Malweth’s Metablog

I describe fighting spirit as an emotion. It is the feeling that will not let us connect unless absolutely necessary. It is what gives us the direction of play.

I’ve begun reading “The Direction of Play” by Takeo Kajiwara. I’ve realized that I’ve already been playing my openings as he describes. I had to think a bit on it, but I’ve come to the decision that my fighting spirit is the drive behind this play.

I must admit that it takes a beginner a long time to understand the givev and take required in the opening. Many people say that you should allow your opponent to have some territory - that one of the problems with beginners is that they believe the whole board is theirs and that any of the opponents’ stones must be eliminated.

I disagree with what the “many people” say. I think this is the wonderful thing about beginners. What most people must not realize is that there is a development process.

I mentioned that one element of beginners is that they believe the whole board is theirs. Dispense first with the “kill everything” notion: the problem beginners have is that they don’t know what can’t be killed, nor what isn’t worth killing… these notions can be learned only through play and tsumego.

Now return to “the whole board is theirs.” This statement is more profound. “Who owns the empty board?” It is a koan, but my answer is “you, the player.” My fighting spirit dictates that, before the first move is played, I have 361 points. Why is this important? Because the one starting with 180 points is not trying to win.

I should first state that the nihon kiin ranking system is overrated. This is no major issue - I was only happy to find out that shodan is still as renowned as in any other ranking system. In any event, rank does not matter. It plays into this narrative, but my assumptions of Rank correlation between any two systems is not the point written.

In all of my games I suffer an amount of greed. This much is becoming more and more obvious to me. This is the first emotion under discussion. It is incorrect to rely on the reading ability of one’s opponent. My first game at the kiin was against a 2-kyu. I registered as a 3-kyu and therefore had black. My opponent’s first mistake was at move four, and subsequently at moves six and eight. Once I had the beginnings of a grand moyo the game was over. In this game it was my opponent’s greed that pounded the final nail. He played some big yose in another part of the board which allowed me to make a killing move.

In game two, I nigiri with a 1-kyu and took W with komi. In this game the problem was my own greed. I should have connected the large portion of my group and allowed my opponent to connect out in gote. At least luck was with me: I made a ko with my dead group and took equal compensation elsewhere. My middle game technique was good and his yose very poor, allowing me a win by about 10 moku before komi.

In my final match, a no komi game as Black against a 2-dan, I played a perfect game (for me) and my opponent played as a chicken with her head cut off. After two large kills, yose was completed before she announced her loss (though the Japanese took some time to understand).

Affording no disrespect for my opponents, in all of the games, except perhaps the second, the element missing was fighting spirit.

Not gaining stone, and not getting stoned…

I’m getting stones! I’m on business for a few weeks upcoming, and on my return trip, I’m stopping in Tokyo for a weekend. The wonderful goishiten, Kuroki Goishi, will be delivering my Go Ishi (with bowls) to my hotel in Tokyo! I am really looking forward to the Tokyo trip (even though I am only staying a few nights), and especially my new Go Stones.

I also can’t wait to visit and play at the Nihon Kiin! I really hope their shop is open - I want to buy an autographed fan (Go Seigen or Takemiya) and lots of 囲碁本.

Taiwan is my business destination, but I’ve lost hope on playing go there - I managed to find a go salon in Taipei one time, but I’m not going to be very close to Taipei and, aside from CKS airport, I’m probably not going to visit there at all on this trip! Wish I could find one in Tainan…

In any event, hopefully this trip goes well - especially from a weiqi & igo standpoint Pray for no typhoons in Taiwan & Japan!!!