in March,with Ian Davis, James and Eoghanwinning. In April, Ian and James wonto force a draw with Bulgaria. In theirMay game they played Kazakhstan,and the team of Gavin Rooney, IanDavis, John Gibson and TomShanahan won every game, whichmeant Ireland ended a very creditablefourth in the table.In the A League, Russia againdominated at the top but, after somegood wins by the Czech players, onlyended top on second tie-break(number of first board wins). TheUkraine team was third and will bejoined by Hungary in the liveplay-offs at the European GoCongress. Germany will be replacedby Finland in the A League andSlovakia will take the UK’s place inthe B League. The other promotionswere decided by play-offs, in whichIsrael beat Austria to stay in A Leagueand Slovenia beat Switzerland to bepromoted to B League.
European Pair GoTwenty-four pairs from ten countriestook part in this event which was partof the ‘Amsterdam Go Together’weekend. The other events were theAmsterdam International (won byCho Seok-Bin) and the AmsterdamRapid (won by Natalia Kovaleva aftera decider against Ilya Shikshin). ThePair Go champions were Russiansister and brother, Svetlana Shikshinaand Ilya Shikshin. Second place wentto the Czech players KlaraZaloudkova and Jan Hora, and thirdplace went to Natalia Kovaleva,playing this time with strong Russianyouth player Alexander Vashurov.The UK’s Natasha Regan andMatthew Cocke were 19th, with twowins out of six against a mix of Frenchand Dutch pairs.31
TRUSCOTT VS. COLLINS – ONLINE LEAGUETim Hunt [email protected]
This game1 was played on KGS in the BGA Online League match by Peran Truscott,representing the UK Youth team, and John Collins (BGA Online Committee Chairman,website maintainer and League organiser), representing St Albans Kyus.
Diagram 1 (1 - 50)
Black: Peran Truscott (12k)
White: John Collins (9k)
Handicap: 3 stones.
� This is a mistake and Whitepunishes it. (This is the correctmove when� is not on the board.)See Variation 1 for the normalmove.
� Now Black has a big problem.
�White should think aboutextending at�. It is very big asit threatens to capture two morestones.
Variation 1
�With the pincer stone in place, Black mustcome out with a straight strong wall.
� This is the normal joseki. Black’s wall isworking well to make a big moyo on theright.
� This is a strange move. That is a polite way to say it is bad ,. There arebasically four choices to answer White’s move2:
A: make the black area stronger – this is the normal answer;B: (or at-,, and�) pincer;C: defend the corner territory and make it hard for the white
stone to make eyes;D: attach on top (special purpose move).
1The SGF file is at www.britgo.org/files/bgjgames/164game2.sgf.2For a more extensive explanation, see my article in BGJ 115, Summer 1999, page 26 (available at
www.britgo.org/bgj/bgj115.html) and following articles in BGJs 116, 117 and 118.
32
� is like C, but the corner is smaller than it needs to be. Any of the C moveswould be better.However, in this case, C is a bad plan; Black is too weak. White can invadenear A and then Black has no territory. Also, White can extend up the side,so he is not weak and taking the corner territory does not attack the whitestone.In a 9-stone handicap game, when Black is very strong, then C is a goodplan.In this game, I would choose plan A or B (see Variation 2 for Plan A).
Variation 2
Plan A looks nice for Black.Playing the ataris first is probablybest.
$ Good.
% As you can see, White chooses plan A, which I said before was the normalmove. This is good.
& This is a bit unusual. See Variation 3.
It is also possible to leave the top corner, sinceBlack already has the stone at�. Later he canchoose to play at' or(.
Compared to starting with the knight’s moveslide into the corner, White’s territory is bigger.If Black wants to play somewhere else, it’s betterto leave the option of invading at the 3-3 point.
Variation 3
This is more normal.Black builds a niceshape.
, This is probably the wrong invasion. With thisthree-space invasion, there are three good placesto invade, which form a V-shape, as shown.The move on the third line is most common: itmakes it difficult for White to connect.
���������X�X�����X�����������������
- Now White is connected, whatever Black does.
. Good. This expands the huge moyo in the top right area of the board.
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Variation 4
0 Good! This is a good time to choose plan C,because� at the top is quite close, and�and� on the right give Black a chance toattack the white stone. However, Black mustbe careful that� and� do not become aweak group.
2 I think I would attack as in Variation 4.
4 This is bad.
1. It does not work. By the timeBlack discovers that it doesnot work, White has becomestronger.
2. When your opponent has aweak group it is normally badto cut it in half, even if youcan. When you cut the groupin half, your opponent canoften skillfully sacrifice onehalf of the group to make theother half live. Better to leaveyour opponent with one big,connected group with no eyesand capture the whole lot! Diagram 2 (51 - 100)
: I think Black can defend as shown in Variation 5.
Variation 5
This makes the territory at the top stronger. IfWhite tries to cut, it does not work. White has fourliberties and Black has five.
> Good cut! White’s last move was a mistake.
B This is quite brave! Coming out straight atC is probably OK, but this isbetter (if Black doesn’t make a mistake).
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N This is very dangerous. I think Black should playX or A. The black groupon the right side is going to be captured – trying to save it will just make thesacrifice bigger.
YWrong move by White. The vital point is atZ and it works here. I will letthe reader analyse the variations.
` Good ko threat.
b C might be better shape.
h Good.
p Good cut. It is a bit risky, but Blackends up with the whole bottomarea as territory.
v Good decision. Black sacrificestwo stones so that he can keep allthe central territory and the blackterritory is bigger.
y This is no good for White. He musttry something more ambitious, likeVariation 6.
z There is no hope for the blackstones. He should save moves likethis as ko threats. Diagram 3 (101 - 150)
Variation 6
White should use forcing moves to get into Black’sterritory.
� This is quite a big move, but� is much bigger.
�� is still bigger.
� is still bigger.
� This move does not work. White can probably see that he is behind and soneeds to try something to catch up.
� Good.
� At last!
35
� Good cut! (But see Variation 7. Ithink Black was lucky.)
� Not the best move for White; seeVariation 8.
& Black four liberties, White threeliberties; now Black is safe.
+White is now clearly losing andmust try to trick Black to win. I amreally impressed by how well Blackdefends here. It would be very easyto make a mistake and let Whiteget something.
Diagram 4 (151 - 200)
Variation 7
Black needs to worry about whathappens if White plays like this.Itlooks like White has six libertiesand Black has four. Oops!
Variation 8
This looks like a complex fight.About four liberties each, withBlack to play next, so he might beOK, but there are many difficultvariations to read out.
Diagram 5 (201 - 250)
I Now White has one eye at C if hewins the ko and possibly one eye atD if he plays there first. That is notenough; White should die.
O Still not two eyes, as Black is aboutto show. White should play atT tomake one eye there and continue tofight the ko. Actually, evenTmaynot make an eye in the middle.
P Good. Now White is clearly dead.
R A bit risky. T is probably safer.
V Good. No need to take risks.
36
b This does not work, but no harm in trying (other than it wastes ko threats).
l Oops! Black must playn.
m Good.
vWhite is trying more rubbish. Black still defends accurately.
Black won by 75.5.
Let me try to summarise the keypoints:
1. When you have a stone on the4-4 point and your opponentapproaches, you need to chooseone of the four plans:
A. solidify yourself on the otherside;
B. play a pincer;C. defend the corner territory in
order to attack the approachstone;
D. attach on top of the approachstone.
Diagram 6 (251 - 274)
2. Which choice is best depends on the surrounding position. Sometimes onechoice is definitely the best. In other positions, several choices are equallygood and you can play the one that matches your natural style ofGo-playing. Sometimes it is really hard to choose the right move, even fordan players.In this game, there are four different examples of an approach to a 4-4 stone,one in each corner, so this game is a good one to use to study this question.
3. Try not to make joseki mistakes like in the bottom right corner. However,this game shows that even if you make a mistake in one corner, you can stillwin the game if you don’t panic.
4. When you are ahead, your opponent will try all sorts of crazy things tocatch up, and you have to defend really carefully. I was very impressed byhow Black defended against all the tricky moves that White tried.
5. I was also impressed by the two cutting sequences atp and� that Blackplayed to stop White getting into his territories (even if the one at the topwas a bit too dangerous!).
37
CONSIDERING THE POSITION: ANSWERSDavid Ward [email protected]
Here are the answers1 to the questions posed in Considering the Position onpage 9.‘(DW)’ indicates a comment by me rather than one translated from the book.
Variation A1
‘Entering too rushed’.
Black has to escape and with thesequence� –�, White erodes Black’sposition naturally, which is very, verygood.
Variation A2
‘Greedy for small loses the big’.
This� aims to settle the position, butafter� –" Black has a big loss.
1The SGF file is at www.britgo.org/files/bgjgames/164-considering-x.sgf.
38
Variation A3
‘A turn of events’.
It is important that White does notgive atari and then try to live in thecorner.
� is a vital point and White is forcedto grovel for life with .
! is an important point and Black iswell-placed.
Variation B
‘An unbeneficial battle’.
Black prevents White’s upper positionfrom developing, but White willconnect on the left hand side after theexchange of� for�.
Black is then forced to invade the topside, and after the moves� –� is notsatisfied: this is bad for Black.
Variation C
‘Black is not satisfied’.
Black breaks open the left side;�closes in.
Black can easily secure life, andsuperficially it looks as if Black isin a good position after playing�.However with the moves� –�,White ‘shaves away’ at the blackposition on the lower side, and this isnot satisfactory for Black.
39
Variation D1
‘Correct’.
� keeps White’s prospects in check. Italso looks after Black’s position at thebottom.
It is hard to imagine�, but then�–� follow. The result is that Blackgains the corner and the triangledstone is not well placed.
Variation D2
‘Black plays on both sides’.
� –� settles the position and Whitemust play�.
After the� –� exchange Black getsto play� to enlarge the position: thisis a very good setup for Black.
Variation D3
‘Actual game’.
With the last two diagrams, Whitewas not satified so tried�.
� is a very good move and afterWhite invaded the lower side with� –", Black got sente to play# andhad a successful setup.
Black won the game after 141 moves.
40
Variation E
‘Almost the same as Variation C’.
After the� –� exchange, Black isinvited to invade.
With� –�, again White shavesaway at the black position.
˜ ˜ ˜
41
SOLUTIONS TO THE NUMBERED PROBLEMS
The SGF files for these problems, showing a fuller set of lines and includingfailures, are to be found at www.britgo.org/bgj/issue164.
Solution to Problem 1
Diagram 1
Yes, White should defend the corner.When Black plays the throw-in with�, if White captures, then the whitestones quickly run short of liberties, asin the diagram.
Instead of capturing the stone, Whitecan minimise the damage by playing� at�, losing just the three stones atthe bottom.
Solution to Problem 2
Diagram 2a
Again White needs to defend, as Blackcan play the throw-in. If White takesas in Diagram 2a, then Black just playsatari and White soon runs out ofliberties.
Diagram 2b
If White plays atari on the two blackstones as in Diagram 2b, then Blackplays the double-atari and White losessomething.After the throw-in, it is best for Whiteto just give up the stones on the edgeand defend at�.
Solution to Problem 3
Diagram 3
If Black plays atari on the two edgestones, White can connect andwhatever Black does then White hasenough liberties. However because ofthe throw-in, White needs to defend.If White takes the stone as inDiagram 3, the white stones now soonrun out of liberties. If White connectsat� instead of capturing, then Blackplays at� and White is short ofliberties: the position is similar to thatin Diagram 2b.White’s best answer to the throw-in isto play at�, which just leaves a ko atthe bottom.
42
Solution to Problem 4
Diagram 4
The best move for Black is thethrow-in. If Black plays the atari onthe outside instead, White can justconnect and is safe; or if Black tries toplay inside the eye-space then Whiteeasily lives.
If White takes the throw-in stone, as inDiagram 4, then after the outside atari,White runs out of liberties if theconnection is played. So White has totake the single black stone with�,which allows Black to capture thethree stones (though White canrecapture one black stone).
If White plays� at�, then Black getsmore points as the three edge stonesare captured cleanly.
Solution to Problem 5
Diagram 5
If Black plays either atari on the threestones, White is quickly safe, but it isoften easy to overlook the net,� inDiagram 5.
If White plays� on the edge thenBlack plays the throw-in, and becauseof being in the corner, White quicklyruns out of liberties and all the whitestones are dead.If White plays� at� immediately,White runs out of liberties when Blackplays atari on top. So White shouldhave defended.After the net, White should play at�,giving up the edge stones but livingwith the rest.
˜ ˜ ˜SIDEWAYS LOOKING PERSONS
Dog talking to cat: “any moment nowhe’ll notice his corner is dead and it
will be time for walkies”
43
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44
Michael Redmond visits the UK
Leamington
Swindon
Chester
Michael Redmond reviewing at the British Open
The BGA thanks the Great Britain SasakawaFoundation and the Nihon Ki-in for theirsupport, which made Michael Redmond’s visitpossible.
