Sunday, October 16, 2005

The Breakthrough to Shodan

The Breakthrough to Shodan. This book had been recommended to me by two people, and it just arrived in my mailbox a few days ago. One of those books where you want real life to stop, and to be able to just sit down and browse and read. Of course, real life didn't stop, but I still have been able to study some of the book.

Very interesting. I have worked through the first 1.5 chapters now, and one sentence that really jumped out at me was 'Don't dodge fights. The closer you come to playing on even terms, the more you have to fight'. One of my problems in handicap games is that I often do play way too defensively. Trying to protect territory, and not attacking enough. Yes, I do know that handicap stones are for attacking, but it doesn't show in my games. Need to get over that. This book will help me a lot, I can tell already.

Last night, I played a 9H game and had fun applying some of the principles in the book. Still got wiped off the board, but at least I went down fighting. Now just need to learn how to actually win by fighting. Will be so much fun to figure it out :D

My teacher Sendol has told me that I need to play more aggressively, so it fits well with that advice. It all sounds so simple in theory, but it's harder on the board. To find the balance between unreasonable aggression and the one which actually works. I guess only one way to find out, by trying it. Or if I am really desperate, I could read out my moves before I actually play them.

Homeschool club has started again, and I offered the kids to learn how to play go. This week I had eight interested kids, including two of mine. They had fun playing capture go and some even were advanced enough (I had given them a lesson before) to teach the real beginners. It's interesting to see how they all have their own style, right from the beginning. Some play very solidly, just connecting stones. Others kind of scatter stones around the board, including putting themselves into atari. It will be interesting to see whether any stick with the game. But even if they don't, they at least have been exposed to the game now and know more about it.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

What? No link? It's because I don't have a go blog, isn't it?

It helps to think of high handicap ganes like this: as long as you are attacking white, he has no time to attack you.

Anonymous said...

attacking is all fine provided it is done correctly, which is exactly what the post is about. often, while attacking, the defects in our own shape is so apparent, the whole game collapse.

i have read the breakthrough book as well and the insights there are great! i am now into yuan zhou's books and find them very close to my own games. i strongly recommend reading his two books, available from slate & shell (i am not connected at all to slate & shell).

feeling for shape is extremely important in the quest to improve, especially in attacking games, i have been told numerous times now. :)

ChiyoDad said...

I'd be interested to hear what you think about this book. I have heard that it is best suited for the single-digit kyus and that it develops your ability for professional-level play.

Infamous said...

So where did you find a copy and how much did you have to pay for it? Honestly, with the kind of demand there is for this out of print book, I wonder why they don't do another printing of it.

Unknown said...

Justin, I was lucky and bought a copy from a friend for a good price. Yes, it is very hard to find it for a reasonable price, you might just have to be patient.

Good luck finding a copy!

Nanny