To become a stronger,
By Rob Van Zeijst
To become a stronger, all-round go player, you must consider all possibilities. Most top pros can use more than one style of play and have used different styles throughout their go careers. However, they generally settle down to one style. Some favor thickness, while others are territory-oriented or rely on slow sturdy position, or on fast development.
Attempting different styles forces players to think in ways they are not used to, which extends the powers of imagination, flexibility and objectivity. By objectivity, I mean you will acquire the ability to look at the same position from different angles so that you will eventually be able to make reliable and accurate positional judgment, a theme we have addressed over the past few weeks.
I recommend you try a particular style for maybe one year or 50-100 games until you know the ins and outs of its strategy and its strengths and weaknesses. Once you are familiar with it, change to another style and repeat the process.
Oza Title
Last week, we covered one of the games in which Cho U is challenging Norimoto Yoda for the Meijin title. Let's have a look at another game played by Cho U. This time he is defending the Oza title against Keigo Yamashita, the first player of the new generation to take a major title a few years ago. Again, we will look at this game from the perspective of positional judgment. Cho is White.
Diagram 1: White 8 and 10 are highly unusual moves. Invading with 11 is natural. The moves through 18 follow almost automatically, allowing Black sente to play 19 through 23. Finally, White builds up the top while Black builds a strong formation on the right.
Diagram 2: This is the so-called double-wing formation that we discussed last week. White 1 is a standard move in this case. If Black defends the right side, White can break up the top starting with the 3-5 combination. If Black answers with 6, usually the moves through 10 follow. Next, 11 is a good move. The idea for White is not so much to establish a base as to make a light shape.
Diagram 3: On the other hand, if the marked stone is important, Black may defend with 2 and the moves through 7 will usually follow. Black 8 keeps up the pressure, but White can defend with A or move out with B. There are plenty of variations--in fact, The Middle Game of Go by Eio Sakata contains more than 60 pages with explanations about how to deal with the double-wing formation. However, the idea is to establish some kind of presence and move away while making some sort of eye-space.
Solution to last week's problem
Solution 1: Comparing territories, the X's form White's territory and the triangles Black's. These territories are worth about 34+6.5 (komi)=40.5 for White against about 35 for Black. Black's territory in the upper right looks larger but there is a weakness at A. White is leading in terms of territory, but he has a weak group (marked stones in the center). On the other hand, Black has a weakness at B but he might be able to make use of his thickness on the left.
Solution 2: The marked stone was White's last move. Black started the combination 1 through 12 to grab territory and take away White's eyes. He finally played 13 to defend. White 14 was a strong move, but Black handled it well by giving away one stone and developing at the top with 15 through 19. White 26 through 32 looked like a good combination, but Black countered with the combination 33 through 43, which left White without eyes. White now has to move away with 44, but 45 launched a good splitting attack between the White groups at the bottom and at the top. Because of this, Black won the game.
Problem 1: Look at Diagram 1, count the territories and judge the position. Who is leading? What about weak and strong groups? If there is a big difference in the territories, where can invasions be made? Where should White play next?
Problem 2: Let's not forget life and death problems in order to improve our reading ability. What is Black's best move in this situation?
Hint for Problem 1: Try the left side.