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mAsterdam
PageType: HomePage    

47 is way too old to get any good at go. But I'll learn and enjoy it anyway. I did not play 19x19 until february. Bombay teaches me now so I hope to grow 9 stones in an instant and be a DDK no more.

Senseis is an important source to me. Sometimes when there is something I do not understand I get angry. Unlike with books (which I also like), here at senseis this anger can transform into into sensible texts for me and other novices because of (just to name a few) Charles, Bill, unkx80, Andre Engels, Arno and Dieter. You really help me understand. Thank you.

SL journal

April 2003

I find it terribly hard to prioritize. My first stab at contributing is a Priority page. My second the addition of losing (yes one 'o') - thx Charles) habits to Bad Habits. They are mistakes (AntiPatterns?) I recognized I had to lose.

Go go Igo deserved a page.

Then I put up a page I would like to have seen a few months ago. It is a Moves compendium. Charles renamed it elementary moves. Very appropriate, I should have thought of that. And he made it look better.

To a beginner it isn't obvious what up and down refer to.

It seems that people here are so busy with advanced concepts that the basics need a lot of patching up.

May 2003

Both priority and elementary moves are growing into something I like, but there is little feedback. I hoped that people who see what is missing/wrong would add their insights. They do, it does happen, but not by quite as many people as I would like. Neither do many people ask questions about the content. I would like to see more invasion joseki? at SL but I can't write it.

Answers by Charles, Dieter, Fhayashi, Unkx80, Andre Engels to a question (and a rant about style) of mine about 3-3 point shoulder hit, now at BQM87 led to

At Opening systematic classification there was a spinn-off talk about Links in diagrams.

There was a discussion on keywords?. Arno decided to change the list. I gave a list of pages the appropriate (to me - it isn't allways clear) keywords from the new list.

Click! I played on a real board with real stones at de Amsterdamse Go Club, and with real shell stones at the [ext] EGCC.

June 2003

Doing minor edits (adding keywords, relevant links, clearing up) becomes a habit.

At Messages to people currently present in the library I made this remark: "Liberty states that there are two meanings to the word liberty. It continues to describe what I have seen referred to as primary liberty (Dame) and secondary liberty (necessary approach move in semeai). So - I think - this is not a two different meanings issue at all. If a strong go player could confirm, I could edit accordingly." It lead to a long but very interesting discussion on liberty (at secondary liberties discussion and liberty discussion), a re-edit of the liberty page by Bill and Charles made a introductory page.

Another semiotic thingy: Moved some of sagari and all of "tsuke-tobi joseki" to a newly created page, Japlish.

Arno created the possibillity of Links in diagrams. I hope this feature will be used wisely.

Started playing style with a compilation of style related remarks. I hope it will grow. I simply can't make that happen myself.

Rearranged 3-4 point josekis, enclosure josekis. Wrote Board geography.


Temporary

discussion

Here you can leave messages to me and can expect answers - I'll delete all of it when there is closure, or when I move it somewhere else if it is relevant to others.


preparation

thing
property 1 : property 2 : property 3

Playing style

Suspect English Terms

Units/Quantities/Metrics

First moves

To a beginner, the 19x19 board looks huge. Where to play? How to choose from 361 possibilities? Open in the corner. Sure. Which one? Where? Is it important?

It helps to know that there are only five points on the whole board where games actually start [1] (most of the time). They are the named points in the upper right corner.

Named points

[Diagram]
Named points

  • a : 小目 komoku 3-4
  • b : hoshi 4-4
  • c : 三々 sansan 3-3
  • d : 目ハズシ mokuhazushi 3-5
  • e : 高目 taka moku 4-5
  • f : 天元 tengen is the name of the "10-10 point", the only point on the board that is definitely not in any corner. It is rarely played first. Exit Tengen, spotlight on the remaining five.


Most (99% ?) of the first moves are made on these five named starting points. They also have systematic names derived from the linenumbers, lowest number first, but so does e.g. the 7-9 point, which is hardly ever played as a first move.

The second, third and fourth move may be a first move in another corner as well. But a local answer is also possible, as is a local reinforcement. Consequently those first moves in the corner can be made later - most first moves in corners are made on the named points.


Starting points

Assuming most players adhere to the etiquette most of the time, these five points in the upper right corner are the starting points on the board:

[Diagram]
Starting points

  • b: hoshi - hoshi just means star point, and there are nine of those on the board. When starting, however, only the 4-4 point is meant. The move emphasizes influence more than territory
  • c: sansan - San? is three in Japanese, so one could argue that this is just a systematic name, too. Anyway it is played often enough to justify a name of its own. The 3-3 point grabs corner territory immediately, but does not help development in the corner it is played.

[Diagram]
Corner joseki

[Diagram]
komoku kakari


[1] This is what I was looking for when I first clicked Starting points.


moves

direction

手 te - move .

pull?, (BQM88), turn

nozoki (peep)

Pushing in /through: De and Degiri, Atekomi, WariKomi


Test karakters

Oo = 大 ba = 場  kyu= 急

kyu (rank) = 级 and dan = 段.

See [ext] http://igs.joyjoy.net/English/learning_go/go_terms.html and [ext] http://www7.wind.ne.jp/smallbear/igodict/igodict.htm.




This is a copy of the living page "mAsterdam" at Sensei's Library.
(OC) 2003 the Authors, published under the OpenContent License V1.0.