So You Want to Play Go? Level 2

By Jonathan Hop

If you already know the basic rules of the game of Go, then this book will help you take your game to the next level! Written in the same relaxed and entertaining style as level 1, the second level of So You Want to Play Go will take you through more concepts of the game, as well as go over the culture and history of this great game.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Jonathan Hop
• Release date: May 8, 2012
• ISBN: 9781476026671

Jonathan Hop

Jonathan Hop is a 4 dan amateur and studied at the Yu Changhyuk Go Dojo in Migeum, South Korea. He has been playing Go for 9 years and plans to spend many more years delving into the mysteries of the board.

Book preview

Foreword

Welcome to level 2 of the So You Want to Play Go? series, intended for 19 to 10 kyu players. If you have read level 1 of the series then you know what to expect, but for those of you who are just getting acquainted I wanted to say a few words. First off the title is a bit of a misnomer. While the name of the game is known as Go in the West, because of our relationship to Japan, the game was actually invented in China 4,000 years ago, and the Chinese call it Weiqi (pronounced Way-Chee). I think that it is important we remember this heritage, so I will be referring to the game as Weiqi for the remainder of the book.

The ranks of 19 to 10 kyu are really enjoyable because it is the time in your Weiqi playing career that you begin to learn more about the basics of strategy and get to experiment with them freely in your games. That is not to say, that you do not get that same thrill when you are a stronger player, but being a beginner means that the world is open to you. It is like watching a really great movie for the first time. Sure, when you watch it later with friends or see it replayed on TV it’s entertaining, but not quite the same experience as when you had first seen it. It is the same with Weiqi. When you first learn how to apply invasion principles or a new tesuji you’ve been meaning to play, you get a true feeling of satisfaction.

From now on we will be going over a lot of the fundamentals of Weiqi to get you to 10 kyu level. Once you have reached this stage and enter the ranks of the single digit kyus, you will from that point on refine what you have previously learned. Weiqi is not about learning a new 100 move joseki or memorizing 1,000 professional games (although this couldn’t hurt of course), it is about applying the basics of the game in just the right manner for the board position. Adopt this attitude and watch the game change.

About the Author

Hello! My name is Jonathan Hop and I am a graduate student at the University of Michigan studying Japanese. I am also an AGA 3 dan. Since this book is aimed at 19-10 kyu players I thought I’d share some fond memories of when I was at this strength. I had started Weiqi in 2003 around January, I believe, but did not really get into it until the summer of that year. I played like a maniac, getting in up to six or seven games a day. I bugged stronger players to review my games and I watched the mythical four and five dans whenever I got the chance. As you can imagine, I plowed through the arena of double digit kyus quite fast. However playing online was rather empty since there was no interaction. By the end of summer, I remembered that U of M had a Weiqi club that met at Borders. I had been there before, but did not have time during the school year to go, and I mistakenly assumed they did not meet over the summer. One fateful day in September, I thought to myself, What the heck, maybe I’ll stop in.

The University of Michigan Weiqi club used to meet at the coffee shop in the local Borders. It was a nice locale with a good atmosphere for playing Weiqi, and it was only a ten minute walk for me. I was a little shy at first as I sheepishly meandered over to a board where people were playing and watched. Eventually one of the other newcomers asked me for a game. I accepted, but then found out that I was now facing someone who was quite stronger than me, a 6 kyu! We played evenly, and somehow, I miraculously won against someone five to six stones stronger than me. My opponent and I shook hands, and the night of playing had ended. I felt fantastic!

The thing was, my Weiqi was lopsided at the time. Not having read anything on strategy or theory, I only knew the bare basics of the opening of the game and the end. I was mostly on my own to figure out how to play, so I developed a middle game that was far more advanced than the other sections. This means, that as far as knowing which groups were weak, and which were strong, as well as the stone for stone reading, I was maybe 6-7 kyu. However as far as opening, theory, and endgame, I was maybe 15 kyu. My rank had settled somewhere in the middle, but usually my opponent had to survive the middle of the game to win. I had no fear of cutting, I had no fear of creating a weak group in enemy territory, and I had no fear of getting into intense fights where either myself or my opponent would be decimated. Perhaps there are some of you reading who can relate to this?

This was the most entertaining time in my Weiqi playing career because the world was wide open. I was free to play whatever move struck my fancy at any given time. Yes, sometimes I would get horribly destroyed and all of my stones would get captured, but I also had some brilliant successes. I could envision myself entering the sacred lands of the single digit kyus in no time. Of course I needed a reality check, but why not savor it for as long as possible?

By the way, the next time I played that 6 kyu he crushed me. I would be taking handicap from him for a while. Talk about your reality checks.

Crash Course Guide to Japanese Pronunciation

I finally get to use my Japanese major! To help you with pronouncing the terms in the book, here is a quick and easy guide on how to pronounce Japanese. The truth is, the Japanese language is extremely easy to pronounce for English speakers. Using English alphabet to represent Japanese words is called Romaji. Romaji is read exactly as it is written, and each letter is pronounced. Keep in mind that consonants are read only one way. For instance, in English the letter g can be pronounced as either a g or a j, as in Game vs. Large. This is not so in Romaji. So for instance the word Tengen is not pronounced Tenjen but rather Tengen with a hard g. Ch is pronounced as in cheese or chalk, and not a k sound. Japanese has five vowel sounds:

A as in father.

I as in rUeeUd.

*U as in fUooUl.

E as in bet.

O as in mode.

Japanese also has what are called long vowels. This means that when you say these vowels, you hold the sound longer than you would normally. Long vowels are usually denoted by a line above them, adding a u, or sometimes by doubling up the letters. So for example ii is a long I sound, and ou is a long o sound. This is not a superficial distinction. Changing a vowel from a short vowel to a long vowel can alter the meaning of a word. Take for example the word Byoin and its cousin Byouin. The only thing that separates them is the long o sound, but the difference is as large as between hairdresser and hospital. Could be bad in an emergency, huh?

The only sound that might give you a problem is the Ts sound which does exist in English but not at the beginning of a word. Words like Tsumego or Tsuke might be tricky. If you say the phrase eight suits and hold your mouth in position between the two words, you should have something close to the real McCoy.

Try these words on for size:

Shiro: White

Kuro: Black

Go wa sugoku tanoshii – Go is a heck of a lot of fun!

* The U sound can be a bit tricky, because it is not always the same. If it comes after a Ts or an S for instance, like in the word sushi, then the to make the u sound you should make a sound pretty close to the ea in earn, and not an oo sound as in food or rude. It’s really hard to approximate in English because the sound does not really quite exist. Try grabbing a Japanese friend and see if you can master it.

There’s not enough space for me to really delve into the Japanese language or pronunciation here, but it is sufficient for our uses. If you are interested in learning more about how to pronounce Japanese, I invite you to take a class or go online and find one of the many websites dedicated to this.

Crash Course Guide to Chinese Pronunciation

This one is going to be a tough one because a lot of sounds in the Chinese language do not exist in English, and it is hard to represent them using the alphabet. The system of writing Chinese words in the English alphabet is called Pinyin. It’s an approximation and a lot of times the letters do not refer to their equivalent English sounds.

Here are all of the consonants in Pinyin:

B, P, M, F, D, T, N, L, G, K, NG, H, J, Q, X, Zh, Ch, Sh, R, Z, C, Y, W

Here are the ones that are going to give you a bit of trouble:

C: Again, say eight suits three times fast and hold your mouth in position between the two words. In order to know if you are making this sound correctly, open your palm and hold it at about your midsection. If you can feel a blast of air on your palm, you’re getting there.

Q: Sort of like a ch sound but the edges of your mouth should be stretched further than normal.

X: This one might take a while to do. It is sort of like the sh sound in sheep or shallow, but again the edges of your mouth should be taught, as if you were smiling. The Chinese word for smile is Xiao, if this helps as a mnemonic device.

Zh: Like j in jump

Now for the vowels!

A as in father.

O as in row.

E as in earn.

I as in sit, ee as in reed, or ea as in earn.

U as in look

What gives English speakers a hard time are the vowel combinations. Here is a chart to help you understand the pronunciation. If you have a Chinese friend have them help you!

Ai like in eye.

An like in flan the Spanish custard dessert.

Ao as in Now.

Ei as in hey.

En as in sun.

Eng as in hung.

Er like the ur in purse (sort of).

Ia is in ya.

Ie as in yeah.

Iu as in yo.

Ian as in yen.

Iao as in meow.

Iang as in yang.

Ou as in low.

Ua as in guava.

Uan as in when.

Uang as in oo + ang.

Ui as in way.

Uo as in woah!.

Uai as in why.

Ua as in wa.

The most infamous mistake English speakers make with pronouncing Chinese is when we say the name Chang. Most people pronounce the ang as if in the word hang, but this is incorrect. Ang should be the ah sound as in father and then a ng. Try it. Another big one is the eng sound. Take the name Feng. Most people pronounce it as if it rhymed with the word rang, but instead, the e should be like the ea in earn. This one is a little tricky, but with enough practice I think you can get it. If you know someone who is Chinese, have them help you out because a lot of these sounds I cannot convey to you in just writing.

Chapter 1: The Empty Board

Opening Fundamentals

An ancient Weiqi board that Toyotomi Hideyoshi and Tokugawa Ieyasu both used.

Now that you we are no longer total beginners, we should take the opportunity to move onto the grand 19 x 19 board. There’s nothing like the shiny glow of a brand new board, and even older, more used sets have their own character. However we may not necessarily know how we should begin the game, after all, as long as we do not violate the basic rules we can play on any empty spot.

If you read the first part of this series then you should remember our Corners-Sides-Center mantra, which is a rule of thumb on how to determine which parts of the board are important. If not, I’ll go over it again real quick.

Here we have three living groups (remember that a group with two eyes is alive). Note how many moves it takes to make a living group. As you probably already have figured out, the A group is alive with the least amount of moves, whereas the center group needs almost double the amount of stones. From a territorial perspective, the A group also makes two points with fewer stones than the other groups, meaning the corner is the most efficient for territory.

I’ll show you how this works in an actual game. Here, Black and White have both taken turns putting stones in the empty corners of the board, because whoever can put a stone down first in the corner gains the advantage. You should always fight to get empty corners.

Alright, well, I understand the general idea, but what other things do I need to know in order to play well? Where exactly should I put my stones?

Basic principles will go a long way in helping you answer this question. If we learn Weiqi theory then we can narrow down the amount of moves we think about and instead hone in on the moves that do what we want. We can think of Weiqi theory as a series of rules of thumb, a guidepost to our games. Oh fantastic! With enough theory I could play the perfect move every single time… you say to yourself, wringing your hands and imagining all of your future victories. Well theory is only as good as the moves you put down on the board. That