Having 20 years of experience on ...

By Rob Van Zeijst

Having 20 years of experience on the job is pointless if it merely means that the experience of the first year is repeated 20 times on an annual basis. It is important to master new techniques, take on fresh challenges and reflect on mistakes to keep improving. The ultimate step might be to incorporate all accumulated knowledge by using appropriate measures tailored to the job at hand. Last week, we said the difference between young pros and veterans lies not in whether they are familiar with certain techniques, but in how well they use them as part of the bigger picture.

This is apparent in the games of one of Japan's brightest hopes, 15-year-old Shunpei Uchida, 1-dan. He triumphed over Daisuke Seto, 6-dan, in the Nakano Cup, before going down to defeat to eventual winner Yuta Iyama.

In the following game, Uchida plays current Tengen titleholder Keigo Yamashita. He took the black stones and was given a two-stone handicap.

Diagram 1 (Black 1 is represented by the two marked handicap stones): Black 13 might be better at A. After strengthening his stones 4, 6 and 8, White can invade at B, which would be a serious problem for Black. Black 15 might be better at 16--this threatens the cut at C, followed by the sequence white D, black E, white F and black H or G. Black 17 is an aggressive move. How did White deal with this invasion and what will Black's follow-up be? We will continue this game next week.

Hints for improving your game

Do not be tempted to play moves just because they are sente (keeping the initiative). Often such moves lead to a lack of liberties with disastrous results.

Diagram 2: The exchange of the marked stones leads to damezumari (lack of liberties) for Black.

Diagram 3: Because of this exchange, White can play at 1. Black has little choice but to connect at 2, after which White starts a ko with 3.

Solution to last week's problem

Solution 1A: Black 1 is a strong move. White's only defense is 2 and 4, but this allows Black to play at 5 to start a ko. White will take the ko first with 6. Without the exchange of the marked stones there would be no ko. Therefore, this was a bad exchange.

Solution 1B: White can follow the sequence shown here, but after black 7, it will be a ko anyway. This is an even worse situation than in Solution 1A.

Solution 1C: This is what the board looks like after the moves in Solution 1B. White cannot play at A because of damezumari, due to the exchange of the marked stones. At this point, White can only play at B, but this time Black will take the ko first by playing at A.

Solution 2A: This is a complicated problem. Because of the exchange of the marked stones, Black can invade with 1, leading to the sequence through 8. He now has three options. First, he can play at 4, making seki. Second, he can play at A and later at B and C to start a ko, if he has many ko threats. Third, he can wait for White to initiate a solution. However, White cannot really do anything except hope Black does not have many ko threats.

Solution 2B: Without the A-B exchange, White 4 is a good move. If Black responds with 5, white 6 makes seki.

Solution 2C: Instead, Black can also play on the other side with 5. White 6 is an interesting move now. Black captures with 7, but...

Solution 2D: White would recapture with 8. If Black connects underneath with 9, white 10 nets the two marked black stones--now it becomes evident the exchange A for B is bad for White because it leads to damezumari. Instead of 9, Black could try C, which would be followed by white 9, black D, white E, black F and white 10, putting five black stones in atari. Again the exchange A for B would be bad for White.

New Problems

Problem 1: Black 1 and 3 may seem to be sente, but this exchange leads to damezumari. How can White profit from this?

Problem 2: This is from a famous game in 1872 in which Shuho Murase (who later became Honinbo) lost a game to Honinbo Shuwa (white) by 3 points due to a blunder involving damezumari. The blunder was the combination 1 and 3, which White took advantage of after black 7. Where did White play?

Want to find out more? Come to Ben's Cafe (03-3202-2445, www.benscafe.com) in Takadanobaba, Tokyo, where the English-speaking go community congregates every Sunday, 11 a.m.-1 p.m.

Van Zeijst is a four-time European go champion and European representative at the Fujitsu World Championship.