Jonathan Hop's Blog: Sunday Go, page 3

Sunday Go Puzzles!

This week's Go Puzzle
This one is a lot easier than it looks.  The first move should stick out to you, but it will take some careful reading to get the correct sequence.

Solution to Last Week's Puzzle
It's hard to connect to our friendly stones with liberties.  I'd like you to read out the many different ways Black dies now. 

Malkovich Game

So I'm involved in a Malkovich game on the Life in 19x19 forum.  I really love Malkovich games because you can play at your own pace and it's nice to try and explain your thoughts so that others can gain from them.  I've played a few Malkovich games before, but I thought I'd discuss this one  because the direction of play is especially interesting.  Here is how the game has progressed thus far:  I'm White.  So far things are pretty groovy.  Black has a monstrous amount of territory at the top.  He has maybe 35-40 points easy.  It's a lot of points, but I've got my moyo of justice!  Black plays at 39 which is a good move to move into my moyo.  So, my moyo is deep, but thin, whereas Black has locked up a lot of points, but in the process, his framework on the right side is largely broken up or has gaping holes.  I have yet to decide how I'll deal with Black 39.  

In the game Black approached the upper left 3-4 point, but I originally thought he would take the top side.  It's big from his perspective as it gives him a double wing formation, and Black 11 us a huge point to deal with White's territorial framework towards the bottom.  I dunno, Black wasn't bad in the game at all, so this could just be another way to play.  The standard sequence in the upper left was brand new to me though.  I had never seen Black's kosumi there. Normally it goes like this, and I thought it would be decent for both sides, but Black chose a good sequence and I think both sides were not too far off from one another.  We'll see how the game progresses.  I'll have to go into my arcane den of the dark arts of Go and figure out how to deal with Black's attachment...

Sunday Go Puzzles!

This week's Go Puzzle:
  This is a classic problem, you'll find it in just about every intermediate level Go puzzle book.  Think about how to capture White!
Solution to Last Week's Problem
Here's the solution from last time.  Sorry that I missed the past few weeks of Sunday Go Puzzles, but I couldn't get to my computer in time.  The solution to this problem may have been hard to see.  The idea is you have to throw in once then start the ko with 3.

The direct route doesn't work because White can double back and prevent the three stones from being captured.

New Sunday Go Lessons Video: Professional Game Review

Here is a professional game review between Rin Kaiho and Sakata Eiou.  We focus on resisting your opponent's strategy and learn some useful shapes!  If you think you would like to see videos like these, 24/7 for one month for only $1, consider pre-ordering 10 and get 5 free!  Just click on the Kickstarter link to the right.

Kicking off Sunday Go Lessons with Crowdfunding

So, I've put up some sample videos and have been talking about Go for awhile, but now it's time for me to actually get the Sunday Go Lessons Web series up!  To do that, I'm starting a crowdfunding campaign on Indie Go Go, which you can visit here.  The goal is to raise $750 so that I can finish fixing up my studio, get the website done, with some left over for advertising for outreach.  I've paid for most everything so far and have taught myself the joys of video, but just need an extra push from the Go community to get me over the edge.



My videos will have something for everyone.  Game reviews, professional games, lectures on topics like common mistakes or attack and defense.  Some videos will be conventional, some will be a bit on the goofy side.  After all, we're trying to widen the Go playing community.  The main thing that I focus on in lectures is changing the way you think about the game.  The way I learned Go was to forget my mistakes and learn to focus on why certain moves were good.  You literally just forget bad moves and stop considering them which enhances your play dramatically.  It's a good system, and I want to reflect that in the videos.

The videos will be available in multiple languages, because I know from talking to some friends that there is not much out there for French, Spanish, and German speakers as far as Go stuff in their own languages, which makes it harder for them to spread it to a wider audience.

If you decide to donate I will shower you with free videos, review your games, give you awesome advice, and even personally tutor you if that's what it takes.  Heck, if you want to be in a video and can get yourself to Michigan, have at it!

Any Comments?

So this is a game review between two 6 kyus.  I'd love some feedback, as you'll be seeing more videos like this when Sunday Go Lessons is launched in August!

Sunday Go Puzzles!

A week flies right by doesn't it?  I've had a crazy busy week trying to make sure the website is going to be all set when it finally does come up, so the only post I was able to eke out was this one.  Anyways, enjoy this week's Go puzzle.  I'll go easy on you...for this week.

Solution to last week's problem
You really can never go wrong with the kosumi, can you?  The idea of this problem is to save your stone and make sure White's eye stays false.  And using White's shortage of liberties can't hurt either.

Sunday Go Puzzles!

Wow, I almost forgot to put up today's puzzle.  It's not midnight in my time zone, so I can still make it!  Here's today's problem.  It's a doozy:

Well, maybe it's not that bad.  Let's just say the obvious move may not be the best move.
Solution to Last Week's Problem

This problem was tricky because it involves sacrificing so many stones, and visualizing the shape after each sacrifice.  The idea is simple: The lower right corner is a an eye in gote.  That means we have to get rid of one of White's eyes on the left.  In this case, we can create a two way street.  Black 7 threatens White's eye, now if White wants to make a gote eye in the corner, he can't save his other eye.  This one was tricky!

Go Videos - A Sample

So I've got some great news: I finally have enough money to get the Go website going and get some of my first videos online.  I have a brand spanking new HD camera I got super cheap on E-bay (Can we say $150?) and the library down the street will allow me to rent out their presentation room for as long as I'd like for only $25.  You've got to love public libraries.  The only thing I have left to do now is continue filming as best I can and come out with maybe 30 videos to start.  I wanted 10 for beginners, 10 for intermediate level kyu players, and 10 for single digit kyu players so there would be enough for everyone.  As time goes on I'd look at my audience and see what types of videos people would like to see.
Now I bet you're wondering what the videos are going to look like.  Well, let's satisfy that curiosity. This one is a small part of a larger video where I go over a professional game between Masaki Takemiya and Chikun Cho.  Let me know what you think!

The Surrounding Game Movie

There is a great new kickstarter project I wanted to talk about for a bit, and it's called the Surrounding Game Movie.  It's going to be a documentary about the birth of the U.S. Professional Go system.  It's really exciting that someone is going to record this historic event, and I'm also all in for anything that will help spread awareness of the game in the West.  There will be interviews with Go professionals, and you'll probably learn a thing or two about Go in the West that you may not have known.  There are all sorts of great prizes for those who decide to donate, including free DVDs and tickets to go to the screening of the movie.  Take a few minutes, and definitely check it out!