Cho U, the current Honinbo-title holder, ...
By Rob Van Zeijst
Cho U, the current Honinbo-title holder, and Norimoto Yoda, the holder of the Meijin title, have just played the fourth game in the best-of-seven Meijin title match. Yoda had a good game but in the end the challenger pulled a few decisive punches to even the score 2-2. The winner of the match will take home ¥36 million.
Go and the stock market
Recently, I heard a strong go player liken the stock market to a go game. A person buys stocks on the basis of fundamental analysis, taking into account global economic indicators, as well as reading charts and doing a bit of technical analysis. Go has similar types of analysis, strategy and tactics. Many of my go students base their moves on where their opponent played last, which is similar to chart reading. Often the thinking is that his opponent knows something he doesn't, so he had better answer the move or be sorry later. That may be true if your opponent is much stronger, but your opponent often is as confused as you are. How do you prevent this situation? By knowing where you stand and making a decision on the facts at hand. We call this fact-gathering process positional judgment, which is similar to fundamental analysis.
Diagram 1: (43 connects at 28) The moves through 14 are very unusual. White takes some territory while Black stakes out a huge position at the top. The sequence 19 through 24 also highlights the differences in the players' personalities. Black 25 is a common move and the moves through 33 seem natural. However, 34 through 40 are a good combination by White. Threatening to start a ko, Black plays 41. If White connects at A, black cuts at B and the ko starts. However, Black has a lot of ko threats at 42. That is the reason White plays there. Probably sensing a slight moral victory, Black next connects with 43 at 28, which he took earlier. This is too passive. He should have played at C, forcing White to link up at B. Black 63 concluded the game for that day. White 64 was the sealed move, which is naturally followed by Black's defense at 65. White 66 is a great move. Where should Black play next?
Diagram 2: Let us first analyze the positions. Taking the examples from the book Positional Judgment: High-Speed Game Analysis by Cho Chikun, let's draw borders for each position , with X's for White's positions and the triangles for Black's. The rest is simple counting. Black then has 47+7+4=58 points against White 4+23+28=55+6.5 komi=61.5 points. White, therefore, leads by 3.5 points in terms of territory. What about weak groups? The white and black marked stones still are not alive 100 percent. However, White would not be able to increase his lower edge territory a lot by attacking Black's marked stones. Black has a lot of potential on the right because White's marked stones are weak as well. Next week, we will see how this game progresses.
Solution to last week's problem
Solution 1: The crosses signify the borders of Black's territory. Therefore, in principle, Black's territory is worth about 42 points. What is more, Black could play around A to expand his territory by 18 points to the triangles, or to B for an even more aggressive development. Comparing this situation before Black's last move (the marked stone), we find Black expanded his territory by about 10 points. In other words, there is increased synergy between Black's stones.
Solution 2A: If Black plays at 1, the crosses define the new borders. As we found out last week, the shimari in the upper right is worth about 8-10 points. After black 1, his territory is worth about 23 points. In addition, he can advance to A and expand his territory to the triangles, for an extra six points. Furthermore, he prevents White from doing the same.
Solution 2B: Even if White extends to 2, 3 expands the borders of Black's territory to the crosses, for a total of 35 points, an increase of 12 points. He also threatens to invade at A.
New problem
This is from the final game of the 11th Agon-Kiriyama Cup Lightning Go Open Tournament between Naoki Hane (Black), Kisei-title holder, and Koichi Kobayashi, who has held many titles in the past. The marked black stone can be cut off by the sequence white A, black B and white C. The marked white stones could face an invasion at D. Evaluate the territories and the relative strengths of the various groups. Where do Black and White have the most potential for increasing territory? Where should White move next?