Life and Death building blocks
Go is like building blocks. You start out with two blocks and you can make a tower. Start adding in more blocks in varying shapes and amazing creations can result. Life and death isn’t one of those blocks… but the shapes involved are!
There are hundreds and thousands of different shapes that generate or take away eyespace. One of the intermediate techniques is the “J-Group,” which involves a shortage of liberties to take away an eye in sente. An advanced application of this takes away one of two eyes in sente or both eyes in gote. This means that a group that has a potential of three eyes can be reduced to only one!
These building blocks are important to dermine the health of your groups. One of the biggest complaints I’ve always had with this is when it’s more “open ended” - for example, your group is surrounded and you have a very loosely defined area… there are many more paths that can be taken to reduce your eyespace. This can be considered the most advanced application of Life and Death - something we become better at as our reading becomes better.
The question I have is where the difference between the previous example and advanced tesuji problems lie. Personally, I think there is no difference. In tesuji there are other common, simple shapes that become more advanced with tougher applications. A cut is simple when attaching and extending, but a cut of a loose group can be more complicated. With regards to loose Life & Death: the shapes are different, but the process is the same.
I find that this really does relate to actual games. I play frequently on turn based go servers, but I find that I play faster on those servers than I do in face to face or even real-time online games! Why don’t I sit back and ask myself the questions I should be asking (can XYZ be cut off? Is ABC in trouble and need to live? Will I be cut off soon?) I trust my intuition and end up losing games that other people decide to sit back and actually analyze. This isn’t to say that “playing for fun” isn’t ok, but the strive we have is to improve our play, not to become automatons…
To some degree I believe that fast play is essential. It is a test of our abilities under the stress of time constraints. If I can’t read through a solution in an adequate time (10 seconds or so in most games) than I need to fall back on intuitive play. This should not always be the case, though. When the situation warrents it, and when the time is available, the situation should be read out to the best of my ability. This falls into line with my theory on tsumego:
There are three types of tsumego, but to make things simple you can even split it into two types:
Type I: problems that, according to your ability, range from “my god that problem is so easy I don’t even have to think” to “hmmm… tricky, but you can’t fool me that easy” (e.g. 5-15 second problems).
Type II: problems that, after a minute or three, have you pulling out your hair saying “I must be a fricking moron, but that problem is totally impossible.”
These problems should be mixed! Preferably approximately 90% (Type I) to 10% (Type II). Both problems should be read out completely before even thinking about looking at the solution (and Type II problems should have the solution under lock and key until you’re positive you know what the answer is). I’m toying with the thought that these problem types should be mixed. In other words, you should complete ten Type I tsumego, then spend a max of 1-2 min on a single Type II problem. Read out as much as you can on the Type II, but GIVE UP on it (don’t look at the solution) and move on. The purpose of these problems isn’t to answer them! The process of trying as many things as you can think of is most important (knowing the answer from its book solution will prevent this process).
Therefore, my L&D/tesuji workout includes:
Type I) Childrens Korean Go Institute Problem Book 3+4 (section 2, L&D)
Type II) Segoe’s Tesuji Dictionary Volume lower (3rd Volume on Sensei’s)
Other) Fujisawa’s Tesuji Dictionary Volume 1-3
Fujisawa’s is “other” because, firstly it’s on order, and secondly I believe it is supposed to be a treatise on tesuji with examples more than a problem book… we’ll see when I get it (look for the review)!