Life In 19x19

Last week saw the birth of a new tournament that will make the numbers guys squirm with delight.

It is the Tong Yang World Strongest Cities League for eight teams of five young pros. The teams play a match a month, 14 rounds (playing each other twice).

It's mostly Korean cities but Tokyo was drawn against Hangzhou in Round 1. The Tokyo team includes Ueno Asami and did reasonably well, going down by just 15.5 points.

The event is an international extension of the activities of the Korean study group called the 笑笑会　which may have been inspired by You're my world" Cilla Black, for whom the Beatles wrote many songs. Her real surname was White, which is perfect for go, of course, but the clinching argument has to be her catchphrase: "Lorra, lorra laughs" which happens to be the name of the study group.

But, Hey Dude, they have come up with a new twist. The tournament involves a lorra, lorra points because the rules use mego. The team scores for each match are the total point scores in all 5 games. Mego is usually equated to gambling and has traditionally been frowned on by pros. You will recall Cho Hun-hyeon got kicked out of Segoe's house for giving into pressure from another pro to play for gambling money. But it seems several players looked at it during the pandemic lockdown as they tried to find new ways to interest fans online. Now the taboo has been broken on an international scale we may see more of it. It's not even (quite) a Mickey Mouse event. It's 210 minutes plus 5x40 seconds, which makes it more a Michael Mouse event (but still not a Mr Mouse or Sir Michael event, of course). Or maybe, in Sir Paul's 80th year, it's a Michelle Mouse event - sont des nombres qui vont très bien ensemble, as he almost wrote.

For those like me who didn't know about mego:

Betting on a game of Go (in Japan): Me-Go (目碁) is where the money you win or lose is dependent on the territory difference at the end of the game.

Thanks for the news, John. New tournaments are always a good thing.

I can imagine a situation where four games decided by a point or two are blown away by a single resignation on the final board. You have commented about the philosophical difference of the Japanese compared to the Korean style of play. The Japanese arbitrage philosophy of taking what's on offer and deferring the game decision point to the endgame may not be particularly helpful in this kind of event, where score matters more than the simple win.

In many respects the difference mirrors duplicate bridge played on team scoring or on matchpoints. In matchpoint play the goal is simply to do better than the rest of the field. Being 10 points better or 100 makes no difference, and it's important not to bid too aggressively. In teams events, however, the absolute score matters and risks are much more necessary. A winning strategy in one form of play is a sure loss on the other.

Regardless, I'll be watching the event with interest.

This score vs. result... somehow, it changes the style too much.

You have to be used to play for points. Regardless of style, Koreans are a lot more used than Japanese to this.

Typically, if you are 2 points behind, you may go for a wild attack because you need it to catch up. The safe move just isn't going to bring a win home. But wait, if we are talking about points... Just play the slow move, accept a small loss for the team, and sell your soul in the process

Would Ueno Asami refrain from a chance to a big kill?