ProtoDeuteric/ Shape Game

Sub-page of ProtoDeuteric

Here is a method of teaching (and learning) Go that snapback [- ], who claims to be 4 kyu, showed me on KGS. It is called the Shape Game and here is how you play. Snapback told me that when you master this game, you will improve at least three stones.


The Shape Game: Ground Rules

[Diagram]

Shapes

The shape game is a game in which you can only make moves that result in these shapes in the diagram. Starting with the top row, from left to right, the shapes are as follows: the bamboo joint, the table shape, the mouth shape, the tiger's mouth, the diamond, the "mouse's face," the dog's head (or, in some cases, the empty sake bottle), the keima from a kosumi, a keima ogeima formation, and the "open snake's mouth." I think that there is another shape that you can make, but I cannot remember it. It is rare enough that it shouldn't really matter anyway.

[Diagram]

Starting Layout

The game starts with a pinwheel at the center. From here, black starts play. The following are the first thirty moves from the first shape game I played with snapback.


The Shape Game: Game One

White: snapback
Black: lithogamy

[Diagram]

Moves 1-10

[Diagram]

Moves 11-20

[Diagram]

Moves 21-30


Dieter: I have several comments here

  1. I used to believe that shape was something static, primariliy taking stones of your own colour into account. I do not longer believe this. It is easy to leave the idea of "one colour", it is more difficult to leave the static approach. See A static treatise on shape. It is very likely your tutor got his ideas from my writings which I now suspect myself.
  2. Even with the static approach, a few good shapes are in my opinion lacking
  3. The claim that, one who masters this game will have improved three stones is very unlikely to be true.
  4. I would hence try to improve on this idea, extending the allowed shapes with stones of both colors and shapes that are indeed known as good shape? in most circumstances. For instance
[Diagram]

Missing

This splendid move is forbidden in the shape game as outlined above.

ProtoDeuteric: If you notice, white's two stones also make a forbidden shape as outlined above, so B1 should have never had the chance of being played.

[Diagram]

Missing

Dieter: If you wish, but I do not think that really goes to the point of my complaint. I'm not going through the pains of making up a position that could have been reached. The point is: the rules of this variant, IMO, are too stringent and even flawed, in order to teach good shape. I'm not denying your proposal, only that it can use some refinement.

PtotoDeuteric?: In that case, how do you suggest the rules be changed, while still preserving the integrity of the game, to make a better, more educative variation, the concepts and lessons from which can be applied to the real game of Go?


Alex Weldon: I, too, have a few complaints.

The first is trivial, but could lead to confusion: there is already a different (and, in my opinion, much more useful) Go variant called the Shape Game.

The second is more or less what Dieter said. There is little to be learned about actual shape from playing this game, but it's even worse than he suggests. At least on a static treatise on shape, it's implicit that there are no opponent's stones in the middle of your formation. In the diagram below, we have a perfectly legal move that no one in their right mind would call good shape.

[Diagram]

The Horse's Head?

Furthermore, you can't really learn much about shape unless your opponent is free to attack your shapes however he likes. For instance, White might want to hane at a, but can't.

Lastly, snapback violated the rules of his own game with his very first move (W2 in the first diagram).

ProtoDeuteric: Snapback had to move such that the abovementioned shapes would result. His next move made a dog's head using his first move. Concerning your other complaints, I don't think that I am qualified to argue against them, and I agree with them to some extent. The point of the Shape Game is to realize how much can be done using fundamental shapes. It is a subgame focusing on one aspect of the game, with the intent of strengthening that area.

Bill: I seem to recall that some form of go (Tibetan, maybe) restricted moves to those within a keima of an existing stone (starting from a prescribed postion, OC). I think that such a game, starting from the central pinwheel, could be rather instructive, and would help the players to learn shape. Good shape is about the efficient use of your stones, not about making certain prescribed formations.


This is a copy of the living page "ProtoDeuteric/ Shape Game" at Sensei's Library.
(OC) 2005 the Authors, published under the OpenContent License V1.0.
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