A Series Of Questions

[OtakuViking]

1. I have no white/black preference.
2. Not a particular opening like the chinese or kobayashi, but I like to open up with a fast fuseki to try and get the lead. I like a mix of territory and influence when opening up, so usually 1 hoshi and 1 komoku (facing hoshi). Then I can approach and play kobayashi or chinese.
3. I think my favoring a mix of territory and influence comes from studying shusaku's games in invincible.
4. Japanese
5. Furikawari, it means exchange. One of the things I like to do to get a lead if my opponent is overly aggressive.
6. I think I have a slight preference for complex games, but I try not to go overboard and end up in a ridiculous semeai spanning the whole board (for example).
7. Yes.
8. Japan. I love the country and would like to live there some day.
9. Yeah, probably. But computer games are a close second. (Their position may vary depending on my mood).
10. I never had a teacher. I improved by playing games and doing tsumego and it worked really well for me. I improved quite fast.
11. I feel that it's more fun to try and improve than to stand still and stagnate. Even if it's by a tiny fraction of a stone, I would like to become stronger. It's fun!
12. Yeah a bit. It made me think about what kind of games I'm most comfortable with.

[Bill Spight]

Sabaki. Like lots of Japanese terms, I like how it sounds, but I still haven't figured out what it means.

I think you are one of a multitude, and I pin the blame on the word 'light', which has spread obscurity.

Out of "light", darkness.

Western players seem to have latched onto the idea of sabaki meaning a 'making a light shape' but that is a red herring.

Not so sure that it is such a red herring. Certainly heavy play is not sabaki.

Otake Hideo says this (after saying sabaki is the prime skill for playing fast go):

Sabaki is written in characters as 捌き. It is the noun form of sabaku but, being a technical term, in recent times it has usually been written in katakana.

The verb sabaku means basically 'to settle something skilfully' or 'to resolve something that is in disorder'. In go, too, therefore, the interpretation is similarly 'to handle groups skilfully when they are in a close fight'.

Well put.

Note that there is no direct reference in these definitions to 'light' or 'sacrifice'.

No, but when it comes down to it, sabaki typically requires lightness and a willingness to sacrifice.

But most go players do sense a technical aspect to the word, so the question is: what are they sensing?

The first step is to recognise when you are in a situation where one of your groups is in danger: and either it is in the thick of things, or it is stranded somewhere and about to be gobbled up. The second step is to decide whether to do something about it. That is, to decide to 'cope' (my recommendation for the word that should first come to mind in English). Since you are, by definition, in a position of some discomfiture, you can easily reason that this coping needs a modicum of skill.

I can see cope, but that makes me think of shinogi. Handle or manage seems to me to have more of a connotation of skillfulness.

What is to be noted in {Otake's} list is that 'light' and 'sacrifice' play very minor roles, and note also the absence of 'contact plays'. Many weaker players think that making sabaki starts with a contact play. In fact the contact play may be the very play that causes problems in the first place.

Well, there is the proverb connecting sabaki with contact plays: 捌き(サバキ)はツケにあり (Sabaki wa tsuke ni ari)

[Bantari]

hailthorn011,
5. Pro move. I've accepted that in my lifetime I'll never understand its full meaning.

Do you think pros do?

[Bantari]

5. What is your favorite Go term and what does it mean?

Sabaki. Like lots of Japanese terms, I like how it sounds, but I still haven't figured out what it means.

Heh... I forgot about Sabaki. I like it too - it is plural for Sabaka - which means 'dog' in russian.
So internally I always think of 'Sabaki' as 'making a puppy'.

[tj86430]

1. Do you prefer playing black or white. And why?
2. Do you have a favorite opening as black?
3. How did you learn your favorite opening?
4. What is your favorite language for Go?
5. What is your favorite Go term and what does it mean?
6. Do you prefer complex games or simple games?
7. Do you feel tsumego is critical to improving?
8. If you could become a professional in any country(the ones offering pro certification), which one would you choose and why?
9. Is Go your favorite hobby?
10. As a DDK, who helped your game improve the most if you can remember?
11. Is the journey more important than the end or the start? Basically, do you feel there is more value in gaining strength than simply having it?
12. Do you feel answering these questions helped you learn more about yourself and others? Explain.

1. Black, I'm usually receiving handicap
2. Yes, sanrensei
3. I used to get even larger handicap
4. Finnish and English
5. No favorite
6. I think I'm not very good at fighting, so I prefer quieter (=simpler) games
7. Sadly, yes.
8. I have no such illusion
9. No
10. I was a DDK in the 80's (I had 25 yr hiatus), so I really don't remember
11. There's value in knowing (at least to certain extent) how to play this game. I'm not (anymore) interested in either gaining or having strength.
12. No (for explanation see my answers)

[aokun]

> 1. Do you prefer playing black or white. And why?

I much prefer black ... for why, see question 2.

> 2. Do you have a favorite opening as black?

Mini-Chinese if they let me, variants of it if they don't. Most everything that comes from it down at my level (1d) isn't terribly uncomfortable, and if white messes up I know some of what to do about it.

>3. How did you learn your favorite opening?

Out of a book at some point, but I've read about it in a bunch of books and asked about it in lessons and played it a lot.

>4. What is your favorite language for Go?

Not sure what this means, but reasonable answers include Korean, Japanese, Italian and English. I don't know Korean and Japanese, I hasten to add.

>5. What is your favorite Go term and what does it mean?

Tenuki. Forget about it and play elsewhere. Going to make it the name of my yacht.

>6. Do you prefer complex games or simple games?

Begging some questions. I like them both. I like games with simple rules but deep strategies, like go and poker. And I like games with complicated rules and environments but shallow strategies, like Empire Total War.

>7. Do you feel tsumego is critical to improving?

No. I feel that tsumego _are_ critical to improving.

Sorry, couldn't resist. The answer is yes.

>8. If you could become a professional in any country(the ones offering pro certification), which one would you choose and why?

If I found I were strong enough to become a professional in any country, I would get myself a really good cup of coffee, a pillow, and "Invincible" and go out on my front porch. I'd sit there on the wood bench, read for a while trying to see if now I could tell what was going on, where I couldn't before, then I'd smile up at the sky for a few minutes and fall into a nap.

I honestly don't know which country I'd prefer. There are things about all of them.

>9. Is Go your favorite hobby?

Yes.

>10. As a DDK, who helped your game improve the most if you can remember?

Well, when Joe Cepiel was teaching me early on, he asked me early and often if I knew who was ahead. Got me into the habit of counting and if you have a good head for counting, it's a big step up. Other than that, James Davies, through the book Life and Death.

>11. Is the journey more important than the end or the start? Basically, do you feel there is more value in gaining strength than simply having it?

Gaining strength, having strength and playing hard are three different joys of the game. I value them all, to the degree I've truly had any.

>12. Do you feel answering these questions helped you learn more about yourself and others? Explain.

I'm not sure.

[oren]

> 1. Do you prefer playing black or white. And why?
Black. It's nice to have more control of opening.

> 2. Do you have a favorite opening as black?
Small mini Chinese.

> 3. How did you learn your favorite opening?
Watched professional players use it. First Cho U and then Lee Sedol and Gu Li.

> 4. What is your favorite language for Go?
Japanese. Many books and good literature.

> 5. What is your favorite Go term and what does it mean?
Shobute. A move to attempt to turn around the game.

> 6. Do you prefer complex games or simple games?
Complex

> 7. Do you feel tsumego is critical to improving?
Yes

> 8. If you could become a professional in any country(the ones offering pro certification), which one would you choose and why?
Probably US, but then Japan since I'm most familiar with it.

> 9. Is Go your favorite hobby?
Yes

> 10. As a DDK, who helped your game improve the most if you can remember?
I don't really remember being DDK. I think I just played games to get down to SDK.

> 11. Is the journey more important than the end or the start? Basically, do you feel there is more value in gaining strength than simply having it?
No, I think it's just important to have fun and enjoy the games. Gaining strength or having strength is just a side to it.

> 12. Do you feel answering these questions helped you learn more about yourself and others? Explain.[/quote]
Not really.

[Unusedname]

- the hazama jump

I had to look this one up. But I really like this one. Elephant jump.
I forget where I saw it to attack with. I think Shape Up when he was talking about pivot points.

As far as I understand it, it is very easy to cut through so you want to have good supporting stones.

But it's very strong because if your opponent tries to cut through it deprives him of eye shape.

[Uberdude]

- the hazama jump

I had to look this one up. But I really like this one. Elephant jump.
I forget where I saw it to attack with. I think Shape Up when he was talking about pivot points.

As far as I understand it, it is very easy to cut through so you want to have good supporting stones.

But it's very strong because if your opponent tries to cut through it deprives him of eye shape.

He's a rather amusing game in which neither player wants to cut/connect through the elephant jump (it's bad shape as you get kosumis with the vital eye points to the side already taken, the "[sl=CompromisedDiagonal]compromised diagonal[/sl]") and they make lots of them as capping/dodging moves (move 52 onwards). I imagine they were played with a smile .

http://igokisen.web.fc2.com/kr/54ks2-1.sgf

[oren]

Great game and commentary. I remember watching this online and laughing at the time they played it.

http://gogameguru.com/baduk-tv-videos/b ... episode-4/

[EdLee]

Do you think pros do?

Interesting question. Maybe for some local situations that have been analyzed to death, they probably do.
Then again, even after a few hundred years, certain "only" or "forbidden" moves were changed.
I seem to remember some story about a top pro being asked how many stones away from "perfect play,"
and the answer was... something like 6 ? Or was it 3 ? Philosophical question.
And then you have the one Fujisawa move where he spent almost 3 hours (and he killed Kato's group) --
afterwards, he still he said he was not 100% sure about the kill, but that he read as far as he could,
and he thought the odds were good, so he decided to play it.

[Tim C Koppang]

I'll play!

1. Honestly, I'll take either color. If pressed, I'd say that I prefer white even though I'm usually black. I associate strength with white.

2. Favorite opening? No, not really. I haven't been playing long enough to have a favorite.

3. n/a

4. Favorite language? Weird question. I only speak English, but like most Americans, I learned Japanese Go terminology. So Japanese I suppose.

5. Tenuki - to play elsewhere. One of the most important lessons I can think of is to have whole board awareness. It's easy to get caught up in local play when there is a larger move elsewhere on the board. Plus, "tenuki" sounds fun!

6. I suppose I prefer complex games.

7. Tsumego have certainly been important for me. It's like drilling to make sure my mind thinks about the game in the correct way.

8. I'm not interested in becoming a pro, but I'd choose the United States or Japan. The U.S. because there is more room to make a mark. Japan because it's more prestigious.

9. No, but boardgaming in general is definitely one of my favorite hobbies.

10. I'm still in the double digits, so I'm not sure if this question applies to me. However, I would say that my opponents have helped me to improve the most -- especially if they were better than me.

11. Of course the journey is important. If Go is a philosophy, then it teaches patience and humility. Simply having strength is impressive, but not nearly as rewarding as striving.

12. Yes, I've learned something. The questions helped me to focus my thoughts. Thanks!

[otenki]

Fun stuff, I'll give it a try

1. Do you prefer playing black or white. And why?
- I used to prefer playing black but now I like white more. The reason is that black usualy forgets about the lovely 6.5 points. So handy

2. Do you have a favorite opening as black?
- It has varied over time. First I liked Orthodox, then san-ren-sei, now I'm more teritorial with double 3-4(oldschool) or double 5-3.

3. How did you learn your favorite opening?
- Well initialy most of them from batt's lectures. Later from korean fuseki book.

4. What is your favorite language for Go?
- Doesn't really matter but if I have to choose... Chinese, Weiqi!

5. What is your favorite Go term and what does it mean?
- Sacrifice !!! (with a slight chinese undertone) This has become a joke in our go club whenever we loose a bunch of stones or a big dragon

6. Do you prefer complex games or simple games?
- Complex, if I'm not in byo-yomi.

7. Do you feel tsumego is critical to improving?
- GO is tsumego... otherwise you are playing it wrong. so yes

8. If you could become a professional in any country(the ones offering pro certification), which one would you choose and why?
- Europe; but I know I cannot get to that level.

9. Is Go your favorite hobby?
- Yes

10. As a DDK, who helped your game improve the most if you can remember?
- The sandbaggers in the 18k tygem ranks, thank you btw... I love you guys
The funny thing is that I still cannot beat some tygem 18k sandbaggers... 18k is the strongest rank on tygem for sure

11. Is the journey more important than the end or the start? Basically, do you feel there is more value in gaining strength than simply having it?
- The journey is the only thing that matters. Having a strength, what does that mean. There is always more to learn.
Howhever should I ever get to a level that I do not want to improve anymore, then I think I will look back with envy on the time when I was learning.

12. Do you feel answering these questions helped you learn more about yourself and others? Explain
- Not really. Funny though.

[Worthless]

1. I prefer playing Black. My opening is horrendous, but playing as Black gives me the illusion that I am dictating how the opening plays out.

2. Double hoshi.

3. My favourite opening is the most straightforward one there is; I do not feel like I learnt it from anywhere. I do not know what to do in the opening and so I try to keep it as simple as possible.

4. English.

5. "Miai". This is perhaps in contradiction to #4, but I do not know of a decent one-word English translation of the term. The sound of the word appeals to me, and the idea behind it more so.

6. Complex games. Much like my opening, my counting ability is awful. Peaceful games tend to be close, and so my counting does me no favours. Complex games may be close as well, but in my case, they often lead to mass destruction by one side or the other, after which the winner is usually obvious.

7. Is tsumego critical to improving? Yes. It is not the only facet of improvement, but it is an important one.

8. Japan. From what I know, making a living as a non-elite professional Go player is easiest to accomplish in Japan.

9. At the moment, Go is my only hobby . I am planning to add one additional activity to my hobby list; any suggestions?

10. As a DDK, I spent most of my time on KGS in the Sabaki Go Club room. I met many players there, stronger or otherwise, who I would frequently play against. Both the room and club are now gone, I believe.

11. Short answer: yes.

The long answer is that I do not see any conceivable way I could say the journey is less or even as important as the destination.

For the sake of comparison, I would like to describe my mindset as a student. Before I attended university, I would frequently flip through undergraduate textbooks, staring at all the strange symbols and the super cool terms (like 'differential equations'!) and hope that I would eventually understand them. I thought to myself at the time, "If I can just gain an adequate understanding of this someday, I'll be happy." Well, someday has come and gone, but adequate is never adequate. I still do the same, except now I flip through graduate textbooks. It is the same with Go: when I started playing, I thought I would be happy with 1-dan level strength. I am now 1-dan according to some ranking systems, but I want to be even stronger.

That is not to say that I can never be happy when it comes to Go, of course. If you will allow me to be sappy for a moment, the joy comes from the journey. The joy was in that that eureka moment when I finally understood snapbacks. The joy was in solving that stupid problem I banged my head against for over an hour. The joy was in finding that game-winning endgame tesuji that the 2-dan giving me 9 handicaps missed. Whenever that something – anything – clicks in my head, and I want to go tell my parents, my friends and my neighbour's cat about my great discovery, that is when I remember why I play Go.

12. No.

[SmoothOper]

1. Do you prefer playing black or white. And why?

White, I like having the komi for san san openings

2. Do you have a favorite opening as black?

I play san san as black and white.

3. How did you learn your favorite opening?

Go Seigen's sixteen soldiers game and Cho Chikun's 3-3 strategy book, but also now many professional games.

4. What is your favorite language for Go?

If I could I would learn Go in Chinese, my wife is Chinese, but there aren't many resources so most of my go terms are Japanese.

5. What is your favorite Go term and what does it mean?

Sente, having the initiative.

6. Do you prefer complex games or simple games?

I prefer complex low scoring games.

7. Do you feel tsumego is critical to improving?

Tsumego isn't sufficient for improving.

8. If you could become a professional in any country(the ones offering pro certification), which one would you choose and why?

Not really interested in being a pro.

9. Is Go your favorite hobby?

Yes.

10. As a DDK, who helped your game improve the most if you can remember?

This older gentleman that took me under his wing, and played even openings with me to work out Fuseki, and pointed out problems in my games, before he destroyed my stones, while drinking pitcher after pitcher of beer, and quoting entertaining Japanese terms and proverbs and talking about his go program.

11. Is the journey more important than the end or the start? Basically, do you feel there is more value in gaining strength than simply having it?

No, I feel that the rigid handicap Go social structure prevents me from playing the games I want to play, and overcoming that by getting stronger so I don't need handicaps doesn't really matter, when it comes to playing the games I want to play.

12. Do you feel answering these questions helped you learn more about yourself and others? Explain.

Yes, it was interesting to see how many had traveled to Asia and learned Asian languages, in conjunction to playing Go.