Don't become addictively hooked on Mahjong!
Freitag, 24. Dezember 2010
Montag, 29. November 2010
How do I study Go?
I have been asked this question frequently. Here I shall explain to everybody how I study Go.
For that purpose, let me slightly modify the question.How Do I study Go?
A Japanese top pro player (if you know who it was, I'd appreciate it if you told me) once said that ordinary people cannot understand how he studies Go. When asked about details, he answered "I study Go by watching the trees blossom."
The thing is, nowadays I am sort of lazy to open the book and place stones on my awesome home-stuck Go board (in the picture below).
But don't take this as an excuse for not studying. I was very studious when I was still young and promising. In every spare moment, I would solve tesuji problems, replay pro games, study joseki, compete with my rivals and so forth. I was also blessed with the presence of Kobayashi Chizu 5p sensei who taught and spread Go in Vienna for one and a half years. It was also due to her ambition that a few Master Courses with top Japanese pros such as Takemiya Masaki 9p and Aoki Shinichi 9p had been organized.
Of course I also attended (and still attend) a lot of Go tournaments and met a lot of cool people.
This all helped me to improve and solidify my knowledge and feeling for Go.
I would still like to improve, but I am either too lazy or too busy or both nowadays.
Even though I do not study Go as frequently as before, I have found a lot of similarities between Go and other things, say, other games, language, music, nature, also in real life. Imho everyone should find their own enlightenment, so I'll save emy breath, or ink, or whatever, for telling you how I study Go nowadays.
Like the pro studies Go by watching trees, I found that I got stronger at Go by watching anime.
Below you can see my personal heroes:
Akagi Shigeru, the genius who descended into darkness
Tokuchi Toua, a clone of Akagi
(thanks to Namii who introduced them to me:D)
They are really ugly, but both of them are masters at their field (Mahjong and baseball repectively) and have not lost a single game.
They cannot teach me Go moves, but there is a lot more involved in a game than just the moves. I have even been defeated at the first move by those factors beyond the goban. If you are one of those people who don't care for such things, then I will have a hard time beating you too:P
Last weekend at Kranich tournament I had to play my little Finnish rival. Imo I successfully turned his unusual opening into a disadvantage for him, then I messed up big in the middle game, and after a byoyomi-flawed endgame it turned out to be a 2 points victory for me.
I think that I wouldn't have won it if I hadn't watched One Outs the week before and listened to Tokuchi Toua's teachings. On the other hand, if my opponent had done that too, I would have lost the game (probably by time or resignation).
I hope I could answer some of your questions and don't forget to study this site to get stronger:)
Oh, and this one is awesome too. Of course everything is for free! (But you are still welcome to donate!)
For that purpose, let me slightly modify the question.
A Japanese top pro player (if you know who it was, I'd appreciate it if you told me) once said that ordinary people cannot understand how he studies Go. When asked about details, he answered "I study Go by watching the trees blossom."
The thing is, nowadays I am sort of lazy to open the book and place stones on my awesome home-stuck Go board (in the picture below).
But don't take this as an excuse for not studying. I was very studious when I was still young and promising. In every spare moment, I would solve tesuji problems, replay pro games, study joseki, compete with my rivals and so forth. I was also blessed with the presence of Kobayashi Chizu 5p sensei who taught and spread Go in Vienna for one and a half years. It was also due to her ambition that a few Master Courses with top Japanese pros such as Takemiya Masaki 9p and Aoki Shinichi 9p had been organized.
Of course I also attended (and still attend) a lot of Go tournaments and met a lot of cool people.
This all helped me to improve and solidify my knowledge and feeling for Go.
I would still like to improve, but I am either too lazy or too busy or both nowadays.
Even though I do not study Go as frequently as before, I have found a lot of similarities between Go and other things, say, other games, language, music, nature, also in real life. Imho everyone should find their own enlightenment, so I'll save emy breath, or ink, or whatever, for telling you how I study Go nowadays.
Like the pro studies Go by watching trees, I found that I got stronger at Go by watching anime.
Below you can see my personal heroes:
Akagi Shigeru, the genius who descended into darkness
Tokuchi Toua, a clone of Akagi(thanks to Namii who introduced them to me:D)
They are really ugly, but both of them are masters at their field (Mahjong and baseball repectively) and have not lost a single game.
They cannot teach me Go moves, but there is a lot more involved in a game than just the moves. I have even been defeated at the first move by those factors beyond the goban. If you are one of those people who don't care for such things, then I will have a hard time beating you too:P
Last weekend at Kranich tournament I had to play my little Finnish rival. Imo I successfully turned his unusual opening into a disadvantage for him, then I messed up big in the middle game, and after a byoyomi-flawed endgame it turned out to be a 2 points victory for me.
I think that I wouldn't have won it if I hadn't watched One Outs the week before and listened to Tokuchi Toua's teachings. On the other hand, if my opponent had done that too, I would have lost the game (probably by time or resignation).
I hope I could answer some of your questions and don't forget to study this site to get stronger:)
Oh, and this one is awesome too. Of course everything is for free! (But you are still welcome to donate!)
Samstag, 20. November 2010
Spielefest 2010
Yet again the Austrian Go Federation infiltrated the Games Festival to promulgate (lol what a word) Go to the world.
Contrary to the Sports Festival, where Go was relatively complicated compared to the other sports, it had the simplest rules among all board and card games this time. Only some games involving hitting a ball somewhere and the spinning wheel of fortune could outrule this suspicious looking game in terms of simplicity. (I won a t-shirt, two puddings and a drawing set spinning the wheel:) ).
Although I was there only on one of the three days this event took place, I was kinda overwhelmed by the number of visitors. Estimations score up to 10.000 visitors.
This time quite a few people got stuck to this game and they wouldn't stop playing it. Out of the people I took care of, there was a cool couple who had a peaceful and consensual playing style, and a father and his son who discovered the very depth of this game's complexity well concealed behind its seemingly simple rules. (Well, they are simple, but there are experts who would rather make them look complicated, too.)
They were all very talented and I am looking forward to meeting them again.
They also took part in the simultaneous games where they had to face Li Ting 1p (whom I have beaten once out of countless encounters in my life at Go in an even game:D, I also beat her at 3-dimensional TicTacToe at the games festival) who was imported from Japan just for this occasion. With anonymous help eventually one person managed to beat her in their simultaneous game! Very talented, and the anonymous dude too^^
Last, but not least, I shall mention the head guy and head woman of Kasu, an organisation with the aim of speading Japanese games, best known for playing Riichi Mahjong. Somehow they also got dragged into the flow and became fascinated of Go.
Btw you might have noticed that the pictures are kind of blurry. That is because my camera is not working properly anymore. I cannot change the settings nor see the pictures it takes until I copy them to the computer. If you want to see better quality pictures, feel free to donate for a new camera:D
(donations so far: 0.20€)
Contrary to the Sports Festival, where Go was relatively complicated compared to the other sports, it had the simplest rules among all board and card games this time. Only some games involving hitting a ball somewhere and the spinning wheel of fortune could outrule this suspicious looking game in terms of simplicity. (I won a t-shirt, two puddings and a drawing set spinning the wheel:) ).
Although I was there only on one of the three days this event took place, I was kinda overwhelmed by the number of visitors. Estimations score up to 10.000 visitors.
This time quite a few people got stuck to this game and they wouldn't stop playing it. Out of the people I took care of, there was a cool couple who had a peaceful and consensual playing style, and a father and his son who discovered the very depth of this game's complexity well concealed behind its seemingly simple rules. (Well, they are simple, but there are experts who would rather make them look complicated, too.)
They were all very talented and I am looking forward to meeting them again.
They also took part in the simultaneous games where they had to face Li Ting 1p (whom I have beaten once out of countless encounters in my life at Go in an even game:D, I also beat her at 3-dimensional TicTacToe at the games festival) who was imported from Japan just for this occasion. With anonymous help eventually one person managed to beat her in their simultaneous game! Very talented, and the anonymous dude too^^
Last, but not least, I shall mention the head guy and head woman of Kasu, an organisation with the aim of speading Japanese games, best known for playing Riichi Mahjong. Somehow they also got dragged into the flow and became fascinated of Go.
Btw you might have noticed that the pictures are kind of blurry. That is because my camera is not working properly anymore. I cannot change the settings nor see the pictures it takes until I copy them to the computer. If you want to see better quality pictures, feel free to donate for a new camera:D
(donations so far: 0.20€)
Sonntag, 24. Oktober 2010
Mannheimer Aji 2010
Einer meiner Fans, ein Hauptorganisator des Turniers, bei dem ich übernachten durfte, meinte, ich sollte unbedingt etwas übers Mannheimer Aji schreiben.
Also ja, ein sehr cooles Turnier, nächstes Jahr unbedingt kommen. :)
Das Turnier brach heuer (dieses Jahr) die Tradition, am Wochenende der Zeitumstellung stattzufinden, aber entgegen meiner Befürchtungen haben am Sonntag nur die nicht mitgespielt, die aus feierlichen restalkoholischen Gründen dazu nicht in der Lage waren.
Leider hab ich nicht viel von Mannheim gesehen, bzw. angeblich habe ich schon alles Sehenswerte gesehen.
Die Mannheimer Innenstadt ist wie ein Gobrett in Quadrate mit Koordinaten eingeteilt. Allein dafür lohnt es sich eigentlich, nach Mannheim zum Turnier zu fahren und sich gobrettmäßig zu fühlen.
Heuer waren Cho Seok-Bin 7d als Live-Kommentator und die als Mangakünstlerin zu Ruhm gestiegene chidori am Turnier anwesend. Chidori hat mich wieder gemalt und mir ist aufgefallen, dass ich wie L ausschaue.
Ich übernahm übrigens zeitweise vorübergehend den Bücherverkaufsstand und konnte mit meinen Werbesprüchen viele potentielle Kunden begeistern und sogar einen zum Kauf bewegen.
Die angebotenen Bücher vom Brett-und-Stein-Verlag waren nämlich ausschließlich in deutscher Sprache und daher waren Englischkenntnisse nicht notwendig, um den Text zu verstehen (wobei, wer schaut in Gobüchern schon auf den Text). Ich bin außerdem mit den Büchern mehrmals 5d geworden (bis ich aufgeflogen bin, ich spielte das Aji als 4d) und auch DU bekommst um nicht einmal 20 € so ein Buch gratis.
Ein besonderes Highlight war das Massenrengo. Es wurde jeder Zug und deren Zieher mehr oder weniger erfolgreich aufgezeichnet. Jeder durfte mitmachen unter den Voraussetzungen, dass jeder immer nur für die selbe Farbe spielt und nicht mehr als jeden 5. Zug seiner Farbe macht.
Es kam im Joban (Eröffnung) gleich zu einem interessanten, kreativen oder auch innovativen Furikawari (Austausch), wo schwarz den fünften Zug im Nadarejoseki (Lawinen-Eckabspiel) tenukierte (ignorierte und stattdessen auf einer anderen Hälfte vom Brett einen Stein hinklatschte), -was dem Spieler auch direkt eine gewisse Bekanntheit einbrachte- wonach niemand mehr für Schwarz spielen wollte, bis ich Seok-bin-sensei* rekrutierte mit der Bitte, er möge retten; danach lief die Partie relativ flüssig und normal wieder weiter.
Dieses Massenrengo begeisterte unter anderem die im Bild zu sehenden Kiddies, die es gar nicht abwarten konnten, bis sie wieder am Zug waren. Sie waren so vertieft in die Partie, dass sie unter anderem mich verwundert ansprachen, als ich meinen Zug gespielt hatte (was mich immer noch sehr erheitert): "Ey, was machst du!"
*Die Bezeichnung sensei 先生 lässt sich auf zwei Arten herleiten.
Was japanische Volksschulkinder lernen, ist 先に生まれた saki ni umareta, also "(wurde) zuerst geboren". Tatsächlich ist jemand, den man sensei nennt, theoretisch vorwiegend fortgeschritteneren Alters als man selbst. In japanische Kabaretts aber kommt sensei von 先ずは生きてる mazu ｗa ikiteru, also "Hauptsache noch am Leben".
Also ja, ein sehr cooles Turnier, nächstes Jahr unbedingt kommen. :)
Das Turnier brach heuer (dieses Jahr) die Tradition, am Wochenende der Zeitumstellung stattzufinden, aber entgegen meiner Befürchtungen haben am Sonntag nur die nicht mitgespielt, die aus feierlichen restalkoholischen Gründen dazu nicht in der Lage waren.
Leider hab ich nicht viel von Mannheim gesehen, bzw. angeblich habe ich schon alles Sehenswerte gesehen.
Die Mannheimer Innenstadt ist wie ein Gobrett in Quadrate mit Koordinaten eingeteilt. Allein dafür lohnt es sich eigentlich, nach Mannheim zum Turnier zu fahren und sich gobrettmäßig zu fühlen.
Heuer waren Cho Seok-Bin 7d als Live-Kommentator und die als Mangakünstlerin zu Ruhm gestiegene chidori am Turnier anwesend. Chidori hat mich wieder gemalt und mir ist aufgefallen, dass ich wie L ausschaue.
Ich übernahm übrigens zeitweise vorübergehend den Bücherverkaufsstand und konnte mit meinen Werbesprüchen viele potentielle Kunden begeistern und sogar einen zum Kauf bewegen.
Die angebotenen Bücher vom Brett-und-Stein-Verlag waren nämlich ausschließlich in deutscher Sprache und daher waren Englischkenntnisse nicht notwendig, um den Text zu verstehen (wobei, wer schaut in Gobüchern schon auf den Text). Ich bin außerdem mit den Büchern mehrmals 5d geworden (bis ich aufgeflogen bin, ich spielte das Aji als 4d) und auch DU bekommst um nicht einmal 20 € so ein Buch gratis.
Ein besonderes Highlight war das Massenrengo. Es wurde jeder Zug und deren Zieher mehr oder weniger erfolgreich aufgezeichnet. Jeder durfte mitmachen unter den Voraussetzungen, dass jeder immer nur für die selbe Farbe spielt und nicht mehr als jeden 5. Zug seiner Farbe macht.
Es kam im Joban (Eröffnung) gleich zu einem interessanten, kreativen oder auch innovativen Furikawari (Austausch), wo schwarz den fünften Zug im Nadarejoseki (Lawinen-Eckabspiel) tenukierte (ignorierte und stattdessen auf einer anderen Hälfte vom Brett einen Stein hinklatschte), -was dem Spieler auch direkt eine gewisse Bekanntheit einbrachte- wonach niemand mehr für Schwarz spielen wollte, bis ich Seok-bin-sensei* rekrutierte mit der Bitte, er möge retten; danach lief die Partie relativ flüssig und normal wieder weiter.
Dieses Massenrengo begeisterte unter anderem die im Bild zu sehenden Kiddies, die es gar nicht abwarten konnten, bis sie wieder am Zug waren. Sie waren so vertieft in die Partie, dass sie unter anderem mich verwundert ansprachen, als ich meinen Zug gespielt hatte (was mich immer noch sehr erheitert): "Ey, was machst du!"
*Die Bezeichnung sensei 先生 lässt sich auf zwei Arten herleiten.
Was japanische Volksschulkinder lernen, ist 先に生まれた saki ni umareta, also "(wurde) zuerst geboren". Tatsächlich ist jemand, den man sensei nennt, theoretisch vorwiegend fortgeschritteneren Alters als man selbst. In japanische Kabaretts aber kommt sensei von 先ずは生きてる mazu ｗa ikiteru, also "Hauptsache noch am Leben".
Sonntag, 26. September 2010
Tag des Sports
The Heroes' Square in Vienna held a festival yesterday on Sports Day.
Of course Go could not be missed at such an event. Our stall was located in the periphery of the square, next to the Poker and the Square dance.
There were several unfavourable circumstances, like the rainy weather forecast or the computer games event which was being held on the same day and had ads in every metro station unlike the Sports Day which I only heard about the day before.
Nevertheless the event was well-visited, not inferior to last year's.
There were quite a few people who came to the Go to have the rules explained.
The number of people who will show up at the Go club one day is a michisuu (未知数, unknown quantity).
In my opinion Go fails at such events in terms of presentation and attractiveness. The objective in this sport isn't as obvious as hitting the ball/target/other person.
Even though there were a lot of people who were interested in this game.
A few examples of how they reacted:
-Is this game from China or Japan?
-Of course this is from Japan, I know this from the crosswords.
-This looks complicated. Let's go.
-Can we eat this?
-Ah let's wait under this tent until the rain stops.
My favourite not-anymore-non-go-players were two kids who seemed to have a go set at home already:
-This is a cool game. Now we know how it works.
They cleared my doubts that go would have no chance amongst all the other kinds of sports.
Yet again it seemed that the shorter the explanation of the rules, the more the interested people were inclined to try out the game; especially because the other attractions at this event had obvious and simple rules too.
It was also important that more go players gathered at the same place, even if they only played against each other, in order to look more organized. It also proved useful to have ongoing games for explaining the rules to the astonished spectators:
-This game is about who surrounds more territory with his stones. This area is white's points, and this is black's. This is not sure yet. and so on
This saves a lot of talk about rules because it was obvious that the two players on two sides of the checkered board place black and white candies respectively and alternately
on the intersections of the lines on the board.
One of the highlights for me was when I noticed that McDonald's sponsored this sports event.
Freitag, 10. September 2010
Nichtgospielervernichtung at Japanfest
After a successful sweeping of non-go players at AniNite two weeks ago (rumors have that a certain go dude seduced about 20 girls to the go club), the valiant go players of Vienna went to the Japan festival to annihilate some more non-go players.
Besides this divine game, the festival also provided Japanese calligraphy, Japanese manga, Japanese origami and Japanese expensive food and a stage for Japanese music, Japanese martial artists, Japanese dancing, Japanese kimono show and music.
My favourite victim this time was a 9-year-old Japanese boy who spoke little German. He fell in love with the game at first sight and played no bad moves despite not knowing the rules in his first game. He even won his second game against me (with my help^^) after which he probably grasped the rules. Later he insisted on playing a third game with me, in which he finally started playing first-line fuseki moves and broken shapes.
Perhaps someone should relay to Robert Jasiek that knowing the rules better makes you weaker.
(I also won my first game of Settlers of Catan and got crushed in the second game after figuring out what was going on.)
It is very hard to explain the rules to newcomers, so that:
-they understand the rules
-they don't get confused
-they don't start playing stupid beginner shapes
-they don't get scared off the game because the rules are so "complex" and never want to play a game again
The Austrian Go champion 2007 came up with this way of explaining rules, skipping the first point:
Lothar Spiegel: "Also das Spiel heißt Go. Es ist das älteste Brettspiel der Welt, älter als Schach. Schach ist böse. (spielt ein paar normale Fusekizüge auf dem 9x9-Brett) Es geht darum, Punkte zu machen. (zeigt auf das Gebiet, das seine Züge einschließen) Wer mehr Punkte macht, hat gewonnen. So, jetzt spielts eine Partie und ich erkläre euch den Rest der Regeln nachher."
Opfer: (Gekicher) Ok. (spielen gute Züge)
(loose translation)
Lothar mirror: So this is Go, the most awesomest game in the world. (talks while playing against himself) It is about making points. (strokes the board) The winner is who makes more points. So now play a game and I will explain you the other rules afterwards."
the victims: Hm Ok. (play good moves)
Besides this divine game, the festival also provided Japanese calligraphy, Japanese manga, Japanese origami and Japanese expensive food and a stage for Japanese music, Japanese martial artists, Japanese dancing, Japanese kimono show and music.
My favourite victim this time was a 9-year-old Japanese boy who spoke little German. He fell in love with the game at first sight and played no bad moves despite not knowing the rules in his first game. He even won his second game against me (with my help^^) after which he probably grasped the rules. Later he insisted on playing a third game with me, in which he finally started playing first-line fuseki moves and broken shapes.
Perhaps someone should relay to Robert Jasiek that knowing the rules better makes you weaker.
(I also won my first game of Settlers of Catan and got crushed in the second game after figuring out what was going on.)
It is very hard to explain the rules to newcomers, so that:
-they understand the rules
-they don't get confused
-they don't start playing stupid beginner shapes
-they don't get scared off the game because the rules are so "complex" and never want to play a game again
The Austrian Go champion 2007 came up with this way of explaining rules, skipping the first point:
Lothar Spiegel: "Also das Spiel heißt Go. Es ist das älteste Brettspiel der Welt, älter als Schach. Schach ist böse. (spielt ein paar normale Fusekizüge auf dem 9x9-Brett) Es geht darum, Punkte zu machen. (zeigt auf das Gebiet, das seine Züge einschließen) Wer mehr Punkte macht, hat gewonnen. So, jetzt spielts eine Partie und ich erkläre euch den Rest der Regeln nachher."
Opfer: (Gekicher) Ok. (spielen gute Züge)
(loose translation)
Lothar mirror: So this is Go, the most awesomest game in the world. (talks while playing against himself) It is about making points. (strokes the board) The winner is who makes more points. So now play a game and I will explain you the other rules afterwards."
the victims: Hm Ok. (play good moves)
Dienstag, 17. August 2010
Mein Kampf gegen Nichtgospieler / My battle against non-go players
Heute machten sich 3 tapfere Gospieler auf, der Welt das Gospiel näherzubringen und Nachwuchs zu rekrutieren. Beim Go7, wo sie sich mit Material ausstatteten, starteten sie ihre Reise und kamen ihrer Mission bei einer Besichtigungstour durch die Wiener Innenstadt nach.
Three little Go players initiated the plan today that they secretly worked out. With munitions stolen from the Go club, they went around in my hometown to carry out their mission of annihilating all non-go players.
Leider war es nicht sonnig genug, also konnten nur zwei Personen das Spiel kennenlernen, eine davon war sogar interessiert: eine nette Dame, die uns Zeitung und Comics verkaufen wollte, und eine andere, die uns Essen brachte und danach Geld von uns wollte.
Due to suboptimal weather situation total annihilation was not possible. Only two persons fell victim to the sinister messengers of mischief.
Oh Gospieler, die ihr dies lest! Vereinet eure Macht und erzeugt Gospieler!
Three little Go players initiated the plan today that they secretly worked out. With munitions stolen from the Go club, they went around in my hometown to carry out their mission of annihilating all non-go players.
Leider war es nicht sonnig genug, also konnten nur zwei Personen das Spiel kennenlernen, eine davon war sogar interessiert: eine nette Dame, die uns Zeitung und Comics verkaufen wollte, und eine andere, die uns Essen brachte und danach Geld von uns wollte.
Due to suboptimal weather situation total annihilation was not possible. Only two persons fell victim to the sinister messengers of mischief.
Oh Gospieler, die ihr dies lest! Vereinet eure Macht und erzeugt Gospieler!
Sonntag, 8. August 2010
The Introduction to The Blog
Hey, this is Viktor's Go blog. Viktor didn't mean to start blogging, but circumstances forced him to do so.
Read the posts in order=D
I.e. the lowest post first, then the one above, etc.
It gets less interesting the further you read.
(Or rather don't read the posts below this one).
Cheers
Read the posts in order=D
I.e. the lowest post first, then the one above, etc.
It gets less interesting the further you read.
(Or rather don't read the posts below this one).
Cheers
Mittwoch, 4. August 2010
不当な勝負パート２
I totally forgot to get to my point in the last post, so I shall write it now:
There should be the same amount of lost games that were won and won games that were lost in the end. (By experience those are more frequent than won won games and lost lost games, that is why I was surprised about my performance at this year's congress.)
So when I lose a game stupidly, I will tell myself that I have also won games stupidly.
This should be just fair.
There should be the same amount of lost games that were won and won games that were lost in the end. (By experience those are more frequent than won won games and lost lost games, that is why I was surprised about my performance at this year's congress.)
So when I lose a game stupidly, I will tell myself that I have also won games stupidly.
This should be just fair.
不当な勝負
Losing a won game can make one feel very bad. In my first post ever in a blog I complained verbosely about a game that I could have won. I felt very awkward about that game as it would have been a nice win for me (it would have been my opponent's first loss in Europe :S ). But after a few days the awkwardness vanished. I even greeted her today;)
The same happened to my friend two days ago. He (4d) lost by 1.5 points to a Korean 7d due to an obvious endgame blunder. I promised him to spread the word to alleviate his dismal pain.
Although there should be the same amount of won losing games and lost winning games, I only rarely hear people complain about having won a lost game.
If that is because people start a game expecting to win, a game loss results in a loss anyways.
That wouldn't be the case if people start a game expecting to lose! The loss of a game wouldn't cause a brain fission, whereas a win would make an unexpected convenience.
We can improve our results by reducing the expectation!
Though I am not too sure it is a good idea to expect to lose in the first place:)
Tesuji of the week:
A girl I know was in a situation where she didn't know what she should do. Let us call her Lisetol (totally fictional name).
Lisetol was riding the elevator when a good-looking sexy boy entered and would continue the journey with her. She didn't know him, and he didn't know her. Lisetol couldn't come up with a good move, so eventually their paths parted at the end of the elevator ride.
Later Lisetol contemplated rigorously about the situation and reviewed it in order to try to find out if there was a better move she could have made. This is when she came up with the Tesuji: Jump! The elevator would get stuck and there would have been no good way for him to go out.
Next time Lisetol will remember the proverb: The One-point Jump is never bad!
The same happened to my friend two days ago. He (4d) lost by 1.5 points to a Korean 7d due to an obvious endgame blunder. I promised him to spread the word to alleviate his dismal pain.
Although there should be the same amount of won losing games and lost winning games, I only rarely hear people complain about having won a lost game.
If that is because people start a game expecting to win, a game loss results in a loss anyways.
That wouldn't be the case if people start a game expecting to lose! The loss of a game wouldn't cause a brain fission, whereas a win would make an unexpected convenience.
We can improve our results by reducing the expectation!
Though I am not too sure it is a good idea to expect to lose in the first place:)
Tesuji of the week:
A girl I know was in a situation where she didn't know what she should do. Let us call her Lisetol (totally fictional name).
Lisetol was riding the elevator when a good-looking sexy boy entered and would continue the journey with her. She didn't know him, and he didn't know her. Lisetol couldn't come up with a good move, so eventually their paths parted at the end of the elevator ride.
Later Lisetol contemplated rigorously about the situation and reviewed it in order to try to find out if there was a better move she could have made. This is when she came up with the Tesuji: Jump! The elevator would get stuck and there would have been no good way for him to go out.
Next time Lisetol will remember the proverb: The One-point Jump is never bad!
Dienstag, 3. August 2010
聽不懂
我發現日本人在下棋的時候常常用日文嘆氣、罵人等等。最常聽到的是「まいったな」跟「ばかな」。很可惜因為很多人在看動畫和學日文、所以聽的懂日文髒話。
下棋時自言自語好像都是用自己的語言.我跟法國人下的時候他也是講法文的。
可是我也有聽說某一個羅馬尼亞人直接罵一個 “F#CK!“ 。
我的話呢、看到怪棋會說一個「そうか」。結果有一個德國對手也跟我來一個「そうか」。
下棋的人一定都會講幾個日文的詞、沒聽過「お願いします」的應該沒有。
聽說用台語罵人聽起來特別的有力、而且坑定只有台灣人聽的懂。會講台語真方便。
P.S.:剛剛想起來法國人也有跟我「そうか」。
(Fuck beat Suck by half a point. The ultimate proof that Fuck is superior to Suck.)
下棋時自言自語好像都是用自己的語言.我跟法國人下的時候他也是講法文的。
可是我也有聽說某一個羅馬尼亞人直接罵一個 “F#CK!“ 。
我的話呢、看到怪棋會說一個「そうか」。結果有一個德國對手也跟我來一個「そうか」。
下棋的人一定都會講幾個日文的詞、沒聽過「お願いします」的應該沒有。
聽說用台語罵人聽起來特別的有力、而且坑定只有台灣人聽的懂。會講台語真方便。
P.S.:剛剛想起來法國人也有跟我「そうか」。
(Fuck beat Suck by half a point. The ultimate proof that Fuck is superior to Suck.)
Sonntag, 1. August 2010
The Post
Das Wochenendturnier ist vorbei!
Ich habe 3:2 gespielt und verliere voraussichtlich 10,5 GoR. Ich schreibe dies am Strand, während die anderen Strandvolleyball am Strand spielen. Mir fällt nichts ein, was ich schreiben soll. Laura meinte, ich sollte etwas auf deutsch schreiben. Sie ist sichtlich beeindruckt von Futur 2.
Gestern war alles im H&M um 50 % reduziert. Ich habe einen flauschigen Plüschpulli erstanden. Die Länge der Schlange bei der Kassa, zeitweise auch am Eingang, verhielt sich in etwa exponentiell reziprok proportional zum Gesamtpreis der Produkte. Wir (my Finnish lover and me) kamen dann auch zu spät zur Runde, aber zum Glück waren die Pairings noch später dran.
Heute waren wir (my Finnish lover and me and someone else) bei der Wrong Noodle Bar. Ich dachte mir nichts dabei, als ich eine große Nudel bestellte. Ja, dann haben wir mehr als die Hälfte meiner Nudel eingepackt bekommen.
Als ich eine Partie später die Nudel essen wollte, bemerkte ich ein hübsches Muster an der Papierschachtel, die an Fettflecken erinnern sollten. Es stellte sich heraus, dass es Fettflecken waren.
Es gibt gerade kein Bier und nachdem ich kein Bier getrunken haben werde, werde ich nicht besoffen geworden sein.
Mehr Interessantes gab es in meinem Leben nicht.
Wie man vielleicht leicht merkt, habe ich wirklich keine Ahnung, worüber ich schreiben soll :P
(Die Sachen klingen vielleicht belanglos, sind aber sehr wichtige Ereignisse in meinem Leben.)
Ich habe 3:2 gespielt und verliere voraussichtlich 10,5 GoR. Ich schreibe dies am Strand, während die anderen Strandvolleyball am Strand spielen. Mir fällt nichts ein, was ich schreiben soll. Laura meinte, ich sollte etwas auf deutsch schreiben. Sie ist sichtlich beeindruckt von Futur 2.
Gestern war alles im H&M um 50 % reduziert. Ich habe einen flauschigen Plüschpulli erstanden. Die Länge der Schlange bei der Kassa, zeitweise auch am Eingang, verhielt sich in etwa exponentiell reziprok proportional zum Gesamtpreis der Produkte. Wir (my Finnish lover and me) kamen dann auch zu spät zur Runde, aber zum Glück waren die Pairings noch später dran.
Heute waren wir (my Finnish lover and me and someone else) bei der Wrong Noodle Bar. Ich dachte mir nichts dabei, als ich eine große Nudel bestellte. Ja, dann haben wir mehr als die Hälfte meiner Nudel eingepackt bekommen.
Als ich eine Partie später die Nudel essen wollte, bemerkte ich ein hübsches Muster an der Papierschachtel, die an Fettflecken erinnern sollten. Es stellte sich heraus, dass es Fettflecken waren.
Es gibt gerade kein Bier und nachdem ich kein Bier getrunken haben werde, werde ich nicht besoffen geworden sein.
Mehr Interessantes gab es in meinem Leben nicht.
Wie man vielleicht leicht merkt, habe ich wirklich keine Ahnung, worüber ich schreiben soll :P
(Die Sachen klingen vielleicht belanglos, sind aber sehr wichtige Ereignisse in meinem Leben.)
Freitag, 30. Juli 2010
Justice
I lost the 4th round very fairly to Pikku-Jussi. He played cool moves in the fuseki and I never recovered from the disadvantage of my uncool moves.
The last (5th) round finished very fairly too. S. Fenech, the Petanque Xiangqi World Champion, played a joseki that he didn't know and couldn't recover from his disadvantage either.
Only 1 out of 5 of my games ended in unfair results. It seems that my Go has gotten kind of solid.
Either that or my sense of justice needs to be adjusted, a little bit.
As I envisioned, we played Mahjong. I have an awesome paper Mahjong set.
The last (5th) round finished very fairly too. S. Fenech, the Petanque Xiangqi World Champion, played a joseki that he didn't know and couldn't recover from his disadvantage either.
Only 1 out of 5 of my games ended in unfair results. It seems that my Go has gotten kind of solid.
Either that or my sense of justice needs to be adjusted, a little bit.
As I envisioned, we played Mahjong. I have an awesome paper Mahjong set.
Mittwoch, 28. Juli 2010
The Finnish system
Today there is no main tournament game, so I kind of did nothing but sleep.
Yesterday, before we went to the bars, we were hanging around with a lot of Go players in the park just next to the school. As usual, people drank a lot of beer and more beer, so there were a lot of empty cans and bottles to be disposed of.
Finnish cans and bottles have a 15 to 40 cent deposit value, probably one of the reasons they are so expensive. But the dudes who introduced this were very thoughtful.
Some guy who looked like a beggar approached us and picked up all the empty cans and bottles that he could find. He even asked us to give him our empty cans and bottles.
I conclude that he either did this for the deposit, or to keep the park clean from empty cans and bottles. Maybe both.
I have to admit that this bottle deposit system proves very effective. It makes picking up trash in the park have a double purpose. In Go too, we are looking for moves that serve as many and effective purposes as possible.
Yesterday, before we went to the bars, we were hanging around with a lot of Go players in the park just next to the school. As usual, people drank a lot of beer and more beer, so there were a lot of empty cans and bottles to be disposed of.
Finnish cans and bottles have a 15 to 40 cent deposit value, probably one of the reasons they are so expensive. But the dudes who introduced this were very thoughtful.
Some guy who looked like a beggar approached us and picked up all the empty cans and bottles that he could find. He even asked us to give him our empty cans and bottles.
I conclude that he either did this for the deposit, or to keep the park clean from empty cans and bottles. Maybe both.
I have to admit that this bottle deposit system proves very effective. It makes picking up trash in the park have a double purpose. In Go too, we are looking for moves that serve as many and effective purposes as possible.
Dienstag, 27. Juli 2010
Why do I play Go?
The third round has passed very peacefully. I won very fairly again. As the balance of fair and unfair games has to be maintained, my next game will end with an unfair result again.
We (the young and promising Go players of Europe and the promising Go player of Europe) have just studied trick plays for 3 hours. Some of us are searching for their lost brain.
One of my fans has asked me to write about why I play Go. My answers to this question would be quite random, so I will refer to a conversation instead that I had with a Taiwanese guy today. We talked about a lot of stuff, amongst others he told me why Taiwanese kids don't play go:
1) It is in black and white. (Computer games have more colours.)
2) You have to stay seated for a long time.
3) You have to use the brain.
Somehow I can't help worrying that the masses of Non-Go-players in Europe is endangering the existence of this game in Europe. How can we help the game to get more players?
Let's unite our power and annihilate the Non-Go-players!
*a*ar owes me a hug.
Update: We went out tonight to hang around with the cool Go players in bars. It is Prodi's first time to go out drinking. Jussi massaged me when I was drunk=D
We (the young and promising Go players of Europe and the promising Go player of Europe) have just studied trick plays for 3 hours. Some of us are searching for their lost brain.
One of my fans has asked me to write about why I play Go. My answers to this question would be quite random, so I will refer to a conversation instead that I had with a Taiwanese guy today. We talked about a lot of stuff, amongst others he told me why Taiwanese kids don't play go:
1) It is in black and white. (Computer games have more colours.)
2) You have to stay seated for a long time.
3) You have to use the brain.
Somehow I can't help worrying that the masses of Non-Go-players in Europe is endangering the existence of this game in Europe. How can we help the game to get more players?
Let's unite our power and annihilate the Non-Go-players!
*a*ar owes me a hug.
Update: We went out tonight to hang around with the cool Go players in bars. It is Prodi's first time to go out drinking. Jussi massaged me when I was drunk=D
Montag, 26. Juli 2010
Second Day
Today I won very fairly against Pål from Sweden. I came up with a new move during the game which finally reverted to a known trickplay. Unfortunately Csaba, pronouncedちゃば, 6d, busted it when I showed it to him afterwards. So my move didn't even survive one day. But maybe I can still sell it to breakfast.
I haven't had time yet to check whether breakfast won by 0.5 or not.
Btw yesterday I forgot to write that someone actually mistook me for a pro. I was reviewing a game for my Finnish lover when some random guy joined. After I finnished the review, he asked me to review his game, in case I had a humble little time for him. He was obviously shocked when he heard that I was not pro. Apparently some of my move suggestions and ideas have pleased him very well. It took him by surprise when I showed him my 3d name badge and he was seriously impressed when I showed him the other side of the name badge which was 2k.
He told me he was 4d and suddenly his interest for a review has faded.
To the games that have been played I shall add volleyball, Settlers of Catan, Poker and soon Mahjong.
Yesterday I got drunk too fast, so Namii couldn't treat me a beer, but I am sort of drinking it now. It's getting hot in the room...
I haven't had time yet to check whether breakfast won by 0.5 or not.
Btw yesterday I forgot to write that someone actually mistook me for a pro. I was reviewing a game for my Finnish lover when some random guy joined. After I finnished the review, he asked me to review his game, in case I had a humble little time for him. He was obviously shocked when he heard that I was not pro. Apparently some of my move suggestions and ideas have pleased him very well. It took him by surprise when I showed him my 3d name badge and he was seriously impressed when I showed him the other side of the name badge which was 2k.
He told me he was 4d and suddenly his interest for a review has faded.
To the games that have been played I shall add volleyball, Settlers of Catan, Poker and soon Mahjong.
Yesterday I got drunk too fast, so Namii couldn't treat me a beer, but I am sort of drinking it now. It's getting hot in the room...
First Day of EGC
The first post of this blog is late by one day, and misses an introduction. The reasons shall be explained in unforeseeable future.
I arrived at Tampere yesterday. It was quite easy to find the tournament site as it seems that everything cool (including our accomodation) in this city is located on the road connecting the railway station and the school(s) where the tournament takes place. Besides Go, people also play football, frisbee, various weird card games, Mafia (btw the Mafia always wins)...
I've also met many of my friends, some nice people and some pretty people as well as some nice and pretty people.
By the time I am writing this on paper, the first round has already finished. Approximately half of the participants won their game the other half probably lost theirs. I belong to the latter, unfortunately. I lost to a female Korean 7d who is called Kang Samm Fing (I don't remember her name... I hope she won't read this :D), on board 3. The playing rooms are spread in three buildings, with the boards 1-100 located in a school, about 5 minutes walking distance from the registration venue (yes I walk very slowly). As for this venue, the lower the board number, the more stairs one has to climb so that the top boards literally are on the top.
In my game I have once again proved my psychological weakness in tournament games. Rather than a weakness, although not a strenght either, I could call it a special ability.
My opponent Kang was female, as mentioned. A lot of people think she is hot, so as she probably does too, I was able to use reverse psychology, making her think that I think she was hot and that I would get distracted. She also played very fast, I heard she always does.
After the fuseki, as was expected, I was behind. This time it was because I made a big unintended sacrifice. This is when my ability comes into play. When I am behind, I start finding good moves, and my opponent actually started using her time. I managed to punish her overplays and eventually she died unintentionally as well, quite bigly too. Eventually I was ahead (Jussi told me later by 15 points). Now that I am ahead, my ability causes a brainfreeze. Suddenly a semeai happened between my stones and my stones (ones that I supposedly captured). When I came to my senses, there was a huge seki on the board laughing straight at my face. This is the story of how Kang Samm Fing, 7d, won her first round in the main tournament of the Zhuyeqing Tea European Go Congress Tampere 2010.
By the way, for some sophisticated reasons Japanese rules with 6.5 komi are applied in the tournnament.
The news of the day for me is that breakfast, 3p, lost his game by 0.5 points to Cornel, 6d. According to the oracle, breakfast will win his next game by 0.5.
random facts: Today Namii will treat me a beer^_^
I finally hugged Prodi, accomplishing a mission that was assigned to me 2 years ago.
A*** sucks [smiley, flower, flower] (By *a**a)
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