Suggestion for Group Study - Golden Opportunities

emeraldemon · #1

The discussion of O Meien's book didn't go as far as hoped, but I like the idea of getting together in the forum and studying a particular book over time. One of my favorite go books is "Golden Opportunities" by Rin Kaiho. The stories make it a fun book to read, but the problems themselves I've always found quite challenging, many are over my head. Since John Fairbairn was translator, he might perhaps be willing to lead the discussion, or at least make sure we stay on the right side of copyright violation :mrgreen:

What do y'all think?

imabuddha · #2

Good choice of books. :study:

kirkmc · #3

I've got a copy of that (old, and the binding is falling apart...), and I'd be willing to join in the fun.

Chew Terr · #4

Emerald: Would you mind explaining a little of what you like about Golden Opportunities? It's a book I've always seen online but never really stood out in my mind... Wouldn't mind an excuse to try a new book, if your reasons sound appealing to me.

emeraldemon · #5

From the introduction:

Quote:

Go is a drawn-out game. Opportunities to create some sort of ascendancy appear scores of times, and even opportunities significant enough to determine the outcome of the game are sure to occur several times in a single game.

The basic theme of the book is that we should train to recognize these Golden Opportunities. The book has 2 parts. The first part discusses types of tesuji and thinking that help bring about opportunities. The second part alternates between stories and problems, and I think that's the most interesting. Each problem refers back to the story, and I think it helps the problems and ideas stick in my mind.

For example, there's a short explaination about the Louisiana purchase, and how Jefferson siezed an opportunity to get lots of virgin land. Then there's this:

Click Here To Show Diagram Code: [go]$$Bcm1 Black to play $$ --------------------------------------- $$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . | $$ | . . . . . . . O . . . . . . . . . . . | $$ | . . . . X . . . . O . . . . . . . . . | $$ | . . O , X O O X X X X . . . . X . . . | $$ | . . . . X . . O O X . . . . . . . . . | $$ | . . . O X . . . O O X . . . . . . . . | $$ | . . . O X . . . . . 1 . . . . . . . . | $$ | . . . O X . X . X O . . . . . . . . . | $$ | . . . O . . . . 2 . . . . . . . . . . | $$ | . . . , . . . . . , . . . . . , . . . | $$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . | $$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . | $$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . | $$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . | $$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . | $$ | . . . X . . . . . , . . . . . X . . . | $$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . | $$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . | $$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . | $$ ---------------------------------------[/go]

Rin Kaiho goes into great depth explaining the situation, 13 diagrams. A huge fight runs across the board, and in the end black sacrifices a 9-stone group in exchange for a massive wall. In the end he says:

Quote:

Perhaps there are people who are thinking, "How can you be sure of winning by giving up such a large group to white?" but this can be thought of as the payment of $15,000,000 America made for the purchase of Louisiana. If anything, the compensation of nine stones is perhaps on the small side!

That's the basic format: a story (most are about Japanese history or literature), followed by in-depth analysis of a problem or position that in some way relates to the story. I think the stories make the study more enjoyable, and the idea is something I certainly need to work on. Many of the problems are amateur games, where he shows the "obvious" amateur play, then the opportunity they missed. Looking at them I know I would also have missed most of these opportunities.

Like I said, it's one of my favorite books, so of course I think you should read it :tmbup:

. The problems themselves are tough, I often fail to find the solution even on my second or third time reading the book. In some ways it's less about reading practice and more about getting the right attitude.

emeraldemon · #6

I got a little bit of positive feedback about this, so I'm going to go ahead and try it out. The first chapter is about tesuji, which John Fairbairn translates as "finesse". I'm going to post an excerpt from the text, some problems, and then my questions, so that hopefully we can get some study discussion going.

Rin Kaiho wrote:

The sort of skill needed to see [tesuji] is generally thought to result from differences in reading ability, but in fact this is not so. It is something quite separate.
It is the kind of sensitivity known as intuition, and not just pros but even many amateurs have acquired such skill. The point is, anybody can do it with due diligence. And it does not require as much effort as is normally thought.
So how do we learn to grasp the vital points and vantage points intuitively?
For that it is necessary to encounter such shapes as much as possible. Omitting the reason why this is the vital point and so on, one simply learns by heart the fact that in such and such a shape it is the vital point.
When I say learn by heart, I mean nothing more onerous than looking repeatedly at diagrams until the answer appears instantaneously. It is by no means a difficult thing to do.
...
At any rate, go is the sort of game where we can say that learning from shapes is the fastest way to improve. In that sense then, this book will offer problems that, above all, develop your intuition.
...
Problem 1: There is only one vital point to rescue the five black stones. Once you have discovered it, the solution comes out easily.

Click Here To Show Diagram Code: [go]$$B Problem 1 $$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . $$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . $$ | . . . O . . O . X . . . . $$ | . . . O . . . . . . . . . $$ | . . . O X . . . X , . . . $$ | . O O B O O . . . . O . . $$ | . O B B B . . . O . . . . $$ | . B . . . . . . . . . . . $$ --------------------------[/go]

Ok, my questions for the group:
1) The implication of this problem is that there's a particular vital point for each, and if you know it the problem is easy. So how many people knew the tesuji? If your first guess wasn't correct, what was your first guess?

2) Basically Rin Kaiho suggests that the fastest way to improve is to memorize solutions, without necessarily reading them each time, just to learn vital points. Do you agree? It actually seems quite different from the "never look at the answer" school of tsumego.

After this are 4 more "intuition problems", of the sort that are supposed to be easy if your intuition is good. I'll add those after a few people respond to this :tmbup:

amnal · #7

emeraldemon wrote:

I got a little bit of positive feedback about this, so I'm going to go ahead and try it out. The first chapter is about tesuji, which John Fairbairn translates as "finesse". I'm going to post an excerpt from the text, some problems, and then my questions, so that hopefully we can get some study discussion going.

Rin Kaiho wrote:

The sort of skill needed to see [tesuji] is generally thought to result from differences in reading ability, but in fact this is not so. It is something quite separate.
It is the kind of sensitivity known as intuition, and not just pros but even many amateurs have acquired such skill. The point is, anybody can do it with due diligence. And it does not require as much effort as is normally thought.
So how do we learn to grasp the vital points and vantage points intuitively?
For that it is necessary to encounter such shapes as much as possible. Omitting the reason why this is the vital point and so on, one simply learns by heart the fact that in such and such a shape it is the vital point.
When I say learn by heart, I mean nothing more onerous than looking repeatedly at diagrams until the answer appears instantaneously. It is by no means a difficult thing to do.
...
At any rate, go is the sort of game where we can say that learning from shapes is the fastest way to improve. In that sense then, this book will offer problems that, above all, develop your intuition.
...
Problem 1: There is only one vital point to rescue the five black stones. Once you have discovered it, the solution comes out easily.

Click Here To Show Diagram Code: [go]$$B Problem 1 $$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . $$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . $$ | . . . O . . O . X . . . . $$ | . . . O . . . . . . . . . $$ | . . . O X . . . X , . . . $$ | . O O B O O . . . . O . . $$ | . O B B B . . . O . . . . $$ | . B . . . . . . . . . . . $$ --------------------------[/go]

Ok, my questions for the group:
1) The implication of this problem is that there's a particular vital point for each, and if you know it the problem is easy. So how many people knew the tesuji? If your first guess wasn't correct, what was your first guess?

2) Basically Rin Kaiho suggests that the fastest way to improve is to memorize solutions, without necessarily reading them each time, just to learn vital points. Do you agree? It actually seems quite different from the "never look at the answer" school of tsumego.

After this are 4 more "intuition problems", of the sort that are supposed to be easy if your intuition is good. I'll add those after a few people respond to this :tmbup:

Dusk Eagle · #8

Quote:

The implication of this problem is that there's a particular vital point for each, and if you know it the problem is easy. So how many people knew the tesuji? If your first guess wasn't correct, what was your first guess?

Assuming I'm right (and I'm pretty sure I am), I saw the solution instantly. I then spent a bit of time to verify it.

Quote:

Basically Rin Kaiho suggests that the fastest way to improve is to memorize solutions, without necessarily reading them each time, just to learn vital points. Do you agree? It actually seems quite different from the "never look at the answer" school of tsumego.

I think there is value in seeing the same tesuji over and over. I had to see the nose tesuji several times before I started to look for it myself.

I still think there is value in doing tsumego. Especially if I've thought about the question for a long time, I find the answer sticks a lot better. I personally do not agree that you should "never look at the answer", but I try to ensure that I am not looking at the answer as a cop-out for reading. To ensure this, if I can't solve a tsumego after a lot of effort, I'll leave it and come back to it later. If even after repeated viewings I can't solve it, then I'll look at the answer.

Solomon · #9

Golden Opportunities is the only Go book I've read multiple times, it's just that good - for both improvement and entertainment value. Definitely a good choice.

Mnemonic · **#10**

Quote:

1) The implication of this problem is that there's a particular vital point for each, and if you know it the problem is easy. So how many people knew the tesuji? If your first guess wasn't correct, what was your first guess?

Quote:

2) Basically Rin Kaiho suggests that the fastest way to improve is to memorize solutions, without necessarily reading them each time, just to learn vital points. Do you agree? It actually seems quite different from the "never look at the answer" school of tsumego.

I think vital points are important but I don't agree with memorizing them. IMO beginners should do a lot of problems where the answer is the vital point until they have internalized it and then start doing similar problems where the answer isn’t always the vital point. That way they first learn to recognize the vital point but to always back up their first instinct with reading.

emeraldemon · **#11**

Ok, it seems people mostly knew the first tesuji, but how will you do on these? By the way, Rin Kaiho calls the last tesuji "tweaking the goblin's nose", which I like. I will say problem B gave me a lot of trouble the first time I saw it. After these four is the first longer example. I guess maybe these are to give you a gauge of the kind of intuition you need. All four are black to play.

Click Here To Show Diagram Code: [go]$$B Problem A $$ | . . . . . . . . $$ | . . . . . . . . $$ | . O O . . X . . $$ | . . . O . . . . $$ | . X X O . X . . $$ | . . . . O X . . $$ | . . . . . X . . $$ ----------------[/go]

Click Here To Show Diagram Code: [go]$$B Problem B $$ | . . . . . . . . $$ | . . . . . . . . $$ | . X X . . . . . $$ | . O X X . . . . $$ | . O O X . X . . $$ | . . . O X . . . $$ | . . O . . . . . $$ ----------------[/go]

Click Here To Show Diagram Code: [go]$$B Problem C $$ | . . . . . . . . $$ | . . X X X . . . $$ | . O X O O O . . $$ | . X O X X O . . $$ | . X O . X O . . $$ | . X O . X O . . $$ | . . . . . . . . $$ ----------------[/go]

Click Here To Show Diagram Code: [go]$$B Problem D $$ | . O . . . . . . $$ | . . . . . . . . $$ | . . . O O . . . $$ | . X X X O . . . $$ | . X O O X . X . $$ | . O . O X . . . $$ | . . . O . . . . $$ ----------------[/go]

emerus · **#12**

Dusk Eagle · **#13**

emeraldemon · **#14**

I should have specified, B and D are both ko.

emeraldemon · **#15**

emerus & Dusk Eagle have the answers right, if you're curious you can look in the hide tags. I wanted to talk briefly about B, because I found it the trickiest when I first looked at the book:

Tune in soon for some exciting stuff about order of moves!

Dusk Eagle · **#16**

A lot of the time the shape in B will be reached by starting in the position below and then white exchanges 'a' for 'b'. But this is a mistake. As you can see, white is alive here, while after the 'a'-'b' exchange white's group will become ko unless white wastes his sente to fix it.

Click Here To Show Diagram Code: [go]$$B Don't play 'a' as white. $$ | . . . . . . . . $$ | . . X . . . . . $$ | . b . . . . . . $$ | . a X X . . . . $$ | . O O X . X . . $$ | . . . O X . . . $$ | . . O . . . . . $$ ----------------[/go]

ndkrempel · **#17**

emeraldemon · **#18**

Thanks ndkrempel, it actually says that in the book, but I forgot to write it

Ok, next problem is about order of moves, with some text. I don't want to quote too much, but the basic idea is that you need intuition to find the vital points, but then you need to read to find the correct order of moves. "The reason is that intuition is in the end no more than that, and it is not enough to be sure of the best move. Even if locally it is a vital point, there will be times when overall it is not suitable."

And then we have a nice order-of-moves problem. This one to me seems a step up in difficulty from the simple tesuji problems before, but it's still doable.

Click Here To Show Diagram Code: [go]$$B Black to play $$ | . . . , . . . . . , . $$ | . . . . . . . . . . . $$ | . . X X X X O O . . . $$ | . X . . O . X . . . . $$ | . X O . . . O O . . . $$ | X O . O . O B . O . . $$ | X O O O . . B . . , . $$ | X X X X O O B . O . . $$ | . O O O B B B . O . . $$ | . . . . O O O O . . . $$ ----------------------[/go]

To me it seems like the basic reading process has 4 parts:
1) pick move to try
2) visualize move on the board
3) evaluate
4) either add another move, or backtrack

Intuition is most important for step 1. I think 2 is mostly just practice. I know sometimes when I'm reading a long sequence I'll lose track of the visualized stones, or make a more subtle mistake like miss an atari or snapback because I can't "see" as clearly as I can with real stones. 3 is mostly straightforward in L&D, although knowing certain shapes are dead or alive without reading can greatly speed up the process. As for 4, I think it's a question of discipline: you have to resist the temptation to read a few moves in, think "looks interesting", and play it without taking the time to find out whether it really works. Actually I think most of my mistakes in reading come from overzealous pruning; I don't consider a critical response because it looks "obviously bad".

I think almost all reading mistakes are a case of either:
1) I decide I know the solution, but I didn't consider a move (overlooking the answer)
2) I can't read deep/broad enough, and give up (underlooking?)

Anyways, that's my thoughts on reading and intuition, what do you fine readers think?

mitsun · **#19**

I think a better description of the reading process, from what the book has said so far, might be:

In the example problem, it is easy to see the vital points, and I think many of us would instinctively play the 1-2-3 punch below, only to realize (too late) that it does not quite work. The point is to be disciplined enough to read this out before playing, so you have a chance to make a small correction and find a variation which does work.

Click Here To Show Diagram Code: [go]$$B First instinct? $$ | . . . . . . . . . . . $$ | . . X X X X O O . . . $$ | . X . . O . X . . . . $$ | . X O . . 3 O O . . . $$ | X O . O . O X . O . . $$ | X O O O 1 2 X . . , . $$ | X X X X O O X . O . . $$ | . O O O X X X . O . . $$ | . . . . O O O O . . . $$ ----------------------[/go]

Here is another problem along the same lines. It is not too difficult to figure out the eye stealing tesuji, once you know it exists (although in an actual game you might simply think W is alive). But after that it takes a lot of reading to find the complete solution. Hint -- there is only one correct sequence, not two.

Click Here To Show Diagram Code: [go]$$B Black to kill $$ | . . . . . . . . . $$ | . . . . . . . . . $$ | . X X X X X X . . $$ | . X . . . O X . . $$ | O O O . O O X . . $$ | . . . . . O X . . $$ ------------------[/go]

topazg · **#20**

Suggestion for Group Study - Golden Opportunities

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