北海道

函館
五稜郭公園

うに (Sea Urchin) overdose ><

のぼりべつ
登別　地獄谷

Amazing to walk on a wooden pathway that is barely lifted above the 地獄谷 where 濃い硫黄 steams upward and casts the entire area in a dreamy fog.

足の温泉

The natural 足の温泉 is super soothing; so soothing that we never thought about that we didn't bring towel before it is too late.

ファーム富田

Colorful plants stretch far beyond to the end of horizon. It feels almost like the heaven on earth.

On this trip, I brought along only my backpack with barely a week of cloth to spare. Stupid me that I thought electrical converter will be very easy to find in japan. By the time I left kyoto, my camera battery is pretty much dried. Most of the 北海道 pictures were graciously supplied from my buddy.

京都 心の旅

単独で　京都に
The start of my soul-searching journey.



















きんかくじ
金閣寺






夢の休憩所

平和な散歩

ぎんかくじ

銀閣寺

平静な風景

えいかんど　ぜんりんーじ
永観堂禅林寺
I kneel inside the temple and my senses start to collapse into a point of tangency. My mind drifts into a state of subconsciousness. Memories start to uncontrollably emerge in vivid imaginaries. In the submerged depth, I feel sharp spasm to my heart. My heart aches terribly. I clasp my palms tightly together pray in earnest to repent and wish for a heart of love & compassion.
平静な歩道

こだいーじ
高台寺

ふしみ　いなりーたいしゃ

伏見稲荷大社

At the summit of 伏見稲荷大社, I kneel and pray for a heart of love and compassion. According to the number I drew, second column is the words of wisdom for me.

東京

浅草　せんそじ (Sensoji Temple)



















美しい Tokyo 夜空


Tokyo Tower



日本棋院
ここの多くの幼年期の思い出...
Lots of childhood memories here...

友達　黄翊祖　と　私

Foundation of Basic Skills Part 2

基本图
After 白1 and 黑2 exchange, option A press becomes inappropriate as it will turn the exchange into damaging for white. Both options B and C are conceptually sound except some minor differences.

图1

After 白1 press, the marked exchange clearly favors black as white approached the corner from the wrong side.

图2
白1 and 白3 speedily form a decent shape although white needs to worry about black invading at C in the future. At this juncture, black will play either A or B.

黑：马晓春 白：常昊 Nov 3, 2007 黑+1.5目
黑：李映九 白：朴时烈 Aug 17, 2009 白+1.5目
图3
When black invades in the future, 图3 variation might be the likely outcome. If white dislikes the potential invasion then white can change strategies with initial R7 approach.
图4
白1 is a probable strategy to pincer farther away to construct a solid shape with 白3. For those players like 李世石 who painstakingly seeks out maximum efficiency, 白1 and 白3 are a bit "soft."
图5
Since
1) white might not get the maximum efficiency right away
2) right lower corner is not urgent to handle at this moment
白1 is another feasible alternative to settle the upper corner first then wait for the opportune moment to play the lower right corner to gain maximum result.

Question:

How should white respond if black pincers with 黑1?

Foundation of Basic Skills Part 1

For the past few days, I have been agonizing over what to write for my blog. I felt I have written too much about technical stuff and failed to address more basic skills that can reach and benefit greater number of go players.


基本图

In games we often encounter situations where we have tough time deciding how to play because we can't read clearly from all the options we have. We can't read clearly mostly because the board is too vast or empty that we don't have enough information to help guide our decision making process. For example in 基本图, white has many options A-E to choose from. Without more information from the surrounding, it will be very tough for white to decide.

With clear picture from the surrounding, the decision between A and B is quite easy to make for black. From a rough analysis, if black presses from A to build thickness then black probabily tries to use it to build moyo in the left side. But the solid white corner effectively constrains black's moyo development.

Upon a closer read, 白6 will not follow the norm of jump out at A because the upper side is too narrow (therefore value is quite low) instead white will crawl at 白6 to gain sente then reduce black's thickness from 白8.

黑1 tight pincer is a logical move. Black tries to extend to the farthest to maximize black's thickness.

Sometimes face with vast empty board like above, decision becomes very murky and very difficult to pinpoint. In this case, we need to "probe" for more information.

白1 is the "probe" move. White is soliciting more information from black to make the picture clearer so white can make better decision at the lower corner. Black's response at either A or B will alter white's response at lower corner.

Question 1:

If black defends with 黑2 then how would white play at the lower corner?

Basic Assumptions of Joseki

Joseki has two critical assumptions:
1) Seed strength of black and white is about evenly matched.
2) Territory (地) & influence (厚势) for black and white is closely balanced.

One of the most common mistakes for dan players is to copy joseki verbatim for all types of situations. Understand that weiqi is "alive" and dynamic, our strategies need to be flexible and adapt to the surroundings of the game. Often we will encounter situations where one or both of the above assumptions is/are violated. In that case we need to carefully analyze the game to gauge seed strength and understand the balance of 地 vs 厚势.

About my blog

As I will relinquish my teaching position with Singapore Weiqi Association in the near future, I wish I can continue to make contributions to Singapore weiqi society through regular updates on my blog. If you have questions about any of my blog entries please feel free to leave a comment on my blog or email me your questions directly at philliphsia@yahoo.com. Ciao! Have fun^^