Uxs
Personal Info
My real name is Kris.
I'm from Belgium, and a member of the Go Club in Gent, the city I live in.
I'm supposed to be 17 kyu, give or take a few. DGS seems to confirm this.
I've been playing on DGS a lot. It's fun, but it doesn't seem to make me improve a whole lot. I think it's because there's less of a connection between the bad plays you make and getting punished for them. That's why I'm going to play more on KGS from now on. In accordance with Dieter's Ideas On Improvement, the goal is at least 1 game per day.
You can find me on DGS if you want to play. You should also be able to find me on KGS in the evening (CET).
Thanks to Matt Noonan, I discovered that my Shusaku number is 6: uXs - Dieter Verhofstadt - Miyazawa Goro - Kitani Minoru - Honinbo Shusai - Iwasaki Kenzo - Honinbo Shusaku. Yay !
Stats on kgs: http://lublin.nu/~joncol/
Books I own
I probably have too many...
Theory
- Learn to Play Go (Volume 3 & 4)
Problems
- Graded Go Problems for Beginners (Volume 1 to 3)
Mini progress log
My mini log to track my progress:
- Started playing igowin at the start of 2001, while I was in Athens, officially to study other things than Go.
- Joined KGS at 30 kyu in the beginning of 2002.
- Stopped playing on KGS at about 23 kyu, in april 2002, after about 100 games, mostly rated 19x19, but also some others.
- At about that time, I think I joined the Go club in Gent.
- Joined DGS in december 2003 at 17 kyu. One and a half month later, I have 30 finished games and a rating of about 15 kyu.
- Last weekend on saturday (Januari 31st, 2004), I went to my first tournament: the
2nd Toyota Denso Oza Tournament. I took part in the family event, and finished in 199th place. While not exactly a stellar achievement, it's a start, and I can only improve. Because I only won 1 out of 4 games, I didn't get any prizes for that, but I did win some Go bowls in the lottery afterwards.Since I allready had bowls for my stones, I promptly sold them, so I would've come out with some money left, if only I didn't buy a new book: Invincible - The games of Shusaku. All in all, it was a pleasant experience and I do plan to go to another tournament as soon as a convenient one takes place.
- November 24, 2004. I'm stuck. I've only been playing on DGS and not improving at all. I feel like I keep doing the same moves all the time, more or less playing on autopilot. I should think more, read out more, and not play so automatically. At the same time, I should do more problems, and really should start playing games in real-time again. Turn-based Go is very convenient to play for me, but I guess there's a level of disconnection between playing "wrong" moves and being punished for them. This makes it harder to learn from my mistakes. On top of all that, getting my lazy ass back to the local Go club is a priority too. (axd: shame on you! you don't know the luxury you are enjoying, others don't even have a club (yet) ;-) )
- Oh yeah, I should also try to review some of the games I play, and maybe read another book. So much to do, so little time...
- December 30, 2004. I am playing less on DGS because of a changed work environment. Now to increase the amount of real-time games... I also started to do more problems. Let's hope I see the results of it in the near future.
- New year 2005. After watching 20 episodes of Hikaru No Go, I played some games on KGS.
- Januari 3, 2005. I went to the Go Club, but nobody was there. Not good for my motivation, especially since it's such a long ride to get there.
- Go club gent member 20k?: The club may have changed location since the last time you went, the current location is the "chess café". Anyway I might come monday 10/1, I usually always come, but it's the exam period.
- uxs: It was there. There was some kind of company new year's party going on. No chess boards in sight, let alone a go board.
- Januari 10, 2005. As the weather seems to be fine, I'm going to the Go Club again tonight. Somebody better be there, or I'm gonna be pissed. Last time I tried going, nobody was there and I ended up visiting a friend and watching a documentary about a gay couple in Tel Aviv. I don't really want to repeat that experience.
- Something else: I've been playing on KGS the last few days. Yesterday I lost a game with 10 or so points, but instead of clicking "done" to finalize the score, my opponent resigns. I have no idea why.
- Update: rain ! I'd be soaked if I went now. (I use a bicycle as my primary means of transportation.) So it's a no go...
- Go club gent member 20k?:Rain coat and rain trousers,standard equipment for every belgian biker :).Anyway I was there, nobody came, which was my first time that happened to me in the 3-4 months i've been going to the club. I won't be going to the club for the next month(exams, duh).
- uxs: Yeah... maybe if it wasn't so damn far.
- August 9, 2005. I'm too lazy to go to the club, apparently. I'm trying to memorize some of Shusaku's games. Well, one of them. The beginning is easy, did 20 moves just tonight. We'll see how long I can keep it up.
- September 5, 2005. Not long, it seems. I did go to 100 or so moves. I'm going back to the Club tonight. They moved, so it's closer to where I live. (I went last week too, I won 2/2 games, yay.) Also, I subscribed to KGS Plus.
- September 13, 2005. Rank is going up on DGS. I wonder if I can keep it up, and if my KGS rank will follow.
Graphs and games
Ranking graphs are nice but can be depressing:
Reference of Go terms and concepts
Technical
Game
- Byo Yomi
- "Reading the seconds". When time is almost up, the timekeeper counts the remaining seconds aloud. Traditional in Japanese title matches. In the west, the term is (wrongly) used for the Japanese time system. (Incidently, the Western Japanese time system is also a bad interpretation of the actual system.)
- Goban
- The board on which Go is played.
- Jigo
- A drawn game.
- Komi
- A 'points' allowance give to White in a even game to compensate Black for having the first move.
- Nigiri
- A method of fairly choosing something using Go stones: One player picks up an unseen handful of white stones. The second player says odd or even. If he is correct, the second player gets to choose otherwise the first player chooses. When used to select colour in even games, if the second player is correct, he gets Black.
Phases
Points - Areas
- Moku
- A point on the board. Also used in scoring.
- Dame
- A neutral point, of no value to either player.
- Eye
- A point or group of points, completely surrounded by stones of one player. Two eyes are needed for a group to be alive. (Ignoring seki situations.) For more info, see eyes.
- Territory
- Empty points, completely surrounded by a player's live stones at the end of the game, are considered territory of that player.
Ranks
- Shodan
- One-dan level.
- Dan
- Master rank.
- Kyu
- Student rank.
- Insei
- Japanese student studying to be a professional.
Other basic terms
- Atari
- The state of having only one liberty left.
- Joseki
- A standardised sequence of moves, usually in a corner.
- Tenuki
- To abandon the local position and play elsewhere.
- Tesuji
- A good move.
Points
- 3-3
- San-san.
- 3-4
- Komoku.
- 3-5
- Mokuhazushi.
- 3-6
- Oomokuhazushi.
- 4-4
- Hoshi (actually all star points, but 4-4 when talking about Joseki).
- 4-5
- Takamoku (literally: "high point").
- 4-6
- Ootakamoku.
- 5-5
- Gonogo.
- 10-10
- Tengen.
Connections
Straight
Nobi.
Diagonal
Knight's moves
Keima, Knight's Move; Kogeima, Small Knight's Move?.
Enclosures
A Shimari is a (Corner) Enclosure.
Non-basic connections
Empty Triangle - this is (almost always) bad shape !
Almost bamboo joint?.
Nessie's Face, Giraffe's Face.
Tactics
Moves against stones of the opponent
Boshi: A capping move. Usually played at a one space interval above an enemy stone.
Hane: A move that 'bends round' an enemy stone, leaving a cutting point behind.
Hane tsugi: A hane () followed by a connection (
).
Hasami, Pincer: A move () which attacks an invading stone (
) from both sides.
Kakari: Approach move () against a single stone (
) in the corner. The diagram shows a keima kakari.
Magari, Bend. Move that bends around an enemy stone, leaving no cutting points.
Peep: See diagram. Both and
are peeps.
Ponnuki: Diamond shape that results from the capture of a single stone. In the example, white's capture of a black stone at "a" creates a ponnuki.
is a Shoulder Hit.
Life & Death, Capturing
Ko. Example: captures a black stone at "a". Black is not allowed to retake at "a", because that would repeat the previous position.
Seki: A local stalemate between two or more groups dependent on the same liberties for survival. In the example, the marked groups are in seki.
- Semeai
- A race to capture between two adjacent groups that cannot both live. In the example, whoever has sente will win the semeai.
Shicho: A ladder. In the example, assuming an otherwise empty board, white can't escape.
Geta: A net. In the example, creates a net, from where the marked white stones can't escape.
Snapback. Putting your opponent in atari with a stone that is in atari itself, but if the opponent would capture your sacrificial stone, he would still be in atari.
Tsumego are Go Problems. Most often they are about Life and Death.
Strategic concepts
Concepts
- Aji
- Latent possibilities left behind in a position.
- Aji keshi
- A move which destroys one's own aji (and is therefore bad).
- Amarigatachi
- A position where you were apparently attacking nicely and pushing the opponent around, but you either let the opponent live or got a trivial profit.
- Damezumari
- Shortage of liberties.
- Furikawari
- A trade of territory or groups.
- Haengma
- Fuzzy Korean concept of moves.
- Hamete
- A basically unsound move which complicates the situation. Often the obvious answer to a hamete is bad and it is difficult to see the right way to play. Also "trick play".
- Honte
- "The proper move". Used of a seemingly slow but solid move that leaves no bad aji.
- Kikashi
- A move which creates aji while forcing a submissive reply.
- Miai
- Two points related to each other such that if one player takes one of them, the opponent will take the other one.
- Moyo
- A potential territory.
- Nakade
- Play inside the opponent's group's eye space that kills it.
- Oiotoshi
- "Connect and die"
- Oshitsubushi
- A way of countering nakade.
- Sabaki
- "Skilful process successfully handling an awkward situation".
- Shape
- Shape.
- Suji
- Fuzzy Japanese concept of moves.
Conflicting objectives or terminology
Good
You want to be Strong and Thick, but also Light.
Bad
You don't want to be Heavy or Overconcentrated, but also not Weak or Thin.
- Note: This section is probably not entirely correct.