Subscriber

For Mac users who read lots of blogs, or other sites that tend to have frequent updates, my friend David Deutsch has written the indispensible Subscriber program. It will automatically inform you of changes to the sites you visit, so you never have to manually check them yourself. But unlike most subscription features built into browsers, you can customize it so that it only reports changes of substance, rather than, for example, a new ad appearing on the sidebar. It's saved me time worth well in excess of the $9.99 it costs to register, and there's a 30-day free trial.

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Belmont Club

I have added Belmont Club to my list of favorite blogs at right. There is a good post up today which analyzes options for the American response to what happened several days ago in Fallujah.

Dominique vs. David Part 1: A Kakari

DGS Game Page | Part 2 »

As expected, Dominique (white) took one of the remaining corner hoshis. I took the last one.

With move 3, white then played a kakari (approach) against my stone in the topright corner. The question is: how should I respond to this? Points a through h in the diagram below show many of the common responses to this move.

a through e are what are called pincer attacks, assaulting the enemy's stone from the opposing side. White would really like to play an extension at b or c, to build a base against the edge of the board which can be used for making territory, as well as making the eyes necessary for life. The purpose of a pincer attack is to deprive your enemy's stones of such an extension. Now, this does not mean that a pincer attack is an attempt to kill. It is very hard to kill groups of stones in go, and though it does happen, even in professional games, it usually happens because a player decided that it is too expensive to make a group survive, not because they were incapable of doing so. A pincer attack, therefore, is an attempt to increase the cost of survival for your opponent, as well as to limit its territorial potential along the edge.

Of the available pincer attacks, a and b are somewhat calm, whereas something like d or e are quite severe, and immediately start a serious fight, and c is perhaps somewhere in the middle. If black is going to play a pincer here, he must temper his aggressiveness with knowledge of the marked white stone below, which may have an influence on a fight on the right edge of the board, so he should play one of the calmer moves.

Alternatively, black can play a simple extension at f or g. These are the most common responses to the kakari white has played. f, an ikken tobi (one space jump) extension on the fourth line, emphasizes influence and power over the rest of the board, whereas g, a keima (knight's move, as in chess) extension on the third line, emphasizes building territory along the top edge.

A move like h is best reserved for when black has supporting stones in the area. It is the most severe attack on white. White will almost invariably respond with a simple extension one point to the left of 3, and then black must follow up with an extension at f or g, to stabilize his group. If he does not, white can play a very severe attack on black one point to the left of his hoshi stone. While black will survive in the corner, his group will be shut in from the rest of the board, and white will gain power which can be used in subsequent battles. After black stabilizes his group with f or g, white can now play a longer extension than before, thanks to the additional stone black invited him to play to the left of 3. As such, this is a better result for white than he deserved, unless there was already a black pincer stone at, say a (preventing such a long extension by white), or a black stone near f or g, which would make stabilizing the black group less urgent.

DGS Game Page | Part 2 »

Playing Go

I have just started two games on the Dragon Go Server, a web-based Go interface that allows you to play games with very long time limits. The games I'm playing allow roughly one day per turn. So these will be games I'm playing in the background of my life. I'll be able to stop every now and then to think about my next move. I have also challenged Steven Den Beste to such a game. Hey, I can dream.

I am going to provide running commentary here on the games I play on DGS. I will try to make the commentary accessible to people who know little to nothing about Go, while at the same time provide interesting analysis for people who are somewhat skilled at the game. Hope you guys enjoy it!

In my game against Vladimir, I am playing someone who is two stones weaker than me, so he gets two handicap stones. I am waiting to see where he places them.

In my game against Dominique, the player is slightly more than one stone stronger than me, so we can use the great "proper komi/handicap" feature of DGS to make a fine-tuned handicap. I get two handicap stones, but he gets 4 points of komi. If this were an even game, black would go first, and white would get 6.5 points of komi (compensation for the disadvantage of going second). With two handicap stones, I get two moves at first, instead of one, but his komi is reduced by 2.5 points, roughly 1/5th of a move, so it works out to me getting roughly 1.2 handicap stones.

I have placed my two stones on opposite corner hoshi (star) points on the goban (board). Generally speaking, you want to stake out large areas at the beginning of the game. By taking the stars, I have made a dominant presence in that corner, but I have by no means captured it all for myself. Usually it is best to play on or near the corner star points in the beginning of the game. Most likely, Dominique will play near one of the two remaining corner star points, but it is possible he will play a kakari (approach) on one of my stones instead. We'll see what happens.