SL Journal

Bill: Sensei's Library covers a broad range of material, not just encyclopedia or dictionary entries. There are no go professional contributors ^[1], but we do have informed amateur opinion, scholarship, pedagogical material, and original research, the kind of material that might appear in a journal. The SL Journal will provide a portal to such material, as well as a venue for commentary and debate.

[1] This is no longer quite true, as Finnish Nihon Ki-in professional Antti Törmänen has added work to SL in the past, eg. on the karai page (although it's unclear whether he was yet a professional when writing there).

I will start with adding a couple of pages, and will add others from time to time. (Adding a page does not mean that I agree with the opinions expressed.) Please add pages as you see fit, as well as commentary and opinion. Write a Letter to the Editor. :)

Currently the Journal is a path, but we will probably want to add more structure as time goes on.

Rules

• Ancient Chinese Rules and Philosophy -- At first, Zhang Hu's page seemed highly speculative, but scholarship seems to bear him out on ancient wei qi scoring.
• Kee Rules of Go -- Kee develops rules for 2 players, or more!
• Fighting Ko And Disturbing Ko /Logical Definition -- Yours truly takes a crack at understanding Ing Rules.

Teaching

• Stone Counting Teaching Method -- What is the best way to teach beginners? Stone Counting lasted as a form of wei qi into the 20th century in China. This page describes it and examines the pros and cons of using it to teach beginners.
• Dieter Verhofstadt/Teaching experiences -- Dieter shares lessons that he has learned about teaching go. "There is no single method that works, because the audience and the conditions can widely vary, but there are definitely methods that don't work."
• Hu's Teaching Method -- As the title says.
• Triplet of Triplets -- Hu's strategies for beginners.
• Distance Teaching -- Scartol gets his students not to play on one of the adjacent points or diagonals of the opponent's stones too early. Which may or may not be a good idea, since most go plays are of that ilk. My thoughts are at
• Bill Spight / Basic Close Patterns
• How to Count Liberties -- Yours truly gives the basics of counting moves to capture. It is easier than you might think. :)
• Bill Spight / Improvement

Opening

• The Basics of Fuseki -- Rules of thumb from Thaddeus Olczyk. Discussion by Charles Matthews, Dnerra, et al.

Endgame

• When to play a reverse sente

Original problems

• Tim Hunt has composed some creative problems. :)
• Beginner Exercises
• Kyu Exercises -- Many, if not most of the beginner and kyu exercises were composed by Unkx80.

Computers

• Some Philosophical Questions about Computers and Go -- by Anonymous. The title speaks for itself.
• The Robotic Solution to Bringing Online Go Into The Real World -- AlamoGo36. An opinion essay on the steps necessary to play anyone in the world with your real goban and stones.

Essays

• Desirability of Outcomes in Local Life and Death -- Alex Weldon gives rules of thumb for L&D assessing outcomes.
• Does Kikashi Gain Nothing? -- Kikashi is sente, and Sente Gains Nothing, so kikashi gains nothing, right? Maybe it is not so simple. Yours truly talks about what Sakata said about the value of kikashi, followed by a brief discussion with Charles Matthews.
• Never Wrestle with a Pig -- Alex Weldon talks about how to deal with players who are greedy, but fight well. With comments by Dieter.
• Dieter/Go and tennis -- Dieter makes some telling comparisons between two games that, at first blush, do not seem to have much in common.
• An overview of life and death -- SL's problem meister not only shares his thoughts about a central aspect of the game, he also provides a guide to relevant pages on SL and puts them into perspective.
• High Concept Opening Myth -- Charles Matthews takes on common amateur ideas about certain openings. A community discussion ensues.
• How to Lie with Tewari -- Charles Matthews criticizes misapplications of tewari. With some discussion.

Discussions

Community think pieces

• Approaching a life and death problem the right way
• Playing Styles And Player Types -- humor

Pedagogical Paths:

• Big Question Mark
• Amateur Fuseki
• Commented Games
• Commented Professional Games
• Joseki in Context
• Protecting the Cut
• Teaching Methods

External links:

• GoBase
• Unkx80's Go Pages
• Bantari's go pages (active 2007-08, now hosting unrelated material; view latest snapshot here)