Life In 19x19

Hi Tami,

You're welcome to see also this discussion, starting at Post 53 .

Very early e.g. shoulder hits appear in professional games, like this.

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Another early shoulder hit on 3rd diagram here:

http://www.lifein19x19.com/forum/viewto ... 97#p162997

To everybody who replied to my question from yesterday - many thanks indeed.

I am humbled by the time and effort that Ed, especially, must have put into his response. It's time to go back to school and try to find out what basics have slipped through my net of understanding.

I am also quite taken by Uberdude's remark about distinguishing sente and gote.

I shall think about what you have all said and report back.

Very early e.g. shoulder hits appear in professional games, like this.

I am curious which game this is, since White had played 9 stones to Black's 8 But the point is well made, and I think the answer to Tami's dilemma lies therein.

More specifically, I think her problem is in making phrases of the type: "The shoulder hit is premature". It's a common problem. It's to do with mixing strategy and tactics.

"Premature" is an evaluation word, implying judgement - strategy. "Shoulder hit" (or "cap" etc) is a word describing a local tactic.

Although an expert can get away with mixing the two, an amateur is better not doing so. An amateur should be careful to say unmixed things like "the shoulder hit is a forcing move" or "the erasure is premature". That clarifies thinking. So much so, that it can even change thinking. If we assume the example position above was correct and re-cast the shoulder hit there more accurately as a "probe", we would be very unlikely ever to label it "premature", and the thinking behind a response to it would go along very different lines.

This problem applies outside go. I saw an example recently at a taiji class. The teacher was showing a self-defence application for a move that was part of a well-practised standard form. Essentially, it was to have an attacker with a dagger stabbing down at someone, who was meant to respond by stepping aside, taking the dagger arm and pressing it, and the assailant, down to the ground. After the demonstration the teacher asked the pupils to pair off and practise. All went well in all the pairs except one where the defending woman was heard to lament "he's hitting me with the wrong hand!" She'd come up against a left-handed assailant.

The teacher then stepped in and demonstrated the same move but stepping to the left instead of the right. This prompted several pupils to point out that the move in the standard form appears only one side of the body, so they hadn't practised it. The teacher's response to that was "Exactly!" I gather most of the class only practise once a week in the actual class, whereas the teacher practises every day and does the form also in mirror-image and backwards (but not in high heels!).

But what really exasperated the teacher was the inability of the pupils to distinguish tactics and strategy. They knew the "joseki" for "he raises his right hand, I do this" but not the joseki for "he raises his left hand". They thought of the situation purely in terms of tactics. The teacher point out that instead they had to think in terms of "he is attacking me" (strategy). If the strategic evaluation of that was "I don't know the tactic of how to deal with that", the correct tactical response can be triggered automatically: "step back and take guard again". Not every response has to be a killer move. However, as the teacher pointed out, there were subtle advantages even in just stepping back (as opposed to freezing or running away). The assailant is likely to be disconcerted by the fact you know how to move and don't run away. Hesitation = bad shape. And you are now a step further away. He may be caught by surprise and continue forwards off balance, in which case you have another chance to apply a "killer move" (which would, incidentally, probably be something like: push him hard while he's off balance and then run away).

Until and unless you build up a large armoury of tactical weapons, your best bet is to stick to strategy. Actually, I think that's how most of us old timers play go anyway - it avoids the need for hard thought. Doesn't always work on the board but it makes it easier to sleep at night!

John Fairbairn wrote:

Very early e.g. shoulder hits appear in professional games, like this.

But what really exasperated the teacher was the inability of the pupils to distinguish tactics and strategy. They knew the "joseki" for "he raises his right hand, I do this" but not the joseki for "he raises his left hand". They thought of the situation purely in terms of tactics. The teacher point out that instead they had to think in terms of "he is attacking me" (strategy). If the strategic evaluation of that was "I don't know the tactic of how to deal with that", the correct tactical response can be triggered automatically: "step back and take guard again". Not every response has to be a killer move. However, as the teacher pointed out, there were subtle advantages even in just stepping back (as opposed to freezing or running away). The assailant is likely to be disconcerted by the fact you know how to move and don't run away. Hesitation = bad shape. And you are now a step further away. He may be caught by surprise and continue forwards off balance, in which case you have another chance to apply a "killer move" (which would, incidentally, probably be something like: push him hard while he's off balance and then run away).

Until and unless you build up a large armoury of tactical weapons, your best bet is to stick to strategy. Actually, I think that's how most of us old timers play go anyway - it avoids the need for hard thought. Doesn't always work on the board but it makes it easier to sleep at night!

Indeed, this has been a recurrent problem for me in its go from (providing that I understood your meaning correctly). I have tended to try too hard to "punish" what I perceived as premature or unreasonable moves. I should not try so hard - just being able to play a simple but good enough move in 90% of these scenarios will probably give better returns than managing a killer move in 10%.

I think, from now on, it will be better if I can brace myself to start publishing my defeats to see what they can show us.