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Newsgroups: rec.games.go From: yychen@watdragon.uwaterloo.ca (Youyi Chen) Subject: Mysteries of Weiqi ------- The King's Golden Rules Message-ID: <C0Cosu.688@watdragon.uwaterloo.ca> Organization: University of Waterloo Date: Mon, 4 Jan 1993 22:22:06 GMT Lines: 1739

For those who requested through email, here goes the whole thing. I guess it will be on ftp.u.washington.edu (or electronic-go-magazine?) eventually.

Thank you very much for your support.

Youyi Chen

==================================================================== Mysteries of Weiqi

------- The King's Golden Rules ====================================================================

Introduction:

This is a collection of articles that I posted on newsgroup rec.games.go. Part 1 to Part 10 are about Chinese legend Ji Xin Wang's ten golden rules of Go. Ji Xin Wang's last name *Wang* means King in English. So, we may call it King's Golden Rules.

Part 0 is an article in response to Bill Taylor's Sake bottle problem. Which should perhaps be the prologue to my series. Part 11, in the middle, is about ancient and modern ranking system.

Articles are organized in mailbox format. But why? Aha, you figure it out :-)

If you find any typos or mistakes (technical or writting), please inform me at yychen@watdragon.uwaterloo.ca or ychen at IGS, thank you very much in advance.

Youyi Chen

Table of Contents:

1) The Mysteries of Weiqi (part 0) [was Re: Sake bottle shape.] 2) The Mysteries of Weiqi (part 1) [was Re: New proverbs] 3) The Mysteries of Weiqi (part 2) [was: The Mysteries of go] 4) Re: The Mysteries of Weiqi (part 2) 5) The Mysteries of Weiqi (part 3) 6) The Mysteries of Weiqi (part 4) 7) Re: Change my strength? 8) The Mysteries of Weiqi (part 11) ---- On ranking system 9) The Mysteries of Weiqi (part 5) 10) The Mysteries of Weiqi (part 6) 11) The Mysteries of Weiqi (part 7) 12) The Mysteries of Weiqi (part 8) 13) The Mysteries of Weiqi (part 9) 14) The Mysteries of Weiqi (part 10)

================================================================== !!! Dedication !!!

I would like to dedicate this series to the old IGS at New Mexico and new IGS at Berkeley. It was IGS brought back what I had lost for years ----- Go and friends. This series is also for my Go and Bridge buddies: khuang, Lin Po, xgc, gan, lilu, dong, lzy (lyu), .... who I knew back in the University of Science of Technology of China (Hefei, 1978-1983) and in Academy of Science of China (Beijin, 83-86). ==================================================================

From ychen Tue Oct 20 13:11:06 EDT 1992 Newsgroups: rec.games.go From: yychen@watdragon.uwaterloo.ca (Youyi Chen) Subject: The Mysteries of Weiqi (part 0) [was Re: Sake bottle shape.]

In article <BwEDDx.503@cantua.canterbury.ac.nz>, wft@math.canterbury.ac.nz (Bill Taylor) writes: |> I made this enquiry some time ago, but no one managed a response. |> Perhaps someone present now will know. |> |> The question concerns the so-called "SAKE BOTTLE" shape. |> This shape is mentioned in a proverb (available from washington) which says |> "The sake bottle shape is negative." |> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |> My earlier enquiry led to the information that this shape is what is |> (I think) sometimes also called the "dog's head":- . O . . . |> . . . O . |> (there is a similar shape "horse's head"; one wider) . O . . . |> |> What puzzles me is why is this shape called "negative", in the proverb ? |> Surely it appears over and over again in both pro and amateur games. |> One can hardly avoid it, indeed! It seems a bit harsh to call it 'negative' |> when it seems to be so indispensable. |> |> Hope someone can explain this to me. |>

Following is my $0.02.

First, common sense, although many "negative" shapes appear again and again in both amateur and pro games, it does not suggest that some "negative" should be classified as "positive", neither does it suggests that those moves to form "negative" shape are all bad moves. In the contrast, given a particular situation in the surrounding area, a move forming a bad shape may turn out to be a good move. As my fellow lzy once kibitzed on igs: the most beautiful moves are those that work. (no wonder I saw so many bad shapes in his games :) ).

Now, let's look at this shape closely. 3 stones are marked as A, B, C accordingly.

A . O . . . . . . O . C . O . . . B

It is believed that A-B without C, A-C without B, and B-C without A are efficient formation of stones. However, given A-B pair, *generally*, C should be placed at one more step to the right. It still keep the connection to A-B, and appears to be moving faster to the right (usually gain the influence of the middle at the board). Therefore C in the following is more efficient.

A . O . . . . . . . O C . O . . . B

Also, given B and C, A can be placed one more step up as follow. Again, it keeps the perfect connection and gain the middle influence (suppose up is the direction to the middle) in a faster way (or you can say it runs away in a faster manner).

A . . O . . . . . . . . . . O . C . O . . . B

A "negative" shape should be realized as an inefficient formation of stones. Therefore, one should avoid it whenever it's *possible*. BUT, an inefficient formation may turns out to be the most efficient one if, given a particular situation, it's the only one that works.

>> From: wangs@sol.engr.umbc.edu (Shawe-Shiuan Wang) writes: >> I am a 4 dan player. I don't know the answer either. >> However, I asked a 6dan player the same question about one year ago. >> He 'guessed' this shape is too solid for safely extension and/or too tight >> for making an 'eye'. I would like to know any other reason. >> Jeffrey Wang

When it comes to make eyes, often time, one needs not to worry about the shape. Those moves that makes 2 solid eyes are usually good moves. In terms of efficiency, it is *usually* considered to be VERY INEFFICIENT if one is FORCED to make eyes in a Fuseki.

Youyi Chen

From ychen Fri Oct 23 17:21:45 EDT 1992 Newsgroups: rec.games.go From: yychen@watdragon.uwaterloo.ca (Youyi Chen) Subject: The Mysteries of Weiqi (part 1) [was Re: New proverbs]

> From: wft@math.canterbury.ac.nz (Bill Taylor) writes: > Touching on the matter of new proverbs; one of the books from which the > archive proverbs are taken, mentions a new Russian proverb, that says... > > "With less than 15 stones in danger, tenuki." > >Meaning,seemingly, that one can probably gain more with a sente move elsewhere, > than a gote move to save 14 stones. Well, like all proverbs, one must take it > with a pinch of salt; there will be *many* exceptions. Still, it is doubtless > a good precept to keep in mind as a possibility.

I am sorry to say that this proverb is WRONG. It is simply plain WRONG. It is not a problem of whether there are too many exceptions. My understanding is that it is ALWAYS WRONG to justify a tenuki according to the number of stones one leaves behind.

Speaking of the tenuki (or discarding stones), in Chinese, I believe one should *at first* make his/her judgement according to whether these stones are "Qi Jin" or "Fei Zi". o Qi Jin = important stones. (very rough translation) too often time Qi Jings are very few stones. The number can go down to 1 or 2. I believe that it takes almost a professional level to fully understand the meaning of "Qi Jing". One usually cannot afford to let Qi Jing being taken by his/her opponent. o Fei Zi = useless stones. obviously, these are the stones that you can afford to give away. The number of stones in this case can go beyond 15.

Secondly, talking about the proverbs, I am not sure if everybody here knows that the most famous proverbs are the so called "Wei Qi Shi Jue" (meaning 10 proverbs of go. WeiQi=Go, Shi=Ten, and more exact translation of Jue3 may be "secret of success" or "key to success") It was written during Tang Dynasty (1,300 years ago) by Ji Xin Wang who is one of those believed to be 13 dan professional in fighting skill by modern measure of the strength (well, no flame on this point please if you disagree. The Chinese go history states that the legend Wang's master is an angel, to be more exact, two angels. Aha, now you agree he had to be 13P). Back to our topic, in Wang's number 4 (jue) secret to success, the legend wrote:

"Qi Zi Zheng Xian"

Qi = discard, Zi= stone, Zheng = fight for, Xian = lead (=sente in Japanese to English spelling). Like all the rest of nine secrets, the legend left us this key to success without further explanation (most of Wang's books had vanished in the history). Perhaps this is one of the reason why someone comes up with a number 15 as a criterion :) .

There are two modern versions of interesting explanations. One comes from Chinese Guo family, one of Guo's family member used to say "let it being taken, once you discard them all, you win". It gives us an impression that you can surrender as many stones on the board as you want. (I want it??? who really want to be taken anyway :-) ). Guo's saying is believed to be popular among some Chinese professional players. It reminds us that we should always think about discarding stones when we are forced into a sad (?) situation.

Another version is from Otake Hideo, in which he wrote (!!Warning!! I read the Chinese translation so the following is Japanese to Chinese to English) "with global board in mind, discard residual stones, get the important point on the board". I am actually having difficulty in understanding the word "residual" here. The legend told us that we can discard "Zi" (stone), he didn't say that we should ONLY give away the residual stones. There are situations that an early mistake will force us to give away some important stones in order to gain the Xian (the control, or the lead on the board) or to minimize the lose. Keep in mind that, however, if there are words translated from Chinese to Japanese then back to Chinese again, something strange is almost bounded to happen.

To sum them up, my understanding of when to tenuki is that it *should not* be determined solely by the number of the stones involved. It should be measured by if the tradeoff you get from it is compatible to the lose (common sense), or if it is worth to let some of your buddies go (regardless of how many of them) in order to get the control of the board, influence gained, lead, Xian, sente, or whatever it is.

How much a Xian or a sente worth in terms of exact number of stones is a rather difficult issue. As a VERY ROUGH guideline, Sakata Eio, Fujisawa Hideyuki et. al. once quoted in their book by saying that the first stone worth about 5 pts, and the second stone worth 10 pts in PROFESSIONAL's handicap games (later in the same book they went on saying that handicap stones worth about 12pts each in average). However, I am afraid that no one dare to give an estimate of an applicable upper bound for how much pts a sente worth in the middle of the games.

Youyi Chen yychen@watdragon.uwaterloo.ca

From ychen Mon Oct 26 15:43:11 EST 1992 Newsgroups: rec.games.go From: yychen@watdragon.uwaterloo.ca (Youyi Chen) Subject: The Mysteries of Weiqi (part 2) [was: The Mysteries of go]

==================================================================== !!! WARNING !!! To *some* amateur dan players, this article may be long, boring and offensive. To some beginners, professional players, and go programmers, the following may be interesting. Don't say I didn't warn you in the first place. ==================================================================== In my early posting I mentioned Chinese legend Ji Xin Wang's number 4 secret of success in playing go. I feel that his number 5 is as interesting as his number 4. So, here it goes

"She Xiao Jiu Da",

the legend wrote.

She3 = give up or abandon; Xiao3 = small; Jiu4 = save or rescue; Da4 = big.

===================================================================== !!!!! Dangerous !!!!! You still have a chance to hit 'N' NOW. It is not uncommon that misunderstanding or improper practice of the following theory (or Kung Fu, in Chinese term) weaken one's strength by several stones on the board. =====================================================================

I strongly believe that go is nothing more than reflection of simple things in real life and stones placed on the board mirrors a player's understanding of the world. "Giving up small to save big ones" doesn't appear to be a surprising secret at all. It really doesn't take a legend to point out this simple fact to us. However, apply this very fact to a go game, an even simpler (?) thing comes up ------ how to distinguish small and big. Ability to distinguish between small and big differs vastly among amateur players. What a shame! But, don't worry, Read what follows.

"What's the most important thing to distance a top world class player from the rest of the professional players ?" when asked in a national televised live interview, Nie, the biggest name in China, replied without any hesitation: "the understanding of go". I guess such kind of "understanding" includes the understanding (note: NOT CALCULATING) of "small" and "big". With his own experience quite different from those great Japanese players, Nie, after the culture revolution (a long period in China *almost* without go, not to mention without IGS, what a painful period) knows in his heart that what is really hard to catch up is actually something appeared to be rather simple in the first place.

Isn't it true that we should always save a group with 10 stones and give up a group with 2 stones? No! we answer. But why? that group with only 2 stones has huge potential! We justify. How much is that kind of potential worth in terms of reall stuff -- stones or points? 23pts, 31.5 pts, 32.75 pts, with different style, different understanding of go, you get different answers (ouch! but wait and see).

What if we ask some professional 9 dans about how many points a thickness pattern is worth. Can we get a formula that we can apply to those games on IGS? NO, I believe so. The true is that they don't have any formula at all. A professional player measures the worth of thickness according to his own style, his opponent's style(!), the formation and balance of all the stones on a whole board, the list goes on and on .... However, there are rules perhaps most of them agree on (Amazing, how can they agree on something that they don't even sure what it represents early on). For example, the value of thickness reduced dramatically as a game approach the end which suggests that one should care more for "influence" or "thickness" in very early stage of the games, less as the game develops.

May be I have gone too far in trying to explain something that isn't that complicate. If you really think so, you are more than welcome to hit 'N' NOW. For those who have not been bored to death yet, the adventure goes on......

At this point, I begin to feel that some of you may be wondering if I am really talking about the game "go". Doesn't it sound just like the Chinese medicine, martial arts, .... those ridiculous Kung Fu that many think hard to explain and measure in scientific (?) terms. Ever play a bridge game lately? a typical western game, forget about all those psychological tricks, every single card we play has scientific meaning following to the table. And, best of all, it is explainable (it takes time, maybe) in terms of probability. We can argue if it is logically or mathematically correct. How about biddings in a bridge game? Well, we have all kinds of bidding systems to follow, thanks to Charles H. Goren who invented the point counting system (did he invent it? wasn't Ely Gulbertson's early version in his "Gold Book" simpler? Well, at least, Goren is believed to be the one who standardized and popularized the modern point counting system) which makes bidding so easy to learn (and to argue sometime).

Wouldn't it be wonderful if we can have things equivalent to Ace=4pts, King=3pts, Qeen=2pts, Jack=1pts on our go board? No one really knows if there will be such kind of formulas for go in the future. But, will you be surprised if I say that the point counting system is only much useful for those who don't know the real art of bridge games? Will you be surprised to hear big name like Hugh W. Kelsey claims that more than 90 per cent of slams in the bridge games shouldn't be reached by using things like Blackwood convention? Will you be surprised if Kelsey went on saying that bridge games will be more interesting and perhaps with less mistakes, if amateur players forget (they don't know how to use them well anyway) all those fancy conventions in bidding?

After all, bridge or go, is like all the common things going on around us, different people come up with different philosophy.

I am sorry to those go beginner who may have hard time understanding what I was talking about here. Let me show you a simple example. (If there is any dan player who follows me to this point, please skip the following.) The great Japanese player Otake Hideo once commented on the following board. Say, it is black's time to play on upper side.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . # . . . . . . . . . . . . . O . . O O # . . . . . # . # . . . . . . . # . # . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . # . . . Board 1 . . O . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . # . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . O . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Two point comes to our mind: A and B, but which is bigger.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . # . . . . . . . . . . . A . O . B O O # . . Board 2 . . . # . # . . . . . . . # . # . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . # . . .

Hideo suggests that black should choose A not B. He said that "B is big, but A is even bigger". Note, when talking to amateur player, Hideo didn't try to explain in detail about how many points A and B are worth in terms of real numbers, should he?!!!!!? Isn't it mathematician's job? (btw, I had B.S. in Math, M.A. and Ph.D. in Statistics). Hideo said the board should develop to Board 3 as follow:

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . # . . . . . . . . . . . # . O . . O O # . . Board 3 . . . # . # . . . . . . . # . # . . . . . . . . . . . . # . O . . . # . . .

Hideo went on saying that if black choose B the picture will be:

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . # . . . . . . . . . O . . . O . # O O # . . Board 4 . . . # . # . . . . . . . # . # . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . # . . .

Now, isn't it clear that A is much bigger than B? But, can we always have pictures (again!, it's pictures, NOT points!) like Board 3 and Board 4 in our mind when we are facing situations *like* Board 1? Let's all hope we do.

Youyi Chen

From ychen Mon Oct 27 12:23:15 EST 1992 Newsgroups: rec.games.go From: yychen@watdragon.uwaterloo.ca (Youyi Chen) Subject: Re: The Mysteries of Weiqi (part 2)

> From: jlzhong@vision.csl.uiuc.edu (Jialin Zhong) >Too bad, I have read the whole article :). From my understanding of "She Xiao >Jiu Da",it should not be translated into "give up small to save or rescue big". >If that was the case, then this proverb is too plain. I think "Jiu" is best >understood as "look for, or go to". For example, if you have two groups

Good point, Jialin.

Not to mention from traditional Chinese to English, how many people have the guts to translate traditional Chinese into modern plain Chinese? Jialin :) (To make long story short for those non Chinese speaking reader, modern Chinese is closer to English in a sense that *if* both of them need 100 words to describe something, then traditional Chinese writting needs only 10.)

Now, is "Jiu" = "save or rescue" as I said, or "Jiu" = "look for, or go to" as Jialin said? According to "Famous go games from ancient to modern time" (Chinese), by Ti Sheng Guo et. al. 1985, 1st ed, Page 3, line 4, the character Jiu *should* be translated as "save or rescue". According to "Japanese Wei Qi" (translated from Japanese to Chinese), 1985, volume 1, page 47 , line -2, the character Jiu can be translated as "look for, or go to".

In case some of *Chinese* get confused here (English speaking readers must have lost anyway :-) ), Look for two totally different characters of Jiu4 in "Modern Chinese Dictionary" (by Chinese social science academy, 1983) page 607 and 608.

I do believe that Jialin's version is a better one, although I couldn't find anything in my hand other than those two I just mentioned. (Now you believe what I said in my "Re: proverbs" posting --- "if something translated from Chinese to Japanese then back to Chinese again....." :-) )

Youyi Chen

From ychen Wed Oct 28 18:35:50 EST 1992 Newsgroups: rec.games.go From: yychen@watdragon.uwaterloo.ca (Youyi Chen) Subject: The Mysteries of Weiqi (part 3)

================================================================= !!! WARNING !!! There is no guarantee that this column "The Mysteries of Weiqi" will be kept alive without volunteers' help or someone taking over me in the future. ================================================================= The number 9 golden rule is:

"Bi Qiang Zi Bao"

Bi3 = the other (your opponent) Qiang2 = strong or powerful. Zi4 = oneself (you) Bao3 = safeguard or protect.

Again, I leave the translation of the whole sentence to everybody. Thank to all the people who have made suggestions about translations in my early posting. More are welcome, let's hope we can find a perfect translation in the future. ====================================================================== !!! DANGEROUS !!! Don't try it at home.

"Bi Qiang Zi Bao" is a basic strategy for political struggle and child fighting.

------- Otake Hideo 9p, "Wei Qi in Japan" ======================================================================

Everybody knows what to do when he is facing strong guys like Arnold Schwarzenegger (Well, perhaps, actually, nothing one can do in that situation :-)) ). So, this is not about what you should do when you (1kyu) are facing someone stronger (6d). To understand this proverb, we should first look into the real meaning behind the word "strong" on a go board.

"I have a better understanding of the thickness after all these years", that's what one of my old friends (one of the 7ds on igs) told me when we first met in six years. Actually, on a go board, nothing represents "strong" better than "thickness". In my early posting, we discuss the understanding of "small" and "big" points. If "small or big" is a concept that amateur players know but have difficulty in searching for right answers, then we should say "thick or thin" (strong or weak) is a concept that often totally *ignored* by us.

What is going over our mind when we are in a position of searching for the next move? proverbs, joseki, shapes and patterns that we learn from books or high dans games, often time, those are the only things we have in mind (I use this chance to declare that the end game and local live and death problems should be excluded from all of my discussions). Unfortunately, without considering thickness or thinness on a whole board, a "correct" move from proverb, joseki, whatever, often time ends up with a wrong result on our board.

Here is the understanding of "Bi Qiang Zi Biao" from Otake Hideo --- "when opponent's shape is thick, one should safeguard by making himself thick. Never get close to your opponent's thick shape".

Now, let's look at an example given by Otake in Board 1.

A B C D E F G H J K L M N O P Q R S T 19 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 . . # # O . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 . . # O . O . . . # . . . . . . . . . 16 . # # O . . . . . . . . . ? . # . . . Board 1 15 . # O # O . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 . O O . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 . . O . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

White's shape in the left side is so thick that B's K17 and Q16 appear to be very thin. To safeguard, B should play O16. Without this protection the following will be the picture.

A B C D E F G H J K L M N O P Q R S T 19 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 . . # # O . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 . . # O . O . . . # . O . . . . . . . 16 . # # O . . . . . . . . . . . # . . . Board 2 15 . # O # O . . . . # . O . . . . . . . 14 . O O . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 . . O . . . . . . # . O . . . . . . . 12 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Isn't this Otake's example too simple? O.K. Let's make it harder by removing K17 from Board 1.

A B C D E F G H J K L M N O P Q R S T 19 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 . . # # O . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 . . # O . O . . . . ? . ? . . . . . . 16 . # # O . . . . . . . . . ? . # . . . Board 3 15 . # O # O . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 . O O . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 . . O . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Again, black to play, this time Q16 is far away from left side. But, with Board 2 in mind, a good move for black should be at N17 not K17. Similarly, if B's O16 is already there, then B's next move should be L17 not K17. Still too easy? OK, let's go back to Board 1 again.

A B C D E F G H J K L M N O P Q R S T 19 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 . . # # O . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 . . # O . O . . . # . . ? . . . . . . Board 4 16 . # # O . . . . . . . . . ? . # . . . 15 . # O # O . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 . O O . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 . . O . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Why should we protect at O16 ? why not N17 ? N17 safeguards K17 in a better way, one may argue. I leave it to you to answer this question. I believe that if you can always make good choice out of this kind of situations in real games, you should be able to beat most of the 6ds and 7ds on igs.

Finally, let's look at how Otake's opponent do this time. This is the first Meijin game broadcasted live on igs this year. Kobayashi is in a position to protect his 3 stones on left side, A B C D E F G H J K L M N O P Q R S T 19 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 18 . . # O . . . . . . # O O . . . . . . 18 White: Otake Meijin; 17 . . # . . . . . O O # # O . . O O . . 17 Black: Kobayashi 9p; 16 . # . O . O . . O # . # . O . # . . . 16 15 . # O . . . . . . # . . # . . . # . . 15 14 . # # O . . . . . . . . . . . # O . . 14 13 . . O . O . . . . . . . . . . O # . . 13 12 . . O O . . . . . . . . . . . . # . . 12 11 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 10 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 9 . . ? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 8 . . . . . # . O . . . . . . . # . . . 8 7 . . # # . . . . . . . . O . O . . . . 7 6 . . O . . . . . . . . O # O . # . . . 6 5 . . . O . O . . . . # # # O . . # . . 5 4 . . . . . . . O . # # O O O # . . . . 4 3 . . O . . # . # # # O O . O . # . . . 3 2 . . . O # . . . . . # O . . O # . . . 2 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 A B C D E F G H J K L M N O P Q R S T There were suggestions among kibitzers that B can play C10 after Otake played his number 80 move at d2. But, as I kibitzed, Kobayashi played C9 instead. The White is so strong around c12 that, C10, although keeps it's connection with c7, but to some degree, looks like (let me quote a famous line from my friend tweet, or if it's tweet's friend or jjs's friend's line on igs :)))))), anyway, tweet told me that story.) --- throwing eggs to a stone wall.

Youyi Chen

From ychen Thu Nov 12 23:35:25 EST 1992 Newsgroups: rec.games.go From: yychen@watdragon.uwaterloo.ca (Youyi Chen) Subject: The Mysteries of Weiqi (part 4)

========================================================= !!! WARNING !!! This article contains violence, parental guidance is recommended for children under 13. ========================================================= The number 3 golden rule by the ancient legend Ji-Xin Wang is:

"Gong Bi Gu Wo"

Gong1 = attack Bi3 = the other Gu4 = give consideration, take care Wo3 = self. (We can understand it as: one should give consideration to his own stones when he attacks the others).

Finally, we are talking about what we love the most --- attacking.

Let's first look into the following board. Black to play:

A B C D E F G H J K L M N O P Q R S T 19 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 18 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 17 . . . . . . . . . O . # . . # . . . . 17 16 . . . O . . . . . . . . . . . . # . . 16 15 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 14 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 13 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 12 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . O . . . 12 11 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Board 1 10 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . O . . . 10 9 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 8 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 7 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . # . . 7 6 . . O . . . . . . . . . . ? . # . . . 6 5 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . # O . . 5 4 . . . . . # . . # . . . . . # O O . . 4 3 . . O . . . . . . . . . . . . # O . . 3 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . # . O . . 2 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 A B C D E F G H J K L M N O P Q R S T

In stead of attacking Q10 and Q12 stones or getting into north-west corner, black chooses O6 to protect P5. What a chicken move --- we kibitz. But after been informed that this time the black is Otake Hideo [9P], Aha ... gee ... well, this O6 must be the most powerful and offensive one we kibitz again.

Maybe the above example is a bit too hard to understand. Let me share with you a true story on igs. Once up a time, an igs self claimed 6d met an igs self claimed NR on the server. 6d gave NR some stones in their games. They always communicated during the games by using "tell" and the following was part of their conversation: ... [NR]: "You seem in love with big fighting" [6d]: "What else can we do on the board ?" [NR]: "Well, I only want to keep my stone alive" ... 6d managed to kill and win the first several games, but he ended up losing most of the games later. The result: NR improved 4 stones in less than 2 months and that 6d is still a 6d. (btw, 6d later learned that NR's go teacher was famous Tobe on igs).

My observation tells me that amateur games are usually more violent than professional games. All out attacking we see every day in amateur games is not common in pro's games. Why do those professionals some time behave like chickens? To understand this, we should recall those advises given by ancient legends:

Zhong-Pu Liu [13P], (Song Dynasty, 960 - 1279) (actually North Song, around 1078) in Chapter 2 of his classical "Qi Jue", wrote:

"Never be too sure about your plan, and always in doubt about killing your opponent's stones"

Again, in Chapter 3 he wrote:

"Fighting must not be the key of Weiqi. It should be reserved as a player's last resource, and when carried out, one should be extremely careful."

Also, Xue-Shi Zhang [13p] (again, Song dynasty) in Chapter 4 of his acclaimed "Qi Jing Si Shan Pian" (Thirteen chapters on Weiqi) wrote:

"The most important thing is be careful. Those who are good at winning don't usually contend; Those who are good at making shape don't usually fight;"

Doesn't sound like a 13P at all, right? Rather, likes those 13 kyus who chicken out on board most of the times. But, for those who are crazy about fighting and are blood thirsty, yes, Xue-Shi Zhang had a great line for them too:

"Those who are good at fighting never lose;"

Who can be that good? Well, I guess it means smart guys only get to a fight when he is absolutely sure that he can win (Sure, it doesn't apply to this coming Friday's boxing match in Las Vegas at which loser gets a huge price as well).

And finally, what if someone force you into a fight that you don't want and you shed some blood on the board, the legend wrote:

"Those who are good at losing never be in disarray".

Good at losing !????! yes! The 13P legend means it.

Youyi Chen

P.S. The tell's, mentioned above between 6d and NR, were not taken from any super-intendant readable files on the server. It was reproduced according to the moemory of one of the players involved in that story. And, of course, it is published here with permition :-)

From ychen Fri Nov 20 17:38:27 EST 1992 Newsgroups: rec.games.go From: yychen@watdragon.uwaterloo.ca (Youyi Chen) Subject: Re: Change my strength?

In article <1egs62INNjhm@roundup.crhc.uiuc.edu> jlzhong@vision.csl.uiuc.edu (Jialin Zhong) writes: >olounela@klaava.Helsinki.FI (Olli Lounela) writes: >>No wonder there were several 8 dans and all too many 7 dans in the IGS > >Do I have to remind everyone that I was the one and only 8d on igs? There >are no "several 8 dans", only one, and that was a joke, period. I can't ^^^^^^^ >see why some people are so worried about other people's ranking on igs. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ >As I said before, enjoy the game,

Great point! I like it.

Stay turned for the coming article:

"The Mysteries of Weiqi (11) ---- On ranking system"

It's coming soon, very soon, to this newsgroup.

Youyi Chen

From ychen Fri Nov 20 18:03:11 EST 1992 Newsgroups: rec.games.go From: yychen@watdragon.uwaterloo.ca (Youyi Chen) Subject: The Mysteries of Weiqi (part 11) ---- On ranking system

====================================================================== !!! Warning !!! I myself do not like some of the points in this article. I thought I could have plenty of time to change it, since it was finished last weekend and I intended to make it as part 11 of my series. While I am still waiting for my friend jzy@casbah.acns.nwu.edu (Jim Yu) to ask his Japanese teacher the English spelling of Qiao3 Ben2 Yu2 Tai4 Lang2, I decide to post it before I finish my series. "timing" is surely one of the most important factors when making moves. The topic "ranking" or "Re: Change my strength?" is very hot now, may be not later. ======================================================================

I started in my first article and mentioned several times in my series that some ancient Chinese legends can be rated as 13P. Since then, I have always been questioned through emails by "is it real? ". This reminds me another question ---- "Is he a real 6d?" which has become quite a popular question on IGS these days.

So, are they real 13Ps ? Of course not! according to the ranking system they invented. The topic, ranking system and it's inflations, has been discussed here on Rec.games.go. I cannot avoid it this time since I myself bring this 13P thing up to the newsgroup. So, let's now look into the origin of the modern ranking system and find out who to blame for the inflation.

In Chapter 12 of his "Thirteen Chapters on Weiqi", Xue-Si Zhang (Chinese, Song dynasty), defined what we now believe to be the ranking system. (the ancient Chinese rankings may possibly date back another 1000 years) The strength of the players were then classified by 9 levels from 9 Pin to 1 Pin. With the highest rated as 1 Pin (now modern 9 dan), Zhang wrote: 1 Pin is Ru Shen Ru4 can be understood as "entering" and Shen2 can be understood as "God", meaning that players can claim 1 Pin (or 9 dan) only when others feel that the God is entering their games; and 2 Pin is Zuo Zhao (Zuo4 Zhao4) meaning that 8 dans should be able to win almost without calculating when making moves. Consider the potential effect that too many people may start to feel offensive, I rather not mention the rest of the definitions here :-)

Such kind of systems was some what well preserved even in Japan until early this century when there was still only one 9 dan allowed in the professional circle.

In the 60s, when the Chinese Go Bible ("Xian Xian Qi Jing", which includes "Thirteen chapters on Weiqi") is re-translated by the great Japanese player (Qiao3 Ben2 Yu2 Tai4 Lang2), he wrote "1 Pin Ru Shen" should be understood as "one who has attained Meijin's lofty realm"; and "2 Pin Zuo Zhao" should be understood as "one who has attained the highest level in strength"; 3 pin to 9 pin are equivalent to 7 dan to 1 dan accordingly.

Now a day, unfortunately, not only the ranking order has been reversed in the modern system i.e. 9 (dan) became the best in stead of 1 (pin), but the inflation has caused the whole ranking system (both professional and amateur) meaningless to some degree. Perhaps, had the best been 1 (dan) not 9 (dan), the inflation could have been controlled a bit and the 13P thing wouldn't have come up at all.

The evolution of the ranking system appears to be very much irrational when looking into the history of Go in both China and Japan. The ancient system's 1 pin to 9 pin (or 9 dan to 1 dan) is reasonable and acceptable at the time when almost no tournament is available. It is perhaps time for us to accept this traditional 1 to 9 measure with some discount when the communication and transportation have started to allow us to organize tournaments and title matches.

While I do agree that IGS should look for a better or more scientific ranking system, I, for one, would like to suggest to everybody out there that as an amateur player, please don't take rankings too seriously. As I always like to compare Go with other things surrounded us, wouldn't it be funny if someone try to rank the famous tenors like Luciano Pavarotee, Placido Domingo, or Jose Carreras according to their performance on the stage?

If you agree with what I say, please don't look by ranks when look for players. Remember the Chinese proverb

"Yi Qi Hui You"

meaning that use Weiqi (go) to meet friends. Look for those who have the same understanding as you do (understanding of go and other things) although who may happen to be a lot weaker or stronger on the board at the time when you meet.

Many of us, as Go players, have forgotten the real meaning behind the word "pin" used in the ancient Chinese ranking. The Chinese character "pin3", reminding us Pin3 Ge2 and Pin3 De2, indicates one's CHARACTER and MORALS rather than one's strength.

Finally, back to our original question, how do we compare the top ancient player with the top modern one? Here is what I believe. If they played by the ancient rule, the ancient player will win; If they played by the modern rule, the modern player will win. And, in terms of the understanding of the game go in general, the ancient players are as good as modern players, and in some aspects the ancient players are actually better.

So, what? We made no progress but caused ranking inflation in the late 1000 years !!??!! No, we did better than that. The modern Fuseki theory (Bu Ju, in Chinese) practiced and developed in early this century in Japan (mainly) and later popularized to the rest of the world is surely a very significant contribution to the world of Go. Without that, perhaps we couldn't have met here on Rec.games.go or IGS.

Youyi Chen

From ychen Sun Nov 22 12:28:50 EST 1992 Newsgroups: rec.games.go From: yychen@watdragon.uwaterloo.ca (Youyi Chen) Subject: The Mysteries of Weiqi (part 5)

================================================================== !!! Warning !!! If my previous posting is rated as "PG13", then this one should definitely be "R". Some extreme violent scenes are taken from the "Harlem Nights" movie , automobile trade wars, and the Korea War. Considering some subjects in Vietnam War and some Mideast Wars are still too sensitive these days, I dare not to touch them here :-) ================================================================== Number 2 golden rule is:

"Ru Jie Yi Huan"

Ru4 = enter Jie4 = boundary Yi2 = should, ought to Huan3 = unhurried, slow

Obviously, the legend tried to tell us what we should take care when entering opponent's territory. The key here is how to understand the word "Huan". According to Modern Chinese dictionaries, "Huan" is related to "Man4" and "Chi2" suggesting "slow" and "unhurried" in English. Therefore, a straight forward interpretation of this secret ancient code is: "Be unhurried to enter opponent's territory". A more imaginative one (from Otake Hideo) is: "In opponent's sphere of influence, avoid sharp conflict, don't move too deep".

With this golden rule in mind, it's easy to understand why in Board 1 that some players (White) choose positions around K15 (or even G15 in some situation) to enter Black's territory.

A B C D E F G H J K L M N O P Q R S T 19 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 18 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . # . . . 18 17 . . . . . . . . . . # . . # . . O . . 17 16 . . . # . . . . . ? . . . . . O . . . 16 15 . . . . . . ? . . ? ? . . . . . . . . 15 Board 1 14 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . O . . . 14 13 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 12 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 11 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 10 . . # . . . . . . . . . . . . . O . . 10 9 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

These secret codes, although written for Go games, didn't mention any particular Go term. It looks like from an ancient philosopher or strategist rather than a Go player. So, if you think we should go deeper and beyond Go games, let's bring up those bloody pictures in human history.

================================================================== !!! Dangerous !!! Please fasten your safety belt. ==================================================================

Imagine at midnight, you are walking through a street in Harlem of Manhattan. You do what you normally do when entering other people's territory: 1. Get through it quickly. So --- make it fast. 2. Just in case, be prepared to leave something behind when asked by a friendly stranger and don't carry anything too heavy so that you cannot get away. So ---- make it light. This bring up two new concepts --- "fast" and "light".

"fast" and "slow" (or unhurried?) are perhaps easy to understood. "light" and "heavy" are just like the pair "thick" and "thin" (already discussed) often ignored us. However, we, the go players, are not alone out there. Remember? not long ago, Detroit was taken by total surprise when ignoring "light" (and then perhaps "quality"). If that was an old story, then check out the latest: while Acura is making it all-aluminum for V6 NSX, Lexus is putting V8 into its SC400, and Chrysler is developing it's V12 Viper (a huge monster in the engin compartment). Automakers have not figured out what's the perfect combination of "fast" and "light".

An even more intriguing story is the Korea War. While one side was able to achieve "fast" by equipping high tech high geers the other side managed to be "light" by carrying AK47 and Rice only. The result: it turned out to be an even game according to what I read in North America. (BTW, you don't want to know what I read back in China, but one thing is true, the actual rifles used were much lighter and simpler than AK47, and even the rice carried were of a special kind named small rice.)

OK, I hope you are not confused yet and able to watch Board 2 clearly.

Board 2 is obtained after the sequence J16-K16-J14-H16-J12-K4-P2-O3-O2-N3-J10

A B C D E F G H J K L M N O P Q R S T 19 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 18 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 17 . # # O . . . . . O . . . . O . . . . 17 16 # . # O . ? . O # O . . . . . . # . . 16 15 . # O O . . . . . . . . . . . O # . . 15 Board 2 14 . O # # O O . . # . . . . . . O # . . 14 13 . O # O # . . . . . . . . . . O # . . 13 12 . . # O . . . . # . . . . . . . . . . 12 11 . # . O . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 10 . . . . . . . . # . . . . . . . . . . 10 9 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 8 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 7 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . # . . 7 6 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . O . . . 6 5 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . O # . . 5 4 . . # . . . . . . O . . . . . O # . . 4 3 . . . . # . . . . . . . O O O # # . . 3 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . # # . . . . 2 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 A B C D E F G H J K L M N O P Q R S T

Black's sequence J16-J14-J12-J10 is a perfect picture for illustrating "fast" and "light". Actually, J16 is so light that it is definitely something you can leave behind in this violent White street.

The initial stone placed at J16 is also picture perfect for illustrating "Ru Jie Yi Huan". Not only "unhurried" and "slow", J16 actually gives up the possibility to destroy White's area deep in North side.

However, it was the "slow" move at J16 which makes the later "fast" moves and "light" shape possible. It will result in a heavy group engulfed in the White sea if black rush deep into the north side in a hurry. Often time, it's not important whether or not we can find two eyes in other people's territory. By getting out in a lightening speed with a extremely light shape. Black has a much easier life and doesn't lose the control of the board to White.

This "R" rated article has finished. However, when I went back to read again an article by Otake Hideo before posting mine, I realized that I have to add an "X" rated postscript.

Youyi Chen ========================================================================== Postscript:

The Black in Board 2 is the Japanese legend Kitani Minoru (Famous Mu4 Gu3 Shi2 to Chinese) who together with Qing-Yuan Wu (Go Seigen) is believed to be the father of modern Fuseki theory (Bu Ju in Chinese). When commenting on his teacher's game, Otake Hideo [9p] pointed out that "J16 appears to be too deep inside of White's territory at first look, but it's not an overplay considering White's weakness at F16". So, "unhurried", "slow", "not too deep", or "Huan" in this particular board should be understood by taking F16 into consideration.

When commenting on black's shape in Board 2 after J10, "Black's shape appears to be light and huan" said Otake Hideo. However, my understanding is that "Black's shape is light and fast" although it's resulted from the "huan" (slow, unhurryed) in the initial step at J16. (Remember the Desert Storm? it took half year of planning and 30 days of air bombardment --- slow and unhurried!, but only 24 hours once the troop was moved in ---- fast! Also, remember the Over Lord in World War II? many people misunderstood "huan" as "no gut" before Normandy crossing).

Other similar comments about "Ru Jie Yi Huan" made by Otake Hideo also seemlying to suggest that he paid no much attention to the fact that the Chinese characters "Ru" means "To enter" rather than "inside". I wonder who likes to be "Huan" when he is already "inside" a street in Harlem of Manhattan.

I dare not to admit that there is an argument between Otake Hideo and someone who he can easily give several stones. The problem here is likely resulted from errors in Chinese-Japanese-Chinese translation.

Youyi Chen ==========================================================================

From ychen Fri Jan 1 01:19:58 EST 1993 Newsgroups: rec.games.go From: yychen@watdragon.uwaterloo.ca (Youyi Chen) Subject: The Mysteries of Weiqi (part 6)

Happy New Year! Finally, I am back after ...... yes, back after those Christmas and New Year parties. =================================================================== !!! Warning !!! This series is going to get very exotic. The rest five golden rules are really mysterious. And Otake Hide's understanding will be challenged on rec.games.go. =================================================================== Number 8 golden rule is:

"Dong Xu Xiang Ying"

Dong4 = move Xu1 = must Xiang1 = each other Ying4 = respond, echo (This is not a translation! The reason I write it this way is to let both Chinese and English speaking readers figuring out what characters are used in the original codes. Also, as I never admitted, followings are not translations either. They are just interpretations.)

After pointed out that this is one of the hardest to understand among 10 secret codes, Otake Hideo suggested his "tentative" interpretation (in the article mentioned earlier) as:

"Under your opponent's attack, you should counter attack".

"Xiang Ying" in Chinese strongly indicates "relevant" and "corresponding" which I believe that is no a secret at all. The mysterious part is at the first character --- "dong". If we understand it as "moves" (instead of "move") that refer to ones own stone movements at different areas of the board, we can come up with the following interpretation:

" Always keep a global board in mind, moves at local areas of the board should be in concert."

This time, it doesn't like the last time, I have to admit that there is a difference between my interpretation and Otake Hideo's interpretation. It's hard to believe that a translation error can be going out of that kind of proportion. I prefer the latter originated from my own understanding instead of the former from Otake Hideo with another simple reason. I once asked my wife about the meaning of "Dong Xu Xiang Ying". Without being informed that this is a proverb about Go, she responsed with almost the same interpretation as I did. This leaves me with no choice. (Every body would choose to go with his wife instead of a 9p :-). BTW, I wouldn't get any answer at all if I told her that the proverb has something to do with Go. She simply hates it :-) )

Now, let's look at Board 1 which is from a game played by Fujisawa Hideyuki's students.

White to play: A B C D E F G H J K L M N O P Q R S T 19 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 18 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . O . . 18 17 . . # . . # . . . . . . . . # O O O . 17 16 . O . # . . . . . . . . . . . # O . O 16 15 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . # . # O . 15 Board 1 14 . . O . . . . . . . . . . . . . # # . 14 13 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 12 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 11 . . O . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 10 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 9 . . . . . . . . . . . . . ? . O . . . 9 8 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 7 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 6 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 5 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . # . . 5 4 . . O . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 3 . . . . O . # . . # . . . . . # . . . 3 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 A B C D E F G H J K L M N O P Q R S T

Q9 is deep inside of Black's territory. O9 seems to be a good move for White at this moment. What a familiar picture! Isn't it a pattern about "fast" and "light" that we have discussed last time? Wait! Let's turn to Board 2 and watch closely.

A B C D E F G H J K L M N O P Q R S T 19 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 18 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . O . . 18 17 . . # . . # . . . . . . . . # O O O . 17 16 . O . # . . . . . . . . . . . # O . O 16 15 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . # . # O . 15 Board 2 14 . . O . . . . . . . . . . . . . # # . 14 13 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 12 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 11 . . O . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 10 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 9 . . . . . . . . . . . . . O . O . . . 9 8 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 7 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 6 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 5 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . # . . 5 4 . . O . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 3 . . . . O . # . . # . . . . # # . . . 3 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . O . . . 2 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 A B C D E F G H J K L M N O P Q R S T

"O9 should be played after Q2-P3 exchange as in Board 2" argued Fujisawa Hideyuki. Why Q2 is relevant at this moment when Q9 is in a hurry to escape? It is a "Dong Xu Xiang Ying" concerto.

I once kibitzed on igs saying that such kind of move like Q2 is "testing move" (it's called "testing" in Chinese ). One 5d observer asked "why? they two know pretty well, why testing?" Yes, it's a perfect timing to test White's response. With Q9 still light, Black has to decide either P3--- protecting the down side giving up the corner, or R2 --- protecting the corner giving up the side. Can Black do Q2 after O9? Well, it maybe too late. After O9, O9 and Q9 together becomes heavy, B is more likely to play R2 and creating two weak groups of Whites. Besides, B's responses to O9 around the middle, will cause Q2 disappearing gradually, i.e. Q2 will be captured if White gets there after movements in the middle.

Finally, we should note that N9 can be an alternative of O9. However, as pointed out by Fujisawa Hideyuki, "considering Black's thickness in the surrendering area, O9 is a smart choice in this particular board".

Youyi Chen

================================================================ Postscript:

Board 1 is taken from the book "I like to play this way" by the great Japanese player Fujisawa Hideyuki (Teng2 Ze2 Xiu4 Xing2 to Chinese). The book is a collection of articles from "Weekly Go" in Japan with the original title "Go should be played this way" (who else dares to use this kind of title!).

Now back to Board 2. You may not be convinced by the reason that these moves are just looking good. And you may question:

A. It looks like no move for Black will endanger Q9 immediately. Without a follow up at R3, it was Q2 which appears to be in danger. B. Even if we like to do something about Q9, why don't we play somewhere around R7 or R11 ?

Answers:

A. Without making a move around O9, White may lost the control of the whole board. Right! Black cannot kill Q9. But by attacking Q9, B is likely to gain total control in the middle and making down side a huge one. B. With Q9 there, there is no way for Black to make right side a big territory. The best interest for White should be getting out to have access to the middle. Also, B is very thick around R14 and getting thicker around Q3. Now, do you recall the IGS proverb I mentioned some time ago ----- "throwing eggs to a stone wall" ?

ychen ===================================================================

From ychen Sat Jan 2 22:11:56 EST 1993 Newsgroups: rec.games.go From: yychen@watdragon.uwaterloo.ca (Youyi Chen) Subject: The Mysteries of Weiqi (part 7)

================================================================== !!! Warning !!! Ancient Chinese writing should be understood as an art presentation rather than a straight forward communication tool. Understanding of art needs imaginations. ================================================================== Number 7 golden rule is

"Shen Wu Qing Su"

Shen4 = cautious, careful; Wu4 = avoid, do not; Qing1 = light; Su4 = rapid, speedy.

"Qing Su" reminds us "Qing Shuai" which corresponds to "rash" and "hasty" in English. Also, "Qing Su" is made up by "light" and "speedy" in English. With these in mind, we can have following straight forward interpretation:

"make thick shape, avoid hasty moves"

where hasty moves sometime result from being too "light" or too "fast", i.e. "Qing Su".

After pointing out that it's hard to understand "Qing Su", Otake Hideo made his interpretation as follow:

"Make good shape, don't blindly contend for sente".

We should note that being "thick" often ends up with gote. It is reasonable to say "thick for gote and thin for sente". A good shape doesn't necessary mean a thick one, it seems proper to replace "good" by "thick" to go along with "sente" in Otake Hideo's interpretation.

Playing "thick" is not only a matter of style. It is actually one of the most difficult technique to master. Many winning games are being turned over in the end simply by not playing thicker enough.

Let's look at the following interesting example.

Black to play: A B C D E F G H J K L M N O P Q R S T 19 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 18 . . . . . O . . . . . . . . . . # . . 18 17 . . O O . . . . . . O . . . # . # O . 17 16 . . . # # . . # . + . . . . . # O . . 16 15 . O . . . . . . . . . . . . . . O . . 15 Board 1 14 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 13 . . . # . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 12 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . O . . 12 Black: Otake Hideo [9p] 11 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 White: Si Tian Zhang [7p] 10 . . . + . . . . . + . . . . . + . . . 10 9 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 8 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 7 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 6 . . # . . . . . . . . . . . . ? O ? . 6 5 . . # O . . . . . . O . . . . . # . . 5 4 . . # + O . O . . + . . . . . + . . . 4 3 . . . # # O . . . . O . # . . # . . . 3 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 A B C D E F G H J K L M N O P Q R S T Source: "I like to play this way" by Fujisawa Hideyuki.

Facing White's R6, S6 and Q6 are common choices for Black. However, with style being called "thick" and "beautiful", Otake Hideo choose S5. After S5-P14-S6-P6-R8, Board 1 becomes Board 2.

A B C D E F G H J K L M N O P Q R S T 19 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 18 . . . . . O . . . . . . . . . . # . . 18 17 . . O O . . . . . . O . . . # . # O . 17 16 . . . # # . . # . + . . . . . # O . . 16 15 . O . . . . . . . . . . . . . . O . . 15 Board 2 14 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . O . . . . 14 13 . . . # . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 12 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . O . . 12 Black: Otake Hideo [9p] 11 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 White: Si Tian Zhang [7p] 10 . . . + . . . . . + . . . . . + . . . 10 9 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 8 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . # . . 8 7 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 6 . . # . . . . . . . . . . . O . O # . 6 5 . . # O . . . . . . O . . . . . # # . 5 4 . . # + O . O . . + . . . . . + . . . 4 3 . . . # # O . . . . O . # . . # . . . 3 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 A B C D E F G H J K L M N O P Q R S T

Black's sequence S5-S6-R8 is so thick that every move looks as solid as a bullet. The advantage of such kind of moves is clear. It leaves no room for White to manoeuvre and has huge potential in the end game.

Surprisingly, as another "thick" player, Fujisawa Hideyuki criticized S5 and suggested that the only move for Black is S6. (BTW, Fujisawa Hideyuki's moves are called "The Only Move" in the book.) I don't want to get into the details of S6 against S5. However, Fujisawa Hideyuki's arguments can be summarized roughly as ---- Black has already been very thick all over the board, this is the place to take advantage by using the thickness. Otherwise, it may be overly thick and unbalanced.

Finally, I like to point out that "thick, never blindly contend for sente" is often used to characterize players. Fujisawa Hideyuki and Otake Hideo are just two among many to have such kind of styles.

Youyi Chen yychen@watdragon.uwaterloo.ca

From ychen Sat Jan 2 22:29:27 EST 1993 Newsgroups: rec.games.go From: yychen@watdragon.uwaterloo.ca (Youyi Chen) Subject: The Mysteries of Weiqi (part 8)

================================================================== !!! Warning !!! Go isn't everything. Go is the only thing.

-- Zhuge ================================================================== Number 10 golden rule is:

"Shi Gu Qu He"

Shi4 = shape, influence; Gu1 = isolated, alone; Qu3 = look for; He1 = peace

This is an easy one. It means that one should "look for peace, avoid fighting in an isolated or weak situation".

I guess everybody agree that one should "Qu He" when "Si Gu". However, to understand is one thing, to apply on the board is another thing. It is usually too late to realize "Si Gu" when one is already in a looking-for-eye situation.

To have a better understanding of this golden rule, we should take time to summarize what we have discussed here. Of all eight golden rules mentioned, following key words perhaps share something in common:

Bao (safeguard), Gu (take care), Xiang Ying (in concert), Huan (unhurried), Wu Qing Su (keep good and thick shape), "Qu He" (look for peace).

Knowing that Go is a game of contestation, one has to be surprised to note that nothing like "being tough", "being aggressive", or "go all the way to kill" appeared in the above list. Some people may wonder if Go is a strange game which differs from the others or if Ji Xin Wang's golden rules are not that golden after all.

To make a point, let me share with you one of my personal story. I moved from the States to Canada a few years ago. While I didn't feel anything like moving from China to the States, one thing bothered me a lot was that car drivers in the North side are too aggressive comparing to those in the south of the border. (Those on Ontario's 401 compare to those on most US's Interstates. But, Toronto City has no match with Chicago or NYC's Manhattan.) After been tailgated and often humiliated on highway, I upgraded my car with double horsepower and went to library to borrow a book about high performance driving (not sure if it's the one written by the king Richard Petty). What I found surprising from the book was the following three golden rules for race car drivers:

Number 1 : be smooth; Number 2 : be smooth again; Number 3 : be smooth all the time.

So, what's the point? The point is that Go is just like other games and Ji Xin Wang's ten golden rules share one thing in common ---- "Be balanced". As pointed out by Otake Hideo, these rules are about "balance of fast and slow", "balance of strong and weak", "balance of territory and shape thickness", and so on.

Finally, let's see two examples from Otake Hideo about "Si Gu Qu He".

Black to play:

8 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 7 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . O # . . . 7 6 . . # . . . . . . . . . . . . O O . . 6 5 . . . . . O . . . . O . . . . . . . . 5 Board 1 4 . . . # . . . . . + . . . . . # . . . 4 3 . . . . # O . . . . O . # . . ? . . . 3 2 . . . . . O . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 A B C D E F G H J K L M N O P Q R S T

Black to play:

11 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 10 . . # + . . . . . + . . . . . + . . . 10 9 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . O . . . 9 8 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 7 . . # . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 6 . . . . . . . # # . . . . . . . O . . 6 5 . . O . . . . # O O . . . . . . . . . 5 Board 2 4 . . . O . . . . # O . . . . . # . ? . 4 3 . . . . . . O . . O . . . . . . . . . 3 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 A B C D E F G H J K L M N O P Q R S T

Blacks appear to be "Si Gu" in both Board 1 and Board 2's South-East corner. Therefore, B should make peace in Q3 and S4 respectively.

Youyi Chen yychen@watdragon.uwaterloo.ca

From ychen Sat Jan 2 22:55:28 EST 1993 Newsgroups: rec.games.go From: yychen@watdragon.uwaterloo.ca (Youyi Chen) Subject: The Mysteries of Weiqi (part 9)

================================================================== !!! Warning !!! Never practice following Kung Fu in a real game. ================================================================== Number 6 golden rule is:

Feng Wei Xu Qi Feng2 = meet Wei1 = danger Xu1 = must Qi4 = discard, abandon.

My tentative interpretation of this golden rule is

"When in danger, consider qi".

I use Chinese "qi" instead of English "discard", since "discard" is only one of many meanings implied by "qi". ================================================================== !!! Dangerous !!! While you enjoy the art of Weiqi by playing "Qi", often time, your opponent is more than happy to take it and leaves you with nothing in return. The result: you win in artistic merit. But your opponent win in territory count. ==================================================================

Remember my first article? A Russian proverb was discussed ---- "With less than 15 stones in danger, tenuki". I commented with "It is always wrong to justify a tenuki by the number of stones one leaves behind". To further illustrate the point, let's first bring up a game by Ishida Yoshio and Takemiya Masaki in a Meijin league match.

Black to play: A B C D E F G H J K L M N O P Q R S T 19 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 18 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 17 . . . . # . . . . . . . O . # . . . . 17 16 . . # . . . . . . . . . . . . . O . . 16 15 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ? O . . . 15 Board 1 14 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 13 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Black: Ishida Yoshio [9p] 12 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 (Shi2 Tian2 Fang1 Fu1) 11 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 White: Takemiya Masaki [9p] 10 . . # . . . . . . . . . . . . . # . . 10 (Wu3 Gong Zheng4 Shu4) 9 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 8 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 7 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 6 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 5 . O . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . # . . . 4 3 . . O . . . . . . O . . . . . . . . . 3 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 A B C D E F G H J K L M N O P Q R S T Source: "I like to play this way" by Fujisawa Hideyuki.

Instead of P15 to escape, Ishida Yoshio (motivated by that Russian proverb?), choose M3 followed by White O16 and Black R4. "P15 is the only move for Black in this case", criticized Fujisawa Hideyuki. Perhaps, in Fujisawa Hideyuki's mind, P17 is what I called "Qi Jin" in my first article. Ishida Yoshio shouldn't have tenukied although it is only a single stone in danger.

Secondly, there is a difference between tenuki and "Qi". Looking up Chinese-English dictionaries, "Qi" means discarding. Therefore, "Qi Zi" means discarding stones. However, as a Go term in Chinese, "Qi" implies not only going away, discarding, or tenuki. "Qi Zi" should remind a Go player about "Qi Zi Zhan Shu" (discarding-stone-tactics). To demonstrate such tactics, let's bring up Board 2.

White to play:

A B C D E F G H J K L M N O P Q R S T 19 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . # . 19 18 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . # . # 18 17 . . . O . . . . . . # . . . O O O # . 17 16 . . . + . . . . . + . . . . . # # O . 16 15 . . O . . . . . . . . . . . . . O . . 15 Board 2 14 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . # . . . 14 13 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 12 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . O . . . 12 11 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Black: Shang Chuan Ban Hu [7p] 10 . . . + . . . . . + . . . . . + . . . 10 White: Yuan Wang [5p] 9 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 8 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . O . . 8 7 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 6 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 5 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . # . . 5 4 . . # + # . . . . + . . . . . + . . . 4 3 . . . . . . . . . # . . . . . O . . . 3 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 A B C D E F G H J K L M N O P Q R S T

Whites are cut into two pieces in North-East corner. This is surely not a place for tenuki. Wang decide to save 2 stones around R15 and "Qi" 3 stones around P17.

A B C D E F G H J K L M N O P Q R S T 19 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . # . 19 18 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . # . # 18 17 . . . O . . . . . . # . # # O O O # . 17 16 . . . + . . . . . + . . O # # # # O . 16 15 . . O . . . . . . . . . . O O O O . . 15 Board 3 14 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . # . . . 14 13 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 12 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . O . . . 12 11 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Black: Shang Chuan Ban Hu [7p] 10 . . . + . . . . . + . . . . . + . . . 10 White: Yuan Wang [5p] 9 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 8 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . O . . 8 7 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 6 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 5 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . # . . 5 4 . . # + # . . . . + . . . . . + O . . 4 3 . . . . . . . . . # . . . . . O . . . 3 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 A B C D E F G H J K L M N O P Q R S T

After discarding P17 group with the sequence Q15-P16-O15-O16-N16-O17-P15-N17 and taking R4, White appears to be in good shape.

It seems that Chinese players are better equipped with the secret weapon -- "Qi". This is perhaps due to the influence of Modern Chinese legend Ti Sheng Guo who has a famous saying ---- "What move scares you? it's not the move capturing your stone, it is the move letting you to capture." Such kind of logic seems to have gone crazy among many Chinese players. Some Chinese professionals wrote "Qi is a special Go term meaning sending (note, not abandoning) stones to opponent". I don't know what's the Japanese correspondence of "Qi" and how Japanese players understand it. What I do know is that Otake Hideo treat "Qi" in this golden rule as "abandon" (throw away). I think which is only one of many meanings implied by "Qi".

Finally, if the last example is not exciting enough, let me show you a big one. It is also a match between Chinese and Japanese players and Japanese player falling into Chinese player's Qi.

Black to play: A B C D E F G H J K L M N O P Q R S T 19 . . . O . O . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 18 . . O . O # O # . . . . . . . . . . . 18 17 . . O O # . O # . . . . . . . . . . . 17 16 . . . + # . O # . # . . . . . + # . . 16 15 . . # . . # # O . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Board 4 14 . . . . . . . O . . . . . . . . . . . 14 13 . . . . . O . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 12 . . . . # . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 11 . . . O . O . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Black: Xiao-Guan Liu [7P] 10 . . . + . . . . . + . . . . . + . . . 10 White: Tai Pin Xiu Shan [9P] 9 . . . # . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 8 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 7 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 6 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 5 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 4 . . . + . . . . . + . . . . . + O . . 4 3 . . . # . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 A B C D E F G H J K L M N O P Q R S T (This game was played in 1984, Liu is believed to be a 9P now.)

E12 is to expect White E11 letting Black G13 to escape. However, White F13 takes B by surprise and endanger Black's whole team in the North-West side. Don't worry. In Board 5, Liu is going to demonstrate that special kind of "Feng Wei Xu Qi".

A B C D E F G H J K L M N O P Q R S T 19 . . . O . O . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 18 . . O . O # O # . . . . . . . . . . . 18 17 . . O O # . O # . . . . . . . . . . . 17 16 . . . + # . O # . # . . . . . + # . . 16 15 . . # . O # # O O O # # . . . . . . . 15 Board 5 14 . O . # . O O O # # O . . . . . . . . 14 13 . . O # O O # # O # . . . . . . . . . 13 12 . O . O # # O # . . . . . . . . . . . 12 11 . O O O # O . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Black: Xiao-Guan Liu [7P] 10 . # O # # . . . . + . . . . . + . . . 10 White: Tai Pin Xiu Shan [9P] 9 . # # # . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 8 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 7 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 6 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 5 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 4 . . . + . . . . . + . . . . . + O . . 4 3 . . . # . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 A B C D E F G H J K L M N O P Q R S T

Perhaps, I need to call up mgt to show how and why Board 4 becomes Board 5. Since we are talking about a secret weapon, I decide to leave you with a secret codes instead :) G13-G14-F12-G12-E11-E13-D13-D12-E10-C13-D14-C10-C9-B14-B10-B11-D10- -C11-B9-B12-H13-J13-H12-F14-J14-J15-K14-K15-L15-L14-K13-E15-M15.

Youyi Chen yychen@watdragon.uwaterloo.ca

================================================================== Postscript:

To be honest, I don't like to interpret Ji Xin Wang's golden rule this way. I feel that the so-called Qi-Zi-tactics (A high tech in go?) is only a dirty trick comparing to our great legend's golden rules. However, it seems no way to avoid dirty in this one. In my view, "to abandon when in danger" is as well a dirty trick, since "to be in a danger situation" is unbalanced and an unbalanced situation is dirty. Perhaps, one has to use dirty trick to get out a dirty situation.

ychen ==================================================================

From ychen Sun Jan 3 03:05:06 EST 1993 Newsgroups: rec.games.go From: yychen@watdragon.uwaterloo.ca (Youyi Chen) Subject: The Mysteries of Weiqi (part 10)

Here goes the last one. ================================================================== !!! Acknowledgement !!!

I would like to thank Bill Taylor (wft@math.canterbury.ac.nz) who initiated the subject "New Proverbs" that motivated me to start this series, Jim Yu who encouraged me to go ahead with my own understanding and helped me on Japanese name translation, and everyone who read and responsed to my articles.

I would like to dedicate this series to the old IGS at New Mexico and new IGS at Berkeley. It was IGS brought back what I had lost for years ----- Go and friends. This series is also for my Go and Bridge buddies: khuang, Lin Po, xgc, gan, lilu, dong, lzy (lyu), .... who I knew back in the University of Science of Technology of China (Hefei, 1978-1983) and in Academy of Science of China (Beijin, 83-86).

People are comparing the creation of IGS with invention of paper. In my view, paper has no comparison with IGS. Go was invented long before the invention of paper. Besides, who like to play Go on a paper board with paper stones :-). ================================================================== Number 1 golden rule is:

"Tan Bu De Sheng"

Tan1 = Greedy; Bu4 = cannot, do not; De2 = get; sheng4 = victory, success.

Looks like an easy one. "Don't be greedy" is obvious to almost all Go players. Actually, there are many Chinese proverbs reminding people not to be "Tan". Among them, an interesting one is "Tan1 Xiao3 shi1 Da4" which means that seek small gains but incur big losses. An even more explicit one for Go games is "Ju2 Si4 Yi3 Ying1, Li4 Qiu2 Jian3 Min1" which means that Keep situation simple, when in winning position.

What I found interesting about this golden rule is that it was presented as "Bu De Tan Sheng" in many books. By switching "Tan" to the third position in the same sentence, "Bu De" becomes "Never" and "Tan Sheng" becomes "hankering for victory". This revised version may possiblely imply that "One should not hanker after winning". (Surprised!?!)

Winning is the only objective of almost any game. For many people, to win is simply the way Go games meant to be played. However, there is a school of thought arguing that a player should look for perfection of beauty instead of winning. Winning should be understood as a consequence of beauty, but not the other way. (unbelievable!?!)

Among great players in modern time, I suspect Kitani Minoru's stubbornness and greedy in territory, and Fujisawa Hideyuki's bold and generous personality may well sign them up to the list of beauty (of their own) oriented players. On the other hand, I guess Go Seigen and Nie are definitely on the list of winning oriented players.

I am not sure which one, "Tan Bu De Sheng" or "Bu De Tan Sheng", is Ji Xin Wang's original version. Although I suspect the latter. There is perhaps another reason to support "Bu De Tan Sheng". Many ancient Chinese games were bet games in which there is a big difference between winning 1 stone and 20 stones. "Bu De Tan Sheng" seems to suggest that one should be satisfied at some point.

Finally, to finish the series, I would like to emphasize again that Go, as an oriental game, has it's very own nature. If we realize that we were talking about things like "thickness" with no ruler and "lightness" with no weighing-machine, we have to conclude that Go, as an art, needs imagination rather than ability to count.

Youyi Chen yychen@watdragon.uwaterloo.ca ========================================================================= Postscript:

None of those books, I mentioned in the series, is in English. They are either original Chinese or Chinese translated from Japanese.

Otake Hideo's views is from a very short article On "Igo" ("Qi2 Dao4") magazine in Japan, February issue, 1985.

I am still interested in looking for more accurate English translations of these golden rules. Since not a single Go term is mentioned in these rules, I guess a good translation should preserve such kind of consistency. If you have any suggestions, please email me.

ychen =========================================================================