Alejo's Tenuki

Kogo's joseki dictionary

Monday, January 29. 2007

The deeper you get into the world of Go, the biggest the need for patterns. There is where Kogo's joseki dictionary comes into our way: it's a dictionary of joseki patterns, with some thousands in it, and their respective commentaries.

Once you open it, you'll see the different variations and their comment. It is here (on each move's comment) where some variations include the * symbol to mark their rellevance.Trick plays are also marked as such, with their continuations.

For more info and download, check Kogo's dictionary site.

There is a java applet added to the site on the lower left, so that you can use the dictionary without leaving the page, though I personally
recommend using your own preferred program.

You may also find interesting the Joseki section at Sensei's

Posted by Alejo in Software at 10:34 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0)

Go lessons

Monday, January 29. 2007

I'd like to comment on a couple of resources, that appear on newspapers, I came up with:

-"Go lessons" by The Korean Times: an active source of go lessons covering from the very beginning to deeper concepts.
-"The magic of Go" by The Daily Yomiuri: a higher, deeper and complicated weekly column about go, packed with a
couple of tsumegos, though you have to be keen on kifus to be able to read this one.

If after reading this you are still doubtfull about a specific move, ask yourself the "famous" 4 questions for beginners:
1.Do you have a weak group?If yes, reinforce it.
2.Does your opponent have a weak group?
If yes, plan to attack it.
3.Can you make a big territorial move?
If yes, do it.
4.Could your opponent make a big territorial move or does s/he have a big territory?
Try to prevent, destroy or reduce it with appropriate measures.

If you still haven't checked the Sensei's page for beginners, give it a try!!

One last resource are Go books, which can be found easily on go shops or peertopeer programs, though I wouldn't recommend this for beginners... but this is just a personal opinion

Posted by Alejo in Main at 10:33 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0)

Gnu go's review

Friday, January 26. 2007

Hi there,

Today I'm going to publish the first review about free Go software. The first one I've reviewed is Gnu Go.

As an introduction for the people who don't know what I'm talking about: there are two types of programs of Go: on one side there are the interfaces for playing against human people or replaying your games, and on the other side we have the "artificial intelligence" (or thinking programs) which you can play against.

So here it goes (by the way, I'm not a native English-speaker):

You also have one high-resolution version available at:
Gnugo .avi (31 MB)

I hope you enjoy it and let me know your comments!!

Posted by Alejo in Software at 10:32 | Comments (0) | Trackback (1)

Visit at local Go club

Wednesday, January 24. 2007

Yesterday I went to a local Go club with a couple of friends. We managed to visit the Go club "la pedra" in Barcelona, which is the oldest one as well as the biggest in Barcelona.

Each one of us expected something different about the Go club, so we were most surprised when we found the place. It was a flat on the center of the city, mainly dedicated to chess, where some people showed up on tuesday nights (just 8 go players without us).

After the presentations my friends managed to play one against each other and abandoned me alone with local go players.
A man offered himself to play against me, 9 stones handicap game... against a 3 dan!! You can imagine what does a 10-kyuish do against a 3d... it was a massacre. As well as the next game against a 8kyu French player, where I just couldn't focus on the game...

Well, now I'll post a tsumego I had to face during these games.

Posted by Alejo in Main at 10:28 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0)

Nakano's God hand

Tuesday, January 16. 2007

April 9, 2006 54th NHK Cup Go Tournament
Nakano Yasuhiro 9 dan(B) vs. Ishida Yoshio 9 dan(W)

With this great video I'm going to introduce the concept of "God's Hand" move into Go. Which is basically the contrary of what the video shows.

Most of you might already know this concept from Hikaru no Go, so this won't tell anything new to you.

God's hand move is a PERFECT move, and it's a perfect move in that exactly position. Each turn there is a possible God's hand move, and the better you are, the closest you are to that move.
So, you may say, if everyone plays God's hand move, is it a draw? No, God's hand move is something abstract, because only God would understand how perfect it is. Top world go players might play it without realising (though I'm doubtful that they play it too), but it is absolutelly impossible to play them in a row. And once again, we wouldn't even know about it!!

Posted by Alejo in Main at 10:27 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0)