Rules of Go
There are only a few rules in go.
1. Black always plays first.
2. Stones are placed on the intersections of the horizontal and vertical lines.
3. Once played, stones cannot be moved, unless they are captured.
4. When completely surrounded, stones are captured and removed from the board.
5. The player with most territory at the end of the game wins.
How does this work in practice?
Diagram 1: For convenience, let's use a 9x9-line beginner board with White mirroring Black's moves. As you can see, black 1 and white 2 are captured by black 9 and white 10, respectively. Later, three white stones (12, 20 and 24) and three black stones (11, 19 and 23) are captured. If a group of stones is completely surrounded, all those stones are removed from the board.
Diagram 2: Black 35 and white 36 prevent stones from being captured. The same is true for black 43 and white 44 and black 51 and white 52. Black 53 does not surround any territory but is the last remaining neutral spot. However, this play is called "dame" as it has no value. We now put the captured stones (four each in this case) in the opponent's territory so we can count each player's territory. Both Black and White have 13 points (17 minus 4), making it a jigo (drawn game).
Note that some moves cannot be played in certain situations. We will discuss this next week.
Hane takes Kisei title
Naoki Hane defeated Keigo Yamashita in a best-of-seven match to win the Kisei title. Hane won the first three games and Yamashita, who won the title last year, took the next three. Let's look at the beginning of the seventh game.
Diagram 3: The moves 7 through 13 led to a huge joseki (standard exchange). Black 37 is correct (see Problem 1). After white 44, Black leaves his stones open to attack in order to expand on the right side with 47, 49 and 51. White answers with 52 and takes the initiative. We'll see how this works next week.
Solution to last week's problems
Solution 1: Black 1 is correct. White can capture two stones with 2, but Black will recapture one stone by playing at the spot where the marked black stone was captured. Black now has two eyes.
Solution 2: Black 1 makes two eyes, leaving A and B as miai, meaning that if White plays at A, Black plays at B, or vice versa. If White plays at B and Black at A, we get a situation similar to that in Solution 1.
Solution 3: Black 1 is the only move to ensure survival. Black will easily defend his territory to make two eyes. As you can see, the 2-1 point is often a good place to make eyes.
Solution 4: Maintaining symmetry is usually a good method to solve life-and-death problems. Black 1 is a good example. White 6 and 8 look nasty, but 9 and 11 put the issue to rest. If you are still unsure what is going on, check out Solution 5.
Solution 5: This is the situation after white 8 in Solution 4. Black 1 is a clever move, leaving White with no alternative but to capture that stone. Black 3 now puts the three white stones in atari. In other words, the three stones can be captured on the next move.
New Problems
Problem 1: In Diagram 3, instead of 37, Black could play at 38. Why is that sometimes good? But why is it not good in this situation?
Problem 2: How can Black defend after white 52?
Want to find out more? Come to Ben's Cafe (03-3202-2445) in Takadanobaba, Tokyo ), where the English speaking go community congregates every Sunday.You can enjoy free lessons, 11 a.m.-1 p.m. Ben's Cafe can be accessed at www.benscafe.com.
Van Zeijst is a four-time European go champion and European representative at the Fujitsu World Championship.