Seeking Tesuji and Intelligent Fighting

(Above: example of a tesuji problem from the Go Seigen-Segoe Kensaku Tesuji Dictionary with the tesuji move solved)
Another day on the go board, another set of lessons and revelations. I took my brief break from Igo (I lasted five days without allowing myself to indulge in any thoughts about the game before I started to dream about sequences,) and now I'm back playing and studying. When I started trying to play on KGS more, I got frustrated really fast because I was loosing to opponents who were making (what I recognized as) inappropriate invasions, or sequences with bad timing-- and yet they were still winning because of my own screw ups in attempt to punish them. But I've realized something important.

The first realization that I had after playing some high handicap games with a 6 dan player, was that really, practically any area that hasn't been heavily fortified can be (with enough fighting skill) reasonably invaded. I believe that accepting this has added yet another level of expirimentation to my play style, and also has relieved my attachment to areas, and opened up my consideration of the whole board a little bit more.

The second realization was that while many players around my level on KGS have very poor strategic understanding, they are typically very good at fighting-- a huge weakness for me because of how I learned to play go. Because I also mostly study direction of play and strategic concepts, I really haven't given enough attention to learning tactical involvement.

Well now I'm looking to change that.

I started off by logging onto KGS and just watching high dan games. And to be perfectly honest, this did way more for me than I thought it ever would. I didn't build their games, or try to count, or finish (too many) sequences-- I just sat and tried to encounter situations. Even more than that, I tried to observe the value system of dan play, which I have discovered to be vastly different, because of how the game changes at that level. In the kyu games that I've seen, one typically doesn't encounter a situation where one plays away from a group in dire trouble, knowing that another area would be slightly bigger if taken unopposed. The stakes are higher, and the value system much moe intense.

Well, it started to make an impression on me. I played a game, just trying to feel the values. I got distracted at a key point in the middle game and fell to a disadvantage, ultimately loosing by 13 (before my opponent, our very own Joel got komi,) it was probably one of the better games I've played, and I encounered a lot of things that I had never seen before. To say the least, I was quite pleased.

Now, something that I didn't mention is that right after I ended my forced vacation from the game, a tesuji book that I ordered arrived. This book, Go Seigen and Segoe Kensaku's Tesuji Dictionary (vol. 1) ( which you can breifly read up on here: http://senseis.xmp.net/?SegoeTesujiDictionary and can be purchased at www.kiseido.com under the Japanese book section) is a very difficult tesuji book, recommended for players from 5 kyu to high amateur dan. The problems are divided both by catagory (kind of tesuji) and difficulty (which ranges from the easiest problems at level C to the hardest at level A.)

I discovered quickly that I could often solve the level C problems, although there was often a variation answer diagram that really surprised and challenged me. The B level problems, I usually got the right spot, or the right idea, but had issues with the execution because I was uncertain about the mechanics or the values of certain items. Lastly, for the A level problems, I sometimes couldn't even tell where the conflict was because I considered groups unkillable or totally dead. The first A level problem resolved itself on the 23rd move, and the tesuji itself appeared on the 11th.

After a couple cumulative hours of watching dan level games for exposure, and having the benefit of the answers in my lovely book adjusting my value system, I've found that I'm already starting to see a lot more in the B level problems, and my direction for some of the A level problems was a little better, too (although really not by much! haha). My plan for now is to play through the book only doing level C and B problems, and then I'll go through a second time and attempt the level A problems also, although I expect i'll mostly be just analyzing the answer diagrams. Sometime in the near future, I hope to do a thorough book review on this text, although the book is perhaps a little unreasonable for Americans, because it has to be imported, and that means high prices. I probably won't buy any more of the series until I'm in Japan and can find a way to pick it up for its native price of roughly $20.

So for now, the goal is to study tesuji, watch dan level games, and play pressure handicap games (Leo gave me the idea for this-- if whoever looses two times in a row has to take a stone) at club. I'm looking forward to how my understanding of the game changes.

On a final side note, after trying to find more modern games, and looking back at shusaku games, I'm really shocked at the difference in play style which had never been apparent to me before. Modern games seem to often be so much more straightforward, and I think that until you get to a really high level of professional play, people try to keep things much, much simpler. There also seems to be more emphasis on brute force now. It's really a curious thing. Has anyone else noticed this?

Keep eating wisdom, and make sure to tell me about what you've done to learn how to fight!

-Zack Kaplan