Editorial . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2News and UK Tournament Results ~ Tony Atkins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2The Magic of Go Stones ~ Jackie Chai . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7Council House ~ The President’s Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8Go Tutor ~ Approaches to Joseki ~ edited by Charles Matthews . . . . . . . . 10Some Japanese Concepts ~ Richard Hunter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13A Weekend in Helsinki ~ Matthew Macfadyen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16Mick Reiss Interviewed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18Escaping with a Cutting Stone ~ Andrew Grant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20Guide to the BGA Web Site ~ The Tournaments Page ~ Nick Wedd . . . . . . 23Back to Basics ~ Problems based on the 6-point Corner ~ Steve Bailey . . . . 24Go Professional III ~ A Review ~ Paul Hazelden . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25Council House ~ Annual General Meeting of the British Go Association . . . 27European Pair Go Championship 2000 ~ Francis Roads . . . . . . . . . . . . 28Seong-June Kim plays Matthew Macfadyen at Coventry ~ Seong-June Kim . 30The Depression ~ Good for Go, but not enough ~ Franco Pratesi . . . . . . . 32The British Go Congress ~ A Short History ~ Tony Atkins . . . . . . . . . . . 33Counting Liberties ~ Capturing Races Involving Ko ~ Richard Hunter . . . . 35Matthew Cocke plays Victor Chow at the London Open ~ Victor Chow . . . . 36Review ~ Go at Ease from Yutopian Enterprises ~ Mogens Jakobsen . . . . . 38More Microscopy ~ Part 3 ~ Charles Matthews . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40Why Do We Make Bad Moves? ~ Part 6 ~ Denis Feldmann . . . . . . . . . . 43Diagonal Openings ~ Part 3 ~ Charles Matthews . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44Experimental Tournament ~ Steve Bailey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47The Wonderful World of the IGS ~ Tristan Jones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48Come Back When You’re Stronger ~ Charles Matthews . . . . . . . . . . . . 51Back to Basics ~ A discussion of the 6-point Corner problems ~ Steve Bailey. 52Back to Basics ~ The Problem Solutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55European Tournament Results ~ Tony Atkins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57Notices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58Forthcoming Events . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59BGA Officials, postal, e-mail and web addresses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60UK Club Lists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61Glossary of Go Terms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64

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BRITISH GO JOURNAL NO 119 SUMMER 2000 ~ CONTENTS

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EDITORIAL25,589 words; 4265 unique; 652 suspect.These are the not-so-vital statistics of atypical Journal today. Brian Timmins hasleft it in fine fettle. Alex Rix wrote ofBrian’s legacy in the last Journal and theBGA President paid tribute to his contribu-tion in her Report, presented to Congressthis year (page 8). I would like to add mypersonal thanks to Brian for his help ingetting me started as the new Editor.As Alex pointed out, a long line of thickJournals testifies to Brian’s efforts but hismost important legacy is the band ofcontributors and helpers who make theJournal such an impressive publication. As Editor, I consider it my main task tonurture and develop that network, on whichthe quality and future of the Journalultimately depends.The BGJ is the voice of British Go. We area small organisation in numbers but theJournal demonstrates the enthusiasm andcommitment we have for the game in thiscountry. I hope that more people who mayconsider themselves ordinary readerswill be inspired to put theirenthusiasm into words andjoin in making thatvoice loud andstrong.

NEWS AND UK TOURNAMENTS

Tony AtkinsHeartsThe two Presidents, of London and the UK,were joined in matrimony on the 11th March2000. The Service of Blessing took place atAll Saints’ Church, Woodford Wells at 2pm.The Central London Go Club contingentwere in overtime but arrived just beforetheir flags fell. Wanstead and BGA repre-sentatives were there in time to hear JudithRoads’ oboe solo from Bach’s Sinfonia.Hymns were arranged by Mister Roads:Simple Gifts; O Perfect Love; All HumanLove Transcending and All Things Brightand Beautiful. The nice young vicar told avery funny joke and preached some otherhelpful advice.The weather was fairly bright but withoutsun to glisten on the bride’s gold velvetdress. The bridegroom wore a dark greysuit. Afterwards it was a short walk or driveto the Presidents’ house for a very pleasantinformal reception. All catering had beendone by Mister Simon Bexfield himself (we think Alison had to do the washing up).

It was the first time the guests hadseen a five-decker wedding cake:

two edible tiers and three ofGo bans forming a

pedestal.

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A close game at the Presidents’ Wedding Celebration

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It was nearly the end before the Go stoneswere got out but they were kidnapped bythe nieces and nephews to play with, muchto the chagrin of the goers.

ClubsAt the Edinburgh Club Tournament on13/02/00 ten players took part. Best was ArtMcKendrick (1 kyu) who beat DonaldMcLeod and Jim Cook but lost to HowardManning. The annual Varsity match washeld in Cambridge on 11/03/00. Previousyears have seen teams of four, but this timeOxford turned up with 9 players and alsothree beginners who wanted to see the cityand maybe play a little too. Cambridgemustered 8 players. The final score was10–7 to Oxford, and thus the visiting sidewon for the third year in a row. October’sLondon Match had been won by CLGCscoring 13, ahead of Nippon 12, London GoFriends 10 and Wanstead 7. In the SpringLondon Team Match, Cambridge showedtheir usual good form in this event, winningahead of Central London, Nippon, Wansteadand Oxford Go clubs.

Diamonds102 players attended the 2000 OxfordTournament on 12/02/00. Organiser HenrySegerman deserved diamonds for his goodorganisation. The venue of St Edmund Hallwas the same as last time, but there was noneed to play during the college lunch breakand all memories of previous disasters werewashed away. Not washed by the weathermind you as the day was very spring likeand the crocuses were out in the collegegarden. The local games shop OxfordHeritage were on site to sell books and tohelp supply the prizes which went to thefollowing: Winner was S-J Kim (6 danCambridge); he beat Young Kim, Des Cannand Ebukuro Tamotsu. On 3/3 were RuudStoelman (2 dan Bradford), Sue Paterson (2 kyu London), Frank Visser (3 kyuCambridge), Natasha Regan (7 kyu Epsom),Andrea Casalotti (9 kyu London), Kenneth

Wilcox (10 kyu Plymouth), Andrew Slough(13 kyu Epsom) and for 2.5/3 Wenbo Mao(2 kyu Bristol) and Paul Blockley (26 kyu Worcester).

SpadesThe gold diggers were out in force at theCambridge Trigantius on 04/03/00 thanks tothe cash prizes donated by sponsor Hitachi.Unfortunately the gold in the cash box wentmissing, somewhat spoiling the 24th eventfor the organisers. 73 players took part andthis year it was held in St Paul’s Church,thanks to renovations at the usual universityvenue. St Paul’s is a Victorian Church in thehigh Anglican style on the road out to thestation, but has been modernised with thetower end turned into meeting rooms andthe rest of the church turned round so thealtar is in the crossing. It was slightlystrange to see Go boards jostling for spacewith organs and lecterns, and the sunthrough the high arched windows couldprove a little annoying.

Thanks to Alistair Wall beating Seong-JuneKim the tournament was a four-way tie:Cambridge’s S-J Kim (6 dan) and DavidWard (3 dan), and Wanstead’s FrancisRoads and Alistair Wall (both 4 dan) sharedthe cash prize. Sharing the Best Kyu cashprize were three 1 kyus: Mike Nash andGeoff Kaniuk (London) and Wenbo Mao(Bristol). On 3/3 were: David Ward, PaulRussell (6 kyu), Roger Murby (8 kyu),Jonathan Medlock (13 kyu) all fromCambridge, Martin Cook (19 kyu York) andSimon Jones (19 kyu Berks Youth). On 2.5/3were William Brooks (9 kyu Cambridge)and David Firth (10 kyu Leamington) andon 2/2 was Hoi Ping Mok (14 kyuCambridge). 13x13 winner with 10/10 wasShawn Hearn (12 kyu Berks Youth).

Thanks to Charles Matthews’ generosity intime and money, another interesting tourna-ment booklet was produced, containingmuch advice and insight from Charles andSeong-June.

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Alarming Result 22 players from 6 dan to 1 kyu, selectedunder the new qualifying system, played atthe Nippon Club on 18 and 19/03/00 in theCandidates’ Tournament, the first stage ofthe British Championship. In order tocompete, players had to have achieved aresult equivalent to a 3 dan winning half hisgames and have won half their own games,in a tournament in the UK in 1999. Venuethis year was the Nippon Club nearPiccadilly Circus in London.

Round One highlights: first win: T.MarkHall (beat Robert Salkeld); first in byo-yomi: Andrew Jones (against Alistair Wall); first blunder: Jon Diamond (lost to QuentinMills); last to finish: Harry Fearnley(beating Francis Roads), toughest draw: JimClare lost to Charles Matthews. Round Twohighlights: first win: T.Mark again (againstAlex Rix); biggest upset: Mike Charlesbeating Jon Diamond by 2.5 after a trickyko; toughest draw: Alistair Wall beatCharles Matthews; drawn down: QuentinMills (beat Andrew Jones). Just as the lastgame finished some workmen in the officesdownstairs set the fire alarm off and allwent home in a hurry.

Round Three highlights: slowest game:David Ward beat Alex Selby; Alistair Wallbeat Quentin Mills; Young Kim beat T.Markafter a yose error; Charles Matthews contin-ued with unlucky tough draws (lost toFrancis); Alex Rix beat Jim Clare; JonDiamond lost his third game (to AndrewJones). Round four highlights: Jon finallywon a game; Francis beat Alex Rix; DaveWard beat Alistair; Young Kim beatQuentin; the last to finish: Jim Clare againstHarry Fearnley, gave the result that avoideda tied place between Francis and T.Mark.

The final ordering was: 1. Young Kim, 2.David Ward (both on 4/4); 3. Alistair Wall,4. Alex Selby, 5. T.Mark Hall, 6. FrancisRoads, 7. Bob Bagot (all on 3/4). The top 5expected to go forward to the Challenger’s

League on the late May Holiday weekend.Drawn on nigiri – Kunio Kashiwagiexpertly won black four times and YoungKim got white four times.

Long Run73 players took part in the CoventryTournament at Tile Hill Sports Centre on26/03/00. Matthew Macfadyen had lastfailed to win this event in 1989 (when PiersShepperson was on form), but this yearSeong-June Kim (6 dan Cambridge)stopped Matthew’s run, beating him by asmall margin in round one, despite aMacfadyen fight-back. Seong-June’scommentary on the game appears on page30. Seong-June stayed unbeaten to win theevent. Second place went to the loser of thefinal, Toby Manning (3 dan Leamington).

On 3/3 were Paul Clarke (1 dan HighWycombe), Mike Cockburn (2 kyu StAlbans), Richard Hellyer (5 kyu Oxford),Richard Thompson (6 kyu Leicester),Laurent Chane (6 kyu Cambridge), GustavRober (11 kyu St Albans), Stephen Streater(18 kyu Epsom). The UB50s from StAlbans won the team prize with 80%.13x13 winner was Nicola Hurden (13 kyuBerks Youth) and Ben Blockley receivedthe youngest player award. MatthewMacfadyen’s lunch talk was entitledIntuition or Calculation? – the Key toAccurate Go. He talked about the problemon the entry form and how you would notfind the unexpected answer to the problemby gut feel. However you would be reallypleased to find it. Studying too many tesujimay, he conjected, lead to dissatisfaction asyou would find less brilliant inspirationalmoves during your games!

StrikeThe Irish assured me strikes were notcommon nowadays in Ireland, but mid-weektravel crisis was caused by Dublin’s busesbeing on strike and most trains too due to aseparate dispute which also affected long

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distance buses. However this did not spoilthe pre-tournament tourism too much andColin Adams was not stranded in Donegal.However delayed flights at Heathrowcaused problems for two visiting guestsfrom Japan but the professional playersfrom the Nihon Ki-in, Saijo Masataki (8 dan) and Konagai Masaru (7 dan), didarrive in time for Wednesday night Go clubat the Pembroke. Transport was back tonormal at the weekend and the 11th IrishOpen was attended by 33 players from 11countries, plus the two professionals. Thedate had moved from St Patrick’s weekendto a fortnight later to avoid this clash andwith rugby but, thanks to the Italians, arugby clash with the Welsh ensued after all.

Winner of the Open was Richard Hunter (4 dan Tokyo) collecting £100. Second ontie-break was Des Cann (4 dan Leamington)to collect £50. Third was David Ward (3 danCambridge). Fourth Dan Gilder (2 danManchester) and fifth Andrew Grant (3 danMilton Keynes). Winners on 5/5 were AlanHeld (3 kyu Switzerland) and Roger Murby(7 kyu Cambridge), and on 4/5 NatashaRegan (5 kyu Epsom) and Gerry Mills (1 dan South-east Wales). Special prizeswent to Stephen Flinter for a loss on time,Roger Murby for the closest win (half apoint), young Diego Dultzin for playing hisfirst tournament and Fred Holroyd theBeing John Malkovich prize. The Teamprize went to Nat, Mat and Des.

The pre-Open Rapid Tournament took placeas usual on the Friday evening and the prostook part giving sizable handicaps. Thewinner was Konagai with 5/5. Second wasDavid Ward (4/5 including beating Saijo)and third was Michael Marz (2 dan Germany)also 4/5. Saturday evening was a time to eatand make merry, the Irish, BGA and EGFrepresentatives having a working meal todiscuss plans for the 2001 European.

Sunday night saw a trip to the Japanesenoodle restaurant, via the Old Stand pub,

where the players were joined by the newsponsor of the 2001 European Congress, Mr Brendan Supple of Fujitsu SiemensIreland. After this it was a return visit to thepalatial home of Mexican Ambassador,Daniel Dultzin 5 kyu. Last year MatthewMacfadyen had run one of his seminars butthis year there were just some casual gamesand beers. Saijo even taught Colin somenew shogi variants and Konagai learnedZengo (Irish Rengo).

On the Monday for those who still wantedmore Go there was the Handicap Championship.This was won by Des Cann, beatingRichard Hunter in an exciting final. Secondon tie-break was Michael Marz (2 danDarmstadt) who beat Colin Adams intothird place, Colin having won his first two.Des Cann was the best of the weekend with10 wins in total. Still then there was timefor a little more Go with the pros at theMonday night Go club.

Sightseeing on the Monday was ratherchilly despite being April as a cold northwind was blowing which had broughtovernight snow to the hills. The wind wasstill a little blowy the next day and thosewho had selected the Seacat for travel hadto wait from eleven until six before sailing.This allowed time for a mini backgammonchampionship which saw Colin claim backthe title held by Yuki Shigeno for the pasttwo years. The BGA’s thanks must go toJohn and Noel and the others for theircontinued hospitality while running thisevent.

CrashDespite lack of advertisement, 24 playersfrom 2 dan to 25 kyu attended theBournemouth Tournament on 15/04/00, heldat the same West Parley Village Hall as in1997 and 1998. A little overnight snow onhigh ground and heavy rain elsewhere didnot effect the event too much, apart fromthe size of the heating bills. Unfortunatelythe pub in the directions had changed name

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June2000 26/9/00 8:47 pm Page 5

leading to a minor road accident; the last tworounds were shortened so that Simon Gosscould travel home in daylight. Oddly nobodywon all three games. Alan Thornton (2 danSt Albans) held the title by a SOS tie-break.The best 2/3 in each third of the drawcollected engraved glasses, others got sticksof Bournemouth rock.

T–Time8 teams of three met at St Paul’s inBracknell, home of Berkshire Youth, onEaster Monday 24/04/00. The reason: thetournament famous for the large numbers of‘T’s in its announcement (21 this year), theThames Valley Team Tournament. Readingsaw off challenges from Royal Standard ofEngland Beaconsfield, Berks Youth’sLaura’n’dorder and Bracknell to win theBroken Stone Trophy yet again. Star playerson 3/3 were Clive Hendrie (1 dan Bracknell),Alistair Wall (4 dan Royal Standard) andTony Atkins (2 dan Reading). FionaCampbell (18 kyu High Wycombe) won the10 x 10 Continuous Tournament, with GarryWhite (16 kyu Berks Youth) runner up on 15.All players went away withEaster eggs, some biggerthan others, no thanks toFrancis Roads singing achorus of an appropriate Gosong while host SimonGoss was delaying prizegiving to buy more eggs.

ConvocationKeith Osborne, based inNorwich, searched forvenues for the 33rd BritishGo Congress and finallysettled on the Novotel hotelin Ipswich. He knew thevenue worked pleasantlywell for Chess but the datehad to be the weekend afterEaster, 28 to 30/04/00,which was also, strangely, aBank Holiday weekend.

Anyway the venue met with approval fromthose present and Novotel provided a veryreasonable rate for accommodation forparticipants. 26 players met for the Fridayevening British Lightning, run on theplaying card draw system again. Nobodywon all five and despite T.Mark Hallwinning the first four the winner was TimHunt (1 dan Cambridge), as it was he whoended with the Ace of Hearts. Others on 4/5were Des Cann, Francis Roads, JonathanChin, Chris Dawson and Tony Atkins.Only 59 played in the British Open, thelowest figure for 30 years. Winner wasT.Mark Hall (4 dan Bristol) with 6/6. Secondwas Alistair Wall (4 dan Wanstead) on 5/6.Others on 5/6 were Tim Hunt (Cambridge 1 dan), Vince Suttle (5 kyu Ipswich) andShawn Hearn (12 kyu Berks Youth).Noteworthy are the players who were on 4/5but lost their last: Des Cann (4 danLeamington) who was third, Alison Bexfield(2 dan Wanstead) who was fourth, KonradScheffler (1 kyu Cambridge), Phil Beck (2 kyu Cambridge), Neil Masson (5 kyu

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T.Mark Hall, winner of the British Open, receives the trophy from Keith Osborne

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Ipswich). Continuous 13x13 winner wasDes Cann with 12/13, skillfully won byavoiding children, and best youth wasShawn Hearn winning a prize donated byRichard Hunter. The Bracknell Berks Youthplayers (Nicola Hurden, Garry White,Shawn Hearn and Simon Goss) won theNippon Club Cup as best team.Various quizzes and puzzles were set overthe weekend by drawmaster Atkins andquizmaster Bailey, for those who wantedmore than Go, beer and the ancient Suffolktown to distract them. The prize for solvingthe seemingly impossible Crossnumberpuzzle about a Duke and his field went tothe McAnally family. Paul Smith got theprize for providing a list of 100 suffixesused in England for names of roads andstreets (Wanstead club came second despitehaving a Roads on their team). Sue Patersonwas the first to spot that the list of three

letter groupings was the second third andfourth letters of English counties. JohnRickard won the other quiz for knowing themost about myefalls, clowders, coveys,convocations and other such well-knowncollective nouns. He scored 23/43, ahead ofFrancis Roads and Neil Masson on 22. A prize was not awarded but Francis Roadsscored the most at Pits card game.Also not awarded was the Stacey Trophy toFrancis Roads for his 36 Grand Prix points.Des Cann was second on 31 and equal thirdon 26 were T.Mark Hall and Seong-JuneKim. In the other Grand Prix, Simon Goss(2 dan) won the Weak Knee Dan trophy with33 points. Despite trying to split her pointsby changing name, Alison Bexfield wassecond on 27, David Woodnutt was third on25, Alan Thornton on 24 and Tony Atkinson 23. There was one disqualification due topromotion and that was Andrew Grant.

7

THE MAGIC OF GO STONES

They fascinate me, they torment me They won’t leave me aloneBut what is it, you say, that holds such swayIt’s only a board and some stonesAh, it is drama and adventureHigh excitement flowsFrom the magic of Go stonesA tussle of wits, a strain for advantageYou challenge, I riposte, you attack, I defendAnd on it goes…I feel the blood pounding in my headI feel my heart hammering against my rib cageBe calm, don’t panic, there is a lot at stakeWhich move, which move, I am confused and unsureIn my mind, I see, the sequence of stones before meI follow, I follow but they are eluding meSometimes there is clarity, sometimes it is all mistyBut time will not wait, I must choose my destiny

Jackie ChaiDedicated to Francis Roads who is an excellent teacher.

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8

I am pleased to report that 1999 has been a successful year for the Association. Ourfinances remain sound and membershipnumbers have increased on the previousyear. There is evidence of more Go playingin the UK, with a 15% rise in the overallnumber of attendances at UK tournamentsin the year. The AGM notification leafletsets out the main highlights of the BGA’syear, which have also been described in theJournal through the year, so I do not dupli-cate these here. Instead I report below onhow we performed against the objectives Iset for 1999 and also on our plans for 2000.

Objectives for 1999After I took over as President last year Iwrote in the Journal that I had three aimsfor the year ahead: better communicationwith members; revision of the champion-ship system; implementation of the BGAdevelopment plan.

CommunicationCommunication with members had been acommon theme at recent AGMs andaddressing this was a priority. During theyear we have introduced a regular feature inthe Journal, Council House, which explainsrecent Council activities. Other Journal

articles have also been introduced onspecialised topics, including a feature on theaccounts which explained where our incomeis spent and why we have been raisingsubscription levels in recent years.Recognising that only a minority ofmembers are able to attend the AGM, thisyear we have also sent all members priornotification of the agenda so that those notable to attend had a chance to raise issues inadvance. Summarised reports will bepublished in the subsequent Journal withany member able to receive the full reportson request to the Secretary.

British ChampionshipThe format of this had been under reviewfor some time and a survey of members’views had been undertaken by Alex Rix in1999. Following this consultation, weagreed a new system which took effect in2000 and which was explained in Journal117. One of the secondary objectives in thenew format was to increase the profile ofthe event. I am pleased that this year theTitle Match will be taking place at the MindSports Olympiad, which has also gener-ously agreed to provide prize money.

Anyone involved in the debate to evolve thenew system will realise that the solution we

PRESIDENT’S REPORT

Presented at the 33rd BGA Congress in Ipswich

Most recent Council activities haverevolved around preparing for future events,such as the 2000 MSO and the 2001European, and for the annual generalmeeting. The meeting was a recent recordfor shortness as all the reports were circulated on paper beforehand.

Below is a shortened version of thePresident’s Report. The minutes of theAGM are on page 27. If you require printedcopies of the accounts and reports thenplease send your postal address to me, theBGA Secretary.

COUNCIL HOUSE

Tony Atkins ajaxgo@yahoo.co.uk

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9

agreed will not please everyone becausethere are too many conflicting views as tothe ideal system. However I hope that wewill give the new system a chance to workover the next couple of years before passingjudgement on it. In view of the strongfeelings surrounding this issue, I amproposing that a select committee reviewthe operation of the new system over thenext year. Tim Hunt has volunteered to leadthis review, reporting back to next year’sAGM as to how it is working in practiceand what members views are of the systemonce it has been through a complete cycle.

BGA Development planA development plan had previously beenwritten which contained ideas for both shortand long term activities. From this we havedeveloped a detailed strategy for the year2000 covering the five main areas of theBGA’s activities. Council will be monitor-ing progress against the strategy through theyear. At this time last year we had hopedthat Parliament were going to pass a billwhich would have provided Chess and other‘mind sports’ with ‘sports’ status.Unfortunately a change in the SportsMinister has scuppered this in the shortterm. However we continue to liaise withother mind sports associations in the UK.

Strategy for year 2000I mentioned above that Council has developed a detailed strategy for 2000. I presented details of this in my report tothe AGM but for reasons of space will notdo so here in this shortened version.However I will pick up on parts of the strategy and how we are doing against it in future issues of the Journal.

AcknowledgmentsI cannot conclude my report without thank-ing all those members who give up theirspare time to work for the BGA and

promote Go in the UK. Whether you areonly able to devote a small amount of timein a year or whether you are undertaking alarger role, all efforts are appreciated andvalued. Presidents may come and go, but itis those members who keep the day to dayactivities of the Association ticking overwho are the backbone of the Associationand provide us with a secure base on whichto develop further.In particular we thank Brian Timmins forhis work over many years for the BGA ashe finally steps down as Journal Editor.Having had a year as publicity officer in1985 he has also notched up seven years asmembership secretary and 13 years asJournal Editor. (Those good at arithmeticwill see that he managed to hold some ofthese roles simultaneously.) During his timeas Journal Editor the Journal has flourishedand gained a reputation as a quality publica-tion such that this is a major attraction ofmembership of the BGA, not only to UKplayers but also to those from Europe andthe US. Brian leaves a hard act to follow forthe new team.

Alison Bexfield 27 April 2000

Kathleen and Brian Timmins with aGoblet presented at the 2000 Congress

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The opening can seem to be almost non-existent in handicap games, particularlynine-stone games. When beginners startplaying even games this sometimes createsproblems. We start this discussion with thefundamental ideas behind some of theopening plays in the corner and a few of the simpler continuations.

The play in a single corner can give rise to astandard sequence of moves called a joseki.Many people believe they are not able tolearn sequences which are seemingly longand complex. They shy away and becomefrightened of playing in a corner where theiropponent has a majority of stones. This is adefeatist attitude and a common mistake.The common joseki are for the most partsimple and improvisation rarely leads to anappalling result.

The principle of the contested corner is illus-trated in Diagrams 1 and 2. Here, Black hasmade the first move in a corner and Whitehas made an approach move at 1. Such anapproach move is usually not played incontact with Black since that would be likelyto precipitate an unfavourable fight. Instead,it is (say) a knight’s move way.

The continuations shown in Diagrams 1 and 2are simple ways of settling the position.Black extends along one side with 2 andWhite extends along the other with 3.

Both players are sketching out territory andestablishing bases along the side. Whateverthe exact disposition of the stones, thisdiscussion is relevant to all corner openings.

Black has an alternative strategy. That is toplay 2 as a ‘pincer’ as shown in Diagram 3.This move restricts White’s expansion alongthe side and is a more active, aggressive wayof playing than Diagrams 1 and 2. White hasfour possible ways of responding to a pincer:" playing into the corner to make a base for

eyes, shown by A in Diagram 3. This hasthe advantage of depriving Black of thesame corner space but is a little passive.

" playing into the centre (B in Diagram 3).This is an aggressive style that keeps thetwo black stones separated, weaker andthat much easier to attack.

" playing a counter-pincer, for example atC in Diagram 3. A comparatively uncom-mon tactic, this may be useful if the playat C acts as a good extension from awhite position on the left side.

" ignoring the pincer altogether. This can’tbe given as a piece of general advice butmay be best in certain situations.

Which of the choices is best depends on thestones on the rest of the board. For instance,if a counter-pincer acts as an extension froma wall of friendly stones, it may be used for

10

GO TUTOR ~ APPROACHES TO JOSEKI

edited by Charles Matthews charles@sabaki.demon.co.uk

12

3

# 1

1

2

3

# 2 # 3

1 2A

B

C

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attack and to build territory at the sametime. The jump towards the centreavoids being shut in and could preventyour opponent from creating an effec-tive wall with a play in the same area;and so on.Some illustrations are given in thewhole board position shown inDiagram 4. Black is to play. Thinkabout the way to play (i) in the top leftcorner, (ii) in the top right corner, (iii)in the bottom left corner, (iv) in thebottom right corner. Please considerthese four individual problems beforereading on to the answers overleaf.

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# 4 Black to play

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June2000 26/9/00 8:47 pm Page 11

APPROACHES TO JOSEKI

Whole board problem answers

DIAGRAM 5: THE TOP LEFT

Black should play a counter-pincer at Aor B because that would be an appropri-ate extension from the three black stonesfurther down the left side, as well asapplying pressure in the corner. Plays atC, D or E get half marks. The jump to Cis not bad but it is not as effectiveoverall as the counter-pincer. A play at Dor E shows the right idea but consideringbalance it is too close to the white stonesand too far from the supporting blackstones on the left.

DIAGRAM 6: THE TOP RIGHT

Black should play at A or B becauseeach of these counts as an extensionfrom the black stone on the right side, as well as having an effect on the cornerwhite stone. If Black played at C or Dinstead, a White reply at E wouldleave the single black stone very weak,putting Black on the defensive in thispart of the board.

DIAGRAM 7: THE LOWER LEFT

Black should play at A. This is not somuch to provide a base for eyes, as todeprive White of one. Now White hasno quick way of making space foreyes and is therefore weak and easilyattacked. White to play in this part ofthe board would play A, or next to it atB, to make a base.

DIAGRAM 8: THE BOTTOM RIGHT

Black should jump out with a play at Ain order to avoid being shut in. If this move is omitted, a White playat D would make a nice wall, combin-ing with the white stone on the rightside to form a territorial framework.The sequence Black A, White B, Black Creduces White’s territory on the right andbegins to make territory for Black on thelower side.

The concepts just outlined involve looking atthe whole board position, rather than at eachcorner in isolation. They apply generally andare worth study and practice.

12

A B

CD E

# 5

CD

ABE

# 6

A B

# 7

CAD

B

# 8

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Katte yomiKatte yomi is an expressionthat often appears inJapanese books, but it is notmentioned in the Go Player’sAlmanac or in the Nihon Ki-in’s dictionary of Go terms.Katte is an ordinary every-day Japanese word withvarious meanings. Here, itmeans self-centred; yomi means reading (a position).Diagram 1 shows a simpleposition: Black to play.You’ll probably come upwith an answer within a fewseconds, but I suspect someof you will choose thewrong move.

In Diagram 1a, Black playsatari with 1 and Whiteconnects at 2. Then Black 3is sente, so Black gets toplay 5 and live. But this iskatte yomi. It illustrates a

one sided view of the game,where you find good movesfor yourself, but expect youropponent to play uninspiredmoves in return.In response to the atari ofBlack 1, White can play 2 inDiagram 1b, with the resultthat Black must fight a ko for life.

The correct answer to thisproblem is 1 in Diagram 1c.This leaves White no choicebut to connect at 2, so Blackgets to play 3 and 5. Checkfor yourself that White 2 at3 fails. Note how theposition ends up looking thesame as Diagram 1a. Oneuseful maxim is:

The essence of Go is move order.

It’s not sufficient to spot thevital points; you have toplay them in the right order

too, otherwise things maynot go as you plan.Katte yomi is a usefulconcept that teaches you tolook for your opponent’sclever moves. I remember afew years ago I gave a largehandicap to a promisingplayer. He was the strongestin his club and used togiving handicaps rather thanreceiving them. I can’tremember the exactposition, but it wassomething equivalent toDiagram 1. Upon seeingWhite 2 in Diagram 1b, hewas quite taken aback andsaid that his opponentsnever played such moves. Ithought that was doubtlessbecause he had taught themto always answer an atari,but I didn’t say so aloud.You really need to playstronger players or readbooks to experience movesthat would never occur toyou otherwise.Diagram 2 shows another,slightly more difficultposition. Black to play.

12 34

5

12

# 2

# 1

# 1a

# 1b

123

4

5

# 1c

SOME JAPANESE CONCEPTS

Richard Hunter hunter@gol.com

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The hane and connection of1 and 3 in Diagram 2a looksevere. After White 4, wehave a standard bookposition that Black knowswell. Black 5 strikes thevital point and White dies.(Check the continuation foryourself.)

However, assuming thatWhite will play 4 is katteyomi. Instead, White candescend at 1 in Diagram 2b.This results in anotherstandard book position.Black 2 is the vital point, butthe result is ko. Note that 2at 4 is a mistake that letsWhite live unconditionally.

In fact, the hane of 1 inDiagram 2a is incorrect. The simple descent to 1 inDiagram 2c kills the cornerunconditionally. White 2 ishopeless as it quickly leadsto an L group, which we allknow is dead.

Dropping back to the 2–2point with 2 in Diagram 2dputs up stronger resistance,but if Black finds the tesujisat 3 and 7, he can kill Whitecleanly.

NakadeBlack 1 in Diagram 3 is atypical example of a nakade.

Nakade comes from theJapanese words nakameaning inside and de,which is a derivative of temeaning move. It can berendered in English quiteeasily, but I think there issome value to knowing theJapanese term.

The nakade of Black 1 is amove played inside White’sgroup. In this case, and thisis the most common usageof the term, this movereduces White’s eye space toa single eye, so the group isdead. On the other hand,White 1 in Diagram 3amakes the white groupunconditionally alive.

In Diagram 3, White has afive-point eye space. Black1, played at the vital point ofthis five-point eye space, isgo-moku nakade (go = five;moku = point). I shall usethe hybrid expression five-point nakade, because Ithink nakade is an importantterm worth learning, liketesuji, sente, or seki.1

12

3

45

# 2a

1 23

4

# 2b

12

3 45

67

# 2c

1

23 4

5 67

# 2d

1

# 3

1

# 3a

Footnote: 1Actually, White 1in Diagram 3a is also anakade, which simply meansa move played inside. How-ever, this meaning is rare inJapanese and virtuallyunknown in English, wherenakade usually refers to akilling move.

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Diagram 4: White is dead.Japanese books will oftensay White is dead by four-point nakade.

There is nothing White cando to stop Black from fillingthe outside liberties and thenplaying atari with 1 inDiagram 4a.

If White captures the blackstones with 2, he is left witha four-point eye space andBlack will promptly play amove inside it (above 1) toreduce it to one eye. Welooked at this in part 3 ofCounting Liberties and thereis a good explanation andseveral examples in JamesDavies’ Life and Death.Starting in the next Journal, I shall cover the basicprinciples of nakade.Although it will be aimed atkyu players, I hope that evendan players will find it

useful. We all need a morethorough understanding ofthe fundamentals. Being ableto read out positions whenyou have plenty of time isnot enough. You often facesuch positions when you areshort of time, so you shouldaim for instant recognitionof the shapes.

Ishi-no-shitaIshi-no-shita literally means‘under the stones’. It’s atechnique in which you playback inside the space leftafter some of your ownstones have been captured. Itcan be used for making eyesfor your own group or forbreaking your opponent’seyes. Diagram 5 shows atypical example. The fourblack stones are in atari andit’s White’s move.

Black might seem to be introuble, but when Whitecaptures with 1 in Diagram5a, the shape left after theblack stones have beenremoved allows Black toplay back inside with 2.

This captures the two whitestones and gives Black hissecond eye. Ishi-no-shita is generallyregarded as an advancedtechnique and problems thatrequire its use are graded asquite difficult. Actually,what is difficult is notspotting the move itself, butthe fact that it usually comesseveral moves deep into theanswer sequence. It’s oftenjust around the corner downan unpromising looking sidetrack and it’s easy to give uptoo early and try a differentpath. Black 2 in Diagram 5ais move 9 when this classicposition is presented inbooks.In my future treatment ofthis topic, instead of usingstandard book problems, Ishall start nearer the answer,and we’ll learn to recognisethe shapes that lead to ishi-no-shita. If you can masterthem, then you’ll discoverthat ishi-no-shita is one ofthe rare and beautifultreasures of the Go world.Ishi-no-shita and nakade arerelated and many positionsinvolve both these concepts.

# 5

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Helsinki in March is not the most obvioustourist destination. Spring does not begin toarrive in Finland until well into April andthere was still snow standing over much ofthe ground. But this year’s European Ing Cupoffered an opportunity to catch up with someold friends and play some tough games ofGo against them, as well as watching theothers demonstrating how successful theiroriental professional training had been.My Go has not improved a great deal sincethe mid 1980s and the top level of EuropeanGo has been creeping steadily out of myreach since then. In the event it came as apleasant surprise that I was still able tocompete at this level, finishing in the grouptied for 3rd place with 4 wins out of 6. Thegame shown here is one of mine againstRomanians with Japanese training.

White: Matthew MacfadyenBlack: Ion Florescu

Figure 1 (1 – 100)The game starts off at a vigorous pace,with Ion trying to build the right sideefficiently, and me trying to grab asmuch in the two corners as possiblebefore invading.The white group is just barely alivewith 38, and Black starts leaning onthe lower white position while workingup to an attack. White 40 is a dynamicway of defending, aiming at some ofBlack’s weaknesses.Black backs off with 51, and the Whiteinvasion is looking like a success butthings soon became complicated again.It would have been simpler to play 56at 61, which definitely capturessomething, but I was satisfied with

giving Black awful shape (and incidentallymaking sure of my eyes with 62).With 83, Black deserts the running fight inthe centre to build some territory, but thisleaves him with a lot to do on the upperside. Black needs to find time to invade theupper side later on.

Figure 2 (101 – 150)White 108 is a key point. Later Blackregretted not playing there, for exampleinstead of 103. Black 113 looks reasonablebut Ion is not reading things throughproperly. The game result is a disaster forBlack and his best chance is to leave thecentre group at 117 and push through intothe upper side. There is no particular pointin hanging on to the cutting stones in thecentre since both of the groups they cutare going to live in sente. Black’s ‘attack’ends in gote at 125 and he is not quitesecurely alive.

A WEEKEND IN HELSINKI

Matthew Macfadyen matthew@jklmn.demon.co.uk

1 2

34

567

89

10

11

121314

15 1617

18

1920

21

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2425

262728

2930

31

3233

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737475 76

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82 838485868788

8990

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929394

9596

9798

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100

# 1 (1 – 100) 63 connects

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Looking after my group with 126seemed to be enough to finish thegame but Ion does not give up soeasily. The sequence to 138 keepsup the pressure on the big groupwhile building thickness to preparean invasion of the top. Neither hashe given up the idea of attackingmy upper centre group by pullingout the stone in atari.

Figure 3 (151 – 216)The temperature continues to risewith a big ko fight on the upperside. The key play seems to havebeen the rather pointless lookingko threat at 184 which prevents199 from working (Black A getsB, and then there is no way to savethe two stones).After 200 there remain a couple ofinteresting questions. One iswhether 188 was a blunder allow-ing Black C (as it happens Whitelives with D, E, F, but both playersmisread it during the game).The other question is whether theblack group on the right is reallydead.The answer appears to be thatWhite is one liberty ahead. Blackresigns at 216.For the record, Lee Hyuk won allhis games and AlexanderDinerstein was second with 5/6after a dubious win in dame fillingagainst Guo Juan.

1

2

34

567

8

910

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202122

2324

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313233

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4546

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# 2 (101 – 150)

5152

53 54

5556 57

5859

60616263

6465 66

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6970 72 73

7576

787981

82

8485

87

88

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9394

95

969798

99100

101102103104

105106

108

110111

112113

114

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116

BA

CD

E

F

# 3 (151 – 216) 91 captures at 61ko at 65/68: 71, 74, 77, 80, 83, 86, 89

207 connects

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How did it all start?It all started in 1983 while at university.Looking at computer magazines in anewsagent my eye was caught by a headline‘Thousand Pound Software Challenge’.Programming computers had been my hobbyfor a few years and I thought to myself thatI’d enter the contest whatever it was. I bought the magazine to find that thechallenge was to write a Go-playingprogram and enter it in a contest a fewmonths later. I’d heard of the game but hadnever played it so I then set about trying tolearn the game and program it at the sametime. Needless to say my program was trulyawful, largely due to the fact that mypersonal Go playing was not much better. I duly got knocked out in the first round ofthe contest. However I was undeterred, I knew I could make my program strongeronce I had learned to play better myself.

Have you had help from other people?I have done almost all the actual program-ming myself but have had invaluablesupport and advice from many people,usually given freely, including Bill Streeten,John Fairbairn, Martin Smith, Tony Goddard,Johnathan Chetwynd, Harold Lee andrecently Seong June Kim.

How much time do you spendworking on your program?Over the past five years or so it has been myfull time job… I have been living almostentirely off the royalties from sales in Japan.

What do you think gives you the edgeover the competition?As Roy Castle would say, dedication! I simply felt driven to proving that I couldwrite the world’s strongest Go program.There are many parts of writing a Goprogram which have been a hard slog, but I

would always push myself to complete themwhether I was in the mood to work or not. If you added up all the time I have spentworking on my program both as a hobby orfull time it would probably come to abouteight or nine man years.

Why are Go programs so muchweaker than Chess programs?There are two main reasons for this. Thefirst is simply that the branching factor inGo is far greater than for Chess but thesecond and perhaps more significant reasonis that it is far harder to make an evaluationfunction for Go. In Chess, simply counting

MICK REISS INTERVIEWED mick@reiss.demon.co.uk

Last year Mick’s program won the Ing Computer Go championship.

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your total material – 1 for a pawn 9 for aqueen etc – and subtracting your opponent’smaterial gives you a reasonable estimate ofhow well you are doing in the game.

In contrast, to make a comparably accuratemeasure of how well you are doing in agame of Go may take 10,000 times morecomputational effort.

What competitions are there for Go programs?There are several these days and this yearthere could be as many as six! The Ing Cup,the FOST Cup, the CGF contest, theComputer Olympiad (part of the MindsSports Olympiad), the North AmericanChampionships and the EuropeanChampionships. The most important of theseare the Ing Cup and the FOST Cup; these arethe ones with good prize money – betweenthree and five thousand pounds each.

How did you get on in last year’stournaments?CGF: 1st; FOST: 2nd – the winner was anorth Korean program and the judges arestill looking into the possibility that it is aplagiarism; Ing Cup: 1st.

Is plagiarism much of a problem?Yes, in 1998 a program called Hamlet came2nd in the FOST Cup but was later disquali-fied because it was discovered to be aplagiarism of a Chinese program calledHandTalk. Sadly the story does not endthere. Other North Korean programs are alsostrongly suspected of being plagiarisms ofHandTalk although they have not yet beenofficially disqualified from any tournaments.This is almost certainly more to do withpolitical problems and threats of legal actionthan any lack of evidence.

Who do you see as your main rivalsin the future?Recently a Japanese program called Harukacame out of the blue to take second place at

the CGF Cup. The author had been workingon it secretly full time for five years! Itplays many amazingly good moves, alongwith a few duds of course, but I am veryworried by this program.

There are many other programmers or eventeams of programmers working full time andalmost any one of these could make goodadvances in the future but I wouldn’t like topredict which.

Is it realistic to compare the strengthof a program with that of a humanplayer and how strong are the bestprograms now?There is a difference between the strengthsof (current) computer programs and humans.Humans will learn from their mistakes,whereas a computer will merrily make thesame mistake over and over again.

The consequence of this is that when ahuman plays a program repeatedly, they willstart to learn the program’s mistakes andwill be able to take ever greater advantageof them. So when you hear the result of agame between an nth kyu and a computer,you should always check how many gamesthe human has already played against thatparticular program before drawing too manyconclusions. I would estimate that the topprograms would give a UK 9 kyu a closegame on first playing.

Can you see programs getting muchstronger in the near future?I’m not holding my breath for any dramaticadvances, I think we can expect a half orone kyu grade improvement per year.

Is information about Go programsavailable on the internet?Yes, there are now many sites with computerGo information. Perhaps the biggest beingthe one at the American Go Association site.I maintain my own page with links to all theothers at:

www.reiss.demon.co.uk/webgo/compgo.htm

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Diagram 1: White isthreatening to capture thecutting stone with a play atA. What should Black do?

Diagram 2: Probably nineout of ten players wouldplay 1, without looking atany other possibilities, butthis is not always best. The purpose of this articleis to look at the otheroptions on offer.

Diagram 3: A problemwith Black 1 is that Whitecan play 2, and if Blackanswers at 3…

Diagram 4: …White 4forces Black to make anempty triangle. White canfollow up with A or B, asappropriate.

Diagram 5: By the way, ifBlack wants to save hiscutting stone, the hane at 3is no good. White crosscutsat 4.

Diagram 6: But now Whiteanswers 5 at 6 and Blackcan’t connect his cuttingstone. Of course Black cannow make a ponnuki on theoutside, which is all verywell, but it probably won’tcompensate him for the

strong position White gets.Anyway, Black’s originalintention was to escapewith the cutting stone, sofrom that point of viewhe’s failed.

Diagram 7: Black 1, or thesymmetrical move at A, isoften a better option.

Diagram 8: Black gets outin better shape whenWhite plays 2 and Blackanswers at 3.

Diagram 9: Even thoughWhite can’t actually catchBlack, he may play 4 toforce an empty triangle.

ESCAPING WITH A CUTTING STONE

Andrew Grant ajg@honinbo.freeserve.co.uk

A

# 1

6 5

# 6

43

# 5

45

A

B

# 4

12

3

# 3

1

# 2

1A

# 7

2

3

# 8

A

5 BD C 4

E

# 9

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However, this is not neces-sarily as bad for Black asthe empty triangle in Dia-gram 4, since White herehas multiple weaknesses atA, B and C, and will surelyhave to take gote to patchhis position up. But notice,for example, if White had astone at D he could continueat E and catch the wholegroup. In general, if Whitehas stones in the region of D,Black must read out theposition carefully beforechoosing this sequence.

Diagram 10: White 4 maynot be forcing, by the way.If the ladder starting withWhite A, Black B, White Cdoesn’t work, Black maybe able to slip out at 5.

Diagram 11: It’s quite likelythat White will just defendat 4 or A, allowing Black tocomplete his escape in goodshape with 5. Compare thiswith Diagram 4.

Diagram 12: The finalpossibility is Black 1 or A.This is the simplest option;there’s little White can doto complicate things.

Diagram 13: If Whiteplays 2, he’s only pushingBlack out to safety. Butanything else will allowBlack to connect at 2himself.

Diagram 14: Going backto the original position,how is it affected if we adda white stone?

Diagram 15: The diagonalmove is no better thanbefore – indeed it is worsebecause of the triangledwhite stone. But at leastBlack gets out.

Diagram 16: Pushing at 1also works, but he’d betternot follow it up at 3 now.White 4 is a tesuji andBlack is caught.

Diagram 17: Black has tocome out with 3 here. Is this better than Diagram15? That depends on whatuse you can later make ofthe cutting point you’vecreated at A.

B A 54

C

# 10

4

A 5

# 11

1

A

# 12

23 54

# 13

# 14

45 1 2

3 67

# 15

1 2

3 4

# 16

A1 23

# 17

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Diagram 18: The onepoint jump just doesn’twork with the triangledstone in place. It would beembarrassing for Black toplay 1 here. White netshim with 2 and 4.

Diagram 19: Black 1doesn’t work either. White 2is a tesuji and Black cannotsave the cutting stone.

Diagram 20: Black’sstrongest attempt to escapeis at 3. If White can play aladder with White A, BlackB, White C then there’s noproblem, but if this ladderdoesn’t work…

Diagram 21: …White canstill spring a second tesujion him with 4.

Diagram 22: If Black 5,White 6 catches him in ashortage of liberties. We’veseen this move already inDiagram 6.

Diagram 23: Add a secondwhite stone and Black canforget about trying to beclever. It’s 1 or nothingnow.

Diagram 24: The onlyquestion is whether Blackshould even try to get out.White can make life verydifficult for him, as youcan see.In this particular position,assuming no other stonesin the vicinity, Black canhack his way out if hereally must but it’s hard toimagine this being goodfor him. Just look at allthe thickness White has atthe bottom, the top and theright. He can give up thethree stones on the leftnow, his thickness is farsuperior.Another white stoneanywhere near thisposition might mean thatBlack doesn’t evensucceed in getting out –disaster! Weak players dothis sort of thing all thetime, but you’d betterhave a very good reason toget the cutting stone outbefore you even considersomething as bad as this.

2 13

4

# 18

1 2

# 19

B3A C

1 2

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4

# 21

65

# 22

1

# 23

17 1 5 615 11 3 2 814 13 9 4 7

16 1012

# 24

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This is the first of a series of articlesdescribing various pages of the BGA’s website. It describes the Tournaments page atwww.britgo.org/tournaments/index.html.This web page lists the dates of all Gotournaments and other Go related eventssuch as teaching days, that are to be held inthe British Isles. You can therefore use it tocheck such things as “When will theShrewsbury Tournament be this year?” or “I’m not doing anything on the middleweekend in September, is there a Gotournament that I can go to?”. The pagegives brief details of all tournaments and,wherever possible, it also links to web pagesgiving full details. The page is maintainedby Tim Hunt, whose address is on page 60.

Tournament CoordinationYears ago, the BGA had an officer calledthe ‘Tournament Coordinator’. It was hisjob to ensure that two organisers did not tryto hold their tournaments on the same date.He kept a list of empty and occupied slots,and negotiated with organisers to avoidclashes. Recently, the lack of such a coordinator has caused problems.

Tim Hunt has now taken over the positionof Tournament Coordinator. His mainmeans of doing this is to keep the web pageup to date. If you are choosing a date foryour tournament, you can get the informa-tion yourself, straight from the web page.When you have chosen a date, tell Tim andhe will add your tournament to the page. If your date is provisional, he will list it asprovisional. If you would like help inchoosing a date he will be happy to discussit with you. He can also provide copies ofthis information to tournament organiserslacking web access. Nowadays the Journaland the Newsletter get their forthcomingtournament information from this web pageso it is in your interest to keep it up to date.

If you plan to hold a tournament on aparticular date and you see that theTournaments page does not list it, pleasedon’t assume that someone somewhere isholding the reservation for you. There is nosuch someone, the web page itself is theauthoritative list of reservations. If yourtournament is not listed, either you haveforgotten to tell Tim about it, or Tim haslost your message. Either way, you shouldtell him again.

Tournament DetailsTournament organisers are generally verythorough about preparing paper fliers fortheir tournaments, and arranging for theseto be distributed at tournaments and withthe newsletter. However people are increas-ingly looking on the web for details; forthose who have web access, this is mucheasier. Some tournament organisers haverecognised this and either produced theirown tournament web page or asked me toproduce one for them. But there are sometournaments whose details cannot be foundon the web. This reduces attendance at suchtournaments.

Therefore I urge all tournament organisersto arrange for a web page giving the samedetails as on your paper flier. If you do thisyourself, tell Tim so that he can link to itfrom the BGA tournaments page. If youdon’t have web access yourself, the BGAwill gladly host your page in its own webspace: just send a copy to me (address onpage 60). If you send it as html, I willupload it and ask Tim to link to it. If youcan’t do that, please send me a flier (or preferably the electronic source of theflier), or even a hand written page, and Iwill convert it into html and upload it foryou. I believe that one letter sent to me willbe more effective (and far cheaper) thanhundreds of paper fliers.

GUIDE TO THE BGA WEB SITE ~ THE TOURNAMENTS PAGE

Nick Wedd – BGA Webmaster nick@maproom.co.uk

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The following is a set of problems based onsome I used with the Berkshire Youth Go Clubone week when Simon Goss was off skiing (and playing Go). The kids did reasonably well,but none got 100%.At West Surrey Go Club we always try to startthe evening with 30 minutes of self teaching –reviewing a pro game; discussing a member’sgame; doing problems etc. As I had the materialprepared, it seemed a great opportunity to use itagain. Once more, the results were nowherenear 100% (even me – and I set the problems). I hang my head in shame.Most of this material is basic stuff that we allought to know. At the least, we should know theresult so that we can then read the moves out. At best, we should know all the moves to savevaluable time on the tournament clock becausesituations like these do occur in real games.Answer each question twice, once for Black toplay and once for White to play. For eachanswer, show move 1 and say whether the whitegroup lives or dies outright, in seki or in ko. Insome questions there is more than one correctmove. Any one correct answer will do. It wouldbe good if you also know the rest of thesequences, but that isn’t part what is beingasked here.Warning: In some of the questions, the answermay be “Play elsewhere because the situation isalready settled”.If you want to measure your performance, giveyourself up to 4 points per problem, 1 for eachcorrect first move and one for each correct lifeor death status. In Part 2 of this article, I’lldiscuss some of the more interesting sequences.Problems 1 to 17 represent the basic positions,18 to 20 consider the effect of external stones.In these, assume the outside stones are alive.The answers, showing all the possible correctfirst moves, are on page 55.

BACK TO BASICS ~ PROBLEMS BASED ON THE 6-POINT CORNER

Steve Bailey sgbailey@iee.org

# 1 # 2

# 3 # 4

# 5 # 6

# 7 # 8

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The good news: Go Professional III is anice, solid piece of Go-playing software. Thebad news: it is, as far as I can tell, almostunchanged from the previous version. Theremay be some subtle changes to the Goengine, but as a rusty 8 kyu I haven’t workedout yet what they are. I had hoped to reviewthis programme on the basis that I couldcompare it with version II. In fact, the onedifference I could spot was that version IIoffers a choice of 6 bitmaps for the Goboard, while version III offers only 3.The programme is very easy to use, with anintuitive interface. Twelve large buttons atthe top, information down the left, and the

board taking up most of the rest of thescreen. It does all you would expect: savinggames, loading complete and partlycomplete games, stepping backwards andforwards through saved games. You can addcomments to the games but there is no facil-ity to record alternative sequences.When starting a new game, you choose foreach player whether they are human orcomputer and for computer you have thechoice of nine levels of skill. Inevitably, thehigher the skill, the slower the play but on a166 Pentium with 32 Mb memory, the speedeven at the highest level is quite acceptable.There is a ‘hint’ facility, which displays a

GO PROFESSIONAL III ~ OXFORD SOFTWORKS

A Review by Paul Hazelden

!

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stone slowly flashing in the suggestedlocation for a couple of seconds but noanalysis is provided to say what the stone isaiming to do.

Go Professional III seems designed to appealto the mid-range player – people who wantto be able to play either on or with thecomputer, who know what they are doingand want a no-frills tool to do it with.Unfortunately, beginners are not well cateredfor. There is a very brief summary of therules and history of the game, but no tutorial.The description of the rules is easier to quotethan to summarise. After describing theboard, it continues:

Starting with an empty board, Blackplaces a stone on an intersection. Theopponents, by alternately placing stoneson strategic areas on the board, try toenclose as much territory as possible.Once placed, the stones remains station-ary unless captured.The Winner - The game is over whenplayers agree that neither can increasetheir territory or the number of prison-ers. After all captured stones have beenremoved each player counts the numberof points they have enclosed and thendeducts this from the number of pointslost as prisoners. The player with thehighest number wins.

I don’t consider this to be the clearestdescription I’ve heard. Suffice it to say, Idon’t think many people will get hooked onthe game if this programme is their onlyintroduction. But for us players in the middleground, it does a good job. That is, it isfunctional. You do not get the same gamethat you would get from a human player, butit’s not fair to criticise it for not beinghuman. In common, I believe, with all Goprograms, there are occasions when it missesvery simple, obvious moves, especially onthe edge. It has difficulty responding tounreasonable plays: I have gained manypoints in games because it does not find the

straightforward safety play which a humanopponent would see 99 times out of 100.

The good points? It plays reasonably quickly.I can enjoy a full game in 15 minutes, whichis a major plus for me at present and makesit much more useful than the earlier genera-tion of computer games which took foreverto decide on their moves. One neat feature –if the computer is taking too long in decidinga move, you can tell it to play the best moveit has found so far. This can speed up thegame, although it must make the computerplay some weaker moves sometimes.

The interface is entirely adequate. If I hadowned a copy when I worked in an office, Iwould not have been ashamed to teach otherpeople to play by using the programme overlunch. It is certainly much more convenientthan carrying a Go board into work on theoff-chance of a game over lunch.

The Help facility really does need morework done on it. The full rules should begiven somewhere and at least one examplegame with commentary would be nice. Italso needs to be proof read – the first screenyou see after pressing F1 contains on thefirst two lines ‘About’ and ‘History of theGo’. Click ‘About’ and you get the same setof options as on the first screen, justdisplayed differently. I know this is not amajor problem, but it does not give theimpression of a programme that has beenfully checked before being released.

One other minor quibble: You can print agame – a good feature – and even previewthe print image, but the printed diagram doesnot indicate where captured stones had been.This makes following the game from theprinted diagram alone rather difficult.

In summary, this is a solid programme if youare not a complete novice (if you alreadyunderstand ko!) and if you are happy withthe level of functionality it provides. Installit on your machine at work, and play thecomputer until you can get other peopleinterested. Good luck!

June2000 26/9/00 8:48 pm Page 26

1 Appointment of tellersOn behalf of the 36 members present, Les Bock and Simon Bexfield wereappointed as tellers.

2 Minutes of last AGMThe minutes of the 1999 AGM had alreadybeen circulated; they were approved.

3 Matters arisingToby Manning reported that the 1998accounts problem was caused by confusionover the end of year and they had alreadybeen re-presented correctly.

4 Reports: President, Secretary,Membership and Financial

Alison Bexfield had already circulated herPresident’s Report but highlighted the impor-tance of the 2000 MSO, Kathleen Timmins’work as Membership Secretary and the workTony Atkins did on International Liaison.She recognised the work Brian Timmins haddone since 1985, in publicity, membershipand editor roles, with the presentation of asilver goblet. Brian replied that he enjoyedediting the Journal and would use the gobletfor red wine, a minor hobby of his. T.Markproposed that Brian should become a Vice-President; Tony Atkins modified the motionto Life Membership status. The modifiedmotion was passed with one abstention.Tony Atkins’ Secretary’s Report had alreadybeen circulated. Kathleen Timmins’Membership Report showed the membershipto have grown, to 600 already this year. AlexRix queried the recording of children as thishad changed some time ago. Steve Baileypointed out that most players at youth clubswere not members.The Accounts, T.Mark Hall’s Treasurer’sReport and Toby Manning’s Auditor’sReport had already been circulated. Alex Rix

reminded the meeting that currently bookmoney supports all outreach projects, butsubscriptions should continue to be increasedto fund more projects. Alison Bexfield saidthat money was not short, but volunteerswere; subscription rates would be reviewedfor next AGM and would take affect soonerthan year end, unlike the last increase at theend of 1999. Keith Osborne said a typicalChess Club membership was £36 pounds.Toby reported that this time Alison andT.Mark had produced the balance sheets foraudit and he had only modified some titles.Toby reported that bills were still being paidvery efficiently, e.g. the EGF affiliation, andKeith backed this up about Congresspayments. A straw poll of 20 to 3 agreedwith the principle of raising subscriptions.Gerry Mills had also circulated BGA BooksLtd Accounts. He commented that stock wasup because of the new titles, as were mailorder sales, but that tournament sales weredown; he still thought attending small,distant events was worth while from market-ing if not sales reasons. He also gets a lot ofweb enquiries from beginners. Kathleenbacked this up saying that 47 out 136 newmembers found out that way. The accountswere accepted 33 for and 3 abstentions.

5 Elections of Officers, Council Members and Auditors

There were no contended nominations. Thefollowing were appointed: President AlisonBexfield, Secretary Tony Atkins, TreasurerT.Mark Hall, Council: Steve Bailey, ChrisDawson, Simon Goss, Tim Hunt, BillStreeten, and Auditor Toby Manning.

6 Working with children policyAlison reported that a document containingprinciple and guidance for working withchildren was being prepared. Sue Paterson

27

ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING OF THE BRITISH GO ASSOCIATION

Held on 29th April 2000 at Novotel Ipswich during the 33rd British Go Congress

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was helping and she explained she was achild protection officer. The idea of such apolicy was accepted with one abstention.

7 Any other business7A UK RATINGS REPORT: Geoff Kaniuk backed up his report by sayingthat soon he would be able to produce UKratings to correlate to the European List.

7B TERM OF SERVICE: Jonathan Chetwynd had asked the meeting todiscuss limiting officers’ terms of office insome way. Tim Hunt thought it was good tomove people around jobs. Charles Matthewsthought that such a limit could generatemore volunteers. Simon Bexfield thought theBGA should not exclude either way ofworking. Some volunteers had replied to theappeal for help, but not many. Council is away into the BGA’s working. Currently theadministrative functions were working well.T.Mark commented although elected 15times now as treasurer he would be happy if

another volunteer came forward. TobyManning suggested a straw poll to see ifthere was support for limiting terms ofoffice. Four were in favour of the idea, 25against, with four abstentions.

7C CONGRESS ATTENDANCE: Toby queried why the numbers were downfor 2000. Possibly it was a geographicalfactor or possibly because of the weekendbeing a bank holiday. David Ward thoughtthe rate at the hotel Keith Osborne hadnegotiated was very good. Mike Charlesliked the hotel venue, Geoff Kaniuk likedvaried locations. Gerry Mills reported 2001was to be in Cardiff. Simon Goss made anappeal for it to be during school holidays. A vote of thanks was raised to KeithOsborne for hosting the Congress.

7D UNIVERSITIES: Tim Hunt suggested theBGA should investigate whether more couldbe done for universities.

Meeting closed at 20:55

Brno is not an easy place either to pronounceor to visit for a weekend. My pair Go partnerJackie Chai and I opted for a Friday CzechAirlines flight to Prague, with an internalconnection. The five hour wait in Pragueentails a day off work for J., but a chance forme to show her round my favouriteEuropean city.

The internal connection, flight number OK5034, turns out to be a bus. Following amerry hour in the Prague Friday traffic, androad works on the motorway, we are fortyminutes late at Brno, which means thatPavel, who had undertaken to meet us, hasbeen standing that long in the cold. His friendly uncomplaining attitude istypical of our Czech hosts.

Taxi to quite a posh hotel, which also servesas playing venue, opening ceremony, andwelcome snack. There are 14 pairs fromoutside Czechia, so the Czechs have enteredtwo pairs, to keep the numbers even.Strengths vary considerably, from pairs whoare both kyu players, to the Hungarians, both5 dan, who are expected to win.

First round on Saturday morning; we beatYugoslavia. Then comes the coach excursionto the site of that most famous battle, whereso many tens of thousands died, and whichaffected the course of European history,Slavkov. There is a small museum, whereyou can follow the course of Napoleon’stactics, and a ‘peace tumulus’. We are toldthat it is the only one in the world. I aminclined to believe this on general grounds,

EUROPEAN PAIR GO CHAMPIONSHIP 2000Francis Roads francis@jfroads.demon.co.uk

!

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but the point is that monumentscommemorating battles are usuallyerected in pride by the victoriousside. This one is dedicated to thefallen of both armies, and to peacebetween the warring states……without much success, as WorldWar I broke out soon after it wasbuilt.Then on to Slavkov Castle, a Czechstately home where the Armisticewas signed by Napoleon and hisdefeated opponents. In case youhaven’t twigged yet, Slavkov is theCzech name for Austerlitz.We have been asked to order our lunchin advance, to speed up service at theSlavkov restaurant. As a result, our mealarrives in not much over the hour, at around3 pm. Just as well we sped things up…Back at the hotel, now delayed by some twohours, we join battle with Czechia B, one ofthe all kyu pairs who nonetheless give ustrouble before we win. The third and lastround of the day is against Germany; theyoutclass us, but we make them work fortheir win. Then on to a central Brno restau-rant for a rather late dinner; it’s about 10.30when the first food arrives. There is a trio ofviolin, accordion and double bass playingtraditional music; real music played by realhuman beings; no loudspeakers, no thumpthump thump. Very civilised.Pair Go is supposed to be as much a socialactivity as a competitive one, and thischampionship was outstandingly successfulin that respect.Whether it be politically correct to saysuch a thing or not, there is a very pleasantatmosphere when the sexes are balanced,something you don’t get at the usual maledominated tournaments. Nowhere was thisfeeling more apparent than at this dinner.Pair Go seems to be an excellent way ofencouraging women to take up Go; long may it flourish.

After dinner we have a chance to sing Gosongs. I get appointed song leader, withaccompaniment from Jasmina Mutabzijafrom Croatia on guitar and some vigorousvocal support from the Polish pair. The lasttram leaves at 12.50 am, but the somewhatarcane method of paying our bills leavesseveral of us stranded. An organiser waitsfor us, and bundles us into taxis. No charge.On Sunday we have a lucky win againstCroatia; some pair Go jiggery pokery isrequired; i.e. working out very carefullywho is likely to understand what. Ourreward is a match with Hungary; this is theonly time that we are really overwhelmed.Germany are the winners, after an upsetvictory over second placed Hungary.Having played both teams, we have a goodSOS, and end up fifth, behind Netherlandsand Romania. We also win a bottle ofslivovitz for travelling the furthest distance.We have a spare hour before our bus-flightback to Prague so, just when most tourna-ment organisers would be ready to collapsein a heap, Pavel makes it his business togive three of us a quick guided tour of thecity centre before seeing us safely away.This tournament was pair Go at its best.Nothing was too much trouble for our hosts;the welcome was personal and sincere. Fullmarks to the Czech Go Association.

Jackie & Francis playing the Croatian pair

June2000 26/9/00 8:48 pm Page 29

SEONG-JUNE KIM PLAYS MATTHEW MACFADYEN AT COVENTRY

Seong-June Kim

30

I have played Matthew Macfadyen anumber of times recently. Before thisgame, on March 26 at the CoventryTournament, the previous occasion hadbeen the London Open. Overall myresults against him haven’t been satis-factory; and he was on his homeground, back from a good tournamentin Finland. But this time things weredifferent.

Figure 1 (1 – 50)Matthew had black. The pattern 1 and 3he tried out against my old universitychum Lee Hyuk, the winner, at the IngMemorial in Helsinki. If White 6 is at 8,Black can play at A for balance on thelower side. So White 6 is a natural idea,if you don’t mind fighting. Actually Iplayed it thinking I’d take sente afterBlack invaded the corner.Up to 13 is orthodox. White 14 isusually played at 21 with the aim ofconnecting under to 6. Black 15 istempting, but I had done some readingahead of time here. After 18, Blackcannot simply connect below 5, allow-ing White’s wedge at 20: in thepresence of 16 Black is left with thecutting points B and C after playingatari, and no good tactical option. So itis inevitable that Black will play 19.But the final result after 24 is good forWhite. Therefore I think Black 15should be at the key shape point of 16instead. White 20 counts as a tesuji butis easy to find.White 26 is natural aggression. It ishard to see what else Black has at 29.The one-point jump out (to D) followedby the slide to 49 doesn’t seemadequate. Black 33 is an aggressiveplay, but also dangerous. I’m not sureabout White 42. As played it is calm.

However the point 43 is big. White couldalso play there, Black E, White F.

48 46 4744 4528 43

4125 31 27

30 37 3633 32 35

49 50 26 34 29 3938 42

4013

11

24 10 1223 22 20

21 18 1617 14 15

19

4 1

87

25 6 9 3

F

DE

CA

B

Figure 1 (1 – 50)

100

63 95 91 8365 62 64 93 86 66 90 67 81 82

89 85 87 88 84 7852 92 6853 94 80 79 69

96 97 70 7698 75 7499 71

51 57 61 7756 58 59 72

6073

5455

Figure 2 (51 – 100)

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Figure 2 (51 – 100)White 64 and 66 in combination areheavy. From that point of view 66should be at 90. However I had myeye on the cutting stones over to theleft of this group; they were notproperly captured. Up to 71 seems tobe natural. After 72 and 74 I feel thegame is clearly harder for Black.The mock netting play 92 is a ploy torevive those cutting stones, after Blackbreaks out of the net with 93. It doesn’tmatter so much if Black takes the fourloose white stones in the upper right.The middle game is in full swing, but ifyou count the game now, you can seethat Black had a lot of work to do evenwith 25 points on the top side.

Figure 3 (101 – 150)It looks for a while as if there is goingto be a trade of White’s upper rightgroup for Black’s stones in the centre.Black 115 was clearly intended toswallow White whole; and Matthew’sexpression as I played 116 suggested ameasure of disbelief. However black121 must have been based on somemisreading. White is able to live with132 with half a dozen points.Black 135 set up a framework, and thegame now hung on what White coulddo about it.

Figure 4 (151 – 184)White’s operations in the lower rightcorner met with success, and indepen-dent life. White didn’t make a largecentre, but capturing eight black stonesup to 166 was enough.Only the beginning of the end game isshown. I made various concessions andsmall mistakes in the course of it, toend up winning by 5.5 points.

31 2517

2324 22 2027 18

26 1321 28 3230 29 16 19

14 12 10 1133 15

34 42 4145 35 38 36 3739 44 48 40 43

47 46 4950

31

2

64 9 8 7

5

Figure 3 (101 – 150)

76

7567

66 6564 61 63

77 62 69 68 7280 78 60 59 70 56

58 73 7155

82 83 57 5181 54

84 79 53 52 74

Figure 4 (151 – 184)

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Scrabble was created in 1931 by A.M.Butts,using some analogy with the fashionablegame of rummy. Monopoly (after severalversions with limited diffusion) was firstproduced by Parker Bros. in the spring of1935 and they: “by autumn were taking onextra staff and running week-end shifts tomeet the demand for 200,000 per week”.1This is just to mention two classic gameswhich somehow derived their fortune fromthe Depression.

What has this in common with Go and itshistory? Nothing apparently. However, itwould be a fine subject for an author offiction to write a history of Go on theassumption that Go sets, instead of Monopoly,had then been sold by the million. Now fantasyis required for supposing that the trade of Gosets and accompanying rules were so success-ful during the Depression, but it is no fictionat all that such attempts were actually made,and precisely in the same 1931–34 years.

To begin with, the same Parker Bros., whichspread Monopoly everywhere, “marketed aGo game set during the fall of 1934. TheParker Brother’s Go set was neatly packagedin a cardboard box with a folding board. Itwas a total non-success in marketing and theNew York University Chess Club purchasedabout 10 sets at $1.50 each”.2 It would bevery interesting now to see a specimen ofthis Go set; in particular, I would like to readthe accompanying booklet of game rules.

However, the Parker Bros. set was just oneof several attempts. Other makers hadalready tried to enter the market with ourgame. Not surprisingly, we find among themMilton Bradley Co., by then Parkers Bros.chief competitor in the game market – nowthey have merged under Hasbro. We read ina bibliographical list of American Gopioneer W. D. Witt: “Sloman, Aage. I-Go.The National War Game of Japan.

Copyright, 1931. A pamphlet of 53 pages,published by Milton Bradley Company, ofSpringfield, Mass., and supplied with sets ofGo-stones and board which they sell. Anelementary instruction book”.3

Here again, I would like to see a specimenof the game, but for the booklet I was morefortunate since I obtained a photocopy of itfrom Theo van Ees. I could thus study boththe booklet and its author. Note that thebooklet had to describe not the usual Gogame but I-Go. We know that this spellingactually corresponds to the true Japanesename of the game, but in this context its usewas hardly motivated by the aim of betterreproducing the original game; on the contrary,here it was intended as some kind of regis-tered name, a trademark for the specific Goset produced and sold by the company.

On further inspection, we find that this authorsoon found himself in good company – noneother than Edward Lasker in person wassupporting a ‘twin’ game, the 13x13 Go,rather common among beginners, which atMilton Bradley Co. became Lasker-Go! Theset on sale was accompanied by rules writtenby Lasker himself, or at least printed underhis name: Official Lasker-Go. Springfield:Milton Bradley, 1934, 8 pp. Unfortunately,both games marketed by Milton Bradleywere not successful enough. Again in AGAHistorical Book we find: “(WDW 5/13/1935)Milton Bradley marketed I-Go on a 19 lineboard and Lasker Go on a 13 line board.Both were discontinued because of the lackof sales”.

Besides the two leading companies, othermakers tried to spread Go sets in the earlythirties, with a similar destiny. In AGA 1995Historical Book p. 6.2 we read “(WDW,01/15/1934) Marshall Field & Co. inChicago produced a Go game with a 19 lineboard made out of cardboard and a small

DEPRESSION ~ GOOD FOR GO, BUT NOT ENOUGH

Franco Pratesi

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case of stones for $7.50. The game includedAage Slomann’s booklet The Game of Go,published by Milton Bradley. Marshall Field& Co. sold the game for $3.50 in order toget rid of it in the summer of 1933”.In conclusion, we have encountered no lessthan four different Go sets, sold as if it werea game worthy of a worldwide spread, as wehave known for Scrabble and Monopoly. I would be grateful for any indication as towhere to find one of these sets today.It should be easier to gather some informa-tion on the authors of the correspondinginstruction manuals. Thus, for EdwardLasker we have a lot of biographical details,since he is acknowledged as one of the mostimportant players and authors in the historyof Go. In these years he published hismasterpiece Go and Go-Moku, which is stillin print among the Dover editions. The origi-nal hardback first edition (New York: AlfredA. Knopf, 1934) was printed in many copiesand even today is not hard to find in theantiquarian market.

More puzzling is Aage Slomann. ThatMilton Bradley did publish and use his text(which was also used by another maker), isfor us a kind of guarantee – we can trustthat it was clearly written and suitable forany beginner. In the book he is stated asliving in New York but in those years wedo not find him recorded among the localGo players – Lasker included – whogathered at Lee Chumley’s Restaurant.However I did find his Copenhagenaddress among the subscribers to theDeutsche Go Zeitung in 1931.4

In the case of the Go set marketed by ParkerBros., I am still lacking not only any infor-mation on the author of the accompanyingbooklet, but also on the booklet itself.Anybody know?

1 D. Parlett, The Oxford History of Boardgames, 1999

2 AGA 1995 Historical Book, p. 6.33 AGA 1995 Historical Publication Album4 Go–NYT, No. 111, 1999, pp. 6–8

In 1967 there had been a small tournamentin Oxford. It had been a success and so theBGA got together again between 22nd and24th March 1968 at Jesus College Oxford forthe first British Go Congress. The tournamentwas run on a handicap basis and the weekendincluding accommodation cost about £5. The Annual General Meeting was held duringthe weekend which made it the Congress andnot just a Tournament. The event wasrepeated the following year in Bristol andthen in 1970 at St John’s Cambridge. Thatweekend had handicap and open sections andfeatured a BGA dinner as well as the AGM.The Leeds Congress in 1971 was where theMcMahon system was first tried, and anattempt was still made to select the British

Champion from the event. Francis Roads ranthe 1971 Congress and instigated the Fridaynight lightning. The Japanese Ambassadorwas a patron of the event and Games andPuzzles magazine donated subscriptions asprizes. 1972 moved to Scotland for the onlytime and then 1973 was in Reading with JALas a sponsor and a good spread ofphotographs from the event in the British Go Journal.Normally the tournament was six rounds butin Alsager in 1974 they squeezed in seven.London, Leicester and Manchester were thenext three, the latter having the infamousstolen suitcase incident. The universities ofEngland continued to be visited in Bath,Birmingham and York. In 1982 president

THE BRITISH GO CONGRESS ~ A SHORT HISTORY

Tony Atkins ajaxgo@yahoo.co.uk

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Toby Manning organised the Congress inNottingham with help from local secretaryTony Atkins. The full board cost of theweekend was £32.75.

The Congress has never been to the samelocation twice, but the policy of movinground so that people in different areas caneasily attend has meant it returning to thesame city more than once. The 1984Congress saw a return to Manchester butto a different hall of residence. AfterWorcester in 1985, the Crewe half ofCrewe and Alsager College was visitedand then Wells Hall at Reading. This wasthe last Congress were smoking in theplaying hall was permitted, and then onlyin one of two rooms.

Next came two school venues: Stowe andOakham, and then Salford in GreaterManchester. 1991 saw Canterbury used asa dress rehearsal for the 1992 European,in which year the British was again inNottingham. Then the order continuesNorwich, Warwick, Felsted (run byWanstead Club), Durham and Egham.

Normally the local club is involved inrunning the event but sometimes not(Leicester ran Oakham for instance). The 1998 event was held at the socialclub of British Aerospace’s factory withaccommodation being booked in hotels in Chester, a change from the normal on-site stay; this actually took the Congressfor the first time to Wales. Steve Baileyof Guildford club ran the event atAbingdon School in 1999 and KeithOsborne of Norwich ran Ipswich in 2000,despite there actually being a local club.

The congress for 2001 is planned toreturn to Wales, with Cardiff being GerryMills’ intended location. Bids to run theCongress after that can be received by theBGA Council.

CONGRESS STATISTICS

Year No Players Venue

1968 1 57 Jesus College, Oxford

1969 2 n/a Churchill Hall, Bristol

1970 3 60 St John’s, Cambridge

1971 4 n/a Devonshire Hall, Leeds

1972 5 90 Queen Mary College Halls, Woodford

1973 6 61 Bryson House, Heriott-Watt, Edinburgh

1974 7 104 Wessex Hall, Reading

1975 8 116 Alsager College

1976 9 108 Imperial College, London

1977 10 108 Gilbert Murray Hall, Leicester

1978 11 >100 Owens Park, Manchester

1979 12 n/a University of Bath

1980 13 104 Birmingham University

1981 14 n/a York University

1982 15 112 Willoughby Hall, Nottingham

1983 16 96 Lanchester Poly, Coventry

1984 17 80 Ashburn Hall, Manchester

1985 18 70 Worcester College of Education

1986 19 86 Crewe & Alsager College, Crewe

1987 20 120 Wells Hall, Reading University

1988 21 106 Stowe School

1989 22 84 Oakham School

1990 23 96 Salford University

1991 24 70 Canterbury University

1992 25 99 Derby Hall, Nottingham

1993 26 70 UEA, Norwich

1994 27 114 Warwick University, Coventry

1995 28 75 Felsted School, Essex

1996 29 78 Durham University

1997 30 83 Royal Holloway, Egham

1998 31 74 BAe, Chester

1999 32 80 Abingdon School

2000 33 59 Novotel, Ipswich

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Tim Hunt asked if I could extend mysystematic classification of semeais toinclude fights with a ko; in particular,when the ko acts as an outside libertyon one group and when the ko isbetween the two groups, in which casecapturing the ko takes a liberty off onegroup and adds a liberty to the other.I have carefully avoided coveringliberty races involving ko for severalreasons. First, I thought it would getcovered in Kiseido’s Get Strong at Ko,but that book seems to be on hold atthe moment. The main reason, however,is that I don’t feel qualified to writeabout ko. It’s rather a difficult topic,not only for me, but also for readers. I thought my series on the carpenter’ssquare was rather high level and I triedto bring the level down with later series.Furthermore, the Counting Libertiesseries has been running for quite a whileand I want to move on to a new topic.I leave you with one example of a capturingrace involving ko. It’s from a game betweenYoda (Black) and Kobayashi Satoru. Blackresigned after 14 in Figure 1.Question 1: What is the status of the topright corner if Black connects at A inanswer to White’s ko threat at 14, andWhite plays there next? Diagram 1 showsthe position more clearly.Question 2: What would have happened ifBlack had played in the top right cornerfirst with 1 in Diagram 2?The answer, based on the professional’s TV commentary, will be given in the nextJournal. That gives you plenty of time toinvestigate by yourselves.An sgf file of the game can be found on theBGA web site at:

www.britgo.org/bgj/11935.sgf

COUNTING LIBERTIES ~ CAPTURING RACES INVOLVING KO

Richard Hunter hunter@gol.com

10

1211

14

84

1 5 72 3 6 9

A

Figure 1 13 takes ko

# 1

1

# 2

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Figure 1 (1 – 100)Up to White 34 this seems a verypeaceful opening. White 42 is toosimple. Cutting with 1 in Diagram 1is better. White gets sente to play agood reducing move at 7. Black’sshape ends up over-concentrated.Black 55: Now this move seems alittle bit passive… It might be betterto carry on pushing as in Diagram 2.Although Black has some bad aji sodoes White.White 64 might be slightly premature.The moves to Black 73 result in atrade off that is actually in Black’sfavour. Although White has secured abig territory, Black’s moyo at the topright is also big and in order to invadethat moyo, White may have to give upterritory in the top left corner.White 92 may be unnecessary.Connecting with 1 in Diagram 3leaves White with at least a ko to live

MATTHEW COCKE PLAYS VICTOR CHOW AT THE LONDON OPEN

Commentary by Victor Chow sileagle@icon.co.za

Figure 1 (1 – 100)

# 3

1 32

# 2

100

8995 92 85 82 83 88 76 77

30 26 97 32 87 27 84 80 7425 28 93 90 86 91 99 7529 94 33 98 81

56 9657 78 60 34

31 63 79 69 71 7365 68 67

55 53 64 66 70 72 2439 51 52 54 59 61 62

49 5047 4845 46

41 43 44 16 1240 37 42 35 18 15 2238 36 10 58 14 13 11 20

19 17 21 23

34

5

7

1 29 6

8

43 2 9

1 56 7

8

78

2 4 61 3

5

# 1

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at the top and White can use anybreak-out move as a ko threat.

Figure 2 (101 – 206)White 104: This is wrong!!!!!If everything else stays the same asthe game, blocking at 1 in Diagram 4instead of 104 gives at least 10 pointsdifference compared with the game.White 122: Now the end game issuddenly in Black’s favour.White 126: White now needs a secondmove here to make some territory.Compare with Diagram 4.Black 157: This move is not necessaryat all. Instead, Black should play thesequence in Diagram 5. This is safeand big and White’s fate is sealed.White 174: Instead, now the game issuddenly close.Black 187: This must be a mistake. Black isalready not winning and to waste a move insuch a close game is fatal.

Black had opportunities to wrap up thisgame but slack moves in the end gameresulted in White winning by 1.5 points.

103

105

106 104

100 102101

90 88 89 37 3916 36 38

96 18 17 34 8710 91 13 93 3595 11 69 57 49 12 92 41

67 14 50 51 52 94 42 40 4364 70 68 74 31 86 15

65 22 54 53 72 66 85 56 28 2758 59 23 73 81 82 55 80 26

63 62 48 24 71 29 83 8460 25 3061

33 7832 20 77 99

47 21 76 75 1945 44 46 98 97 79

5

98 1 3

7 62 4

Figure 2 (101 – 206)

1517 16

1210 11

13 14

23

1819

2122 20

4

9 87

6 52 1

3

# 4

5

3 4

12

# 5

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GO AT EASE is a multimedia introduction toGo from Yutopian Enterprises, aimedtowards children and beginners. The gameis taught through animations and smallcartoons. As reviewers of this program, wehave been playing Go for around 4 months– our son who is nine and a half years olddidn’t have any Go knowledge at all beforehe was introduced to GO AT EASE.

Installation & RequirementsTo run the program you need a PC runningWindows 3.1 or Windows 95, with aCD–ROM drive, a graphics adaptorsupporting 256 colours and a sound card.The minimum requirements for the CPU area 486 MHz with 8MB of RAM, which mostPCs fulfil these days. We tested the programon a 450 MHz Pentium machine runningWindows 95. Installation is straightforward.If you are using Windows 95 the programshould initiate automatically, otherwise youhave to run a ‘Set-up’ command, which isonly installing some shortcuts – thereforeyou have to run the program directly from

the CD–ROM or alternatively copy thecontents of the CD–ROM to the hard disk.

The programGO AT EASE contains no documentation,apart from what is required for installing theprogram – I guess this is okay since mostchildren (and adults too) don’t want tospend a lot of time reading documentationbut want to start right away and then useintuition to navigate. When intuition fails,which it does now and then for adults, thebuilt in help function offers basic, but inmost cases sufficient, assistance.

The content of the program is a bookcomprising ten lessons:

The origin and function of GoThe basics of GoThe concept of TerritoryThe concept of LibertiesIllegal movesConnecting and cuttingEyesBasic capturing techniquesMore basic playsFiguring out who’s won

The first lesson is a set of video sequencestelling us about the origin of Go, and thebenefits of learning to play the game. Thenext nine chapters gently teach you aboutthe game with lots of pictures, videosequences and small funny cartoons withouthaving the cartoons stealing the show. All ofus had a very good time going through thelessons. The screens alternate between ‘the teacher’ talking to you and examplesshowing what to do.

The voice used is appealing and after eachsubject there are some very good examples.Although we found a few of these too diffi-cult to grasp before moving on to the next

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REVIEW ~ GO AT EASE FROM YUTOPIAN ENTERPRISES

Mogens Jakobsen

Go At Ease uses cartoon characters tohelp children learn about the game.

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screen, this was not a big problem becauseyou always have the opportunity to re-runthe screen.In connection with lessons 4 to 9 are someinteractive exercises. These exercises arecarefully chosen and provide a good oppor-tunity to practise the subject you’ve justbeen studying. We found this way of study-ing Go superior to the traditional way ofusing a textbook.The program also includes 1000 problems onvarious topics. Some of these problems are abit difficult to solve and the program doesn’toffer any real help – you just get a ‘beep’and have to try again. It would have beenvery helpful to have some explanation – as abeginner it can be very hard to figure outwhy a particular move is wrong or whathappens a few moves ahead. To practice and test your strength theprograms includes a 9 x 9 version ofHandTalk, which is a DOS program with theability to use a mouse. You can set thehandicap, choose whether to play as Blackor White, and adjust the playing strength.You can also ask the program to give you a‘hint’ and to show you surrounded territory –very useful features for beginners.

The Screen layout of HandTalk, which is aseparate program, is different from thelayout used throughout the rest of GO AT EASE

and we found that a bit confusing. It’s atypical DOS program with lots of informa-tion and options around the playing board.It’s not that hard to learn and our son whoisn’t at all used to DOS programs didn’thave any problems with the navigation. Sothe Screen layout is not a real problem it justbreaks the entirety.The playing strength of the program is morethan sufficient for beginners and the playingspeed is very satisfactory. Our conclusion is that GO AT EASE was apleasant surprise – it is very appealing andmanages to keep our attention for hours. Theexplanations are concise and simple withoutbeing childish and the presentations aresuitable for both children and adults. Theonly thing we were really missing was somecommented 9 x 9 games. We all feel that we have learned a great dealand can warmly recommend this program forbeginners who would like to learn to play Gobut don’t have access to someone who canteach them the basic concepts of the game.

Mogens, Lene & Lasse, Epsom Go Club

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Rickard RecoveryReaders will be glad to hear that JohnRickard (4 dan, Cambridge) is making agood recovery following a major operationearlier this year. He was able to play in theChallenger’s League and we would like towish him well for the future.

Feng Yun Goes East!Feng Yun, pictured opposite with herhusband Su Hong and child Ge Fei, movedto Toronto in April.

SNIPPETS

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This article continues the closeanalysis of a game between TimHunt (1 dan, Black) and JohnFairbairn (2 dan) as it moves intothe middle game fighting. Thecomments are those of Seong-JuneKim.

Figure 1 (20 – 35)As we rejoin the game at move 20fighting is running out from theright hand side. Amid the manoeu-vres Black 21 should stand out.Black can attain real advantage byfinding plays like this. In a calmeropening this would be a big point.Here it serves to keep White toobusy to settle.

Diagram 2In fact White is ill-advised to pressso hard here. Diagram 1 shows therecommended play for White 20.White 1 there is plain, but there is awide gulf in Go between ‘plain’ and‘bland’. White’s weak group on theright side perhaps looks better ableto take care of itself than the singlestone on the top side. That may beso; but the former is relatively heavywhile the latter can be handled in alight way while the corner is open toa 3–3 invasion. Seong-Junecommented that in a book for theJapanese reader Diagram 1 wouldprobably appear with the slightest ofexplanation; the virtues of White 1there are a matter of direct percep-tion (Fujisawa Shuko is the specialistin this sort of ‘ostensive’ teaching).

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Diagram 2Black 23 passes muster, but Blackcould also try 1 in Diagram 2. Thepoint would be to play this thinnishshape while White’s two markedstones are still very weak. White isinhibited from cutting through. WhiteA, Black B, White C, Black D forexample is an entirely unimpressiveresult for White.

Diagrams 3 & 4At 25, Black could consider theknight’s move play, 1 in Diagram 3.That passage of fighting goes well forBlack. However Black would have tobe confident about the tactic of White 2in Diagram 4, leading up to 8, the ‘ko lock’ (as we are learning to call it,following Victor Chow).Since Black isn’t closely confinedthere, with both A and B good playsnext, this twist isn’t so frightening.Untidier courses such as playing 5 at 8needn’t come into consideration.

White 28 in Figure 1 is heavy. This play is really quite slow.In a professional game one might expect to see the sequenceof the next diagram.

Diagram 5What would do nicely here is the rapidity of Diagram 5.When White plays 1 here, the point 2 becomes vital for eyeshape on the edge, and it is hard to see Black omitting it.Then White 3 gets out one line faster, and with extra shapeas a dividend. It would therefore make sense for Black topeep at A in this diagram, before playing 27 in the game.Black 29 is clearly the correct direction, but either the diago-nal play to its right, or the other knight’s play one below that,would be more accurate. The simple point here is to pressWhite’s right side group so closely as to compel an answer.

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Diagram 6The order of 31 and 33 can bedebated but 31 isn’t bad. Black 35 isbetter for shape than for direction:Black 1 in Diagram 6 is more severe,keeping White uneasy about eyespace in the top right. Black’s nextplay around here ought to be at A.From a technical perspective, and asI hope these series illustrate, fight-ing strength has a great deal to do withthe cumulative business of getting yourstones on the key points and making youropponent’s stones and groups lookmisplaced. If the author can add a personalnote at this point: I have watched Seong-June’s games over a number of years andhave noted how at some points his haplessopponents (by no means weak players)simply run out of good shape all over theboard. There have to be reasons behindthis sort of systemic collapse, when ithappens to 5 dans. It must be a matter oftheir being out-fought, naturally, butstrength at that level is anything but anabstract essence of power.

If you are wondering at this precise momentwhy White doesn’t pre-empt Black with ajump out at A first in Diagram 6, as I was acouple of minutes ago, making yet anotherweak group, perhaps you should examinewhat Seong-June calls your ‘Go character’.His own, as I can attest, runs to constantlyoffering the opponent options on strong-looking but inadvisable plays; which differsradically from the run of the mill theory thatyou should be forever trying to squeezeyour opponent between a rock and a hardplace. It’s the maze designer versus thecontrol freak trying to force you down a funnel.

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TRIUMPH OF THE PROVERB

supplied by Andrew Grantajg@honinbo.freeserve.co.uk

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The solution to this problem will begiven in the Autumn Journal. Unlike real life, problems are alwayswelcome in the Journal. If you havecome across an interesting problem,please send it to the Editor togetherwith a documented solution. Pleaseindicate the source of the problem incase an attribution is felt necessary.

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There is another fault from which fewplayers are spared: many moves onlyprove to be justified in the end game;many mistakes need only be penalised byindifference; many threats must remainsuspended. But it is very difficult to resistthe temptation to settle everything as soonas possible: “Supposing he noticed it andsettled the problem before me?”

It is interesting to observe that at leastfour theoretical concepts (aji, miai,kikashi, yosu-miru) were developed inorder to analyse situations where oneshould wait, and without entering intoover technical considerations at this point,the impatient player would do well toconsider the way in which professionalsexploit aji (for example in Sakata Eio’sThe Middle Game, Chapter 2, A Case ofBad Aji); or the classic remark accordingto which sente moves should be played aslate as possible. The urgency of moves isalways difficult to assess, but it is alwaysa good idea to count, and besides, if youropponent wastes time eliminating aji, thisloss of the initiative ought in general tocost him more dearly.

Another form of impatience consists inbeing intolerant of your opponent’s privi-leges (his kikashis, sente yose, etc.). Theproblem here is not so much the tempta-tion of putting up resistance (by notanswering, or else responding in anunexpected way), as the bad judgmentwhich leads you to believe that youropponent is gaining points, whereas he is

only collecting what is his due. This maylead you to take ill-considered risks.

Finally, any player in the act of losing a‘won’ game by using techniques linked topride and anger feels growing nervous-ness and insecurity; impatience towardshimself. Here we touch upon a rarer fault,perfectionism. We all dream of playingideal games but some players estimate,after their first mistakes, that they haveruined the game and it is not worth goingon. Pushed to the limit, this attitude leadsto premature resignation — is this yetanother bad move? In any case some ofthe strongest players have made it intournaments! — but more insidiously, itleads to progressive degradation of one’sgame: one bad play leads to others.

Have you ever tried playing a gamealone? The experience is quite interesting:usually one takes the side of either blackor white, and the game ends in a victory— often crushing — for the favouredcolour. Few players show so much care inanalysing both their own and theiropponent’s potential moves: “Very oftenit’s just as I place my stone that I spot theone reply that I had not envisaged; I justhave to wait (how long it seems!) for myopponent to spot it in his turn, and hopethat it won’t ruin all my plans.”

At any rate, objective assessment of aposition is a difficult art. The wholespectrum of players’ characteristics isrevealed, and we shall look at this next time.

WHY DO WE MAKE BAD MOVES?PART 6: IMPATIENCE AND LACK OF OBJECTIVITY

Denis FeldmannTranslated by Brian Timmins and first published in the Revue Française de Go.

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Whatever happened to Ishida? Mycohort of players was brought up on thestirring tale of his rise to prominence asa title holder, backed up by analysisfrom the Iwamoto Go Salon and fineJames Davies writing, in the book ofthe 1971 Honinbo Tournament, still oneof the best ever works in English.Subsequently he spent five years at thevery top of the heap in Japan. Andthen? Marriage, mahjong, mokuhazushi(he became a specialist in 5–3openings). On his appearance ascommentator at the Meijin match inLondon in 1989 he demonstrated theroom-filling smile and personality ofthe chat show host. But – Yoshio – thebrown suit has to go.It seems likely that after a certain pointhe began to play to please himself,rather than solely to win. When I sortedout the material for this chapter on diagonalopenings, it turned out he was the leading propo-nent with White of the pattern I’m looking at thistime, with five examples coming to hand. I’m all infavour of the comparative method of Go study, sothis chance of the same fight played out againstdifferent opponents seemed too good to miss.Figure 1 shows an established diagonal pattern, forthe case in which Black plays 3 parallel with the4–3 point White 2 (as examined last time), andWhite takes up the challenge with the approach 6,rather than trying to take the sting out of Black’sinitiative. Black pincers with 7 to make the most offirst play on the left, after which White 8 shows anuncompromising mood. Black 9 is the fightingmove: extending on the third line would be morepeaceful. Then the intention of White 10 is toattack on one or other side.The first of our games, in chronological terms, isfrom the 1976 Meijin League, with Kajiwara asBlack (Diagram 1). White 12 is the characteristicattack on the lower side, and White 16 the follow

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DIAGONAL OPENINGS ~ PART 3Charles Matthews

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up that may serve as a sacrifice to gainWhite eye space in the corner. Black mightanswer it at 23 or 17. The play at 17 makessense if Black intends to give up the originalcorner stone; if White captures it a blackstone at 23 would be redundant. After White22 Black needs to cut, otherwise Whiteconnects up along the third line. Thereforewe get one of those mysterious seemingprofessional exchanges to 27. White now hasa fine position on the lower side. White 28 isto make sabaki, handling the other whitegroup in a shapeful way. Diagram 2 is thepreferred sequence, according to the KidoYearbook; White’s eye shape is a little better.By the end of Diagram 1 White has threetimes weathered the storm.

The game in Figure 2 has Blackextending back only as a knight’smove with 11, anticipating a fight onthe upper left side. In it White triestaking the corner with 20 and Blacktherefore takes up position on thelower side with 21. When Whiteinvades at 22 Black first prepares theground with 23 and so on, beforereturning to a convincing attack with31. Again Ishida as White shows hisnifty skill with 32 and 34. White after50 has plenty of weak black shape inthe centre to work on, if Black cutsbelow 46. (This game is Yoda–Ishidafrom the 1992 Gosei.)

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Figure 3 is taken from a game between Yamashiro andIshida (Judan 1983). Here we see another major idea,with Black 17 cutting instead of dropping back to thesecond line. Black 19 here is the tough minded followup; it ensures the game will become busy on the leftside. It is also joseki to play this one to the right. Whenit comes to Black 23 there is a timing question. Blackmight jump out to 25 at once. This has the advantagethat if White still pushes up at 24, Black can answercomfortably at 26.With 34 and 36 we have a flash once more of theIshida sabaki magic. This is a standard combination,perhaps, but there is the problem of how White willcope with the centre group. White did win this game,by a small margin.The remaining two example games show variationsfrom the main theme. In Diagram 3 White transfers to apincer at 10, relying on yet another sabaki technique(12 plus 14) to settle the lower corner. This is from aninternational 1992 game (Black was Ma Xiaochun ofChina, in the Fujitsu cup). In Diagram 4 Black contin-ues in such a way as to promote a large framework onthe left, aiming to swallow up the pincer stone on ascale to compensate for White’s corners. (The gamewent to Ma by half a point.)

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Finally a TV game from 1980, inwhich Black was Takemiya. He isnormally considered averse to themessier openings so it is perhaps notsurprising that his choice at 9 was toextend along the third line. Figure 4, therefore, shows a quitedifferent sort of development. With 10, 11 and 12 we see a typicalrunning fight on the left side with theone-point jump freely deployed. Not for long though, as White pressesfor influence with 14, 16, 18. Blackresolves on sacrifice of the group,taking a key shape point with 21 andplaying taisha in the upper left with23. You are firmly told in the booksthat ignoring this play is likely to leadto disadvantage – but Ishida does soanyway. Therefore what follows with25 up to 38 is a rarish model sequence,the sort of result where we can assumeBlack’s influence, made in sente, has theedge over White’s corner territory. Up to 40we have a game of wide open spaces.

A note on researchBesides paper sources I have used Gogoddisks – Takemiya collection #51, KidoYearbook 1984 #257 for the Yamashiro game and the joseki dictionary on the

Jan van der Steen web site: http://www.cwi.nl/people/jansteen/go/

The Gogod database is hoped shortly to beon-line, in a searchable form, which wouldmake this kind of comparative work mucheasier to initiate; though of course comingup with good questions and interpretingwhat is to be seen in professional games isnever going to be mechanised.

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In a recent conversation, I was discussinghow much influence the opening has on theresult of a game of Go. This developed intothe suggestion of an experiment to find out.To this end, I plan to run a small (six to tenplayers) four round experimental tournamenton Saturday 8th July in Guildford. The experiment is to start all the games withthe fuseki pre-defined from some suitableprofessional game. For this to work, all

games must be even, so entry is restricted to2 kyus and 1 kyus. Everybody will play thesame opening twice as Black and twice asWhite. The game to be used will be chosenby one of our better dan players.The tournament will have a 10:30 start and a6:30 finish, achieved using 45 minutes eachplus 30 stones in 5 minutes overtime. Komiwill be 6 points. I’ve already done the draw,so that won’t be late.For further details, please e-mail me orphone me on: 01483 533 748

EXPERIMENTAL TOURNAMENT

Steve Bailey sgbailey@iee.org

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Would you like to watch professionals andtop world amateurs playing fast games, withenthusiastic kibitzing, twenty four hours aday? Have you ever wanted to play againstan opponent of your own strength wheneveryou felt like it? How about making new Gofriends and rivals across the world, fromChina to the United States? And would youlike to be able to access huge databases ofcommented dan games, on demand? Notlong ago, these were impossible wishes butnow, thanks to the IGS, the Internet GoServer, anybody can play, watch, and talkGo any time.

But surely using the internet is expensive,what with all those call charges and the costof buying hardware? In fact, access to theinternet is much cheaper than many peoplethink. For starters, it is now possible to maketotally free calls to the internet. Secondly,you don’t need to spend a fortune on equip-ment either. Although it is true that the latestand most costly Pentium III computers allowthe fastest and smoothest connection, it ispossible to obtain a perfectly adequate 486or Pentium I for well under £200. The trickis to avoid High Street shops like the plagueand to head down to your newsagent forcopies of PC Mart and similar magazines.There you will find extensive ads for privatesales and, if you don’t like buying privately,pages of ads placed by companies whospecialise in refurbishing older machines.

But exactly what hardware and software areneeded? You can be quite flexible – as longas certain minimum requirements are met,you don’t need to worry too much about theprecise specifications of your machine.Basically, you need the following items.

HardwareA 486 or Pentium computer (second-hand orrefurbished prices begin at about £100).

A modem – a fast, 56.6k modem costs about£65 new, but an adequate 14.4k or 28.8kmodem can be had much cheaper second-hand.

SoftwareWindows 95 or later – if you are buying,make sure that this is the operating systemsupplied with the machine

Internet Explorer or Netscape Navigator (aversion of Internet Explorer generally comesalong with Windows 95).

Once you have the equipment ready, youneed to get connected. The way it works isvery simple: your computer connects to anInternet Service Provider (ISP) via themodem and telephone line and your ISPlinks your computer to hundreds ofthousands of other computers across theworld. In short, your ISP is the bridgebetween your computer and the globalcomputer network, or Internet.

Getting an ISP is absurdly easy: once youchoose your ISP, for example AOL, youphone them up and get them to send you aCD. When the disk arrives, you fling it intoyour machine and follow the instructions.And if you haven’t got a CD–ROM drive,you can still connect via a dial-up connec-tion such as BT Clickfree: go to ‘MyComputer’, then ‘Dial-up networking’, clickon ‘Make new connection’, enter thetelephone number to be dialled as 0845 7576333 and call it BT Clickfree. Then, whenyou open up Internet Explorer, the computerwill automatically dial this connection. Aslong as you put BT Clickfree as your username and leave ‘password’ blank, it shouldwork.

Once you get used to using Internet Exploreryou will be able to download the softwarerequired for using the Internet Go Server.What’s needed is a ‘client’, in other words,

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THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF THE IGSTristan Jones tristan@rubbra.demon.co.uk

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an interface program which presents youwith a graphical Go board for making yourmoves and windows to type and readmessages to and from other users. Clientsmay be found by connecting to the BGA siteat www.britgo.org – and navigating to thepages on Go software.

Once you have downloaded the client, it’stime to begin playing Go. At this point youwould do well to consider finding an ISPthat offers free internet calls since you will, Ican safely predict, find internet Go playinghighly addictive. There are several goodchoices, which are listed below:

www.localtel.co.uk On this web site youcan get information on screaming.net, whichgives totally free access to the net during alloff-peak hours. This is fine so long as youare prepared to sign your telephone line overto Localtel.

www.4unet.co.uk Here you can order aspecial internet adaptor which plugs intoyour BT phone socket. This re-routes yourinternet calls to an 0800 (free phone) numberand works twenty four hours a day, everyday. In addition, you get a 30% reduction inall standard BT calls.

www.btinternet.com On this site you cansubscribe to BT’s Surftime package, whichcurrently allows you free calls to the internetbetween 6pm and midnight during the week,and during the entire weekend, in return fora flat fee of £10 a month. The advantage ofthis package is that it can be set up within anhour, whilst you have to wait several weeksfor the options mentioned above to beprocessed. Thus, whilst you are setting up aLocaltel account, you could subscribetemporarily to Surftime but please read thecontracts before committing yourself!

www.breathe.com This is another option,for which you pay an initial charge of £50 inreturn for un-metered access to the net.

NTL Phone 0800 183 1234 for informationabout NTL, which offers un-metered accessto the net for a £10 monthly fee .

Having downloaded and installed the client,you simply start it up like any other program.On WinIGC you will find a command called‘Connection’. If you click on this, and selectthe server named igs.joyjoy.net 6969 andthe user name guest, the program willautomatically connect you to the internet andto IGS. Once into IGS, type ‘help register’and then register yourself with a nicknameof your choice. Having done this IGS will,within half an hour, e-mail you a confirma-tion of your account and a password, plusinformation on basic commands.

There are two especially important things toremember when playing on IGS. Firstly,rankings on IGS are a great deal strongerthan normal ratings: when I began to play, Iwas about 12k but my IGS rating was only21k; now I am about 5 or 6k but only around12k on the IGS. At the other end of thescale, I have had it confirmed that there are9 dan professionals whose IGS ratings areonly 6d.

Secondly, it is inevitable that there will betime lags and disconnections which couldcause you to lose, or even to win, games youshouldn’t. Please be patient with youropponents, and resist the temptation to callthem names or to send rude messages tothem – it is true that you cannot see them butthey are still flesh and blood, just as if theywere sitting opposite you in a Go club.

Play on the IGS tends to be violent, to saythe least. Trick plays abound and youropponents will try and kill anything thatmoves. You won’t make any framework thatisn’t invaded and you’d better watch yourconnections, since IGSers like to chop andcut. It can be intimidating to face such astyle of play, but if you stay cool and resistthe temptation to play moves quickly andthoughtlessly, you will find ways to punishimpertinent aggression and your readingability will improve rapidly!

The ability to observe and kibitz on danlevel games is one of the most exciting

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features of IGS. Typically, players rated4d and 5d on IGS are top worldamateurs and, as I mentioned, manypros like to play too. When thesehighly ranked players clash, it attractsdozens of spectators, including otherdan players, who will offer explana-tions and commentaries.If there’s some aspect of the positionyou don’t understand, just ask andalmost always a stronger player willclear it up for you or at least supply anopinion – after all, there are probablyseveral other observers who arewondering the same thing!Although the players themselves cannotsee the kibitzes, it is wise to show duedeference and not to criticise theirmoves in a rude manner. If you don’t,other strong players will put you inyour place in no uncertain terms! Important tournament games areregularly broadcast over the IGS, completewith commentaries. In this way you cankeep up with the latest action in Japan,Korea and China.Moreover, you can save games that you playor observe and study them off-line at yourleisure. In addition, with the index andrequest commands, you can get replays ofthousands of top level games. If you want toimprove, the IGS is a powerful tool. If youplay mainly for pleasure, the IGS offersmany entertaining possibilities.

I will leave now with a sample of IGS play.In this game, played when I was 14k* (about7k BGA), exemplifies the highly aggressivestyle of IGS kyu players. In this game Ibuild up huge frameworks but suffer a largeloss in the upper left corner, finally scrapingto a half point victory. It is hardly Meijinlevel stuff, but such quick games are excit-ing to play. Feel free to e-mail me if there’s anythingyou’d like to ask me either about connectingto the internet or about the IGS. I just love it,and you will too!

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I was reminded recently of Victor Borge’sjoke: “How old are you, son?” “Nine.”“Shame on you, at your age I was eleven.”The same patronising ignorance of life nearerground level characterises the changes justmade in the British Championship system.

Come Back When You’re Stronger wouldmake a good title for a light-hearted sectionin the BGA Handbook on how not to run aclub. So why is it thought to be a key princi-ple at national level? I have heard it saidoften that stronger players, or some of them,manage to make weaker ones feel lessvalued. I hardly had enough first-handevidence of this. But the new system seemsto say that you have to be 3 dan to matter, tobe ‘serious’. This is so misplaced as adoctrine that the BGA should publiclydisown it. So what if a shodan is unlikely toemerge as British Champion? Even worse isthe syllogism that the British Championshipshould be run for the benefit of a particularstratum – it should be run in line with theBGA’s principle purpose, to promote Go.

What has happened is radical surgery,charmingly spoken of by one leading playeras ‘revitalisation’ (the excluded werepresumably gangrenous limbs). A spurious tidiness doesn’t make up for theexclusion of swathes of committed players.The reasons given by Alison Jones in BGJ117 need not detain us long.

A system easily understandable and accessible to the press.

Anyone care to explain a Swiss (with quali-fication via a year’s McMahons), followedby an all-play-all, followed by a match, to areporter on the phone? The ‘problems’claimed in running the Challenger’s as alarge Swiss are to do with last minutewithdrawals, and were well known to theorganisers under all previous systems. Allattempts to streamline them out will fail,

barring changes in human nature in the newMillennium.

The range of groups slighted by the directionof the ‘reform’ is so broad as to be comic, ifit weren’t so sad. Most of the regions of theUK (who will be lucky to be represented atall); 90% of BGA-affiliated clubs (ditto);women; youth players (with classicmeanness the place for the Youth Championin the Candidates’ has been withdrawn, untilsuch time as the bar in the YouthChampionship is at dan level); 5 dans(apparently the critics of the 1997Challenger’s, which brought together fourUK 5 dans in one tournament for what waspresumably the first time, have some persua-sive arguments that this was all a bigmistake); players around the 1 dan mark(who make up the bulk of the BGA’s mostvalued volunteers); foreign players qualifiedby strength and residence, who instead of acourteous invitation get a curt “qualify likeanyone else, and think about it six monthsahead”. And those improving players, who(and I quote) will feature in “even gamesbetween improving and established players”.If you need a 3 dan performance to beincluded at all as an improving player(thinks…), that presumably makes the estab-lished players 4 dans. So, got it now, if youare 3 dan or thereabouts you will be allowedto play 4 dans. Otherwise, come back etc.

A previous contentious issue around theBGA was the Women’s Tournament. Thatone was resolved by junking a stubbornlyenforced policy – women to play in an allwomen event, like it or not. Instead a coher-ent set of new ideas was put in place;women to be brought into Go via pair Go;female solidarity to be promoted by trainingweekends. The BGA should start a rethinkby shredding all internal documents on theChampionship that summarise to “95% ofmembership to be treated as riff-raff”. Then,

COME BACK WHEN YOU’RE STRONGER

Charles Matthews on the revised British Championship system

June2000 26/9/00 8:48 pm Page 51

52

There are several pointsraised by these problemswhich I want to discuss.

Whose move is it?By asking you to solve theproblems for both ‘Black toplay’ and ‘White to play’,you have effectively beenanswering the question“What is the status of thisgroup?”. There is atendency to answer statusquestions with the reply“Whose move is it?”. Thewhole point of statusproblems is that you have tounderstand the situationfrom both points of view.There is no point in Whitetrying to resurrect a deadgroup or in Black wasting amoving ‘killing’ a corpse.

Where are the eyes?When reading out a situa-tion, you need to be able todetermine where a group’seyes will be. A detail that

can easily be misunderstoodis that the defender mayhave to play stones on thevacant points around acaptured stone in order toremove it. Some players,when asked “Where are thisgroup’s eyes?” get thiswrong and point to vacantpoints that will eventuallybe filled rather than to astone which has beencaptured – a false eye beinga classic example.For example, when askedwhere White’s eyes couldbe in Diagram 1, a playermay point to A and B inDiagram 2.This is wrong, Diagram 3 iscorrect, the eyes are at A

and under the markedstones, while the emptypoints ‘X’ will eventually beoccupied by white stones.

Diagram 4 clarifies theposition. To reiterate, one ofthe defender’s eyes is underthe captured invading stones

BACK TO BASICS ~ A DISCUSSION OF THE 6-POINT CORNER PROBLEMS

Steve Bailey sgbailey@iee.org

# 1

XX

# 4

AXX

# 3

AB

# 2

on a fresh sheet of paper, writing the words“Those who really think the pecking order inBritish Go is a matter of moment are invitedto read the European ratings posted freshlyevery first Thursday of the month on theEGF web site”. No more please about every-thing pivoting on the minor placings in theChallenger’s. I’m losing count of thenumber of times I have come fourth in it;and I can assure everyone that, as somethingto tell your grandchildren, that ranks aboutas high as playing for a side defeated in thesemi-finals of the FA Cup.

In place of the current system, beamed downfrom a passing UFO (doubtless from avastly more advanced civilisation), could weplease have one designed by a carbon basedsavannah dwelling life form? Such acreature would be more likely to appreciategrassroots and the green shoots of newgrowth as contributions to her environment.

When I started to play Go, the scene wasdominated by students; no good thing initself. The current position, in which theBritish Championship may have no studententrant at all, seems to be palpably worse.

!

June2000 26/9/00 8:48 pm Page 52

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and the adjacent libertiesmust be considered asdefender’s stones!

Strange things happenat the 1 – 2 pointAnother common theme isthat of ko. In these prob-lems the most common koinvolves the 1–1 point asshown in Diagram 5.

Notice the difference inBlack’s answers toProblems 1 and 2. Black 1at the 2–1 point leads to ako in both cases, but it isthe wrong solution toProblem 1 as there is abetter move, the 2–2 point,that kills directly. Since the2–2 move fails in Problem2, the ko is the correctanswer there.These problems alsodemonstrate that the 2–1point is often key. Note thatwhenever the situation isunsettled, a White play atthe 2–1 point works, so youdon’t have to try andmemorise all the answersthat work. If you rememberthat in the six-space corner,a White 2–1 point works ifanything does (and if anymove is required), that willreduce how much you needto read. Similarly for Blackeither the 2–1 or the 2–2point are most generallyapplicable.

The follow-upIf you are not sure of thefollow-up to the first movesshown in the solutions, Dia-grams 6 to 11 show some ofthe relevant sequences.In Problem 1, Black 1 inDiagram 6 is correct. White2 is answered by Black 3otherwise White can playthere and get two eyes. Whitecan’t now play at A due to ashortage of liberties.

Although we conclude thatWhite 2 is wrong, it is anexcellent ko threat and thereis also a second good kothreat, White 4 at A requir-ing Black to capture. Thesethreats cost White nothing;Black gets one extraprisoner but one less pointof territory, with no loss ofWhite tempo. Should Blackignore the threat White cancapture Black and live. Thismove converts 17 points forBlack (11 territory + 6prisoners) into 5 points forWhite (1 prisoner and 4territory), so the threat isworth 22 points.

Diagrams 7 – 10There are two differentways of achieving the ‘2 kos’in the Black solution toProblem 2. Diagram 7 showsthe first ko (moves 4 and 5).White 6 is a ko threat.

In Diagram 8 Black ignoresthe threat, fills the externalliberty with 7 and fights thesecond ko. Black plays a kothreat elsewhere with 9,answered by White 10.Black ignores White’s kothreat 12 to capture with 13.

In this variation Black hasignored two White kothreats but does remove thewhite stones from the board.This might be useful if thesurrounding black stonesare themselves under attack.Alternatively, after Diagram7, Black can play as inDiagrams 9 and 10 where,although 7 makes a ‘bentfour in the corner’ shape,

# 5

AB

12

3AB

# 6

12

3 45

# 7

7 81113

# 8 9,10,12 ko threats

9 1011

# 9

78

# 10 12 ko threat

June2000 26/9/00 8:48 pm Page 53

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White can force Black toplay out the second ko(moves 10 and 11) duringthe game. Again, Blackignores White’s ko threat12 to fill with 13 at 10.This sequence is lessefficient than that ofDiagram 7, except thatBlack needs one less kothreat in Diagram 10.Diagram 7 is the usualsequence.

Liberties are libertiesThe difference betweenProblems 1, 2 and 3 is inthe number of liberties notin their location. In thisarticle, they have beenshown on the first line.Problem 3 could equallywell be as in Diagram 11.

Valuable ko threatsProblem 3 is settled.However Black may attackthe corner as ko threats.Should this happen, Whiteis obliged to answer eachmove lest the corner becaptured. White must knowhow to live if this happens,and playing it as a ko, likeProblem 2, is wrong. The second liberty issignificant, as Diagram 12shows.

The end result is Diagram13. There Black is notallowed to play at the 1-1point so when he plays an

outside liberty, puttingWhite into atari, Whitecaptures the 3 black stonesleaving two eyes.

Divide or expand?The solutions for White toProblem numbers 10, 11,13 and 14 show clearly thealternative approaches of‘dividing the eye space’with two of the validmoves and ‘expanding theeye space’ with the third.Generally the eye spaceexpansion is better as itmaximises the territory andmay permit a push later toreduce Black by a point.

Outside InfluenceThe significance of the lastthree problems is to showhow external stones canmake a difference. Thebasic shape is dead in eachcase. However if there are

friendly stones close by,there may be the possibil-ity of connecting out ratherthan making eyes.Diagram 14 shows anattempt by White toconnect in Problem 20.

Note that White 1 convertsthe situation in the cornerto that of Problem 13 withBlack to play. ThereforeBlack must play a move inthe corner to prevent Whiteliving locally. Black 2 isreasonable as it keepsWhite down to one eye andalso removes a liberty,speeding removal of theWhite stones should itbecome necessary. This gives White time toattempt the connection.Unfortunately, in this casethe white stones outside aretoo distant to be of any use.We would all benefit bygoing through theseproblems time after timeuntil the moves becomeinstinctive.

# 13

12

3 456

# 12

12

3

4 56

7

8

# 14

# 11

June2000 26/9/00 8:48 pm Page 54

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The answers for Black to play:In the answers, the white group dies if Blackplays one of the points marked !; ‘dead’means that Black should play elsewheresince whatever White does, Black can kill;‘ko’ means that Black must win a ko to killthe group; ‘2 kos’ means that Black has towin 2 kos (or one ko twice) to kill; ‘alive’

# 7 A is ko

# 3 alive

# 1 A is ko

# 10# 9 A is ko

# 8 alive

# 6 A is ko

# 4

# 2 A is 2 kos

BACK TO BASICS ~ THE SOLUTIONS

# 11

# 20 dead# 19

# 13

# 17 dead # 18

# 16 dead# 15 dead

# 14

# 12 A is ko

# 5 A is ko

A

A

A A

AA

A

means that Black should play elsewheresince, whatever Black does, White can live.

June2000 26/9/00 8:48 pm Page 55

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The answers for White to play:The white group lives if White plays one ofthe points marked !; ‘dead’ means thatWhite should play elsewhere since whateverWhite does, Black can kill; ‘ko’ means thatWhite must win a ko to live; ‘alive’ meansthat Black should play elsewhere since,whatever Black does, White can live.

# 7

# 3 alive

# 1

# 10# 9 A is ko

# 8 alive

# 6

# 4 A is ko

# 2

# 11

# 20 dead# 19 A is ko

# 13

# 17 dead # 18 A is ko

# 16 dead# 15 dead

# 14

# 12 A is ko

# 5 A is ko

A

A

A

AA

BACK TO BASICS ~ THE SOLUTIONS

A AAA

A AAA

June2000 26/9/00 8:48 pm Page 56

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OleSpain’s top tournament, Barcelona, was heldon 19 and 20/02/00 and won by MiyakawaWataru (6 dan Japan/France) on 5/5. Secondwas Du Jingyu (7 dan China/Germany). TwoUK players won 3/5: Natasha Regan (6 kyu)and Matthew Selby (7 kyu).

Sinaia TwainThe 5th European Youth Championshipswere held in the picturesque mountain townof Sinaia in Romania from 03 to 05/03/00. A large number of Romanian children tookpart in the two McMahon system sections.Professional Yuki Shigeno was on hand toteach and encourage them. In the Under-18section there were 64 players, the winnerbeing Hungarian 5 dan Diana Koszegi. On5/6 were Andreii Kulkov (3 dan Russia) andTimour Douguine (2 dan Russia). In theUnder-12 section there were only 61 players.Winner was Ilia Chikchine (2 kyu Russia)and runner up on 5/6 was MykolaGluschenko (1 dan Ukraine).

In Memoriam24 players from 12 countries in strengthfrom 4 to 7 dan responded to the invitationto attended the Ing Chang Ki Memorial Cupin Helsinki from 10 to 12/03/00. Unbeaten infirst place was the Korean from Moscow:Lee Hyuk. On 5/6 was second placedAlexander Dinerstein (Russia) who only lostto the winner. Guo Juan (Netherlands) lost toboth the top players to come third. Also on4/6 were Robert Mateescu (Romania),Matthew Macfadyen (UK), Felix von Arnim(Germany), Christian Pop (Romania) andGert Groenen (Netherlands). Matthew’sresults were +Soldan, +Florescu, -Mateescu,+Eijkhout, -Hyuk and +Lazarev to give himfifth equal. Matthew reports on his gameagainst Florescu on page 16.

Frank BrnoBrno in Czech Republic was the venue forthe 2000 event on 08 and 09/04/00 and wasvery well run. 15 counties attended. As usualGermany won with 5/5; this time the teamwas Monika Reimpell (1 dan) and Franz-Joseph Dickhut (6 dan). Second wereHungary’s Diana Koszegi (5 dan) and GaborSzabics (5 dan) and then Netherlands’ KarenPleit (2 kyu) and Auke Rosendahl (3 dan),on 4/5. Romania’s Irinia Sucia (2 kyu) andBela Nagy (4 dan) topped the group on 3/5and fifth were our own Jackie Chai (2 kyu)and Francis Roads (4 dan). Sixth wereCzechia A: Martina Simonkova (2 dan) andPetr Cipra (5 dan). Other countries werePoland, Slovakia, France, Bosnia, Lithuania,Switzerland, Italy and Czechia B took part tomake numbers even. The UK results:+Yugoslavia (5 kyu/3 dan), +Czechia B (2kyu/4 kyu), -Germany, +Croatia (5 kyu/5dan), -Hungary; the UK were awarded thefurthest travel award.

Easter ChicsThe 2000 Paris moved to a new sports centrebut was held over Easter as usual (22 to23/04/00). They lived up to their claim toturn over a new leaf by never being late tostart ever again. They scrupulously stuck toa cut off for entry for round one, and wereonly let down by one of the top boardsplaying very slowly in overtime in the penul-timate round. At least they did not have topay out on their refund promise. ProfessionalKobayashi Chizu was there to makecomments and she was very good at this andvery popular. There was almost an interna-tional incident, regrettably unprintable, thatwas saved by the thickness of accents andthe Brits not letting on! First prize this yearwas 1000 euros and it was won by DuJingyu (7 dan China) with 6/6; second was

EUROPEAN TOURNAMENT RESULTS

Tony Atkins ajaxgo@yahoo.co.uk

June2000 26/9/00 8:48 pm Page 57

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Pei Zhao (6 dan China), third MiyakawaWataru (6 dan Japan) both with 5/5; 4th wasErik Puyt (5 dan NL), 5th, Jeff Seailles (5 dan F), 6th, Frank Janssen (6 dan NL)and 7th, Guo Juan (7 dan NL). 6 of the 239players were from UK, best scorer beingMalcolm Schonfield (1 kyu London) with 4/6; surprisingly Natasha Regan did not win aprize. Anyway the tournament is a goodexcuse to see the chicness of Paris at Easter,but the local Chinese restaurant seemed asgood a place as any, thanks to its karaokeand sake cups…

Toyota Go TourThe first ever European Toyota Go Tourevent was in Milan on 29 and 30/04/00. 73players mostly from Italy and surroundingcountries took part. Winner of the firstToyota points and prize money wasVladimir Danek (6 dan Czech). Second on4/5 was Viktor Bogdanov (6 dan Russia).Leon Matoh lead the group on 3/5 in thirdplace. Young Shinada Kei, the girl you mayremember from the London Open, wasthere as guest of local professional YukiShigeno; Kei is now playing at 3 kyu.

Post VacantThe position of Publicity Officer is stillvacant. Please contact BGA Secretary TonyAtkins for further information. See BGAOfficials on page 60 for contact details.

Advertisements£50 per page and pro rata. Privately placedsmall ads, not for profit, are free.

Stop PressAs we go to press the 4th Mind SportsOlympiad appears to be threatened byproblems with sponsorship. If you areplanning to attend this event you can checkon the status by phoning 020 7849 6373 orby visiting the MSO web site at:

www.msoworld.com

Journal ContributionsPlease send contributions for the AutumnJournal as soon as possible and in any caseby 4th August.Copy sent via e-mail is especially welcome.Please supply plain text as all formattinginformation will be discarded.Diagrams can be supplied as mgt or sgf filesfrom your favourite Go editing program.Please e-mail your contribution to:

dimension@btinternet.com or post to:

David Woodnutt3 Back DriveLillingstone DayrellBuckinghamMK18 5AL

NOTICES

!

© 2000 BGA. Items may be reproducedfor the purpose of promoting Go providedthat all such copies are attributed to theBritish Go Journal. All other rights reserved.Views expressed are not necessarily thoseof the BGA or of the Editor.

June2000 26/9/00 8:48 pm Page 58

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FORTHCOMING EVENTSFor the most up to date information onfuture events, visit the BGA web site at:

www.britgo.org/tournaments

JulySaturday 8thAn experimental event for 1 and 2 kyus only.All games will start with the same fusekipicked from a professional game. There willbe 4 rounds so each player will play thefuseki twice as Black and twice as White.Contact Steve Bailey for more details.01483 533 748. Saturday & Sunday 15th - 16thScottish Open, Edinburgh University.Donald Macleod 0131 445 4489.

AugustSaturday 12thNorwich Tournament. Tony Lyalltony@ccn.ac.uk.Saturday 19th - Monday 28thGo events at the Mind Sports Olympiad,Alexandra Palace, London." British Championship title match between

Des Cann and Matthew Macfadyen" Main 19x19 tournament" Lightning tournament" Youth tournament" Rapid-play tournament" Pair-go tournament" Main 13x13 tournament" Novice 13x13 tournament" Teaching sessions: ‘Introduction to Go for

beginners’" Computer Go

SeptemberSaturday 2nd - Sunday 3rdNorthern, Manchester. John Smith.j.h.smith@man.ac.ukSunday 17thMilton Keynes. Andrew Grantajg@honinbo.freeserve.co.uk

NEW BGA WEB ADDRESS

The BGA web site has a new URL$ http://www.britgo.org

We now have more web space, andmore facilities, than were possible with the BGA’s Demon account.This has been provided through thegenerosity of The Blue Fish Company.Blue Fish is a new media companyspecialising in web site presentationand application development.If you are responsible for a web page or other publication which cites theBGA web site or any part of it, please replace:

www.britgo.demon.co.uk

withwww.britgo.org

Championship Survey ApologyI apologise for the unclear table in thelast Journal regarding the Championshipsurvey. It would have been helpful tolabel the top boxes 5–6 dan, 4 dan, 2–3dan, Total dan, Total survey. In addition, I should have made clear that the scoringfor the Options for the Challenger’s werethose derived from the ‘Grand Prix’system described in the text and that allother numbers (time limits, qualificationfor Candidates’ tournament and continu-ation of existing match play-off) wereabsolute numbers.Thanks to all who took part. Alex Rix

June2000 26/9/00 8:48 pm Page 59

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$ PRESIDENT: Alison Bexfield29 Forest Way, Woodford Green, Essex IG8 0QF(020 8504 6944) alison@acjamj.demon.co.uk

$ TREASURER/ANALYSIS SERVICE: T. Mark Hall47 Cedars Rd, Clapham, London SW4 0PN(020 7627 0856) tmark@gogod.demon.co.uk

$ SECRETARY: Tony Atkins37 Courts Rd, Earley, Reading RG6 7DJ(0118 926 8143) ajaxgo@yahoo.co.uk

MEMBERSHIP SECRETARY: Kathleen TimminsThe Hollies, Wollerton, Market Drayton,Shropshire TF9 3LY (01630 685292)mem@britgo.demon.co.uk

JOURNAL EDITOR: David Woodnutt 3 Back Drive,Lillingstone Dayrell, Buckingham MK18 5AL(01280 860 624) dimension@btinternet.com

BOOK DISTRIBUTOR: Gerry Mills10 Vine Acre, Monmouth, Gwent NP25 3HW(01600 712 934) bgabooks@btinternet.com

CHAMPIONSHIPS ORGANISER: Alex Rix6 Meynell Cres, Hackney, London E9 7AS(020 8533 0899) alexander.rix@ubsw.com

$ TOURNAMENT COORDINATOR: Tim Hunt73 Maids Causeway, Cambridge, CB5 8DE(01223 522 536) t.j.hunt@damtp.cam.ac.uk

$ YOUTH COORDINATOR: Simon Goss4 Butler Road, Crowthorne, Berks, RG45 6QY(01344 777 963) simon@gosoft.demon.co.uk

WEBMASTER: Nick Wedd 37 North HinkseyVillage, Oxford OX2 0NA (01865 247 403)nick@maproom.co.uk

PUBLICITY OFFICER: post vacant.

NEWSLETTER EDITOR: Eddie Smithers 1 TweedDrive, Melton Mowbray, Leics. LE13 0UZ(01664 569 023) eddie@slowsilver.co.uk

$ ARCHIVIST: Harry Fearnley 38 HenleyStreet, Oxford, OX4 1ES (01865 248 775)archivist@goban.demon.co.uk

GRADING COMMITTEE CHAIRMAN: Jim Clare32–28 Granville Rd, Reading RG30 3QE (0118 950 7319) jim@jaclare.demon.co.uk

$ JOURNAL BACK NUMBERS: Steve Bailey49 Stocton Road, Guildford, Surrey GU1 1HD(01483 533 748) sgbailey@iee.org

$ Bill Streeten 3 Wellington Court, WellingtonRoad, London E11 2AT (020 8926 6923)

$ Chris Dawson 21 Eltham Avenue, Cippenham,Slough, SL1 5TQ (01753 676 095)chris_dawson@bigfoot.com

GODRAW PROGRAM/CLGC: Geoff Kaniuk35 Clonmore St, London SW18 8EL(020 8874 7362) geoff@kaniuk.demon.co.uk

NATIONAL TRAINER: Matthew Macfadyen22 Keytes Lane, Barford, Warks. CV35 8EP(01926 624 445) matthew@jklmn.demon.co.uk

AUDITOR: Toby Manning7 Oak Tree Close, Leamington Spa CV32 5YT(01926 888 739) toby@ptmfa.freeserve.co.uk

Useful e-mail and web addresses

e-mail for general BGA enquiries

bga@britgo.demon.co.uk

BGA Web site

http://www.britgo.org

BGA e-mail listssee web site for details of how to enlist

for general broadcast:

bgagolist@dcs.rhbnc.ac.uk

for discussion broadcast:

ukgolist@dcs.rhbnc.ac.uk

for youth discussion broadcast:

youthgolist@dcs.rhbnc.ac.uk

BGA OFFICIALS

$ indicates member of BGA Council

June2000 26/9/00 8:48 pm Page 60

61

BATH: Paul Christie 01225 428 995p.christie@bath.ac.uk Meets at The Rummernear Pulteney Bridge, Wed 7.30pm.

BILLERICAY: Guy Footring 01277 623 305guy@Footring.demon.co.uk Meets Mon.

BIRMINGHAM: Kevin Roger 01214 494 181kevin_roger@europe.notes.pw.com Meetsvarious places.

BOLTON: Stephen Gratton 01617 613 465.Meets Mon 7.30pm.

BOURNEMOUTH: Neil Cleverly 01202 659 653cleverlyn@poole.siemens.co.uk Meets at 24Cowper Rd, Moordown, Tues 8pm.

$ BRACKNELL: Clive Hendrie 01344 422 502clive.hendrie@freenet.co.uk Meets at Duke’sHead, Wokingham, Tues 8.30pm.

BRADFORD: Kunio Kashiwagi 01422 846 634yaku@kashiwagi.free-on-line.co.uk Meets atPrune Park Tavern, Thornton Wed 7pm

BRIGHTON: Steve Newport 01903 237 767snewport@pavilion.co.ukMeets at The Queen’s Head, oppositeBrighton Station, Tues 8pm

BRISTOL: Antonio Moreno 01179 422 276Meets at Polish Ex-servicemen’s Club, 50 StPaul’s Road, Clifton, Bristol, Tues 7.30pm

CAMBRIDGE CHESS & GO CLUB:Paul Smith 01223 563 932andreapaul@andrea-paul.freeserve.co.ukMeets Victoria Road Community Centre,Victoria Road, Fri 6.15 to 7:45pm. Caters forbeginners and children

CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY & CITY:Charles Matthews 01223 350 096soc-cugos-contacts@lists.cam.ac.uk Meets atAlexandra Arms Mon 9pm; the ErasmusRoom, Queens’ College Tues 7.30pm (term);Coffee Lounge, 3rd floor, The UniversityCentre, Mill Lane Thurs 7.30pm; CB1 (café),32 Mill Road Fri 7 to 8.30pm

CHELTENHAM: David Killen 01242 576 524 (h)Meets various places Wed 7.30pm.

CHESTER: Dave Kelly 01244 544 770Meets at Olde Custom House, Watergate St,Chester, Wed 8pm.

DUNDEE: Bruce Primrose 01382 669 564Meets weekly.

DURHAM UNIVERSITY: Paul Callaghan0191 374 7034 p.c.callaghan@durham.ac.uk

EDINBURGH: Phil Blamire 01316 630 678donald.macleod@epsedin.co.uk Meets atPostgrad Students’ Union, 22 BuccleughPlace, Wed 7.15pm.

EPSOM DOWNS: Paul Margetts 01372 723 268paul@yuhong.demon.co.uk Web Site:www.yuhong.demon.co.uk Meets Tues 7.30to 9pm.

GLASGOW: John O’Donnell 01413 305 458jtod@dcs.gla.ac.uk Meets term time atResearch Club, Hetherington House, 13University Gardens, Thurs 7pm.

HARWELL: Charles Clement 01235 772 262 (h)charles.f.clement@btinternet.com Meets atAERE Social Club, Tues lunchtime.

HIGH WYCOMBE: Jim Edwards 01494 866 107jamese@sco.com Meets Wed.

HP (BRISTOL): Andy Seaborne 01179 507 390afs@hplb.hpl.hp.com Meets Wed & Fri noon.Please ring in advance for security clearance.

HUDDERSFIELD: Alan Starkey 01484 852 420alan.starkey@compuserve.com Meets at theHuddersfield Sports Centre, Tues 7pm.

HULL: Mark Collinson, 01482 341 179mark@collinson.karoo.co.ukMeets Sat 7.30pm.

IPSWICH: Vince Suttle 01473 625 111vince.suttle@bt.com Meets Thurs evenings inthe Brewery Tap, Cliff Road.

ISLE OF MAN: David Phillips, 01624 612 294ldphillips@advsys.co.uk Meets Mon 7.30pm

LANCASTER: Adrian Abrahams 01524 34656adrian@adrianab.demon.co.uk Meets Wed.Gregson Community Centre, 33 Moorgate.

UK CLUB LIST

$ Indicates new information

June2000 26/9/00 8:48 pm Page 61

$ LEAMINGTON: Matthew Macfadyen 01926624 445 Meets Thurs 7.30pm

LEICESTER: Richard Thompson, 0116 276 1287jrt@cix.co.uk Meets Thursdays from 7:45pmat 5 Barbara Avenue, LE5 2AD.

MAIDENHEAD: Iain Attwell 01628 676 792Meets various places Fri 8pm.

MANCHESTER: Chris Kirkham 01619 039 023chris@cs.man.ac.uk Meets at the SquareAlbert in Albert Square Thurs 7.30pm.

MONMOUTH: Gerry Mills 01600 712 934bgabooks@btinternet.comMeets alternate Sundays.

NEWCASTLE: John Hall 01912 856 786jfhall@avondale.demon.co.uk Meets variousplaces, Weds.

NORWICH: Tony Lyall 01603 613 698tony@ccn.ac.uk Meets last Weds of month.

OPEN UNIVERSITY & MILTON KEYNES:Fred Holroyd 01908 315 342f.c.holroyd@open.ac.uk Meets Mon 7.30pm,1st of month in O.U. Theatre Bar others atWetherspoons, Midsummer BoulevardCentral MK.

$ OXFORD CITY: Richard Helyer01608 737 594 Meets at Freud’s Café,Walton Street, Tues & Thurs 6pm. Checkwith Richard that Freud’s is available.

OXFORD UNIVERSITY: Henry Segermanhenry.segerman@st-johns.oxford.ac.uk Meetsin Besse 1.1, St Edmund Hall (term only)Weds 7.30 to 10pm.

$ PORTSMOUTH: Kevin Cole 02392 820 700kevjcole@yahoo.com Meets various places,Sun 1pm.

READING: Jim Clare 01189 507 319 (h)01344 472 972 (w) jim@jaclare.demon.co.ukjim.clare@icl.com (w) Meets at the BreweryTap, Castle St, Mon 6.30 pm.

SHREWSBURY: Brian Timmins 01630 685 292mem@britgo.demon.co.uk Meets by arrangement.

SOUTH COTSWOLD: Michael Lock01454 294 461 Meets at Buthay Inn,Wickwar Mon 7.30pm.

$ S. E. WALES: Paul Brennan 02920 625 955brennanp@cf.ac.uk Meets in Newport orCardiff Tues/Wed 7.30pm.

ST ALBANS: Alan Thornton 01442 261 945 orRichard Mullens 01707 352 343Meets at The Mermaid Wed 8pm.

SWINDON: David King 01793 521 625davidking@enterprise.net Meets at Prince ofWales, Coped Hall Roundabout, WoottonBassett Wed 7.30pm.

TAUNTON: David Wickham 01984 623 519Meets Tues various places.

TEESSIDE: Gary Quinn 01642 384 303 (w)g.quinn@tees.ac.ukMeets at University of Teesside Wed 4pm

WEST CORNWALL: John Culmer 01326 573 167john_culmer@talk21.com Meets Flat 4, 25 Lenoweth Rd, Penzance Thurs 7.30pm

WEST WALES: Jo Hampton 01341 281 336jo@barmouthbay.freeserve.co.ukBaron Allday 01341 280 066 Llys Mynach,Llanaber Rd, Barmouth LL42 1RN

WEST SURREY: Pauline Bailey 01483 561 027pab27@compuserve.com Meets in GuildfordMon 7.30 to 10pm

WINCHESTER: Mike Cobbett 02380 266 710 (h)01962 816 770 (w) mcobbett@bigfoot.comMeets mostly at Black Boy, Wharf Hill, Bar End Wed 7pm. Check with M. Cobbett

WORCESTER & MALVERN: Edward Blockley 01905 420 908 MeetsWed 7.30pm

Steven Carr is trying to start a GoClub in the Wirral in ‘The Crown’ inConway Street, Birkenhead onTuesdays from 7.30 to 11 pm. It isright by Conway Park station. Ifthere is anybody in Merseyside, theWirral or Chester who is interested,an e-mail would be appreciated.

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June2000 26/9/00 8:48 pm Page 62

LONDON CLUBSCENTRAL LONDON: Geoff Kaniuk

020 8874 7362 Meets in Daiwa Foundation,Japan House, 13-14 Cornwall Terrace, NW1,Sat 2pm. Please press doorbell marked ‘Go’and wait 3 minutes.

NIPPON GO CLUB: K. Tanaka, 020 8693 7782Meets at Nippon Club, Samuel House, 6 StAlbans St, SW1. (near Piccadilly Circus tubestation) Fri 6 to 10.30pm. (No entry to thebuilding after 9pm) Non Japanese playerswelcome.

NORTH LONDON: Martin Smith 020 8991 5039martins@dcs.qmw.ac.uk Meets in theGregory Room, back of Parish Church,Church Row, Hampstead (near Hampsteadtube station) Tues 7.30pm.

NORTH WEST LONDON: Keith Rapley 01494 675 066 (h), 020 8562 6614 (w)Meets at Greenford Community Centre,Oldfield Lane (south of A40), GreenfordThurs 7pm.

SOUTH CENTRAL LONDON: Mark Graves 020 7639 3965 (h) 020 7888 1306 (w)mark.graves@csfb.com Meets at 7 RaulRoad, Peckham SE15 Weds 8pm

TWICKENHAM: Neil Hankey 020 8894 1066 (h)020 8954 2311 (w) Meets Sunday eveningsneil@hankeyco.demon.co.uk

WANSTEAD & EAST LONDON: Jeremy Hawdon020 8505 6547 Meets at Wanstead House, 21 The Green, Wanstead E11 Thurs 7.15pm.

YOUTH GO CLUBS

youthgolist@dcs.rhbnc.ac.ukBERKSHIRE YOUTH: Simon Goss 01344 777 963

simon@gosoft.demon.co.uk Meets at StPaul’s Church Hall, Harmanswater Mon 4pmto 7pm

BLOXHAM SCHOOL (Oxfordshire): Hugh Alexander 01295 721 043

BRAKENHALE SCHOOL: Emma Marchant 01344 481 908

CAMBRIDGE JUNIORS: Paul Smith01223 563 932 (h) 01908 844 469 (w)paul@mpaul.cix.co.uk

THE DRAGON SCHOOL (Woodstock):Jonathan Reece 01869 331 515 (h)jon.reece@zetnet.co.uk

EVELINE LOWE PRIMARY SCHOOL (SE1):Charles O’Neill-McAleenan 0207 252 0945

FITZHARRY’S SCHOOL (ABINGDON): Nick Wedd01865 247 403 (h)

HAZEL GROVE HIGH SCHOOL (STOCKPORT):John Kilmartin 01663 762 433 (h)

St Ives School (Cornwall) Ms Alex Maund01736 788 914 (h)alex@st-ives.cornwall.sch.uk

ST NINIAN’S HIGH SCHOOL, Douglas, I.O.M.Steve Watt

ST PAUL’S SCHOOL (Cambridge):Charles Matthews 01223 350 096 (h)charles@sabaki.demon.co.uk

STOWE SCHOOL (Bucks): Alex Eve 01280 812 979 alex@figleaf.demon.co.uk

WHITEHAVEN SCHOOL: Keith Hudson01946 810 573 keith.jill@lineone.net

63

Up to date information on UK Go clubsis maintained on the BGA Web Site at:www.britgo.org/clublist/clubsmap.html

Please send any corrections and all newor amended information to Nick Wedd,the BGA Webmaster. See page 60 for allBGA contact details.

June2000 26/9/00 8:48 pm Page 63

64

AJI: latent possibilities left in a position

AJI KESHI: a move which destroys one’s ownaji (and is therefore bad)

ATARI: having only one liberty left; stonesare said to be ‘in atari’ when liable tocapture on the next move

BYO YOMI: shortage of time.

DAME: a neutral point; a point of no value toeither player

DAME ZUMARI: shortage of liberties

FURIKAWARI: a trade of territory or groups

FUSEKI: the opening phase of the game

GETA: a technique that captures one or morestones in a ‘net’, leaving them with twoor more liberties but unable to escape

GOTE: losing the initiative

HANE: a move that ‘bends round’ an enemystone, leaving a cutting point behind

HASAMI: pincer attack

HOSHI: one of the nine marked points on the board

IKKEN TOBI: a one-space jump

JIGO: a drawn game

JOSEKI: a standardised sequence of moves,usually in a corner

KAKARI: a move made against a singleenemy stone in a corner

KEIMA: a knight’s move jump

KIKASHI: a move which creates aji whileforcing a submissive reply

KOMI: a points allowance given to compen-sate White for playing second

KOSUMI: a diagonal play

MIAI: two points related such that if oneplayer takes one of them, the opponentwill take the other one

MOYO: a potential territory, a framework

PONNUKI: the diamond shape left behindafter a single stone has been captured

SABAKI: a sequence that produces a light,resilient shape

SAGARI: a descent, extending towards theedge of the board

SAN REN SEI: an opening which consists ofplaying on the three hoshi points alongone side of the board

SEKI: a local stalemate between two or moregroups dependent on the same libertiesfor survival

SEMEAI: a race to capture between twoadjacent groups that cannot both live

SENTE: gaining the initiative; a move thatrequires a reply

SHICHO: a ladder

SHIMARI: a corner enclosure of two stones

SHODAN: one dan level

TENGEN: centre point of the board

TENUKI: to abandon the local position andplay elsewhere

TESUJI: a skillful and efficient move in alocal fight

TSUKE: a contact play

YOSE: the end game

GLOSSARY OF GO TERMS

June2000 26/9/00 8:48 pm Page 64

Newly AvailableMagnetic Go Set – MG05 £24.00.This is from Japan and replaces theKorean sets previously offered, whichare no longer available. The quality of the new set is muchhigher. The board is about 25cmsquare and travellers will be pleased tolearn that the set in its cardboard boxweighs about 625 g.

Price ChangesWhole Board Thinking in JosekiVols 1 and 2 – 4WB1-2 now £15.00.

Superior bowls – D1/D/L/Mnow £39.00 in dark (D), light (L) ormixed (M) colours.The SLG1 combination is now £56.00.Gostelow boards – GGBM & GGBLnow £50 and £60.00 respectively.The Katsura folding board – B102is now £26.00, due to the strength ofthe Japanese yen. Note that the A3folding board is only £18.00 andalmost as good.

No longer availableThe Endgame – G15The Power of the Starpoint – G32These are both out of stock and out of print.Glass Stones (8.5mm) – SLGThese are temporarily unavailable.A new line, Glass stones (8.0mm)– SMG is in stock at £20.00 as analternative.

Go WorldIssue 88 of Go World is now in stockand has probably been posted toregular subscribers.

Goods DirectThe BGA Bookshop, with a widerange of books, equipment and otheritems, will certainly be at theLeicester, Scottish, Northern, andMilton Keynes tournaments. A limitedrange may be available at thePortsmouth, Barmouth and Devontournaments. For details, please seethe BGA web site or contact me.

ApologiesI have had a problem with e-mailsduring April and early May but I amhoping that it will be sorted out by thetime this is published. My apologiesfor any resulting inconvenience.

Ordering informationA full price list is available on request.

All prices quoted above include thecost of postage and packing.

Please note that credit card facilitiesare not available.

Orders, accompanied by cheques madepayable to 'British Go Association',should be sent to:

R. G. Mills, 10 Vine Acre, Monmouth, Gwent NP25 3HW

Telephone: 01600 712 934

e-mail: bgabooks@btinternet.com

BGA BOOKS

~ THE BEST SOURCE OF GO BOOKS AND EQUIPMENT ~bgabooks@btinternet.com

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