Showing posts with label quotes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label quotes. Show all posts

Tuesday, February 4, 2014

Attack and Defense Tips

I've just finished reading the excellent book Attack and Defense by Ishida and Davies, which is part of the Elementary Go Series from Kiseido.

My purpose is not give you a book review (which you can find here.), but an excerpt from chapter 10, that is a pretty good summary of the whole book. If you haven't done so, do yourself a favor and read the book, for a detailed explanation of each mentioned item.

Chapter 1. Take account of the balances of territory and power. If you are behind in territory but ahead in power, play aggressively: invade, cut, attack, and fight. If you are ahead in territory but behind in power, play defensively: play safe.

Chapter 2. When attacking, instead of just trying to kill one enemy group, look for dual purpose moves, or moves that attack two groups at once.

Chapter 3. Attack with non-contact plays. Don't touch what you are attacking. Know the eye-stealing and angle tesujis and the capping, peeping and knight's attacks.

Chapter 4. For defense, use ordinary moves if possible before you are attacked. If you find yourself in trouble, use contact plays and shoulder moves to extricate yourself.

Chapter 5. Play forcing moves, then leave them; treat forcing stones as expendable. Look for ways to resist your opponent's forcing moves.

Chapter 6. Use inducing moves to raise the efficiency of your stones.

Chapter 7. In dealing with enemy frameworks, play lightly and flexibly, taking advantage of weaknesses. Consider relations with surrounding areas (junction points, weak groups, etc.).

Chapter 8. Even within the confines of a three-space extension there are many invasion josekis. Know the meaning of the first two moves, at least, so you can choose among them.

Chapter 9. Avoid adversely one-sided and very indirect kos. In an all-dominating ko, ignore any (non-local) ko threat.
Other quotes that I find insightful:
Fight, invade, and try to generate confusion - the strategy to follow when one is territorially behind is exactly the opposite of the strategy when one is ahead. p.12
At one extreme we have the player who is so jealous of his own territory that he protects it against the slightest incursion; who constantly forgoes attack in favor of defense; who loses through timidity. At the other extreme we have the player whose jealousy engulfs the whole board; who tries not to let his opponent have any territory at all; who usually ends up loosing large groups of overextended stones. These people are deluded. They understand the concept of 'territory', but they lack the faintest inkling of the meaning of 'balance'. p.12
Territory tends to fall naturally to the side that holds the balance of power. p.32
A struggle for power is basically a struggle for eye space. p.34

Sunday, January 5, 2014

Mottos

Over at Senseis Library is a page full of interesting mottos. Below are the ones I liked most:

"Timidity, foolhardiness, jealousy, inconstancy, impatience.... just as in day to day life, in Go too, these emotions drive the course of encounters between players. Their relative
strengths are insignificant, in comparison." 

"Whether you win a game or lose it is a matter of fate at the time. What really counts is whether or not you played good moves."
"Amateurs' go comes from pleasure, professionals' go comes from suffering."
"You see - I strongly believe that Go is a game of balance, that there are no best moves in the absolute sense, and that for every move you make you incur a certain loss which together with the gain this move brings constitutes the value of the move. In other words - no matter how good your move, it cannot simultaneously do everything you would like to do at the same time, and so certain goals must be sacrificed in order to reach other goals. To be aware of those little sacrifices is, to me, a sign of understanding of the game and maturity of a person as a player. To be able to choose which goals are worth sacrificing is a sign of playing strength." 
Dieter quoting Bantari

"Tactics is knowing what to do when there's something to do. Strategy is knowing what to do when there's nothing to do."
Savielly Tartakover

"Go is all that matters. Well, there are other things in life, but they are gote and worth less than 10 points."
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