Life In 19x19

As a change from the now usual (well-deserved) focus on women's go in Japan, a couple of achievements by the men. And not just that - men of a "certain age".

Cho U has just (November 2020) notched up his 1,000th career win, making him the 28th player to reach this target in Japan. His full career score is 1,000 wins, 452 losses, 2 jigos and 1 void game, or 68.9%.

Kanazawa Hideo meanwhile has just won the 3rd SGW Cup. This is a league for players aged 31-60. What is special about this victory is that Kanazawa attributed it to study with AI. Study for him means playing a bot on the Yugen no Ma server, and his score so far this year is 0-280. But that masks a significant improvement, because he has found he can now stay level with the bot for around 40 moves.

Kanazawa is a disciple of Kobayashi Koichi and Kobayashi has joined the chorus of top pros expressing their admiration for the content of the games played by the top women. He had looked in on Game 3 of the Women's Honinbo. Ueno Asami won that game to go 2-1 up, but Fujisawa has just pulled back to 2-2 in the best-of-five final.

One of the most notable ways men and women have come together in go in recent years is pair go. The Chairman of the Japan Pair Go Association (which also organises the World Pair Go Championship) is 80-year-old Taki Hisao. He has received several awards for his go philanthropy, but this year was a significant step up because he received a national award. He has been designated by the government one the 2020 Persons of Cultural Merit. For this he gets a state pension and a visit to the Imperial Palace. His award (on Culture Day - 3 November) was marked by a three-stone game with Takao Shinji, which he won. He may have appreciated that the most - go is his hobby and he's an amateur 8-dan.

John Fairbairn wrote:Cho U has just (November 2020) notched up his 1,000th career win, making him the 28th player to reach this target in Japan. His full career score is 1,000 wins, 452 losses, 2 jigos and 1 void game, or 68.9%.

Good. I'll have to see if I can find those three oddballs. Pure curiosity.

Kanazawa Hideo meanwhile has just won the 3rd SGW Cup. [...] attributed it to study with AI. [...] he has found he can now stay level with the bot for around 40 moves.

I frankly don't know the player. Checking the latest game of his I could find, 4th round of the SGW, I didn't find as much of what I don't[/ì] like of modern go in his game. The stones have much more "breathing air". And while there is an insistence on local corner fights that seem to spill over, they seem much more wide reaching than what I've been seeing. My AI analysis habilities are limited, now, but I'd love to see how often do his moves coincide with those of an AI, and how much does his rate drop when he doesn't follow them. I suspect he's finding a way to deal with AI styles much more in keeping with the Japanese tradition, and I wonder how much of that is the assumed time limit on his training.

Just wondering aloud, I guess.

On Taki Hisao wrote:His award (on Culture Day - 3 November) was marked by a three-stone game with Takao Shinji, which he won. He may have appreciated that the most - go is his hobby and he's an amateur 8-dan.

Is there a chance to get that SGF? I couldn't find it, and there aren't those many handicap games with level and intent.

Take care. Thanks for the news.

John Fairbairn wrote:Study for him means playing a bot on the Yugen no Ma server, and his score so far this year is 0-280.

Wow, that is a special kind of dedication which I admire. I have played a few games against the AI, but I find it incredibly demoralizing to see your position slowly deteriorate hopelessly while the bot only plays incredibly straightforward-looking moves. It's not that you get into a big fight and lose it, usually I just lose without even having been able to set up any kind of fight at all.

Playing 280 games like that, presumably also seriously, is something I find hard to imagine. Must take a lot of discipline!