Life In 19x19

Learn visualisation of positions after 1, then 2, then 3 moves.

Learn the basic theory of reading.

Practise 1 move problems, then 2 move problems etc.


(This is my answer to the Reddit thread Looking for advice to help someone who cannot read even basic easy problems at https://www.reddit.com/r/baduk/comments ... ho_cannot/ for which I got a time wait prohibition because of intending to post my 3rd message within minutes. Ugh, that is just what happens if one reads threads of the last couple of weeks and has answers for several threads. Posting here is faster than waiting for the time delay to vanish.)

Yes dear, I have put the bins out.

(This is the answer to a question my wife asked me a few days ago)

If you like to describe it this way:)

There is no way that I would waste 5 minutes of my life to wait for a forum's time permission. Wouldn't you agree that Reddit should change this anti-spam measure?

> This is not a post <

Sound advice by the way

I've always been a little puzzled by the descriptions of problems in older books as "3-move problems" or "5-move problems" or ... I think the number of moves is a property of the reader, not of the problem. What for me is a 7-move problem (I have to read 7 moves ahead to see that these stones are really alive) might be a 3-move problem for a high dan player and a 1-move problem for a professional.

xela wrote:I've always been a little puzzled by the descriptions of problems in older books as "3-move problems" or "5-move problems" or ... I think the number of moves is a property of the reader, not of the problem. What for me is a 7-move problem (I have to read 7 moves ahead to see that these stones are really alive) might be a 3-move problem for a high dan player and a 1-move problem for a professional.

Good point.

Consider killing by playing on the vital point of a rabbity six eye. That's a one move problem for most kyu players, but many moves for a rank beginner.

BTW, my advice for a beginner who has next to zero reading skills is to play the Capture Game, the no pass version, so that all games end in a capture or resignation.

Bill Spight wrote:Consider killing by playing on the vital point of a rabbity six eye. That's a one move problem for most kyu players, but many moves for a rank beginner.

In Tsumego, the task is usually to KILL (or to live), NOT to take a group of stones of the board.

This implies that a problem which has playing on the vital point of an empty rabbity six shape as correct solution, is a ONE-MOVE one.

As a matter of course, you will start this kind of ONE-MOVE problem with an empty three-points-in-a-row shape (assumed that the group in question is solidly connected).

Cassandra wrote:

Bill Spight wrote:Consider killing by playing on the vital point of a rabbity six eye. That's a one move problem for most kyu players, but many moves for a rank beginner.

In Tsumego, the task is usually to KILL (or to live), NOT to take a group of stones of the board.

That's true, but we are talking about reading, and a beginner who has trouble with it. A rank beginner has to read the capture out to see that the group is dead.

Let's say that the problem is "Black to kill in 1 move" if after Black's move, White cannot live even after playing several moves in a row.

jlt wrote:Let's say that the problem is "Black to kill in 1 move" if after Black's move, White cannot live even after playing several moves in a row.

I like your general idea, but there could be some nuances to consider when you're making the problems :-p

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$Bc
$$ --------------------
$$ | . O X . . . . . . .
$$ | 1 O X . . . . . . .
$$ | . O X . . . . . . .
$$ | O O X 0 . . . . . ,
$$ | X X X 8 . . . . . .
$$ | 2 4 6 . . . . . . .
$$ | . . . . . . . . . .[/go]

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$Bcm11
$$ --------------------
$$ | . O X 6 . . . . . .
$$ | X O X 4 . . . . . .
$$ | . O X 2 . . . . . .
$$ | O O X O . . . . . ,
$$ | X X X O . . . . . .
$$ | O O O . . . . . . .
$$ | . . . . . . . . . .[/go]

RobertJasiek wrote:If you like to describe it this way:)

There is no way that I would waste 5 minutes of my life to wait for a forum's time permission. Wouldn't you agree that Reddit should change this anti-spam measure?

Maybe. But for sure it was pointless that I wrote this message to you first on the whiteboard on my fridge.