Yuan Zhou's book that helps SDK players get closer to shodan.
At this year’s U.S. Go Congress, I stopped by the vendor room and chatted with William Cobb from Slate & Shell. He had a nice selection of go books and I was itchin’ to spend a little money on my addiction.
I mentioned that I was a single-digit kyu (SDK) player looking to improve and asked what books he would recommend. Yuan Zhou’s How Not To Play Go was his first choice.
I started reading it that day. But, as most of you understand, go books are not typically quick reads. Reading the text and comparing the various diagrams that most go books are filled with means a little work is involved.
So, I’ve just now finished this short (32-page) book a month later. I’m pleased to say that I began practicing what Yaun Zhou teaches in the book after reading only the first part of the book. So, my games on Dragon Go Server (DGS) became my lab as I studied.
The points made in the book are simple and straight forward. The message is essentially “stop ignoring the whole board.” So, I guess I could end this review with that wisdom, eh? Were it only that simple, we’d all be shodans by now.
If you’re an SDK player looking to move closer to shodan, here’s a quick preview of the major advice from the book:
- Stop automatically following your opponent
- Pay attention to the whole board
- Begin taking sente seriously
- Stop assuming your opponent’s areas are bigger than your own
- Realize that every play involves the whole board (If these sounds similar to point #2, realize that this is the book’s mantra)
- Stop practicing wishful thinking (or ‘not thinking’ as Yuan Zhou calls it)
If you’re a moderate to strong kyu-level player, do yourself a favor and give this book a read. The author uses three games to illustrate the points I share above in a what-not-to-do style that will have you shaking your head and saying something like, “Yeah, I do that, too.”
The book includes examples from three games, an 8-kyu game, a 4-kyu game, and a 1-kyu game. So, no getting off the hook for the 1-4 kyu players out there. Yuan Zhou shows how the same weakness exists at 8 kyu and 1 kyu. It’s just that the 1 kyu players are closer to kicking the bad habits. But the point is, they are still there!
So, reaching shodan seems to be less about complex knowledge of joseki and the like and more about approaching the game in a new way through the elimination of some bad habits. Hmmmm . . . sounds a lot like life success in life. That’s why I love go!
The book is available from Slate & Shell for $10. Click here to visit the book’s page on the Slate & Shell website.
Filed under: Go Technology, Product/Book Reviews | Tags: IGS, Internet Go, iPhone, Tetsuki
Any time, Any place - Tetsuki mobilizes go players
Ain’t technology the greatest? WooHoo, this go geek is happy now. I’ve been happy with my iPhone from day one, but when I saw Kris Van Bael’s Tetsuki on the iTunes App Store I was intrigued. After installing it, I grew more excited, and now that version 2.0 is out with full chat capabilities, I’m happier than ever.
The full board is easy to see and other controls are intuitive and easily accessible.
I struggle to find time to play as much go as I would like. Now with Tetsuki, I can play at times and in places that were not possible before. For example, I’m downstairs in my study and one of my children wants the computer. No problem, I’m playing on my iPhone. I’ll just go upstairs, pausing along the way to make a move after I hear a click indicating that my opponent has just moved.
You might think that even with this type of mobility, that a bigger screen and full mouse would be desired and that the scenario above just wouldn’t happen that often. Not true for me. Mr. Van Bael’s interface makes using Tetsuki as easy to use as any traditional program. When the weather warms up, I’m going to be playing go at the park on the internet!
Obviously, I’m a fan of Tetsuki. Let me tell you a bit about some of the features it includes. First the graphics are high quality and that is important. If you can’t feel the stones and wood, you should at least get some eye candy.
Game information, such as captured stones, komi, etc. is available via a button in the top right of the screen. Chat and zoom capabilities are easy to get to in the control bar just below the board.
Figure 2 - Tetsuki's auto-zoom-in and auto-zoom-out feature preserves my mental flow.
One of the things I like most about the interface is that as you are playing, auto-zoom-in and auto-zoom-out feature doesn’t require any thought on the players part. The game flows easily and I am able to concentrate on the game, not the interface.
Your opponent’s moves are easy to spot and when it’s your turn you can easily scan the entire board and choose your move. Then to actually place your stone, you simply touch the general area that you want to move in and the display zooms in (see Figure 2) and you’re can then easily touch the correct spot to place your stone. (I actually make fewer ‘mis-clicks’ with Tetsuki than I do with the KGS interface when I fat-finger my mouse.) Then after you place your stone the display smoothly zooms back out giving you a full view of the board. This allows you to again study the board while waiting for your opponent without breaking your mental stride by having to remember to zoom out or scroll.
When I make Dragon Go Server (DGS) moves using the Safari browser on the iPhone, I find it annoying to have to constantly focus on zooming in and out. For this reason, I only make moves on DGS from the iPhone when I have to.
Figure 3 - The Tetsuki Players screen makes it easy to see the status of who is online.
Just as with other internet go clients, you can observe games, invite others to play, and of course accept invitations as well. The Players screen (see Figure 3 (follow the ‘More’ link )) is easy to navigate thanks to the powerful iPhone touch-screen interface and Tetsuki’s competent programming. You can view all players or only those available for matches. Symbols next to each player’s name show if they are accepting games, looking for a game, refusing games, or already playing. (It would be nice to be able to see if someone is observing a game, as well, so that one can avoid inviting people engaged in watching another match.)
Setting up your IGS account settings is a piece of cake, as is adjusting your status, thanks to an easy to use settings screen (see Figure 4 – (follow the ‘More’ link)). You can login with multiple IGS accounts, but there is no way to store multiple user account information, as there is with the multi-user version of Panda. While this would be nice to have, it is just that, a nice-to-have. (more…)
