Some thoughts on amateurs
Posted: Thu Aug 26, 2010 11:04 am
This is going to be a little amorphous. It's really just a case of jotting down random thoughts resulting from some stuff I was reading this afternoon.
The reason I picked up on it is that I find extremely tiresome a strain of thought that seems to be not uncommon in Europe. In hyperbolic essence this is: the Korean 7-dan amateurs are Masters of the Universe. Compared to them, Japanese 9-dans are morons. Since we have played these Korean 7-dans and have won the occasional game, we must be the bee's knees, too, and Japanese pros hold no fears for us. This is compounded by the (to me) infantile rejection of the entire body of Japanese pros just because a few Korean or Chinese pros happen to be at the top at the moment.
Naturally, I am not denying that Korean 7-dans are strong or that they can make the blood of young pros in Japan run cold, or that China and Japan are top dogs now. As I said, I am exaggerating - though not that much - but I think readers here will know what I am referring to. It is lack of a balanced perspective of the whole go scene. I hope there are others who also find it tiresome enough for me to share these thoughts.
Anyway, what brought that on was reading a report of the Amateur Meijin in Japan. Two of these Masters of the Universe contested the final of the challengers' knockout. Ha Seong-pong, a winner of the WAGC, overcame Kim Seong-chin, who is now training to be a pro in the Kansai Ki-in. But, in the final, Ha was defeated by last year's winner, a Japanese, Tsuneishi Takashi. That's not supposed to happen, is it?
Furthermore, a longish commentary on the Ha-Kim game by Kobayashi Satoru, a mere Japanese 9-dan admittedly, was headed "Pro tactics, amateur hallucinations". "Amateur hallucinations" is a slightly odd phrase to use - makes it sound like they were using the wrong kind of mushrooms. I suspect it was a polite way of saying cock-ups. Either way, the significant point is that a mere Japanese 9-dan spotted things that were not just mistakes but things characteristic of amateurs as a species. They won't like that at the lodge meetings of MoU!
Separately, a remark by the new Honinbo Dowa, Yamashita Keigo, caught my eye. He'd just finished a title match with eight hours each per game. He said that a game with decent time limits is one where you have few regrets. That seemed to imply that he believes that games with short time limits are dominated by mistakes. No surpise there, but I still found it a revealing remark. He also mentioned in passing that amateurs only remember the games they've won. That baffles him as it's the games you've lost that you should remember.
Randomly skipping on, there have been several attempts recently in Japan to improve exposure of Japanese players to Korean and Chinese influence. One example is a series of games by Rui Naiwei against Japanese go's top female pros. She's been pretty dominant but was brought up sharp by Xie Yimin. There was also a provincial city (I've forgotten which) that organised a mini festival featuring three or four Korean pros. One was Yu Ch'ang-hyeok. Top player on the Japanese side was Yamada Kimio, not quite the wave of the future I'd have thought, but still the idea's right.
In that connection, it occurs to me that the underlying strength of the Japanese go scene, namely the newspaper sponsors, is also something of a weakness. They only want to publish the games of their own events, which usually means featuring exclusively Japanese players. The result may be that the ordinary Japanese go player is only dimly aware of what is happening over the water. In addition, many Koreans learn Japanese - it's easy for them - and China can always call on hordes of superb graduates from their foreign language colleges to help with any language. Japan is still somewhat insular. Although many now speak decent English, I don't recall ever meeting one who knows Korean. Quite a few of the older generation can handle classical Chinese brilliantly but in general they are not so hot with modern Chinese. Of course, there are some Japan-based players such as O Meien who speak Chinese through being Taiwanese, but for most of Japan's players what is happening in China must be close to a total blank. There is a series of interviews with Chang Hao and Piao Wenyao in the recent issues of Gekkan Go World but the magazine is having to rely on Ko Reibun (Nie Weiping's son, and so a native Chinese speaker) to interview them.
There. Just a little something to spice up the coffee break. Nothing to take too seriously. Except perhaps the advice to remember your losses (though in my case that would mean far too much work).
The reason I picked up on it is that I find extremely tiresome a strain of thought that seems to be not uncommon in Europe. In hyperbolic essence this is: the Korean 7-dan amateurs are Masters of the Universe. Compared to them, Japanese 9-dans are morons. Since we have played these Korean 7-dans and have won the occasional game, we must be the bee's knees, too, and Japanese pros hold no fears for us. This is compounded by the (to me) infantile rejection of the entire body of Japanese pros just because a few Korean or Chinese pros happen to be at the top at the moment.
Naturally, I am not denying that Korean 7-dans are strong or that they can make the blood of young pros in Japan run cold, or that China and Japan are top dogs now. As I said, I am exaggerating - though not that much - but I think readers here will know what I am referring to. It is lack of a balanced perspective of the whole go scene. I hope there are others who also find it tiresome enough for me to share these thoughts.
Anyway, what brought that on was reading a report of the Amateur Meijin in Japan. Two of these Masters of the Universe contested the final of the challengers' knockout. Ha Seong-pong, a winner of the WAGC, overcame Kim Seong-chin, who is now training to be a pro in the Kansai Ki-in. But, in the final, Ha was defeated by last year's winner, a Japanese, Tsuneishi Takashi. That's not supposed to happen, is it?
Furthermore, a longish commentary on the Ha-Kim game by Kobayashi Satoru, a mere Japanese 9-dan admittedly, was headed "Pro tactics, amateur hallucinations". "Amateur hallucinations" is a slightly odd phrase to use - makes it sound like they were using the wrong kind of mushrooms. I suspect it was a polite way of saying cock-ups. Either way, the significant point is that a mere Japanese 9-dan spotted things that were not just mistakes but things characteristic of amateurs as a species. They won't like that at the lodge meetings of MoU!
Separately, a remark by the new Honinbo Dowa, Yamashita Keigo, caught my eye. He'd just finished a title match with eight hours each per game. He said that a game with decent time limits is one where you have few regrets. That seemed to imply that he believes that games with short time limits are dominated by mistakes. No surpise there, but I still found it a revealing remark. He also mentioned in passing that amateurs only remember the games they've won. That baffles him as it's the games you've lost that you should remember.
Randomly skipping on, there have been several attempts recently in Japan to improve exposure of Japanese players to Korean and Chinese influence. One example is a series of games by Rui Naiwei against Japanese go's top female pros. She's been pretty dominant but was brought up sharp by Xie Yimin. There was also a provincial city (I've forgotten which) that organised a mini festival featuring three or four Korean pros. One was Yu Ch'ang-hyeok. Top player on the Japanese side was Yamada Kimio, not quite the wave of the future I'd have thought, but still the idea's right.
In that connection, it occurs to me that the underlying strength of the Japanese go scene, namely the newspaper sponsors, is also something of a weakness. They only want to publish the games of their own events, which usually means featuring exclusively Japanese players. The result may be that the ordinary Japanese go player is only dimly aware of what is happening over the water. In addition, many Koreans learn Japanese - it's easy for them - and China can always call on hordes of superb graduates from their foreign language colleges to help with any language. Japan is still somewhat insular. Although many now speak decent English, I don't recall ever meeting one who knows Korean. Quite a few of the older generation can handle classical Chinese brilliantly but in general they are not so hot with modern Chinese. Of course, there are some Japan-based players such as O Meien who speak Chinese through being Taiwanese, but for most of Japan's players what is happening in China must be close to a total blank. There is a series of interviews with Chang Hao and Piao Wenyao in the recent issues of Gekkan Go World but the magazine is having to rely on Ko Reibun (Nie Weiping's son, and so a native Chinese speaker) to interview them.
There. Just a little something to spice up the coffee break. Nothing to take too seriously. Except perhaps the advice to remember your losses (though in my case that would mean far too much work).
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