Modern-Go-Proverbs

I found the game of Go way back in the year 2007 after reading a certain manga about it. Hikaru no Go, a Japanese comic about a boy who finds his grandfather's Go board to be haunted by a very powerful and ancient Go player; is famously known for being the gateway into the culture for many western players alive today.

This story introduced to me the philosophy of the preservation of life in inanimate objects. The idea that something ancient and powerful can find life beyond body, to live on beyond death.

Go is my philosophy, Go is my religion, Go is my life.

And I cannot live without my life.

For some time now, spanning all the way back to 2007, I've been unknowingly working towards something in Go. If you're a reader of Modern Go Proverbs, then you may be aware of my sense of style as it relates to the game. I called it "For Mother Earth" or "Our Land" for two reasons. The first being that those words genuinely resonate with me as a human being, mutual life has more potential than the alternative and I find power in that. The second reason is that I had no idea what that style of play was actually called.

Aji, Seki, and calculated Sente all coalesce under something that was founded in the 1970's era of professional Go.

Amashi Go, is a very technical strategy in Go where the objective is to wield Aji, Sente, and Kikashi as your primary forms of attack and defense while fighting for Seki in exchange for an extreme reduction in influence.

This reduction removes your Friends ability to attack you back by rule of a special form of Sente. Kikashi Sente is a forcing move of sorts that does multiple things, but the main purpose of this move is that you either respond to it or take great losses either by way of territory or influence.

Amashi Go says, we can both live for everything and nothing at all just so long as you can read far enough ahead. I find warmth and grace in this style of play, and I finally have a word that can be used for it outside of my own personal attachment to my style of Amashi.

I also find it particularly effective in longer games that involve the more modern complicated joseki's running all over the board. It is almost like my stones flow like running water through a forest of trees. And I love every bit of that adventure

This is my Go, what's yours?

Handicap Stones, Even Games, Komi and Learning Games.

This article assumes a base understanding from the reader on the fundamental game theories of Go. My ask button is open to all questions if they should arise. Let's Go.

A little over a year ago I met someone who also played Go and something amazing happened which is par for the course when Go players find each other; so naturally we started talking about our shared interest. This Go player told me that they never played a game on a 9x9 or 13x13 board, only even games on 19x19. I suspect they are close to 4 Dan in rating but that's not for me alone to speculate.

In Go there are what is called taking "Handicap Stones" when lower rated players are under the pressure of a higher rated player so that the space between them may be equalized. These stones begin on the board prior to the start of the game, placed on their perspective "Star Points".

To directly quote a famous online Go resource "The Sensei's Library"

"Handicap Stones, in Go, is the process of giving a player handicap stones or Reverse Komi as compensation for differences in player strength or positional strength with the aim of creating more equal chances of winning for all players.

Traditionally, in amateur 19x19 games, the number of handicap stones is equal to one stone per difference in rank, and the number of reverse Komi is equal to 10 points per handicap stone. For example, the handicap between a 5 kyu and 4 dan player would be 8 stones or 80 reverse Komi. Additionally, the stronger player takes White and has Komi reduced to 0.5 for the purposes of minimizing most (non-reverse) Komi advantage, helping to prevent draws, and rewarding White for close games.

The optimal amount and type of handicap able to create a fair game in Go is an ongoing area of research and study." End quote

I made a few edits so that their explanation lines up with and flows well with my writings on the subject. please look them up using this link: Front Page at Sensei's Library It is truly a treasure trove of Go knowledge for all skill levels.

An ongoing area of research and study. That last bit really makes one think. I used to take handicap stones against stronger players but now I'm not so sure it is conducive to the learning process. What makes a game of Go even anyway? No one can answer and trust me when I write that I tried to find it. I started playing even games, which is to say without handicap stones, and saw immediate personal improvement in my understanding of how games develop among my more skilled peers.

To not take handicap stones is a way of inviting "lesser skilled" players to critically analyze responding moves from "more skilled" players. To take handicap stones can be read as please play as many moves ahead based on our difference before the game even starts; challenging the notion of Sente and why we dread giving it up so freely. So, which one is better for learning?

I don't think anyone really knows the answer to that because we all learn differently. We all teach differently too. So then how do we determine what is right in a game that belongs to only two at a time?

That answer is simple; Boundaries, right? mutual rules set by the those who share that space between them. But it's not quite that simple. There are tournaments, like Quzhou Lanke, that forbid handicap stones while other tournament structures will allow it.

I've never been to a tournament for my own reasons and prefer to play more casually in a more open and less structured environment. That is my Go, no one else can claim that from me. Just as I cannot touch others Go. I hope that I can play my friend in an even game of Go soon so that I may grow to their strength too. So that there is no doubt of "yeah but there were handicap stones" if I were to claim victory from the jaws of the dragon they are.

Ultimately it all comes down to the space between us and how we use it together with mutual understanding. Thats my style of Go.

For Mother Earth, or Our Land. I haven't found a name for my style, but I know it feels right for me.

I was originally going to title this article "The Space Between Us" with writings on my understandings of Dame and Sente like they are spaces between us and how it all relates to my style of Go but something profound happened and it made me want to change my perspective. The world renowned Quzhou Lanke Cup Go tournament happened over this weekend. The rules of this tournament are simple. Games are to be even across all ratings or ranking, no handicap stones. It was this tournament structure that sparked wide discussion, and it challenges the notions of the following fundamental concepts in Go

-Even Games

-Learning Games

-Rating and Rank

-Handicap Stones

-Sente

-Komi

All these things are fundamental if you are to pursue Go in a serious capacity. While I can't go over everything in detail; I think it's worth stopping here to take my time and appreciate all the intricacies of the wealth of knowledge and understanding that was brought about by this tournament. I'm going to take my time writing this so that I can do it the justice and appreciation it all deserves and that this will serve as my intro onto this train ride of a topic.

More on this later,

A lot can be said about a game of Go beyond the simplicity of its surface level of understanding. Two players take turns placing black and white stones on a 19x19 grid with the mutual goal of surrounding territory. Unlike chess, black always goes first, and all game pieces, commonly called "stones"; all have the same properties and capabilities. In essence, all stones are the same.

After a few hundred moves into a game the board takes on a mosaic like shape that is unique to the two players playing at that moment. Go is said to have more end game configurations than there are atoms in our universe. And while speculation and commentary have a long and storied history alongside strong players and their late game configurations; this article aims to examine the complete opposite.

The importance of Aji in the opening two moves can be overlooked by beginner and professional alike. Aji, meaning "taste", is a concept in Go that refers to the stone's latent potential or impact on the board state whether that be past, present, or future.

To quote Wikipedia:

"The aji in various positions on the board impacts the course of the game regardless of whether a player makes moves to realize the latent potential. A situation is said to contain bad aji when the presence of the opponent's stones or weaknesses in one's own position create a threat of compromising the position at an opportune moment in the game. It can be very difficult for players to assess the best moment to play a move to realize the potential of aji in a position or to remove the threat of bad aji in one's own position. "

Full credit to whomever wrote this. They are correct in their definition but if I were a wiki editor I would make one change to one word and that word is Opponent.

To sit across a Go board from someone is akin to showing your true mind, body, and spirit. This is true for both humans and machines. And that window into the Go player becomes magnified after making the first opening moves, which are typically played near the four corner areas of the board local to bolden points called "Star Points" or areas of great influence.

Placing the first stone closer to your side of the board makes sense from one perspective but can seem distant or isolating from another. Considering the opposite, if you place your first stone closer to your Friend then it can be seen as taking initiative, or to break the ice so to speak. That is Aji of the first opening move; do we stay on our side of the world or do we reach out for contact. It gets deeper after the second move is played by White.

If you're familiar with Go, its history, and culture; then you might be familiar with a famous and historical documentary called AlphaGo. The documentary is about a pivotal evolution of Go where Google's Deep Mind AI played a best of 5 against quite possibly the world's greatest human Go player in Lee Sedol, hailing from South Korea.

The opening moves of game one had the most impact on me. Lee Sedol, playing black, made the first move closest to the machine. AlphaGo, playing white, decides to play on the same side of the board as Lee, not across.

That is good Aji because we are the same. The machine was made by us therefore it is also human. To play on the same side is to build together, not across from each other. Because to build together is mutually beneficial to us all.

I can only imagine how difficult it was for Aja Huang, the man that placed stones on the board for AlphaGo, because it was not his game, yet he was there playing for someone else.

There are no Opponents that sit across from us, only Friends.