Planet Go

Here are the weekly Go problems for week 38.

Black plays first in all problems and all solutions are labeled ‘correct’. Have fun!

Easy Go problem

Find the right shape to make a second eye.

[Embedded SGF File]

 

Intermediate Go problem

White just played A. First figure out what white’s plan is, then plan your counter attack.

[Embedded SGF File]

 

Hard Go problem

Knowing that sometimes offense is the best defense – worth four stones. Knowing the best time to ease off – priceless.

[Embedded SGF File]

Related articles at Go Game Guru:

• Weekly Go problems: Week 28
• Weekly Go problems: Week 29
• Weekly Go problems: Week 24

On May 16, 2012, much to the delight of Korean Go fans, Baek Hongseok (9p) defeated Dang Yifei (4p) of China to win the 4th BC Card Cup 3 games to 1.

A promising start for Dang

Dang started well, winning the first game on May 12.

For much of the second game on the following day, it seemed that he would win again and seize a 2-0 lead.

Sensing the championship slipping away, Baek dug his heels in.

Turning point

When black invaded white’s top left area in game 2, Baek saw his chance and started an attack that would decide the game. Baek won the second game to equal the score at 1-1.

Unstoppable

From this point on, there was no stopping Baek. Returning refreshed from a rest day, Baek won game 3 on May 15.

The game on May 16 was Dang’s last chance to stay in the title match. However, he lost by half a point against Baek’s thick play.

Congratulations to Baek Hongseok on his first major international win and Dang Yifei on his impressive performance in reaching the finals.

A bittersweet victory

Baek, who’s 25, has to complete his military service in Korea now, so we might not see his face again for a couple of years. We will surely see more of 17 year old Dang Yifei, who’s only just getting started, in the near future.

More photos from the 4th BC Card Cup

About the BC Card Cup

The BC Card Cup is an international Go tournament sponsored by BC Card, Korea’s largest credit card company. The inaugural tournament was held in 2009.

The format is a single knockout of 64 players: 3 from Korea, 2 from China, 2 from Japan, 1 from Taiwan, 2 wild cards (chosen by the Korean Baduk Association) and 54 players who qualify through the preliminary rounds.

Game records

Baek Hongseok vs Dang Yifei – Game 1

[Embedded SGF File]

Dang Yifei vs Baek Hongseok - Game 2

[Embedded SGF File]

Baek Hongseok vs Dang Yifei – Game 3

[Embedded SGF File]

Dang Yifei vs Baek Hongseok - Game 4

[Embedded SGF File]

Related articles at Go Game Guru:

• 4th BC Card Cup finals about to begin!
• 4th BC Card Cup: Down to the final four
• Go Commentary: Dang Yifei vs Park Younghun – 4th BC Card Cup

This is a game between Park Younghun (9p) and Dang Yifei (4p) from the quarter finals of the 4th BC Card Cup.

Park Younghun

Park Younghun defeated Hong Seongji (8p) and Lee Wonyoung (3p) (both are Korean) in the main tournament before this game.

He’s ranked number 3 in Korea, and he’s very good at the endgame and counting.

Dang Yifei

On the other hand, Dang Yifei is a new face.

He was ranked number 54 in China before this tournament, but he beat Lee Sedol (9p) and Tan Xiao (7p) before this game.

Lee and Tan are currently number one in Korea and China respectively, so it was very sensational.

Lots of Go fans have started to watch him.

His style of play is not clear, as he’s still young, but his moves are sharp and solid at the same time.

Let’s have a look at the game.

Commented game record: Dang Yifei vs Park Younghun

[Embedded SGF File]

Related articles at Go Game Guru:

• China on a roll in 4th BC Card Cup
• Go Commentary: Jiang Weijie vs Park Younghun – 2nd World Meijin
• 4th BC Card Cup: Down to the final four

I can't believe that I made it all the way through 2011 without a single post to this blog. The truth is that I had been focused on other things besides go: running, lowering my cholesterol, worrying about my mother. However, during that time I continued to take private lessons alternate weeks with Yilun Yang, 7P. I also continued to take group lessons with Guo Juan, 5P. I have enjoyed both activities, but have not been working particularly hard on trying to improve. I am pretty happy to be a solid single digit AGA kyu player now. Maybe I my subconscious wants to keep my rating the same as my AGA ID number. Rather than focusing on rank, I am mostly just enjoying the interactions with my teachers, and the social interaction with my fellow students in the group lessons. It has also occurred to me that I don't really have a plan for how to study go. I have so many resources. I noticed that my last post was about the Level Up series. I have the series, and I pick up a book from time to time, but I have not worked my way systematically through them. That is something I am hoping to do in the next few months. I wish they were in GoBooks format. That way they would always be with me, and I would be likely to pay more attention to them. Today I am opening up the Level Up book number 1 and I am going through it from cover to cover. The truth is that I actually study go every day in one form or another. I just haven't been writing about it, and I haven't been very efficient either. I'm going to be more public about my study habits in the future. So look forward to another post tomorrow.

Korea’s lone rider, Baek Hongseok (9p), is still on his horse in the 4th BC Card Cup.

Baek Hongseok

On May 9, 2012 Baek defeated China’s Hu Yaoyu (8p) to reach the final of the 4th BC Card Cup.

It’s goes without saying that this delighted Korean Go fans, who’ve been following him since the quarter finals.

Dang Yifei

The following day, China’s Dang Yifei (4p) defeated fellow countryman Piao Wenyao (9p), to join Baek in the finals.

Dang has had a dream run at this year’s tournament, beating Lee Sedol (9p) and Park Younghun (9p) along the way.

A turning point for both players

This final marks a crucial point in both players’ careers.

Whoever wins the best of 5 matches played over the next week will break through with their first international title.

Dang has yet to win even a domestic title in China, while Baek’s best result to date is runner up at last year’s Asian TV Cup.

Going into the quarter finals, Baek Hongseok and Park Younghun were the only Korean players remaining, with Chinese players taking the remaining six places.

As I mentioned above, Park was knocked out when he met Dang in that round.

Since the BC Card Cup uses a knockout format, a certain amount of attrition was unavoidable between Chinese players, but Baek has done very well to progress to the final.

A dangerous youngster

Dang is only 17 years old, so winning the final would put him in the record books amongst the best players of the modern age.

He still lacks experience, but his semifinal game against Piao Wenyao shows the dangerous accuracy of his reading.

This pairing will make for a very interesting final and the sponsors will be happy with a China vs Korea showdown.

Watch the finals

You can watch the 4th BC Card Cup live at Go Game Guru on Baduk TV.

The official coverage for game 1 starts at:

• 12:30pm Korean Standard Time, Saturday May 12
• 5:30am Central European Summer Time, Saturday May 12
• 3:30am Greenwich Mean Time, Saturday May 12 (adjust for European Summer Time)
• 11:30pm US Eastern Daylight Saving Time, Friday May 11, 2012.

Who do you think will win?

Will Korea’s Baek Hongseok be the first to cross the finish line or will China’s dark horse, Dang Yifei, overtake him on the last mile? Share your thoughts by commenting below.

About the BC Card Cup

The BC Card Cup is an international Go tournament sponsored by BC Card, Korea’s largest credit card company. The inaugural tournament was held in 2009.

The format is a single knockout of 64 players: 3 from Korea, 2 from China, 2 from Japan, 1 from Taiwan, 2 wild cards (chosen by the Korean Baduk Association) and 54 players who qualify through the preliminary rounds.

Game records

Hu Yaoyu vs Baek Hongseok

[Embedded SGF File]

Dang Yifei vs Piao Wenyao

[Embedded SGF File]

Related articles at Go Game Guru:

• Baek Hongseok wins 4th BC Card Cup
• 4th BC Card Cup: Down to the final four
• China on a roll in 4th BC Card Cup

Here are the weekly Go problems for week 37. Black plays first in all problems and all solutions are labeled ‘correct’. Have fun!

Easy Go problem

First things first. It’s important to figure out whether you’re trying to kill or trying to live.

[Embedded SGF File]

 

Intermediate Go problem

White’s isolated some black stones, but there’s a crucial flaw in white’s shape. Can you find it?

[Embedded SGF File]

 

Hard Go problem

Take your time and find the vital points. You could easily make a mistake by rushing here.

[Embedded SGF File]

Related articles at Go Game Guru:

• Weekly Go problems: Week 29
• Weekly Go problems: Week 28
• Weekly Go problems: Week 27

This is the final article in our series about the top 20 Go players of 2010.

Lee Sedol (9p) was ranked number 1 and Kong Jie (9p) was ranked number 2, according to Dr Bae Taeil in early 2011.

Kong Jie

Kong Jie was born in 1982 and became a pro in 1994.

He won the National Individual title in 2001, and it was his first domestic title. In 2003, he won both the Ricoh Cup and Xinren Wang (Rookies Cup).

A top prospect in China

At that time, he was regarded as one of top prospective players in China, along with Qiu Jun, Hu Yaoyu, and Gu Li.

Gu Li took the lead among them, and even though Kong was highly regarded, his results in international matches weren’t very impressive until 2009.

Kong Jie becomes unbeatable

In 2009, the situation was reversed, and there was a big change in Kong. At the end of that year, he won the 14th Samsung Cup, defeating Qiu Jun in the final. It was his first major international title.

In 2010, nobody could stop him. He defeated Lee Changho in the final of the 14th LG Cup, defeated Lee Sedol in the final of the 23rd Fujitsu Cup, and then beat Yuki Satoshi in the final of the 22nd Asian TV Cup.

He won four international titles in a row, and it was both impressive and shocking. He seemed to be invincible at that time and many Korean fans were shocked and in panic by his perfect style of play against top Korean players.

Even if he was already highly regarded as a top player, he had never been that dominant before. He suddenly became perfect and unbeatable in 2009 and 2010.

Kong Jie’s style

Kong Jie’s style of play is basically very solid and thick. You can feel some cool and nice shapes in his games. The strong points of his style are accurate counting, balance and endgame.

His opening sense is good and he likes tidy, peaceful games. He never rushes when his opponents have a big moyo, because he’s very good at maintaining balance.

If you watch him playing a reduction or invasion in his games, you’d feel he takes it easy, but if you try to do that, you’ll realize it’s actually very hard.

Time trouble

On the other hand, he used to have trouble with time management.

When he was in time trouble, he often made simple mistakes and lost won games, but it looks as if he overcame that in 2009 and time doesn’t seem to be an issue for him anymore.

He must have tried his best to cover his weaknesses, and eventually he reached the top of the Go world.

Meeting Kong

I met him for the first time in 1998, when he visited Korea for the ‘Rookies’ friendship matches’ – between Korea, China and Japan. We couldn’t talk a lot because of the language barrier, but we could still communicate with body language and Go.

We enjoyed dinner, drinking, karaoke, and bowling together, with many other young players. He was shy and modest, but I don’t know if he’s still shy. Anyway, he’s become quite a favorite with female Go fans and his big smile is still attractive. [Editor: even Jing thinks Kong looks pretty good in a suit .]

Human after all

He reached the final of the LG Cup in early 2011, but was beaten by Piao Wenyao (9p). Since that final, we haven’t seen his name in the line-up for any semi finals, or above, in international matches.

His recent results in international Go haven’t been as good as before. It’s because many strong young players are coming through the ranks, and they might have figured out the weaknesses in Kong’s style of play.

Though he’s been in a slump in recent times, I hope to see his beautiful and tidy style of play for a long time to come.

Lee Sedol

Lee Sedol was born in 1983, on a small island in the south west part of Korea.

He learnt Go from his father when he was very young, with his elder brothers and sisters. He lived on that small island until he went to Kwon Gapryong’s dojo, when he was 9 years old.

His strong mind and will could be due to the nature of that island.

Lee Sedol’s early years

He became a pro when he was 12 years old, but his first couple of years after becoming a pro weren’t yet remarkable.

He won both the 5th Chunwon and the 8th Baedalwang in 2000, and he became one of the top players in Korea from that period on.

Of particular note was when he defeated Yu Changhyeok in the Baedalwang title match. It was sensational because Yu was regarded as the best attacker in the world at that time. It was Lee Sedol’s turning point, and after beating Yu, Lee seemed to be full of confidence and he started to dominate the Korean Go world.

He also won 32 games in a row (the 3rd best record in Korea) and was selected as best player at the Korean Baduk Awards in 2000.

Lee Sedol and Lee Changho

In 2001, he was in the final of the 5th LG Cup and his opponent was Lee Changho, the invincible. Sedol won the first two games and lots of Go fans were shocked, even though Sedol was regarded as the next Lee Changho.

Sedol was already playing at quite a high level, but people still thought that beating Changho was impossible, especially in a five game series.

This time they were right. Lee Changho made a comeback and won the title in a reverse sweep, but it was just beginning of their matches together.

Breakthrough

In 2002, Lee won the 15th Fujitsu Cup, defeating Yu Changhyeok, and it was his first international title. The game was hopeless, but Lee miraculously reversed the position and won by half a point. It was another turning point for Lee.

In 2003, he beat Lee Changho in the final of the 7th LG Cup and was finally recognized as being on par with Lee Changho in Korea.

World number one

Since 2003, he’s become one of the strongest players in the world, and you can easily find more information about his career on the internet. Therefore, I’d like skip his career and talk about some other things.

Lee Sedol’s older brother, Lee Sanghun (8p), is also a pro and his sister, Lee Sena, used to be the strongest female amateur player in Korea. They’re a real Baduk family.

Sena lived in Sydney for a time, so I was able to talk to her about Sedol and other things after I came to Australia.

Still a student

Sena said, Sedol regards Lee Changho very highly, so whenever he plays against Changho, he treats him like a teacher. Even after Lee Sedol became number 1 in Korea, he still considered Lee Changho to be better than himself.

Lee Sedol’s character

He has a strong character. He’s humorous and jolly, but he’s also very strict with himself.

People say he’s a genius, but actually he also studies very hard.

He’s obviously gifted, but he wouldn’t have reached the top without the hard work.

He used to like to play sports and computer games and watch movies with other pro friends, but after his marriage in 2006, he dedicated most of his spare time to his family and studying Go.

He’s very busy, but he also teaches Go in his dojo in Seoul, with Lee Sanghun (his brother).

Lee Sedol’s critics

Because of his strong character, he has many critics. Those people prefer Lee Changho’s mild, calm and gentle character, which is considered ideal for a Go player by the older generation.

But, in contrast, Lee Sedol is active, energetic and outgoing, so the younger generation tend to prefer Sedol’s character.

Conflict with KBA

In June 2009, there was a big affair in the Go world. Lee decided to retire early from his career in Go.

It was because of deep and long conflicts between KBA (Korean Baduk Association) and Lee Sedol. At the time, lots of Baduk fans in Korea criticized Lee as being egotistical, but actually he fought against KBA for the rights of professional players.

However, even a man like Lee Sedol can’t win a dispute against a whole organization, so he decided to retire. He was sick of it. But, a lot of his friends tried to dissuade him, and at last he decided to take an 18 month leave of absence instead.

He was ranked number 1 in Korea, with many titles, so lots of Go fans were in panic. Once Lee Sedol left, KBA realized the problem was more serious than they’d initially thought. Many of the people who’d criticized Lee before, had turned to criticize KBA instead.

A positive outcome

After 6 months, KBA agreed to Lee’s claims and made a revised bill for pros’ rights. Lee came back to the Go world and most fans welcomed him. It was a positive end to a painful affair.

Just after his return in 2010, Lee won 24 consecutive games, and won the 2nd BC Card Cup, defeating Chang Hao in the final. He showed his powerful style of play and once again demonstrated his ability and strength.

I’m glad that Go fans around the world can now continue to watch and learn from Lee Sedol’s exciting and entertaining games and I hope that we can continue to do so well into the future.

Related articles at Go Game Guru:

• 16th Samsung Cup: Kong Jie, Gu Li knock out Lee Sedol, Lee Changho
• Top 20 Pro Go Players of 2010
• Lee Sedol beats Lee Changho: 6th Prices Information Cup

Lee Sedol (9p) defeated Park Younghun (9p) in the 5th and deciding game of the 17th GS Caltex Cup finals, on May 6, 2012.

No sure thing

Lee won the first game on April 25, but Park responded by winning games 2 and 3 on April 30 and May 1, making Lee’s fans nervous.

Lee, unruffled as always, equaled the scored at 2-2 on May 5, taking away Park’s hopes of an early win.

He followed up with another win the next day to claim the Cup.

GS Caltex Cup

The GS Caltex Cup is one of the most generously sponsored Korean domestic Go tournaments, with the winner taking away 70 million Won (approximately $60,000 USD).

Until 2004, when LG restructured into LG and GS, the tournament was known as the Korean LG Cup.

Professionals play in a knockout format with the final decided by the best of 5 matches. The tournament structure has changed several times over the years.

Up until the 15th year, the tournament was played with a challenger facing the defending title holder. The challenger has been decided by both round robin and single knockout formats.

GS Caltex is a South Korean oil and energy company.

Lee Sedol and Park Younghun

Lee and Park are no strangers to the GS Caltex Cup, both having won this tournament twice in previous years.

Lee won the tournament in 2001 and 2006 and Park in 2007 and 2008.

Congratulations Lee Sedol!

17th GS Caltex Cup Photos

Game records

Lee Sedol vs Park Younghun – Game 1

[Embedded SGF File]

Park Younghun vs Lee Sedol – Game 2

[Embedded SGF File]

Lee Sedol vs Park Younghun – Game 3

[Embedded SGF File]

Park Younghun vs Lee Sedol – Game 4

[Embedded SGF File]

Lee Sedol vs Park Younghun – Game 5

[Embedded SGF File]

Related articles at Go Game Guru:

• Park Younghun wins 12th Maxim Cup
• Lee Sedol wins 2nd Olleh KT Cup
• Park Younghun wins 39th Myeongin

On May 4, 2012, the 26th Tianyuan concluded with Chen Yaoye (9p) defeating Zhou Hexi (4p) to win the title for the fourth consecutive year.

Chen won the first game on May 2 and followed up with a second win on May 4 to make the score 2-0.

The Tianyuan

Tianyuan is the Chinese equivalent of the Japanese Tengen title.

The tournament uses knockout format consisting of 48 players vying for the right to challenge the previous year’s winner. 16 players are seeded into the second round of the knockout tournament.

Zhou won the right to challenge Chen in February, defeating Tan Xiao.

The title match is decided over the best of three games. The current winner’s prize is 150,000 RMB (approximately $25,000 USD).

History repeats

Interestingly, this year’s Tianyuan title match was an exact replay of last year’s, where Chen also defeated Zhou 2-0.

Perhaps Zhou can shoot for third time lucky in 2013?

Later this year, Chen will face the Chunwon winner (yet to be played) in the annual China Korea Tengen playoff, which he also won last year, against Korea’s Choi Cheolhan.

Game records

Chen Yaoye vs Zhou Hexi – Game 1

[Embedded SGF File]

Zhou Hexi vs Chen Yaoye – Game 2

[Embedded SGF File]

Related articles at Go Game Guru:

• Zhou Hexi to challenge Chen Yaoye in the 26th Tianyuan
• Chen Yaoye holds 25th Tianyuan against tiger cub
• Chen Yaoye wins 15th China Korea Tengen

Here are the weekly Go problems for week 36.

Black plays first in all problems and all solutions are labeled ‘correct’. Have fun!

Easy Go problem

Sometimes you need to play in a way that prevents your partner from sacrificing stones.

[Embedded SGF File]

 

Intermediate Go problem

It looks like white A was a bit too greedy. Time to school white.

[Embedded SGF File]

 

Hard Go problem

Don’t be seduced by the obvious. Ask the relevant questions first…

[Embedded SGF File]

Related articles at Go Game Guru:

• Weekly Go problems: Week 28
• Weekly Go problems: Week 27
• Weekly Go problems: Week 29

Several members of the Yu Go club had the pleasure of playing against Professional Go players in simultaneous handicap games. Joe Walters is smiling with joy after winning his game against the 2 Dan pro (Kim Hyo-jung) who came from Korea together with three 9 Dan pros (Cho Hyo-hyun, Yoo Chang-hyuk, and Yang Jae-ho) for the Cotsen Go tournament.

While updating my collection and my ranks at Boardgamegeek (BGG), I realised that I still place Go at the top of my rankings, giving it 10 out of 10 points. Though you may consider, as I do, that the perfect game doesn’t exist, you may agree with me in the awesomeness of this game. Go starts with very simplistic rules and its strategy it develops surpasses that of any other game *, it’s visually appealing and challenging at the same time. It’s been there for millennia, withstanding centuries with only scoring modifications. Well, most of the games at the top of BGG stand on our shelves in a couple of generations. Certainly, if there is a game to be placed a 10 out of 10 points, it’s Go.

Fanatism? You may call it. Wandering around the BGG I found out there is a rating graph for every single game. Let’s check it:

Realising I wasn’t the only one giving it a 10 was a shock at the very beginning. After recovering, I realised the 10 points was the most frequent score (call it statistically mode) and that Go rating would follow a sort of normal distribution (Wikipedia)  if it wasn’t for the upper tower, with the 9-points tower being significantly lower than the 8 and 10. High as it is, the 10 points tower scores the 25.60% of its final average result, which is 7.551.

One would think this is normal for a game placed among the top games of the BGG. However, you should know that Go is placed in the 43rd position**. Right after Pandemic:

With a final average of 7.556, Pandemic shows a more traditional normal distribution, with only 5.58% of the votes on the 10 points tower. Though differences were to be suspected, I didn’t expect them to be this big.

How does Go perform when compared to the top games? Here you have all three graphics from the top 2 games:

 

Twilight Struggle

Agricola

 

As you can see above, both Twilight struggle and Agricola get a decent amount of the maximum score, but they both show a sort of normal distribution with 8 as the statistical mode. Actually, Twilight Struggle, the best rated game from BGG gets a final score of  8.219, with 24.53% of 10 points. Agricola’s average score is 8.168 with 21.9% of the maximum rating. Compared to Go’s 25.60%, the difference is little but impressive if we realise that Go is placed 43rd.

Failing to find more games with a higher 10-points proportion within the first 10 games led me to wonder about other traditional games. This time with better results. Although Chess fails to reach the 20% of 10-points, it shows a similar graph:

Other games with well-known fanatism such as Poker or Magic: the Gathering show similar numbers: 9% and 14,2%, respectively. However, these two games score approximately the same in both 9 and 10 points, without a significant increase of the 10 points tower.

In the end, we should conclude that there is a remarkable amount of Go lovers within the BGG community. Not just people who have played go once in a while, not just regular players, but people who like it as much as me. So if you smiled in agreement during the first paragraph, don’t feel ashamed to give it 10 out of 10 points, 1600 users from BGG agree with you.

*: Most of the reasoning in favour of Go can also be made with Chess, though this last has more complex rules to start with.

**: The Geek rating includes a Bayesian regression, so that  games with few users can’t climb up too easily. If we only considered the actual user ratings, Go would be placed 52nd.

No related posts.

Free live stream

I just want to let all Go Game Guru readers know that, due to the generosity of Baduk TV in Korea, the live stream of Baduk TV will be available for free for a little while. Probably until July.

Baduk TV felt that Go players outside of Korea might not know who they are and wanted to give everyone a chance to see their programs.

You can go and have a look at it now and discuss the games with other viewers, here.

Beta testing

In addition, we’ve started beta testing our paid Baduk TV On Demand service, which lets you replay games whenever you want to. If you want to sign up for a beta subscription (and get a monthly discount for as long as you’re a member), you can find out how to do so here.

Bear in mind that beta testing means there will still be some bugs and that’s partly why there’s a discount.

Free Baduk TV On Demand demo

If you’re not sure whether this is something your interested in, you can also register for a free demo of the on demand service first, and then decide.

Translations

Since it’s undoubtedly going to come up again, I’ll say clearly here that there are no subtitles (or dubbed videos) at this stage. It is something we want to look at once we’ve laid the basic foundations of being able to stream videos worldwide, let people log in and watch them, and so on. Whether we can go ahead with translations will depend on how popular this service is.

If you feel like you absolutely need translations even after watching the free demo videos then that’s no problem, it just means the service isn’t for you at this stage, so don’t subscribe. You might decide to subscribe later, once the situation changes.

Questions?

When I first mentioned in March that we were partnering with Baduk TV to bring you this service, there was a lot of discussion. If you didn’t see that, you can read through the earlier discussion here.

If you’re having trouble getting the live stream working on your computer, you can ask for help here and I’ll try to help you if someone else in the community doesn’t point you in the right direction first.

Please have a look at the Troubleshooting section on the Baduk TV Live page first though, and note that we don’t currently control the hardware, software, format etc because you’re getting it for free.

The paid version of the live stream will run off Go Game Guru’s media server, and be more compatible with non-Windows and mobile devices, because it uses a totally different setup.

If you have any other questions please go ahead and ask below.

Related articles at Go Game Guru:

• Baduk TV is coming to Go Game Guru!
• The Instant Go Set: A free printable Go board and stones
• Free Go lesson competition: Game review attached

Here are the weekly Go problems for week 35.

Black plays first in all problems and all solutions are labeled ‘correct’. Have fun!

Easy Go problem

You can probably see how you’re going to make an eye already, but think about your move order too.

[Embedded SGF File]

 

Intermediate Go problem

In a symmetrical situation, play on the point of symmetry…

[Embedded SGF File]

 

Hard Go problem

There are only a few choices and it looks obvious, but be wary of shooting from the hip.

[Embedded SGF File]

Related articles at Go Game Guru:

• Weekly Go problems: Week 28
• Weekly Go problems: Week 27
• Weekly Go problems: Week 23

This game is from the round of 32 in the 4th BC Card Cup. It’s between Lee Changho (9p) and Mi Yuting (3p).

Lee Changho is one of the most well known players in the world, but he’s not in very good form these days.

On the other hand, Mi Yuting is a newbie for Go fans. He’s very young, but he’s a rising star in China.

Mi Yuting was born in 1996, so he’s more than twenty years youngger than Lee Changho.

In the previous round, Mi defeated Park Junghwan (9p) and it was sensational because Park is currently ranked number 2 in Korea, just behind Lee Sedol (9p)

Let’s review the game.

Commented game record: Mi Yuting vs Lee Changho

[Embedded SGF File]

Related articles at Go Game Guru:

• China on a roll in 4th BC Card Cup
• Go Commentary: Park Younghun vs Lee Changho – 12th Maxim Cup
• Go Commentary: Choi Cheolhan vs Park Junghwan – 13th Maxim Cup

Here are the weekly Go problems for week 34.

Black plays first in all problems and all solutions are labeled ‘correct’. Have fun!

Easy Go problem

It’s important to take care of your own shape when attacking.

[Embedded SGF File]

 

Intermediate Go problem

Black is on the verge of collapse. The first move is crucial.

[Embedded SGF File]

 

Hard Go problem

This is a cake that Jing made. Can you eat all the white stones? And more importantly, do you like white chocolate?

[Embedded SGF File]

Related articles at Go Game Guru:

• Weekly Go problems: Week 28
• Weekly Go problems: Week 27
• Weekly Go problems: Week 23

On April 16 and 17, 2012, the quarter finals of the 4th BC Card Cup were played on the Starship Enterprise at TV studios in Seoul, Korea.

When we last checked on this tournament’s progress China was dominating the draw, claiming 13 spots in the round of 16.

Round of 16

The round of 16 matches were played from April 12-15.

China’s Zhou Ruiyang (5p), Xie He (9p), Piao Wenyao (9p), Chen Yaoye (9p), Dang Yifei (4p) and Hu Yaoyu (8p) won through to the quarter finals.

Out of the three remaining Korean Players in the round of 16, Park Younghun (9p) and Baek Hongseok (9p) progressed to the quarter finals.

Quarter final results

Dang Yifei

In the next round, Dang, one of China’s more surprising players in this year’s tournament, defeated Park by capturing a large dragon.

Dang is just 17 years old and is one of several young Chinese players to watch.

Baek Hongseok: Lone rider for Korea

Luckily for Korean fans, Baek defeated Zhou to keep hopes alive for a local winner.

Baek commented after his win, “so now I’m left all alone…on the 17th floor of a TV studio in Seoul”. Asked how he would prepare for the finals, he said there was no choice but to work hard.

Piao Wenyao and Hu Yaoyu

In the other two matches, Piao defeated Chen and Hu defeated Xie.

The semi finals and final will be played in mid May, with the semis scheduled for the 9th. In the semi finals:

• Baek Hongseok will play Hu Yaoyu, and
• Dang Yifei will play Piao Wenyao.

Who do you think will win?

Can Baek hold fast and bring the BC Card Cup home for Korea? Will Dang or Hu break through, with a maiden international win? Or perhaps it’s time for Piao to add something else to his trophy cabinet?

Let me know what you think! Leave a comment below.

About the BC Card Cup

The BC Card Cup is an international Go tournament sponsored by BC Card, Korea’s largest credit card company. The inaugural tournament was held in 2009.

The format is a single knockout of 64 players: 3 from Korea, 2 from China, 2 from Japan, 1 from Taiwan, 2 wild cards (chosen by the Korean Baduk Association) and 54 players who qualify through the preliminary rounds.

4th BC Card Cup photos

Game records

Chen Yaoye vs Piao Wenyao

[Embedded SGF File]

Dang Yifei vs Park Younghun

[Embedded SGF File]

Baek Hongseok vs Zhou Ruiyang

[Embedded SGF File]

Hu Yaoyu vs Xie He

[Embedded SGF File]

 

Related articles at Go Game Guru:

• China on a roll in 4th BC Card Cup
• 3rd BC Card Cup: Semi final line up
• 3rd BC Card Cup: Quarter final lineup

This game is from the second round of the 9th Chunlan Cup. It’s between Lee Sedol (9p) and Qiu Jun (9p).

Lee Sedol is ranked number 1 in Korea and Qiu Jun is number 13 in China.

This is their second game together. In 2011, Qiu defeated Lee in the quarter finals of the 24th Fujitsu Cup. Qiu took the second place in that tournament.

In this game there was a huge life and death battle and an enormous group was killed.

It’s really rare to see such a huge group get chased and captured in top pros’ games, so I hope you enjoy watching it.

You can also feel both players’ unique styles of play and concepts of the game.

Let’s have a look at the game…

Commented game record: Lee Sedol vs Qiu Jun

[Embedded SGF File]

Related articles at Go Game Guru:

• Go Commentary: Xie He vs Lee Sedol – 8th Chunlan Cup
• Lee Sedol wins 8th Chunlan Cup
• Lee Sedol and Xie He one all in the 8th Chunlan Cup

Here are the weekly Go problems for week 33.

Black plays first in all problems and all solutions are labeled ‘correct’. Have fun!

Easy Go problem

Black’s short of liberties, but so is white, so it’s a fair fight.

[Embedded SGF File]

 

Intermediate Go problem

It looks like white A and B are miai. Time for some black magic…

[Embedded SGF File]

 

Hard Go problem

There are quite a few moves that look like tesuji. Take your time and choose the best move.

[Embedded SGF File]

Related articles at Go Game Guru:

• Weekly Go problems: Week 29
• Weekly Go problems: Week 28
• Weekly Go problems: Week 27

The 2nd Huang Longshi Cup ended on April 9th, 2012, with Team China convincingly defending the title.

Huang Longshi Cup

The Huang Longshi Cup is a female win and continue team tournament between China, Japan and Korea, not to be confused with the Huang Longshi Female Mingren (Meijin) tournament.

Previously…

When we last looked at this competition, Team Japan still had Mannami Nao (2p) and Xie Yimin (6p) in play, while only Park Jieun (9p) remained for Team Korea.

Meanwhile, China still had all team members in play, with Wang Chenxing (2p) on a six game winning streak.

Wang Chenxing’s 8 game streak

Wang extended her winning record by two more games, defeating Mannami Nao…

…and Park Jieun!

 

Xie Yimin stops the runaway train

Japan’s last woman standing, Xie Yimin, eventually ended Wang’s impressive run at eight wins. Wang, for her efforts, received a promotion to 5 dan.

This meant that, for Xie to win the tournament for Team Japan, she would have to beat all four remaining Chinese players, including the legendary Rui Naiwei (9p).

Yu Zhiying steps up to bat for China

Teenager, Yu Zhiying (2p) was next up for Team China. Perhaps inspired by fellow team mate Wang, Yu defeated Xie to bring the Cup home for China.

China wins the Huang Longshi Cup

It must be an unusual experience for the rest of Team China – Rui, Tang Yi (2p) and Li He (3p) – who are celebrating a major international win without having to play a single game!

2nd Huang Longshi Cup photos

Game records

Wang Chenxing vs Park Jieun

[Embedded SGF File]

Xie Yimin vs Wang Chenxing

[Embedded SGF File]

Xie Yimin vs Yu Zhiying

[Embedded SGF File]

Related articles at Go Game Guru:

• Wang Chenxing on a 6 game streak in the 2nd Huang Longshi Cup
• China wins 13th Nongshim Cup
• Park Jieun wins 2nd Bingsheng Cup

Attention Young Go Players!

Yu Go Club was invited to participate at the Second International Children's Go Art Contest!



Second International Children’s Art Contest Accepting Submissions



Children's Go Art Contest Guidelines in PDF

The 12th Ricoh Cup ended on April 7th, 2012 with teenager Yang Dingxin (3p) defeating Piao Wenyao (9p) to take the title.

En route to the final, Yang also defeated fellow youngster, Mi Yuting (3p), as well as Wang Lei (jr) (6p), Fan Tingyu (3p), Kang Kaiwen (1p) and Li He (3p).

13 years old

Yang, who is only 13 years old, has caused quite a stir by becoming the youngest domestic title holder in China.

Yang Dingxin in good company

This puts Yang in the league of other famous young title holders like Lee Changho (9p – who won his first KBS title around the same age). Any record buffs out there, please go ahead and let me know the exact details .

After turning pro at the age of 10 in 2008, Yang the reached the semi finals of the Lanke Cup in 2010 and won New Talent division of the Ricoh Cup in 2011.

Due to his rank, he also qualified for the New Talent division of this year’s tournament, of which he was ironically only the runner up!

That title went to another talented Chinese teenager, Li Xuanhao (3p).

 

 

The Ricoh Cup

The Ricoh Cup is a domestic Go tournament in China, sponsored by Ricoh Hong Kong. It’s also known as the Liguang Cup, to differentiate it from the (now defunct) Japanese Ricoh Pair Go Cup.

The draw is mainly invitational and the format is a straight knockout – even the final is just one game.

The players are allotted 60 minutes main time per game and some form of over time (byo yomi), which seems to get revised every year. In 2012 the prize for first place was 250,000 RMB (approximately $40,000 USD).

Apart from a generous winner’s prize, Ricoh also hands out a range of lucky door/fighting spirit prizes to other players and audience members. This year, Ge You, a popular Chinese actor, handed out various Ricoh products to the lucky winners.

Ricoh is an international electronics company, which has its headquarters in Japan. It produces printers, photocopiers and other office equipment, as well as cameras.

12th Ricoh Cup photos

Game records

Yang Dingxin vs Piao Wenyao

[Embedded SGF File]

Mi Yuting vs Yang Dingxin

[Embedded SGF File]

Related articles at Go Game Guru:

• Professionals play Pair Go at the 12th Ricoh Cup
• Tiger Cubs Storm into 11th Ricoh Cup Final
• Park Younghun wins 12th Maxim Cup

Dear Yu Go Club members and friends



The greatest Go Tournament in South California is coming!

On April 28 and 29, you can be the witness of the awesome Go games

Participate!



Cotsen Go Tournament 2012

For details, follow the link

http://www.bayareago.org/cotsen/

Here are the weekly Go problems for week 32.

Black plays first in all problems and all solutions are labeled ‘correct’. Have fun!

Easy Go problem

It’s tempting to try to live with as much as possible, but sometimes retreat is better…

[Embedded SGF File]

 

Intermediate Go problem

An application of last week’s problem. Is that enough of a clue?

[Embedded SGF File]

 

Hard Go problem

“Go is move order” – Rin Kaiho (9p)

[Embedded SGF File]

Related articles at Go Game Guru:

• Weekly Go problems: Week 28
• Weekly Go problems: Week 29
• Weekly Go problems: Week 27

This is the second game of the 13th Maxim Cup final. It’s between Choi Cheolhan (9p) and Park Junghwan (9p).

Park Junghwan won the first game and only had to win this game to win the title.

For Choi Cheolhan, he still has to win two games in a row to win at this point.

Maxim Cup

The Maxim Cup is a 9 dan only invitational tournament in Korea. Choi won the Maxim Cup twice, in 2009 and 2010.

This is the first time Park has participated in the Maxim Cup, as he only became 9p at the end of 2010.

Let’s have a look at the game…

Commented game record: Choi Cheolhan vs Park Junghwan

[Embedded SGF File]

Related articles at Go Game Guru:

• Park Junghwan wins 13th Maxim Cup
• Go Commentary: Kim Kiyong vs Choi Cheolhan – 2nd Olleh KT Cup
• Go Commentary: Park Younghun vs Lee Changho – 12th Maxim Cup

Earlier this year, I announced a competition to win a free, 90 minute Go lesson with me.

To enter, you just had to help us tell more people about Go.

I’d like to thank everyone who took part and introduced Go to new players!

The competition has ended and the winner was drawn at random from 356 entries a few days ago.

(the image above was created using jGoBoard)

Competition winner

I’m happy to announce that David Bickley from the US was the winner and that David has kindly allowed the lesson to be public, so that you can watch too!

You can visit David Bickley photography to see what David does for a living.

Watch the lesson

Update: The lesson has now been and gone, but you can still review the game just below:

[Embedded SGF File]

Related articles at Go Game Guru:

• Tell your friends about the game of Go and win a free Go lesson!
• Improved performance and a free iPhone app at Go Game Guru
• Our Go book shop is now open – Your chance to win a free Go book

On March 30, 2012, the quarter finalists for the 9th Chunlan Cup were decided.

Play started on March 28 in Taizhou, Jiangsu province, China.

After two days of play, 16 of the 24 contenders had been eliminated.

Chunlan Cup

The Chunlan Cup is an invitational Go tournament for 24 top players from around the world. In addition to players from China, Japan, Korea and Taiwan, a European and a North American representative are also invited.

In 2012, Russia’s Alexandre Dinerchstein (3p) represents Europe and Canada’s Yang Jing (8d – aka Jing Yang) represents North America.

The top eight seeded players proceed directly to round two, while the remaining 16 play a single elimination round, knocking out 8 players. After the first round, the remaining 16 players compete in a knockout tournament, culminating in a best of three final.

Eight seeded players

This year, Lee Sedol (9p – last year’s winner), Xie He (9p – last year’s runner up), Gu Lingyi (5p), Cho Chikun (9p), Gu Li (9p), Piao Wenyao (9p), Park Junghwan (9p) and Jiang Weijie (9p) were seeded into round two.

Round one results

The other 16 players battled it out in round one, with the following results:

• China’s Mi Yuting (3p) defeated Japan’s Yoda Norimoto (9p)
• China’s Chen Yaoye (9p) defeated Korea’s Kang Dongyun (9p)
• China’s Kong Jie (9p) defeated Japan’s Mizokami Tomochika (8p)
• Korea’s Kim Jiseok (8p) defeated Japan’s Sakai Hideyuki (8p)
• China’s Qiu Jun (9p) defeated Japan’s Yamashita Keigo (9p)
• Korea’s Choi Cheolhan (9p) defeated North America’s Yang Jing (8d)
• Taiwan’s Chen Shiyuan (9p) defeated Europe’s Alexandre Dinerchstein (3p)
• and Korea’s Won Seongjin (9p) defeated China’s Tan Xiao (5p).

Round two results

As usual in the Chunlan Cup, round two featured some fantastic games, including; an interesting meeting between two young stars, Park Junghwan and Mi Yuting, the ever explosive combination of Gu Li and Kim Jiseok, and Lee Sedol in good form, capturing a ’100 point dragon’ in a hard fought game with Qiu Jun. (See these games below).

Update: Younggil has commented Lee Sedol and Qiu Jun’s game.

Here are the full results for round two:

• Korea’s Park Junghwan defeated China’s Mi Yuting
• China’s Chen Yaoye defeated Japan’s Cho Chikun
• China’s Kong Jie defeated China’s Xie He
• Korea’s Kim Jiseok defeated China’s Gu Li
• Korea’s Lee Sedol defeated China’s Qiu Jun
• China’s Piao Wenyao defeated Korea’s Choi Cheolhan
• China’s Jiang Weijie defeated Taiwan’s Chen Shiyuan
• and Korea’s Won Seongjin defeated China’s Gu Lingyi.

The final eight

The quarter finalists (pictured above) are a formidable lineup, including; Chen Yaoye and Park Junghwan, Kong Jie and Kim Jiseok, Jiang Weijie and Won Seongjin and Piao Wenyao and Lee Sedol.

The quarter finals and semi finals of the Chunlan Cup are planned for late 2012, with no specific date scheduled yet.

The finals will take place in early 2013.

Photos from the 9th Chunlan Cup

More about the Chunlan Cup

The Chunlan Cup is sponsored by Chunlan Group, a Chinese conglomerate with interests in the air conditioning, domestic appliance, automotive, finance and alternative energy industries.

The tournament uses Chinese rules, with a komi of 7.5 points, and offers a prize of $150,000 USD to the winner.

Game records

Lee Sedol vs Qiu Jun

[Embedded SGF File]

Gu Li vs Kim Jiseok

[Embedded SGF File]

Park Junghwan vs Mi Yuting

[Embedded SGF File]

Related articles at Go Game Guru:

• 4 players left standing in the 16th Samsung Cup
• Top 20 Pro Go Players of 2010
• 16th Samsung Cup: Kong Jie, Gu Li knock out Lee Sedol, Lee Changho

Here are the weekly Go problems for week 31.

Black plays first in all problems and all solutions are labeled ‘correct’. Have fun!

Easy Go problem

What’s the key point in the corner?

[Embedded SGF File]

 

Intermediate Go problem

The first move may look simple, but I’d guess that being able to spot it consistently is worth about one stone.

[Embedded SGF File]

 

Hard Go problem

Don’t give up at the first hurdle, or you’ll never solve it.

[Embedded SGF File]

Related pages at Go Game Guru:

• Weekly Go problems: Week 29
• Weekly Go problems: Week 28
• Weekly Go problems: Week 27

This is the first game of the 16th LG Cup final, between Jiang Weijie (5p) and Lee Changho (9p).

Lee Changho used to be number 1 in the world for a very long time – more than 10 years.

Jiang Weijie is a rising star in China. He won the Mingren (Chinese Meijin) title, defeating Gu Li and Kong Jie in 2010 and 2011 respectively.

That was very sensational in China, because Gu Li and Kong Jie are two of the best players in the world.

Jiang is currently ranked number 4 in China. He’s very good at fighting like Gu Li, and very good at endgame like Kong Jie.

This is Lee Changho’s 10th final match in a row where he’s been the runner up.

Jiang won this game, then won the second game as well, and the 16th LG Cup. He made a new record as the youngest player to win the LG Cup.

He was also promoted directly to 9p from 5p, as a special case for winning an international title. Congratulations Jiang Weijie!

Let’s have a look at the game…

Commented game record: Jiang Weijie vs Lee Changho

[Embedded SGF File]

Related pages at Go Game Guru:

• Jiang Weijie wins 16th LG Cup
• 16th LG Cup: Stage set for Lee Changho and Jiang Weijie in the final
• Go Commentary: Jiang Weijie vs Park Younghun – 2nd World Meijin

Here are the weekly Go problems for week 30.

Black plays first in all problems and all solutions are labeled ‘correct’. Have fun!

Easy Go problem

Remember last week’s problem? Don’t fall for white’s trick in the corner.

[Embedded SGF File]

 

Intermediate Go problem

Form follows function. What’s the vital point?

[Embedded SGF File]

 

Hard Go problem

It looks impossible, but Monkey Magic would fight his way out…

[Embedded SGF File]

Related pages at Go Game Guru:

• Weekly Go problems: Week 28
• Weekly Go problems: Week 29
• Weekly Go problems: Week 27

The 4th BC Card Cup is about to enter the round of 16.

This year’s tournament has been full of upsets with favorites falling left and right in the early rounds. Here’s how things stand as of March 20, 2012.

Two young Chinese stars

The two stand out players have undoubtedly been Mi Yuting (3p) and Dang Yifei (4p) of China. The two teenagers (aged 16 and 18 respectively) have had a brilliant run so far.

In round one, Mi defeated Korea’s young star, Park Junghwan (9p). Then in the round of 32, Mi caused quite a stir by defeating the legendary Lee Changho (9p).

Dang followed suit by accounting for ‘the other Lee’ – Lee Sedol (9p) – in the round of 32.

Round of 16 line-up

Mi and Dang join China’s Gu Li (9p), Niu Yutian (7p), Zhou Ruiyang (5p), Kong Jie (9p), Liu Xing (7p), Xie He (7p), Tan Xiao (5p), Chen Yaoye (9p), Jiang Weijie (9p), Piao Wenyao (9p) and Hu Yaoyu (8p).

The Korean representatives who’ve made it through to the round of 16 are Lee Wonyoung (3p), Park Younghun (9p) and Baek Hongseok (9p).

Unfortunately for Japan and Taiwan, the handful of their players who made it to the round of 64 were eliminated at that stage.

Things heat up in April

The round of 16 will take place in early April, starting on the 5th.

Stay tuned to see how far Mi and Dang will go in this year’s BC Card Cup!

About the BC Card Cup

The BC Card Cup is an international Go tournament sponsored by BC Card, Korea’s largest credit card company. The inaugural tournament was held in 2009.

The format is a single knockout of 64 players: 3 from Korea, 2 from China, 2 from Japan, 1 from Taiwan, 2 wild cards (chosen by the Korean Baduk Association) and 54 players who qualify through the preliminary rounds.

Photos from the 4th BC Card Cup

Game records

Dang Yifei vs Lee Sedol

[Embedded SGF File]

Mi Yuting vs Lee Changho

[Embedded SGF File]

Mi Yuting vs Park Junghwan

(from the round of 64)

[Embedded SGF File]

One would believe that computer strength was years below pro level. This week we’ve been proved otherwise. Zen19 managed to beat a top pro, Takemiya Masaki (9 dan pro), with 4 and 5 handicap stones. Since pro players can’t really give that much handicap to other pro players, some may argue there is still a big gap for artificial intelligence. We must not forget that the CPU power wasn’t that of a supercomputer and its strength has risen a lot lately.

The text below is extracted from a blog post from the Go Game Guru blog. Sincerely, the author made a great job with the article ant the actual piece of news are awesome. It’s a must read.

As part of the ’6th E&C Symposium’ in Japan, Japanese pro, Takemiya Masaki(9p) played two games against the computer Go program Zen (aka Zen19). Much anticipated by both Go players and AI experts, it was an opportunity for Zen to flex its muscles against a world class professional, though many still expected Takemiya to win. Both games were played on March 17, 2012, on a 19×19 board. Regular readers might recall that Zen played John Tromp in the ‘Man vs Machine match‘ earlier this year

Just in case you are interested into AI and computer go, I’d suggest you visit this interview.

While you are visiting that blog, you may like to take a glance at some other posts, such as “5 tips for dealing with unexpected moves “ and the “Learn Go the Easy Way series“.

 

No related posts.

As part of the ’6th E&C Symposium’ in Japan, Japanese pro, Takemiya Masaki (9p) played two games against the computer Go program Zen (aka Zen19).

Much anticipated by both Go players and AI experts, it was an opportunity for Zen to flex its muscles against a world class professional, though many still expected Takemiya to win.

Both games were played on March 17, 2012, on a 19×19 board. Regular readers might recall that Zen played John Tromp in the ‘Man vs Machine match‘ earlier this year.

Zen wins two games

In the first game Zen received a five stone handicap and won by 11 points. After that the handicap was reduced to four stones, but Zen surprised many by winning again, by 20 points this time!

Zen has previously defeated professional players on five and six stone handicaps, but this is the first time it’s won a match against a pro with only four stones. What’s more, Takemiya is not just any pro. He’s a well known former international champion.

Playing the percentages

I have to admit that I found the results quite surprising, especially the win with four stones. Removing the 5th stone at tengen makes a big difference to the type of game that develops in my opinion, and usually black has to fight a lot more.

What we saw from Zen though was something different. It did fight, and it plays quite well of course, but it was also willing to accept many small losses that I don’t think most human players at this level would.

Time and again it backed down, giving Takemiya what he wanted, but also taking a certain amount of compensation.

Losing points, but maintaining the lead.

In that sense, its positional judgement was really impressive and it reminded me of what Martin Müller said when I interviewed him about Computer Go recently:

The programs are generally good in overall balance and counting. They know what it takes to win and will not lose quietly or be overly aggressive when they are ahead.

About Zen

Zen was written by programmer Yoji Ojima and ran on hardware provided by Kato Hideki, of team DeepZen.

Match details

According to Hideki, the hardware for this match was a mini-cluster of four PCs (a dual 6-core Xeon X5680/4.2 GHz, a 6-core Xeon W3680/4 GHz and two 4-core i7 920/3.5 GHz) connected via a GbE LAN. This is the same hardware used by Zen’s ‘zen19s’ and ‘zen19d’ accounts on the K Go Server (KGS).

Both of the games were played with 30 minutes main time and 60 seconds byo-yomi. Zen is currently ranked 5 dan when playing under similar time conditions on KGS.

Earlier in the day, another pro, Ohashi Hirofumi (5p) played two even games on 9×9 against Zen. The result was one win each.

Will Zen’s march continue?

Winning against a pro with four stones is very impressive, under any circumstances, and shows how far computers have come in Go.

However, it’s clear that Zen was able to win these games by avoiding fighting to a certain extent and relying on its excellent positional judgement. It only played to maintain enough of the handicap advantage to win.

That’s sensible, but it raises the question of whether Zen and other programs will continue to improve steadily as the handicap is reduced and they’re forced to play a more risky style.

Do you expect the current programs to continue improving steadily as hardware gets better, or do you think they’ll plateau at some point?

Let us know what you think by leaving a comment below.

Game records

Zen vs Takemiya – five stones

[Embedded SGF File]

Zen vs Takemiya – four stones

[Embedded SGF File]

I’m very excited to finally be able to tell you that Baduk TV is coming to Go Game Guru!

Baduk TV is a television channel in Korea, completely dedicated to broadcasting programs about the game Go.

Up until now, there’s never been an official, legal and reliable way for Go players in other parts of the world to access Baduk TV.

But that’s about to change.

Baduk TV and Go Game Guru

Baduk TV and Go Game Guru are working together to bring this service to you. Because of the costs involved in running a service like this, it will be available on an affordable monthly subscription basis.

All of our other weekly articles will, of course, remain free.

There will be a live video service, as well as on demand replays (for busy people).

Get a free preview and find out about the beta service

If this sounds like something you’d be interested in, click here to find out more.

More details will follow soon. We’re still working flat out on this.

If you have any questions in the meantime, you can leave a comment below and I’ll answer you as soon as I can.

Here are the weekly Go problems for week 29.

Black plays first in all problems and all solutions are labeled ‘correct’. Have fun!

Easy Go problem

You need to watch your liberties when playing near the corner.

[Embedded SGF File]

 

Intermediate Go problem

Similar to last week’s problem, but the roles are now reversed. Note that the ladder favors black.

[Embedded SGF File]

 

Hard Go problem

You need an eye and you can’t afford to give white any leeway here.

[Embedded SGF File]

This is the 12th game of the 13th Nongshim Cup, between Kim Jiseok (7p) of Korea and Xie He (7p) of China.

The Nongshim Cup is a win and continue tournament between China, Japan and Korea.

Four in a row

Kim Jiseok has won four games in a row at this point, defeating Tan Xiao (5p), Yamashita Keigo (9p), Piao Wenyao (9p) and Gu Li (9p).

China’s last man standing

Xie He is the captain and final player for China in this event. He has to win three games in a row if China is to win the Nongshim Cup.

Just before this game Kim beat Gu Li and it was very good news for the Korean team. It was Kim Jiseok’s first win against Gu Li in their five games together so far. I commented that Kim Jiseok – Gu Li game earlier.

Kim Jiseok is currently ranked number 6 in Korea. Xie He is ranked number 1 in China, and he’s historically performed very well in the Nongshim Cup.

Let’s have a look at the game…

Commented game record: Kim Jiseok vs Xie He

[Embedded SGF File]

Here are the weekly Go problems for week 28.

Black plays first in all problems and all solutions are labeled ‘correct’. Have fun!

Easy Go problem

It looks like white’s two stones have enough liberties, until you find the tesuji.

[Embedded SGF File]

 

Intermediate Go problem

Maybe you’ve faced a situation like this in your own games? This sometimes happens as a followup to a common 4-4 opening pattern. How can you deal with white A?

[Embedded SGF File]

 

Hard Go problem

Based on the same pattern as the previous problem, this one may be harder than it looks. This shape can also occur in actual play and black’s group is surprisingly resilient.

[Embedded SGF File]

On March 5, 2012, Park Junghwan (9p) defeated Choi Cheolhan (9p) to take the 13th Maxim Cup two games to zero.

Park is rapidly expanding his trophy collection – he took three titles last year and this is his first for 2012.

The Maxim Cup

The Maxim Cup is a 9 dan only invitational tournament in Korea.

Once again, the finals took place at the beautiful UNESCO World Heritage listed Jeju Island.

The games

Both games featured novel openings followed by hard fighting.

Park and Choi are both very creative players and it’s a pleasure to see them play. And while Park can take or leave the fighting, it’s a quintessential and unavoidable part of Choi’s game.

Grilled by the reporters

It seems that reporters make a habit of giving the players a hard time at the Maxim Cup finals. Last year it was Lee Changho dodging the bullets…

During a post game interview, Choi was grilled by journalists about his upcoming nuptials. It seems that while a wedding date has been set for June 2, Choi has yet to ‘formally propose’ to his intended wife, Yun Jihee.

Park was not spared from the awkward questions either. Asked about his disappointing first round loss in the 4th BC Card Cup, where he started as one of the favorites, Park said that hopefully with this win, his performance will improve in future tournaments.

Expect more news on the BC Card Cup as that tournament progresses.

13th Maxim Cup photos

Game records

Park Junghwan vs Choi Cheolhan

[Embedded SGF File]

Choi Cheolhan vs Park Junghwan

[Embedded SGF File]

[Editors note: This is a guest article by the American Go Association.]

The father of the computer gaming revolution, Nolan Bushnell, will be the keynote speaker at a symposium for the world’s oldest continuously played game of skill, Go.

The first US International Go Symposium, on August 4-5, 2012, will bring together Go scholars from around the world to explore educational, cultural, historical, literary, artistic, scientific and technological aspects of the game.

Nolan Bushnell on the game Go

Bushnell has called Go a “wonderfully rich and powerful game” and his “favorite game of all time”.

When he founded a pioneering computer company in 1972, he selected a Go term, atari, for the company’s name. Atari’s game Pong became the first commercially successful computer game, opening the door to modern computer gaming.

About the game of Go

Go, considered the most elegant of games, is played with black and white stones on a grid of 19 x 19 intersecting lines. A few simple rules generate more possible board positions than sub-atomic particles in the known universe.

[Learn more on our what is Go page.]

It’s just a wonderfully rich and powerful game.

The depth of Go has resisted computer simulation (unlike chess, draughts, and xiangqi, or Chinese chess) and its combination of left and right brain thinking makes it an ideal educational tool.

1st US International Go Symposium

Organized by Peter Shotwell, noted Go scholar and author, the symposium will take place on August 3rd and 4th during the first weekend of the American Go Association’s (AGA’s) 28th US Go Congress in Black Mountain, North Carolina.

For more information about the Symposium, or to submit papers or proposals, please contact Peter Shotwell:

pshotwell@gmail.com

 

The International Go Federation is providing seed funding for the symposium.

The 28th US Go Congress

The Go Congress is the AGA’s premier annual event, with more than 400 participants and at least a dozen professionals from the US and Asia expected this for a week of playing and learning about Go, with the symposium as the opening event.

Professional Go players in the US

While millions play Go around the world it is not yet widely played in the US. Like Sumo and other Asian arts, Go has an extensive professional system based mainly in Japan, China, Korea and Taiwan.

Until now only three Americans have become pros: Minnesota’s James Kerwin, the first US pro, a 1 dan in the Japanese system; Janice Kim, from New Mexico, a 3 dan in the Korean system; and California’s Michael Redmond, a 9 dan, the highest possible rank, in the Japanese system.

About a dozen Asian pros now live and teach in the US and some have become US citizens.

The AGA, with the assistance of Kim Myungwan, a 9 dan Korean professional living in California, and the Korean Baduk Association, is currently developing an American professional certification process. The first pro certification tournament, sponsored by the Go server Tygem, will also take place at the US Go Congress in North Carolina.

A little bit of history…

The American Go Association was founded in 1935 by chess master Edward Lasker and Harper’s Magazine Editor-in-Chief Lee Foster Hartman. It now has over 100 chapters across the US

In 2004 the International Mind Sports Association (IMSA) was formed to promote an Olympic-style event for mind sports including Go, chess, bridge, draughts and xiangqi. In 2008, the First World Mind Sports Games were held at the Beijing Olympic venue after the Summer Olympics.

The US recently formed the US Mind Sports Association as part of the world-wide effort to further promote mind sports.

This is the 11th game of the 13th Nongshim Cup, between Kim Jiseok (7p) of Korea and Gu Li (9p) of China.

The Nongshim Cup is a win and continue tournament between China, Korea and Japan.

When this game was played, it was the final round of this team event and Kim Jiseok had already won three games, defeating Tan Xiao (5p), Yamashita Keigo (9p) and Piao Wenyao (9p).

Kim Jiseok in good form

Gu Li is currently ranked number 3 in China, and Kim Jiseok is number 6 in Korea. However, Kim has been winning most of his games recently. He’s in very good form.

Gu Li was supposed to be the captain (and therefore the final player) of the Chinese team for this event, but he played for China before Xie He did. This is because Gu Li has a good record against Kim Jiseok, beating him four times in their four games together to date.

Even though Kim was defeated four times in a row, all the games were very exciting.

Anyway, let’s review the game. If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment below.

Commented game record: Kim Jiseok vs Gu Li

[Embedded SGF File]

Here are the weekly Go problems for week 27.

Black plays first in all problems and all solutions are labeled ‘correct’. Have fun!

Easy Go problem

It looks like black’s in trouble, but you can take advantage of white’s shortage of liberties.

[Embedded SGF File]

 

Intermediate Go problem

There’s still some life left in this position. Strange things happen…

[Embedded SGF File]

 

Hard Go problem

There are many ways to make an eye along the bottom edge. Choose carefully.

[Embedded SGF File]

 

Last week I watched a couple of games among DDK players which involved some interesting tsumegos. Today, I’ve loaded a couple of them on my brain computer and tried solving them. The first one of them was quite hard, since I failed to realise the vital point at first glance and one weakness was hammering my head. It arises after a common fuseki sequence at the corner. Actually, I’ve seen it so many times I’m surprised it’s actually killable.

So, here it is, black to kill white unconditionally:

In the real game, the white group was much bigger but had no chances of getting another eye at the centre of the board. Pretty much like a big eyeless dragon crossing half of the board. After you’ve been playing with it for a while mentally. You can check some sequences and the sollution right below these lines.

[Embedded SGF File]

 

Related posts:

1. Capturing on a large scale (2nd part)
2. Life and death KGS tsumegos
3. Tsumegos and my reading (in)ability

A lot of Go players are interested in computer Go.

And, especially after the recent Man vs Machine match between John Tromp and Zen19, many people have questions about it.

I had questions too and I also didn’t know how to answer some of the questions that readers were asking at Go Game Guru.

I’m certainly no expert on computer Go, but I talked to someone who is: Martin Müller from the University of Alberta in Canada. Here’s what Martin had to say…

An interview with Martin Müller

David Ormerod: To start with please tell us a bit about yourself and your research interests. How did you learn of Go and how did you become involved in computer Go?

Martin Müller, computer Go expert.

Martin Müller: I am a professor in the Department of Computing Science at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada.

My research interests are in heuristic search, studying how to solve large, complex problems using computer searches.

The main application areas studied in my research group are games such as Go, and automated planning.

In recent years, Monte Carlo search methods have been our main focus – both for games and for planning. As part of my game-related activities, I am the leader of the team developing the open source software Fuego, which was the first program to defeat a top professional in an even game on 9×9.

I learned Go when I was 15 years old and played a lot in my teens and early twenties. I am a 5, 6 or 7 Dan amateur player, depending on the country. My biggest success was probably taking 2nd place at the US Go congress open tournament in 1998.

I became interested in computer Go as an undergraduate in my home country of Austria, through my supervisor. This was around 1985. I have stayed with the topic ever since, doing a Diploma thesis, a PhD and a few postdocs, before getting my current job.

What’s Monte Carlo?

Most people with any interest at all in computer Go know that the strongest programs these days use a ‘Monte Carlo’ algorithm, but many people don’t know much more about it than that.

Could you briefly explain where the term Monte Carlo came from and what it means in this context?

The term Monte Carlo refers to an affluent suburb of Monaco which is famous for its Casino. Monte Carlo methods use statistics collected from randomized simulations as a way to analyze complex systems which are too hard to ‘solve’ by other means.

They were first developed for nuclear physics and atomic bomb research in the 1940s. Nowadays they are very widely used, but their application to games such as Go took off just a few years ago.

Now that computers are powerful enough, Monte Carlo methods are used across a wide variety of disciplines.

For example, I’ve used them at work to help with risk analysis. It’s often difficult to explain to people why this approach works though, because it seems so counterintuitive at first.

Do you have a good analogy to explain how a large enough number of random simulations can provide a useful answer to a question?

Statistical sampling, which is at the core of Monte Carlo methods, is a very powerful technique.

For example, think about opinion polls. Any single random person who you ask about their opinion may be completely crazy, but if you ask one thousand people, who are carefully selected to represent the overall population, then you get quite a good idea of the general mood and can use that to make informed decisions.

This is why we keep getting more and more of those pesky phone calls doing surveys at dinner time!

How computer Go programs improved

It’s been more than five years since UCT (an extension of Monte Carlo search) was first applied to Go, but the strongest programs were still at the kyu level not that long ago (at least on 19×19 boards).

In contrast, the strongest programs these days are dan level and they seem relatively sharp, even in tactical situations.

To what extent do they make use of heuristics for shape, tesuji, life and death, the opening and so on?

Many programs use learned local patterns such as 3×3 for simple shape, and they modify the playouts to avoid some bad tactical moves.

Also, when there is a single important fight going on, the full board search will be able to analyze it quite deeply, and do well in the tactics. The problems start when there are several fights going on at the same time.

For the opening, some programs simply use large scale patterns to imitate popular openings played by human experts. But usually those are not absolute rules. These moves simply get a bonus, but the search can override them. So it is better than the hard coded ‘expert systems’ of the 1980s.

What other changes and improvements have helped computers get to their current mid-dan level on larger boards since then?

I think many factors are involved. Better patterns and rules as above, better search, better parallel scaling, several years of testing, debugging and tuning the programs, and better hardware all help.

What are the pros and cons of combining a knowledge based approach with a Monte Carlo approach?

Pros: it can patch up the weaknesses in the simulations to some degree. It helps the search focus on ‘probably good’ moves.

Cons: you lose speed, and may introduce other biases in the search.

Computers vs humans in the game Go

What are the top Go programs currently good or bad at compared to human players of a similar level?

For example, they seem to be better at fast games (which surprises many people). They also seem to have problems with wasting ko threats and with fighting ko in general.

Do you have any theories about why this is?

The programs are generally good in overall balance and counting. They know what it takes to win and will not lose quietly or be overly aggressive when they are ahead. They will also avoid most blunders and never get tired.

There are many situations where humans have specialized knowledge, but current simulations are not good enough to solve them.

If these remain out of reach of the search, then the programs get into trouble. Examples are seki, semeai, ko, nakade, or situations with several weak-looking but settled groups of stones on the board.

And yes, the problem of wasting ko threats is particularly annoying for the programmer.

Will computer Go strength scale?

Since the strength of modern Go programs scales much better than it did before, does that mean it’s just a matter of waiting for hardware to improve enough to challenge professional Go players?

Or do you expect the current approach to plateau at some point, until a new breakthrough is made?

Experience in many other games tells us that steady progress in algorithms combined with faster hardware will eventually be enough. I don’t think that Go is ‘special’ in that regard.

Still, I would like to see one or two more ‘big ideas’ emerge in order to make faster progress. Maybe one more big idea is enough to seriously challenge humans on 19×19.

(The graph above was created by Don Dailey in 2008.)

The future

What sort of problems or improvements are Go developers and researchers currently working on?

Many people are working on practical, step by step improvements such as better knowledge for playouts, or better parallel scaling.

Personally, I am very interested in adding a third dimension, local search, in addition to global (full board) search and simulations. This is what I do as a human player, and it allows me to keep track of several simultaneous fights.

However, it is a very difficult problem and it’s hard to come up with effective algorithms that work in a similar way.

What do you think we can learn, or have learned, from AI research into Go, that can be used in other areas?

The main surprise for me is how it works so well, with comparatively little domain-specific knowledge. I believe this is very encouraging news for people working on other hard problems where domain knowledge is difficult to get or to formalize.

In the last few years we have seen an explosion of new applications of Monte Carlo search methods, not just in other games, but also in areas such as energy management, optimization and automated planning.

What can people (particularly young people) do if they have an interest in computer Go and want to learn more about it?

There is a lot of information out on the internet, but it is not particularly well organized and much of the material is outdated or of poor quality.

The best way to learn would be to study with one of the active research groups, such as the MoGo group in Paris Sud, the Dutch groups in Maastricht and Tilburg, or of course our own group at the University of Alberta.

Other ways to get started are to write your own program, or study and contribute to the open source programs such as Fuego, Pachi or Orego.

There is a computer Go mailing list which keeps archives of previous discussions. Finally, there are some overview articles about computer Go, and lots of research papers.

Thanks for taking the time to talk to us today.

You are very welcome.

For further reading you might also want to check out Martin’s computer Go blog, results and analysis from Zen19′s recent match with John Tromp and Chris Ball’s recent article: Computers are [now] very good at the game of Go, which was published last week.

As usual, please feel free to leave comments and questions below.

On February 24, 2012, Team China took the 13th Nongshim Cup, after Xie He (7p) defeated Lee Changho (9p) in the final game.

The Nongshim Cup is a team event between China, Japan and Korea. The sponsor, Nongshim, is a Korean instant noodles company.

Korea won the 12th Nongshim Cup last year. In fact, Korea has tended to dominate this event, winning it 10 times.

In contrast, up until now, China and Japan had only won it once each.

The tournament uses a win and continue format, which is common in these team events. For example, the Huang Longshi Cup also uses this format.

The first two rounds took place in late 2011 with Tan Xiao (5p) of China and Kim Jiseok (7p) of Korea emerging as star players of the tournament. Tan and Kim each won four consecutive games.

Tan defeated Hane Naoki (9p) and Yuki Satoshi (9p) of Japan and An Kukhyun (3p) and Kang Yootaek (4p) of Korea. Kim defeated Tan, as well as Yamashita Keigo (9p) of Japan and Piao Wenyao (9p) and Gu Li (9p) of China.

Kim’s run was cut short by China’s last man standing, Xie He (7p). Xie went on to defeat Won Seongjin (9p) of Korea, which brought him up against Korea’s final player, Lee Changho (9p).

One of the reasons Korea has won the Nongshim Cup so many times is Lee Changho and his excellent performance as Korea’s ‘goal keeper’. It was never going to be an easy game for Xie.

However, even though Xie He is ranked 7 dan, he’s currently the number one player in China (tied with Tan Xiao) and, as we’ve noted before on Go Game Guru, he’s probably the most talented Chinese player never to win an international title.

It was a battle of wills as both players struggled for every last point in drawn out ko fights. Black eventually won by 3.5 points, giving China its second win in the Nongshim Cup.

Congratulations Team China!

Game records

Kim Jiseok vs Gu Li

[Embedded SGF File]

Kim Jiseok vs Xie He

[Embedded SGF File]

Won Seongjin vs Xie He

[Embedded SGF File]

Xie He vs Lee Changho

[Embedded SGF File]

There's an attraction between computer programmers and the Asian game of Go. I think there's a lot to like about the game — it has very simple rules, high complexity (it's "deeper" than chess) and pleasing symmetry and aesthetics. I think the real reason programmers are so drawn to it might be a little more self-involved, though: being good at things that computers aren't good at tends to make programmers happy, and computers are terrible at Go.¹



Or at least, that's the folk knowledge that's been true for most of my life. Computers have always been worse than an average amateur with a few years of experience, and incomparably bad to true professionals of the game. Someone I was talking to brought up the ineptitude of computers at Go a few days ago, talking about new ideas for CAPTCHAs: "just make the human solve Go problems", they said, and you're done; computers can't do that, right?



So, I've enjoyed this feeling of technological superiority to computers as much as anyone, and it hurts me a little to say this, but here I go: the idea that computers are bad at Go is not remotely true anymore. Computers are excellent at Go now. To illustrate this, there's some history we should go into:



Back in 1997 — the year that Deep Blue beat chess world champion Garry Kasparov for the first time — Darren Cook asked Computer Go enthusiasts for predictions on when computers will get to shodan (a strong amateur level) and when they'll beat World Champion players. John Tromp, an academic researcher and approximately shodan-level amateur, noticed the optimism of the guesses and wondered aloud whether the bets would continue to be optimistic if money were on the line, culminating in:

John Tromp: "I would happily bet that I won't be beaten in a 10 game match before the year 2011."

Darren Cook took the bet for $1000, and waited until 2010 before conducting the match against the "Many Faces of Go" program: Tromp won by 4 games to 0. That seemed to settle things, but the challenge was repeated last month, from January 13th-18th 2012, and things happened rather differently. This time Tromp was playing a rising star of a program named Zen19, which won first place at the Computer Go Olympiad in 2009 and 2011. The results are in, and:



Zen19 won by 3 games to 1. (For more reading on the challenge, see David Ormerod's page or Darren Cook's.)



Beating an amateur shodan-level player is shocking by itself — that's my strength too, and I wasn't expecting a computer to be able to beat me anytime soon — but that isn't nearly the limit of Zen19's accomplishments: its progress on the KGS Go server looks something like this:

Year	KGS Rank
2009	1-dan
2010	3-dan
2011	4-dan
2012	5-dan

To put the 5-dan rank in perspective: amongst the players who played American Go Association rated games in 2011, there were only 105 players that are 6-dan and above.² This suggests that there are only around 100 active tournament players in the US who are significantly stronger than Zen19. I'm sure I'll never become that strong myself.³



Being able to gain four dan-level ranks in three years is incredible, and there's no principled reason to expect that Zen19 will stop improving — it seems to have aligned itself on a path where it just continues getting better the more CPU time you throw at it, which is very reminiscent of the story with computer chess. Even more reminiscent (and frustrating!) is the technique used to get it to 5-dan. Before I explain how it works, I'll explain how an older Go program worked, using my favorite example: NeuroGo.



NeuroGo dates back to 1996, and has what seems like a very plausible design: it's a hierarchical set of neural networks, containing a set of "Experts" that each get a chance to look at the board and evaluate moves. It's also possible for an expert to override the other evaluators — for example, a "Life and Death Expert" module could work out whether there's a way to "kill" a large group, and an "Opening Expert" could play the first moves of the game where balance and global position are most important. This seems to provide a nice balance to the tension of different priorities when considering what to play.



Zen19, on the other hand, incorporates almost no knowledge about how to make strong Go moves! It's implemented using Monte Carlo Tree Search, as are all of the recent strong Go programs. Monte Carlo methods involve, at the most basic level, choosing between moves by generating many thousands of random games that stem from each possible move and picking the move that leads to the games where you have the highest score; you wouldn't expect such a random technique to work for a game as deep as Go, but it does. This makes me sad because while I wasn't foolish enough to believe that humans would always be better at Go than computers, I did think that the process of making a computer that is very good at Go might be equivalent to the process of acquiring a powerful understanding of how human cognition works; that the failure of brute-force solutions to Go would mean that we'd need a way to approximate how humans approach Go before we'd start to be able to beat strong human players reliably by implementing that same approach in silico.



Update: "bitti" comments below that Zen19 is choosing which move to play based on maximizing win probability, not maximizing score.



I think that programs like Zen19 have actually learned even less about how to play good Go than computer chess programs have learned about how to play good chess; at least the chess programs contain heuristics about how to play positionally and how to value different pieces (in the absence of overriding information like a path to checkmate that involves sacrificing them). This lack of inbuilt Go knowledge shows up in Zen19's games — it regularly makes moves that look obviously bad, breaking proverbs about good play and stone connectivity, leaving you scratching your head at how it's making decisions. You can read a commented version of one of its wins against Tromp at GoGameGuru, or you could even play against it yourself on KGS.



Update: Matthew Woodcraft comments below that Zen19 does contain significant domain knowledge about Go. It's hard to know exactly how much; it's closed-source.



Zen19 is beating extremely strong amateurs, but it hasn't beaten professionals in games with no handicap yet. That said, now that we know that Zen19 is using Monte Carlo strategies, the reason why it seems to be getting stronger as it's fed more CPU time is revealed: these strategies are the most obviously parallelizable algorithms out there, and for all we know this exact version of Zen19 could end up becoming World Champion if a few more orders of magnitude of CPU time were made available to it.



Which would feel like a shame, because I was really looking forward to seeing us figure out how brains work.

---

¹: I think this is probably why I've never been interested in puzzles like Sudoku; I can't escape the feeling of "I could write a Perl script that does this for me". If I wouldn't put up with such manual labor in my work life, why should I put up with it for fun?

²: Here is the query I used to come up with the 105 number.

³: In fact, KGS ranks are stronger than the same-numbered AGA rank, so the correct number of active players in the US who are stronger than Zen19 may be even smaller. Being stronger than US players isn't the same as being stronger than professional players, though — there are many players that are much stronger than amateur 5-dan in Asia, because there are high-value tournaments and incentives to dedicating your life to mastering Go there that don't exist elsewhere.

Here are the weekly Go problems for week 26.

Black plays first in all problems and all solutions are labeled ‘correct’. Have fun!

Easy Go problem

Making life in Go is fundamentally about dividing your eyespace into two separate areas. Sometimes you can do this better by retreating a little.

[Embedded SGF File]

 

Intermediate Go problem

This is basically a shape problem. Make shape and you’ll make life.

[Embedded SGF File]

 

Hard Go problem

Black’s shape is full of holes. Give and you shall receive.

[Embedded SGF File]

 

Recently I interviewed Choi Jung, an up and coming player who just won the 13th Female Myeongin title in Korea.

I also commented the final game between Choi Jung and Kim Miri earlier.

Here’s what Choi had to say:

An Younggil: Hello Jung, do you remember me? I saw you studying at Yu Changhyuk’s dojo before I came to Australia.

Choi Jung: Yes, I do.

First of all, congratulations on taking the Female Myeongin title. How do you feel about it?

Happy!

Oh, you must be happy for sure. What else do you want to say about it?

Hmm, I’m starting a new phase in my Baduk (Go) career.

That’s good. I agree with you. By the way, what do you do to study Baduk?

I study Baduk from 9:00am to 9:00pm every day. I play some practice games with other pros, and study all aspects of Baduk at Choong-Am Dojo.

Choong-Am Dojo was established in 2010. It’s located beside Choong-Am high school, which is very famous for Baduk in Korea. More than 110 pro players are from this school, including Lee Changho.

In 2010, three big dojos were merged to establish this new dojo. Lots of pros and inseis are studying here.

What’s the most important part of your study schedule?

Playing games and solving life and death problems.

How would you describe your style of play?

Fighting style. It’s because I’m confident at fighting, but I’m not good enough at other aspects of the game.

Who’s your role model?

Rui Naiwei! There’re so many things to learn from her. I respect her for her desire, enthusiasm and attitude towards Baduk.

 

And who do you think of as your rival?

Male pros.

I see. I understand that.

By the way, recently you played a game against Yoshida Mika in the Huang Longshi Cup and there was a rumor that you lost the game because of the differences in the Chinese rules.

Is that true?

No, that’s not true.

I understood the rules, I just lost by half a point in the normal way. The opening was bad for me and the game didn’t go well.

I had a good chance to finish the game in the endgame, but I missed it and lost.

I see. I’m sorry to hear that, but that’s ok. You won your first title! Anyway, what’s your goal in Baduk?

I want to take a major title one day.

I see, but you just took the major title. Oh, you mean the major title for everyone, like the Kuksu?

Yes, I do.

That’s a big goal. I hope you can achieve it in the future.

Thanks.

Could you please introduce yourself to Go fans around the world? They don’t know that much about you, even though you’re a rising star in Korea.

I’m 15 and going to high school this year. I like studying and playing Baduk very much, and my hobby is reading novels. I like the Harry Potter series.

Is there anything else you’d like to say to Go fans overseas?

Hmm, I want you to introduce and teach Baduk to your friends. I’m studying English and I hope to travel and teach Baduk overseas one day.

Thank you so much for your time and for the interview. I’ll be hoping for your dreams to come true.

Thanks.

During the last weeks I’ve been searching for online Go shops and, honestly, the situation is very disappointing. Since the amount of go players is rather limited all over the occidental world and physical Go shops are scarce, one would imagine Go shops offer good services; but it strikes me that, in spite of making things easy for the average player, they make it more difficult.

Some of you may wonder about me referring to the “average” player. Personally, I recall the over-average player the one who may want to buy luxurious equipment from Japan. In contrast, the average player, myself amongst others, avoids spending some hundreds of euros on slate and shell stones or a kaya board.

It seems like most go equipment is mass produced in China or Japan, but we fail to trace it till it reaches the USA or Europe. As a result, the price of a product has been doubled when it reaches the USA and tripled by the time it reaches Europe. As a sample, the “Excalibur II chess game clock”, which I found once in Barcelona for over 60 euros, I finally bought from the USA for 30€, shipment included.

Here is a list I made for myself about international shops and the situation Spaniards suffer when buying equipment:

• Local shops: there are only 2 in Spain worth mentioning. Both are 400 km away from me, expensive (just the bowls 70$) and with a very limited stock. I understand go isn’t very popular in Spain but both shops make their living on other boardgames, so prices should be more reasonable.
• USA shops: YMI, for example, offers some good products at a good price. However, pay attention to the details since a few of their products are “kind of” tricky. I’m talking specially about the board sleeves which don’t cover the board completely. Moreover, the shipping costs may double the cost of the product and I’m still uncertain about import taxes. On the other hand, their workers are very friendlly and willing to help as much as possible.
• Europe international shops:
• Hebsacker-Verlag: they have the best range of products, but prices are too high and I should add at least 25€ for the shipping costs to Spain. Their bowl and board boxes seem to be very good and I couldn’t find them anywhere else. If anyone finds them cheaper, please let me know. A few years ago, they had the best hikaru-no-go keychain collection I’ve ever seen… I wish I had bought more samples since they’ve already worn out.
• Jeu de Go: reasonable prices when compared to Hebsacker or local shops, though the range of products is somewhat limited.

Obviously, there are other go shops… some of them don’t ship internationally, others aren’t online, some have closed recently (Go-figure, we miss you) and some are so expensive it makes more sense to buy directly from Japan.

After wondering about this issue for a few days, I decided to launch a topic at the Life in 19×19 forum. Since some maths didn’t make much sense for myself I asked there for advice and among all users, which I thank to, there was an unique point of view, the one from owner of Mohsart.se. I’d recommend reading the entire post if you are interested in this issue: Buying equipment in Europe. I’d like to thank Mohsart for his numbers… which actually made me realise my mistake. Moreover, I’ve realised Spanish players currently only have expensive options available and we have to cope with it.

In the end, thank you to the user BobC, I was referred to Amazon UK and bought the rollable magnetic board you can see attached to my fridge by the side. I’ve copied a couple of 1-dan tsumegos from GoProblems.com and solved the one at the top left while waiting for the soup to be ready. Tomorrow I’ll give the other one a go.

No related posts.

On February 18, 2012, Zhou Hexi (4p) defeated Tan Xiao (5p) to become the challenger for the 26th Tianyuan title (the Chinese equivalent of Tengen).

A rematch with Chen Yaoye

Zhou, was also the challenger for the Tianyuan title in 2011 and will once again take on Chen Yaoye (9p) for a second shot at the title.

This year’s Tianyuan tournament played out rather strangely. Big names such as Gu Li (9p), Qiu Jun (9p) and Piao Wenyao (9p) were knocked out early.

March of the tiger

The only 9 dan to make it to the quarter final stage was Kong Jie. This seems to indicate that the Chinese tiger cub generation are already making their presence felt in the domestic Chinese Go scene.

In years to come, will we look back on Jiang Weijie’s recent win in the 16th LG Cup as the beginning of this generation’s march on the international scene?

And how will they fare against the likes of Park Junghwan (9p), Iyama Yuta (9p), Kang Dongyun (9p) and Kim Jiseok (7p)? (and lets not forget another prodigy from that generation, Chen Yaoye).

26th Tianyuan finals

The finals will be played later this year in April. Can Zhou go one better than last year?

Game record: Tan Xiao vs Zhou Hexi

[Embedded SGF File]

This is the second game of the 13th Female Myeongin final, between Kim Miri (2p) and Choi Jung (1p).

Kim Miri

Kim Miri is 20 years old and she became a pro in 2008. In 2011, she joined the 9th Jeongganjang Cup as a member of the Korean team. This is her first time in the final of a major tournament.

Choi Jung

Choi Jung became a pro in 2010. She was in the final of the 5th Female Kisung (Kisei) last year, but was defeated by Rui Naiwei (9p). She’s only 15 years old and this is her second time in a major final.

Go teachers

Kim and I are from the same dojo. Our teacher is Heo Janghoi (9p).

Choi’s teachers are Yu Changhyuk (9p) and Choi Kyubyoung (9p). Just before I came to Australia, Choi was an insei, but now she’s become one of the top female players in Korea.

Two fighters

Kim Miri is good at fighting, but she needs to become stronger in other parts of the game.

Choi Jung is also good at fighting, and she’s good at the endgame too. In 2011, she beat eight senior players in a row in 5th GG Auction Cup, and it was very sensational in Korea.

Let’s have a look at the game…

Commented game record: Kim Miri vs Choi Jung

[Embedded SGF File]

If you have any questions about the game, please feel free to leave comments below.

Here are the weekly Go problems for week 25.

Black plays first in all problems and all solutions are labeled ‘correct’. Have fun!

Easy Go problem

Capturing a stone isn’t always the best approach.

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Intermediate Go problem

When you have the advantage it’s important not to get greedy…

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Hard Go problem

This is not a situation to shoot first and ask questions later. In fact, just the opposite.

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