My new book "Capturing Races 1 / Two Basic Groups" is available:

http://home.snafu.de/jasiek/Capturing_Races.html
http://home.snafu.de/jasiek/Capturing_R ... Sample.pdf
http://home.snafu.de/jasiek/Capturing_Races_1_TOC.pdf
http://home.snafu.de/jasiek/Capturing_R ... eview.html

Review by the Author

General Specification

* Title: Capturing Races 1 / Two Basic Groups
* Author: Robert Jasiek
* Publisher: Robert Jasiek
* Edition: 2011
* Language: English
* Price: EUR 28 (book) or EUR 14 (PDF file)
* Contents: capturing races
* ISBN: none
* Printing: good
* Layout: good
* Editing: good
* Pages: 272
* Size: 148mm x 210mm
* Diagrams per Page on Average: 3
* Method of Teaching: principles, classification, methods, examples
* Read when EGF: 18k - 7d
* Subjective Rank Improvement: +
* Subjective Topic Coverage: +
* Subjective Aims' Achievement: ++

Description

The book Capturing Races 1 / Two Basic Groups can be read as a textbook or used as a reference dictionary. A textbook reading is supported by introducing the terms and basic theory before applying it and by preceding every central chapter with problems and concluding it with their answers. Thereby the reader can verify whether he has understood and can apply the theory correctly. The book serves also as a dictionary because the classification of capturing races with two basic groups is complete and many chapters have overview or summary of the principles.

Most of the 272 pages carry these five chapters or groups of chapters: Terms and Basic Theory (43 pages), Class 1: Two Basic Groups, No Kos, No Approach Defects (132 pages), New Semeai Formula (7 pages), Classes 2 to 6, which are variants of Class 1 (54 pages), Correcting Mistakes in Literature (16 pages). Introduction, literature list and index round off the book. A semeai class refers to all capturing races with the same general properties.

The basic theory chapter defines all the necessary terms such as 'semeai eye', 'stable', 'strong' and 'favourite'. Only due to this very careful preparation, completeness of the case classification could be achieved and players can know in general which principles apply and which don't. Otherwise application of the same popular mistakes found in literature would continue. Now they are revealed and a weak result of earlier research is replaced by one of the book's highlights: The 'new semeai formula' expresses the elegance and power everybody desires because of being easily applicable to all the 24 cases of Class 1 semeais. Recognition of a new concept different from approach liberty and invention of the term 'fighting liberty' make this possible.

While the five basic semeai types 'no eyes', 'each side has a small eye', 'each side has a big eye of the same size', 'only one side has an eye' and 'one side has big eye and the other side has a smaller eye' are known in earlier literature, this book goes one level deeper and describes all the 93 possible cases. For a semeai class and type, every case distinguishes different conditions such as numbers of exclusive approach liberties and some of the over 200 principles state which to count to determine status and outcome. The applied illustration uses simple and clear examples to assist fast learning of the theory. Together with a meticulously carefully chosen order and structure of the types and cases and textual and tabular summaries at the chapters' ends, the reader is motivated to absorb everything and keep it in memory permanently.

The book combines refined earlier knowledge and many new discoveries and presents everything with such a great clarity that players from beginner to top level will get a good understanding of the basic capturing races. Even the author doubled his related knowledge while writing the book.

Principles don't attract you, you solve each basic semeai correctly within a few seconds and you are interested only in complicated kos? Then reading some dan player's problem collection might be a better choice. Everybody else gets the capturing races' state of the art as a solid fundament for his games.

Future Volumes

Volume 1 misses all those topics that will be studied in detail in later volumes of this Capturing Races series. Several further volumes can be expected but only later research can reveal their necessary number. The author's tentative schedule envisions these volumes:

* timing & values
* approach defects & shape defects & weak eyes
* tesujis & typical capturing races at the edge
* one ko
* two kos
* several kos
* strange kos and sekis

It is, e.g., possible though that outside and inside approach defects need to be split in two volumes or one ko on the outside, on the inside or in an eye requires more than one volume. Since the plan is an essentially complete study of all capturing races and a great advancement of Go theory, there will be as many volumes as necessary and research and writing them all can take a couple of years.

Thanks for the flexible payment option - http://home.snafu.de/jasiek/payment.html I especially like the option to get the cost of the pdf off the printed copy if bought at a later date.

The use of 'underdog' notation was used in Richard Hunters book too I think (he said he invented it).

_________________
I am John. John-I-Am.

We wouldn't have expected any less from you.

Joking aside, it seems like you have put quite a bit of thought into this volume, and if indeed "The 'new semeai formula' expresses the elegance and power everybody desires because of being easily applicable to all the 24 cases of Class 1 semeais," then (at least parts of) your book sound quite valuable. Thanks for the generous offering of sample pages.

_________________
Patience, grasshopper.

This looks interesting Robert, and the material seems suited to your style and approach.

Would you say that the approach is primarily useful when you have memorized the classifications, or will studying the definitions and concepts be helpful for students who continue to read out capturing races?

_________________
Occupy Babel!

I will reply to a comparison to Hunter's book separately because this can become a bit longer. (Please be a bit patient; I want to send some books first.)

Good terms should be used! Favourite - underdog are good terms and so I am happy to use them and thank Hunter for their invention! Likewise essential - nonessential; they are Müller's idea.

daal, exactly:)

The old semeai formula has these (and a few minor) shortcomings:
- It is not generally applicable to Class 1 semeais because, e.g., the attacker must be the side with the better eye status.
- Different attacker / defender roles require different calculations of the difference of exclusive approach liberties (i.e. two instead of one calculation might have to be done).
- Forced liberty values can differ by 1, depending on who is attacked in a "eye versus no eye" semeai.
- Müller's classes, to which he applies the old formula, are less mighty than my Class 1.

The new semeai formula does not have these shortcomings.

The old semeai formula looks like "dE - J >= 0?". The new formula looks like "dF = 0?". IMHO, this is more elegant:) The key to that is to define fighting liberties well. Forced liberties were not such a useful idea.

Memorising the classification does help but a partial application of the theory without having the whole classification in mind is also possible and useful. Then players know what to look for and count and can figure it out during their games. Just working out everything afresh without ever having read the theory is unrealistic; then reading many hopefully representative move-sequences would be faster.

Cher Robert,

Congratulations on your new book! Everyone knows of your careful and thorough work. Here's hoping for its success for both you and your readers.

_________________
The Adkins Principle:
At some point, doesn't thinking have to go on?
— Winona Adkins

Visualize whirled peas.

Everything with love. Stay safe.

Can you give an example for an approach defect? I'm not familiar with this term.

What do you mean with values? Endgame values or Analysis tools(e.g. like mobilty in Joseki/Strategy )?

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$B Corner
$$ ------------------
$$ | X . O . . X . . .
$$ | X . O O X X . . .
$$ | X . O . . X . . .
$$ | X . O O X X X X .
$$ | X . O . O O . X .
$$ | X O O O X X X X .
$$ | O O . O X . . . .
$$ | X X O X X . . . .
$$ | . X . X . . . . .
$$ | . X X X . . . . .[/go]

Simply speaking, yes. What is the value of winning a semeai? Total or per play. Count and per move value.

i am not trying to be rude but...i find it fascinating that different cultures will have different persepective of certain thing.

i know that most professionals in korea never studied capturing race.
i guess because there is nothing to study in capturing race.
it is a simple counting.

i think i can relate this to mathmaticians trying to prove everything and non-mathmaticians really dont care about the proof but use formulas to get answers.

i think i am strong enough but only capturing race i learned is a formula to count the number of moves in certain eye shape. i think that is all you need to be stronger player.

_________________
"The more we think we know about
The greater the unknown"
Words by neil peart, music by geddy lee and alex lifeson

In basic semeais, the counting is easy if you already know what to count. If you don't know it, then it is easy to misjudge. For example, counting approach liberties does not suffice. One needs to distinguish between those to count and those to ignore.

When you say that most Korean professionals never studied capturing races, then this seems very unlikely. It is possible that they didn't study it in a counting principles manner but treat them by pure reading. If so, they must have studied reading a lot. It is possible to solve all capturing races by reading - if subconsciously one does apply certain implied principles like "Any timing for same-shaped outside liberties is fine.". Without such implied principles, the number of variations grows with the faculty of the number of such intersections. Nobody (incl. top professionals) can read that fast. Therefore I cannot agree that semeais would be only simple counting. Some sort of explicitly or subconsciously known principles are required. The more good principles are known the faster the counting can become.

Hunter's book has two chapters on kos and tesujis - topics I will treat in later volumes. In case of kos, I plan to be roughly a 100 times as detailed. There are very important other topics (such as approach defects) that my later volumes will study in detail while Hunter has, if at all, just mentioned their existence. The other chapters of Hunter's books are nonessential, although partly entertaining.

Chapter 1 of Hunter's book is related to chapter 3 of mine. The other chapters of my book Hunter's doesn't have. With mainly this exception: He states the well-known table of eye approach liberties. Concerning his chapter 1 and my chapter 3, there are especially the following differences:

- Presentation: Hunter hides some important facts in ordinary text or external tables on webpages. I show all important facts clearly in bold font principles, alike summaries and tables.
- Completeness: Hunter relies on his discoveries until his while I rely on also my discoveries until my publication year. He found 15 of 24 cases (but does not explain them as cases explicitly; he speaks of one intermediate position when numbers of liberties are equal) of what I call class 1 semeais. I describe also the other 9 cases. Two of his mistakes (which occur also in his summary section) are related to his oversight of the missing cases. Of course, he must have known them; but his failure to reflect the consequence of their existence let him make the mistakes of formulating too general principles.
- Mistake: He makes another mistake that is somewhat more important. I hope I have not made such a mistake. It is so tempting as a reader of a book to believe in principles stated there. When the principle is wrong, then it is spread and can reappear also elsewhere, as I have seen for Hunter's mistakes.
- Kinds of liberties: Hunter says to redefine "liberty" but what he actually does is using liberty in two different senses: a) approach liberty, b) fighting liberty. This makes it hard for the reader. I invent the term fighting liberty and apply it everywhere explicitly. Thereby the reader can follow the contents more easily, the conditions of a case can refer to both kinds of liberties when necessary and the new semeai formula becomes possible.
- Principles: I have some more. (Plus many more in other chapters.)
- Terms: Hunter presumes terms (such as "stable eye"). I define them and explain the definitions before I apply them.
- Semeai types of my class 1: I unify Hunter types 1, 1A and 2 because this allows a much better comparison with my types 2 and 3 and because it is unclear why seki - non-seki types should be distinguished for no-eye-semeais but not for other semeais. Hunter's type numbers are ordered in a slightly eccentric manner while my type numbers are ordered very carefully to ease learning of theory and principles. To be fair, Hunter's type numbering has an advantage for those semeais with kos he studied: His types 1 and 1A behave differently when there is a ko. IMO though, there are so many ko cases that a good case structure for semeais with kos requires (my) later research.

In summary, those topics I already discuss in volume 1 are complete, correct, studied in greater to much greater detail and presented clearly, new semeai formula and semeai classes 2 to 6 are only in my book while Hunter offers an introductory discussion of a few other topics not found in my volume 1.

We could put Magicwand and Robert to a test: display some sufficiently tricky semeai and see how long they take to find the answer. Of course it might be unfair, since perhaps only Robert knows the examples that suit his theory.

There is a famous case where Go Seigen and his opponent both misread a semeai because they relied on a formula for the number of liberties in an eye.

_________________
Occupy Babel!

This one?

viewtopic.php?f=15&t=3798

Formulas need to rely on assumptions or conditions when they may be applied!

Here is a semeai composed by Prof. Nakamura Teigo.

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$c Semeai
$$ ---------------------------------------
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . , . . . . . , . . . . . , . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . O O O O O O . . . . |
$$ | . . . . O O O O O O . O . . O . . . . |
$$ | . . . . O . . O X O . X X X O . . . . |
$$ | . . . . O X . X X O X . . . O . . . . |
$$ | . . . . O . . O X O X O O O O . . . . |
$$ | . . . , O O O O X X X O . . . , . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . X O O O X . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . X . O . X . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . X . O . X . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . X . O . X . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . X X . X X . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . , . . . . X X X . . . . , . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ ---------------------------------------[/go]

_________________
The Adkins Principle:
At some point, doesn't thinking have to go on?
— Winona Adkins

Visualize whirled peas.

Everything with love. Stay safe.

I read the first couple of moves, then counted liberties. I'm prepared to be embarrassed...

_________________
Occupy Babel!

Teigo's research paper on CGT for approach games seems very useful (in theory) but also advanced. I will have to read it again later to understand his cooling by 2 and usage of infinitesemals.

From the title, this is one of those books I would expect to not want to buy.
Other similar titles might be "Monkey Jump Workshop" or "Mathematical Go: Chilling Gets the Last Point" I had a quick look at a sample page, and felt confident, after a few seconds reading, that my instinct was correct. This is not to say that the work in question is utter tosh, but rather, it's just not for me. All I want to know about capturing races can be written on a single page.

_________________
North Lecale

There are big differences between Monkey Jump Workshop (I think no maths or is there a bit of endgame calculation in it?), Capturing Races 1 (the most difficult maths is forming a difference and comparing it with 0; every book on the endgame has more difficult maths) and Mathematical Go Endgames (advanced mathematics from the POV of a non-mathematician), except that they all are books on specialised topics, quite like a joseki dictionary or a book about endgame. For Monkey Jump Workshop, you are too strong but getting monkeys right is necessary for progress from 11k to 8k. No player needs the book Mathematical Go Endgames because it is about proving maths of 1 points endgames and rules. Interesting for theorists.

Robert's example is quite interesting. Correct play and evaluation depends upon the ko threat situation.



Edit: Added a variation.

_________________
The Adkins Principle:
At some point, doesn't thinking have to go on?
— Winona Adkins

Visualize whirled peas.

Everything with love. Stay safe.