There is a nice interview of John Fairbairn by Keith Arnold (HKA) on the AGA website:

https://usgo.org/content.aspx?page_id=2 ... pst=23218#

(They are probably both too modest to mention it themselves.)

If I could ask a non-go related question to John Fairbairn: According to your profile on Amazon, your hometown is Newcastle (or Newcastle upon Tyne), which is in the north of England, near the Scottish border. But the photo shows you wearing a hat with what seems to be a tartan design. Does Newcastle have its own tartan tradition, or is this more a design that you happened to personally like? (Or perhaps you consider yourself more Scottish than English?) Sorry if this sounds, well, uninformed. But I was wondering if there was an abrupt change in customs as one crosses the Scottish-English border, or if instead the people on both sides had some traditions in common.

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And the go-fever which is more real than many doctors’ diseases, waked and raged...
- Rudyard Kipling, "The Light That Failed" (1891)

That's a very enjoyable read. Certainly didn't suspect that John was a fan of Scots dancing, but I suppose it does explain certain things.

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North Lecale

Things have changed in many ways since I was a lad, largely through television (we didn't get it until I was about 13). Prior to TV, local languages/dialects and customs were strong all over the UK. I'm sure it was the same all over the world. Texas German was one such language that fascinated me, and I was delighted recently to hear that Kyushu TV in Japan has gone back to doing interviews in the local dialect, impenetrable to Tokyo-ites, who can at least cope with Osaka-ben.

One special feature of where I lived was that we regarded the border between Scotland and England as Hadrian's Wall, not the Tweed, and so our language and customs were entirely Scottish. One benefit of that in my eyes was that I had a Scottish education, or GBH as it is known down South. I was surprised last night, when starting to read the autobiography of Craig Ferguson - a very likeable tv chatshow host in LA who relinquished much of his Scottishness by becoming an American citizen. Part of the reason was that he didn't want his children to have a Scottish education as he did. Strange man.

My mother tongue was (is!) Scots with a Northumbrian accent. In other words I sounded just like Rabbie Burns. It was Burns Day yesterday, and even down here in London there are Burns Suppers galore. I've limited myself to three (including one tonight). At one, I had to give the Toast to the Lassies. In my speech I referred to a typical Sunday scene at home on a dreich winter's day. I quoted my mother shouting at me, chuntering at the window because I wanted to go out and play football. "Ye canna gan oot, it's stotting doon." Then she would soften and say, "Come ower here and coorie doon wi me. Aam nithered." So I would go over and snuggle in to warm her up - kids were the only central heating we had in those days.

My family is from Scotland, specifically the part that is now called the Borders (i.e. both sides of the Tweed). We didn't use that term when I was young, partly because we assumed the Wall was the border, but also because we used the term only in the sense of the Borders people, i.e. the rich landowners, who now simply lead the Barbour-wearing set but then were more concerned with huntin', shootin' and fishin'. They didn't care whether they shot pheasants or peasants like me. Accordingly I have a family tartan, the Armstrong tartan. But the area also has its own tartan (one that Rabble Burns used), a black-and-white check. I wore that on Burns Night. It has various names such as the Falkirk tartan and the Borders tartan, but Burns called it the shepherd's tartan and nowadays the commonest name seems to be the Northumbrian tartan. But it is also famous as the Newcastle united tartan. The daughter of a certain American go player was a Newcastle United fan, and of captain Nicky Butt in particular. She was proud to wear a black-and-white shirt with his name on it. But American schoolteachers were not quite ready for that, a butt there being what we call the hurdies.

Incidentally, Scots offers fertile possibilities for go terms. One sentence I used recently was to described the need to wear "Nicky Tams to keep the stoor oot yer een." Asked to explain it, I told the interlocutor that literally you had to wear makeshift garters to keep the dust out of your eyes, but metaphorically there are other layers. The garters (bits of string really) in question are worn round the knees to keep the rats from climbing up your legs and the ferrets from escaping down them. So, if you were well protected, you could keep a clear eye on what is really important. It occurred to me, when looking at a Chinese game commentary shortly afterwards where boundary-play strategy, was being emphasised, that this phrase was good advice in go. Too many westerners focus far too much on counting with boundary plays. It is much more useful to focus instead, as implied in Japanese "thick" and Chinese shou, simply on keeping the rats out and keeping the ferrets in as regards your territory. And keeping the dust out of your eyes is also a good way to keep the focus on the whole game rather than an extra third of a point here or there.

As to the hat, it's a Tam o' Shanter. The bit on the top is a toorie - the top of a hardy thistle, not a poncey pom-pom. There's much more to these hats than it may seem. They are wool and so are warm and waterproof (and cheap!). Best of all, in even the strongest winds they just flop over to the other side and don't fly off. I tested mine in gale conditions on the cliffs over the Giant's Causeway in Ireland.

In short, autres temps, autres moeurs.

Prolific writers: quantity or quality?

Go wisdom: I do not have an opinion yet because I have not seen any such book appendix yet. The first such book at €85 was too expensive to read just out of curiosity, later such books have not been suitable for my study and have not been shown at go book sales at tournaments I attended. (The latter is probably not the author's fault.)

John's rank: Some time he stated 3d several times and that tactical reading was his weak point, which he sells as a strong point in his books as omission and chance for effort by the readers. In the interview, a different level of rank is painted for imagination and a bit taken back but 5d or 6d tags stick easily if not put in order more clearly.

By far too few amateurs in all parts of the world focus by far too little on counting with boundary plays. This is a central reason why amateurs stay below professional strength. Many professional players from Japan, China or Korea (not Taiwan though, they are often too weak) have told me personally or audiences at lectures to emphasise a) counting and b) tactical reading as the by far most important means of becoming stronger. Even Saijo Masataka 9p, whose explanations usually tended to be on the metaphorical side, made it very clear that counting boundary plays is very important even for early joseki follow-ups.



This is useful advice except, of course, for the "much more useful". It is advice to be applied. It is, however, learned very easily compared to learning the counting well. Therefore, very much more study must focus on the difficult to acquire.



Pulling this fraction PR trick misleads people for these reasons:
- Counting-related decisions are not always about a fraction of a point but often about a few points per move.
- Even an average of a fraction of a point lost per move becomes a huge amount throughout the most part of the game when boundary plays are (also) available.
- Amateurs, and in particular kyus, lose tremendous amounts of points in bad local or global boundary play.

Good grief - it's bad enough having to search for advice on "How to have a midge free vacation in Scotland" before travelling.

It's stuff like this that makes encourages me to take a second crack at learning Japanese. It can't be nearly as difficult.