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Dat Kiem Dinh 6Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
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/ 266
About the Author
Toshiro Kageyama was bor in 1926 in Shizuoka Pre-
fecture in Japan. A go player since his youth, he won the
All-Japan Amateur Honinbo Tournament in 1948 and
turned professional the following year. His promotion
record is:
Shodan 1949
2 dan 1950
3 dan 1951
4dan 1953
5 dan 1955
6 dan 1961
7 dan 1977
In 1953 he took first place in the second division of
the Oteai, (the professional ranking tournament), and
in 1965 and 1966 he was runner-up in the Kodansha
Tournament (a competition among 5- to 7-dan profes-
sionals). In 1967 he won the Takamatsu-no-miya Prize.
He is known for his steady style of play and accuracy
at calculation. He is still active in the amateur go world,
where he has many contacts, and is the author of several
go books,
Also available in English is Kage's Secret Chronicles of
Handicap Go. PREFACE
‘If you want to get stronger, read this book.’ This call is
addressed to a wide range of go players, from beginners
who have barely learned the rules to experts with dan
rankings. In the following pages I bequeath to the world
the essence of all the experience and knowledge that seven
years as an amateur and twenty-two more as a profes-
sional have given me.
The book’s main themes are the importance of funda-
mentals, the philosophy of go, and how to study. All I ask
is that the reader not do anything so foolish as to finish
it in one day. It should be read deliberately, a chapter a
day at the fastest, and a fortnight to finish the whole
book. If the reader will then spend another fortnight re-
reading it and learning from it as he would from a good
instructor, I think I can promise that he will surmount the
barrier of his present rank.
Toshiro Kageyama
Summer, 1970 TABLE CONTENTS
Ghapter 1. ccs isimsesmeay cegmememi mise 9
Ladders and Nets
Chapter 2. i ii sncwin snes teneeueaswes 35
Cutting and Connecting
Chapter 3 oo... eee eee 55
The Stones Go Walking
Chapter 4 2.0... . eee eee ee ees 65
The Struggle to Get Ahead
Chapter $00.0. c ccc cece cece eee ees 87
Territory and Spheres of Influence
Interlude... 6... eee eee eee teen eee 110
Lecturing on NHK-TV
Chapter 6 117
Life and Death
Chapter 7 we isiesasusws coamemewe mews ose 139
How to Study Joseki
Chapter & pccscimiusasanewewe meme eswe ¢ 159
Good Shape and Bad Chapter9 ...
Proper and Improper Moves
Chapter 10: 6. ceria vera eee eee 191
Tesuji: the Snap-Back; Shortage of Liberties;
the Spiral Ladder; the Placement; the Attachment;
Under the Stones.
Chapter 11
Endgame Pointers
Game Commentary: Beating the Meijin CHAPTER 1
Ladders and Nets INTRODUCTION
The wish to become stronger ~ half a stone stronger,
one stone stronger - is shared by all lovers of go, ama-
teur and professional alike, regardless of their rank.
It is one manifestation of human spirit and ambition,
which continue until death. There is a difference, how-
ever, between amateurs and professionals. To put it simp-
ly, amateurs play at the game: professionals labor at it.
Once it was thought that this put amateurs and professio-
nals on parallel tracks that never met—that amateurs could
not even approach the professional level. Nowadays, how-
ever, the great surge in the size of the go-playing public
has narrowed the distance between the tracks and even
made them tangent. Already there are, among the top
class of amateurs, those who can acquit themselves quite
well on even terms against professionals. This serves to
point up how go is flourishing.
But these are only a special few, chosen out of a mass
of millions. Almost all the rest seem to remain far below
where they would like to be, despite their hardest efforts
to improve.
What should one do to become stronger at go? This
must be something that every go enthusiast wants to
know. I can recall many times that I have been asked
this question. The real answer may be that there is no
single, definite answer, but saying that amounts to
saying nothing. I always wanted to answer the question,
but it seemed impossible to deal with in a few words. I
wanted to try writing a book, one about which I could
boast, ‘If you want to get stronger, read this." Now that I
have the chance to do so, I am thrilled at the prospect of
~10— taking all of my own experience and distilling it into one
volume to offer the world.
After you have learned the rules, your first step should
be just to play for a while, and by ‘a while’ I am not
referring to any length of time, but rather a number of
games, say fifty or a hundred. During this period, if you
see an enemy stone, try to capture it, try to cut it off.
If you see a friendly stone, try to save it from capture,
try to connect it. Concentrate on this alone as you build
up some practical experience. There is a saying about
being ‘tempered in a hundred battles.’ You cannot expect
to do all your studying and gain all your knowledge from
books. I would like to recommend that you play accord-
ing to your own ideas, with an open mind. If possible,
choose other beginners as your opponents. If you are to
learn go, open-mindedness is the most important thing.
Next, although it depends on the individual, in my ex-
perience you will encounter four barriers: at 12-13 kyu,
at 8-9 kyu, at 4-5 kyu, and at 1-2 kyu. You are at a
barrier when your strength ceases to rise and you find
yourself playing for fun, as an exchange of ideas - any
opponent will do. Studying books gets you nowhere.
The thickness of these barriers varies from person to
person. Some break through them easily. Some do not.
I know that there are many who spend morning to even-
ing every day in go clubs, playing tens of games a day, but
make no progress. No matter how ardent their will to
learn was at the beginning, let this condition continue
for two or three months, not to mention one or two
years, and hope is abandoned. The player comes to re-
cognize himself as ‘a permanent 6 kyu’ and everyone else
does too.
aie This condition is unbearable, yet how many go players
find themselves in it? Almost all? IF SO, it would be a
crime just to let them go on as they are, and that is why I
am writing this book — to explain in detail what is needed
to break through the barriers. I feel that what I have to
say will be most welcome news to those who do not know
what to study, or how to study it.
Of course one cannot make Progress in any discipline
without effort. There is no pleasure without pain.’
Pleasure is progress, and pain the pain of effort. Study in
the wrong way, however, and the result may be just pain
with no pleasure at all. One must, without fail, learn the
correct way to study.
Ladders
Still on ladders? Ridiculous! Even Jooking at this page
is beneath me.
Yes, but even if you feel you are being cheated, read
on a little further. Don't forget the fundamentals. Our
study begins with ladders,
—12- a 7
otiite rt
Dia, I
Dia. I (the opening of an even game). The outcome of
this game hangs on whether or not Black can capture the
white stone in the ladder that starts with 1. Many ama-
teurs, sometimes even dan-ranked amateurs, are apt to be-
come impatient when confronted with long ladders like
this and resort to stooping down and sighting diagonally
or running their fingers zig-zag across the board, or in ex-
treme cases to arguing their opponents into submission
verbally. All this I find a bit silly.
When the ladder becomes slightly difficult like this,
there is a widespread tendency to give up, and wonder if
there is not something like a triangle theorem, some mech-
anism one can apply and get the answer instantly. If you
want to create such a thing it is not much trouble to do
so, but having it will only prove destructive to your game.
-13— Ladders should be the school that teaches you to read
patiently, move by move black, white, black, white,
black, white — which is the only way.
Some will say, ‘Phooey, that much I know already; it’s
just that it’s too much bother actually to do it.’ Others
will say, ‘Look, I’m still weak at the game; I can’t do any-
thing difficult like reading. So much for these lazy
students, let them do as they please. They are not going to
get anywhere, They need to be grabbed by the scruff of
the neck and have some sense knocked into them
:|
eon
‘ |
OHHLE
Dia. 2
Dia. 2. Well then, how about this diagram? Can Black
capture this stone in a ladder? Without laying the stones
on the board, can you follow this out — white, black,
white, black — to the very end by eye alone? What is your
conclusion?
Dia. 3. (next page) Black grips the white stone, White
escapes, Black blocks in front of him, White escapes,
black, white, black, white, black, and there White loses
seven stones. See? You can read it. Look at Dia. 2 once
again — black, white, black, white — you can read it.
Again! Do some repitition practice. When you feel secure,
move the left-hand bunch of black and white stones a line,
—14— B KH
BWW@+@4
WWB
+B
B
O
Dia. 3
or two lines, or three lines out diagonally. Read it again.
Anyone whose eyes start to prickle or who gets a head-
ache has a bad case of astigmatism and should see an
optometrist at once. Confine your practice to this one
exercise every day until you can read the long-distance
ladder in Dia. 1 with the greatest of ease, right out to its
end. When you can do that, rearrange the black and white
stones in the lower left corner — use your ingenuity — and
try reading again. That’s the way.
This exercise will earn you a valuable reward: the con-
fidence that you can read any ladder anywhere, anytime.
This confidence heralds your next big stride. A great
many people have broken through their barriers by stick-
ing persistently to this method of mine. Habit is a fright-
ening thing. Keep at it every day, and soon the ladders
that used to plague you will become the easiest things in
the world to read out. You will not have the slightest
difficulty reading out a straight ladder like the one in
Dia. 1 in a few seconds — a superhuman feat to anyone
who does not know the game of go, although a feat hardly
worth mentioning to a professional. Even a beginner
~i5 = should be able to make short work of something like this.
Let’s go on.
Dia. 4
Dia. 4. Black to play. Obviously if the ladder works he
should play ‘a’, but what should he do when the ladder
does not work? This may give one pause.
ee a a
of | ® :
Dia. 5 Dia. 6
Dia. 5. In certain circumstances a shoulder play like
Black 1 is effective, but here White comes out with 2 to 6
and Black accomplishes nothing.
Dia, 6. Locally, one’s first instinct is to jump out to
Black 1, but after White 2 to 6 Black’s three stones are in
avery tight spot. This is no good either.
a LG Dia. 7
Dia. 7. Let’s look at the whole board. If the formation
in the upper right corner occurred in this opening, what
should Black do? How about playing a ladder block at 1?
Locally, at least, White has to defend at 2, and now the
question is whether the ladder works or not. Well?
Answer: given the exchange of Black 1 for White 2,
Black can capture White in a ladder. Naturally Black has
to have anticipated White 2 and read out that the ladder
at 3 works before he plays 1.
Next White shifts to 4, or to some such point. Here
Black captures at 5. This is important. I imagine there
are those who think Black ought to wait until the ladder
becomes broken and then capture, but that is the shallow
thinking of an amateur. Black 5 is the proper time to
-17- capture; to leave this move unplayed and turn elsewhere
would be like trying to run a business while in debt. That
would give me, at least, a very uneasy feeling. Of course if
you ask how a person who is afraid of going into debt
can run a business anyway, I will have to confess that I
have little experience in that line, so I cannot really say
anything, but still —
Os
28
o-e
|
Dia. 8
Dia. 8. To go back to the moment when Black | defi-
nitely establishes the ladder, is there not the danger that
White will ignore 1 and resist with 2? Depending on the
situation, this is naturally a possible move. In this game,
however, it is not one that White should adopt. Given
Black ‘a’, White ‘b’, Black ‘c’ after White 2 and 4, Black
—18— has decidedly the better position.
But if Black were to switch and answer White 2 at ‘d’,
letting White play 3, he would have had his way in neither
the upper right nor the lower left corner. Irresolution
is a vice.
There are various other things to be said about ladders,
but the main point is that they branch into no variations,
so don’t be lazy — practice reading them.
Occasionally some periodical proudly announces that it
has discovered a shortcut to reading ladders — some
worthless white elephant with four or five dotted dia-
gonals and heavy black lines. Even if you could under-
stand it, it would not do your game the least good. Such
things are ridiculous.
One hardly ever hears of a professional misreading a
ladder, but there was a famous tragic case around 1925
where one side misread a ladder in the opening, played it
out for about three stones, realized his error, and resigned
at barely the thirtieth move. Don’t make light of ladders.
Those who laugh at them will weep later.
Next 1 would like to show you an unusual game with
simultaneous ladders.
Dia. 9 (next page). Perhaps you think that this sort of
thing would never happen in a good game, and are won-
dering what kind of duffers Black and White were, but
this sequence occurred in a game between Hosai Fujisawa,
9-dan (white) and Masao Sugiuchi, 9-dan (black). It
comes from the first Meijin League, over a decade ago.
—19- Imitative play — White 2 etc. — is Fujisawa’s specialty,
and it can lead to extraordinary happenings like this, even
at the highest professional levels. Of course if one side
could first escape, then capture the other, he would win
hands down, but it was because both sides had read out
that this could not happen that the game ended up as
shown. Since it is bad to chase the enemy in a ladder that
does not work, we can understand Sugiuchi’s reasoning;
when he escaped with 37 White had chased him one stone
farther (White 34) than he had chased the white group in
the lower left. We can also understand the reasoning of
Maeda, 9-dan, the observer, who pointed out that since
White was able to start in first on the double atari points
like ‘a’, he was not necessarily worse off. At any rate, this
20 - game will probably go down in the annals of professional
play as an all-time freak.
cate
iss
I LI
Dia. 10
Dia. 10. This next curiosity is of a player deliberately
chasing his opponent, not in a ladder that he had misread
but in a ladder he knew ahead of time would fail. It comes
from the elimination rounds of the Nihon Kiin Champion-
ship (January, 1970): Kudo, 8-dan (black) vs. Kageyama,
6-dan (white). My plan was to make use of White 1 etc.
to live on the upper side. In a post-game discussion that
was joined by Rin Kaiho and others it was decided that
instead of White 1, just White 23, Black 22, White 19,
Black 3 (stopping the ladder), White 24, Black 20, White
25, Black 26, White 31 would have been a better way to
live. I chose the ladder sequence because it was unbranch-
= = ed, easy to understand, and left the lead unclear, but per-
haps what was unclear was not so much the lead as my
vision in judging it. I lost by resignation,
No doubt the first requirement for becoming strong at go
is to like it, like it more than food or drink, and a second
requirement is the desire to learn. A third requirement is
to study it, using proper methods, patiently, little by little,
without cramming. Ask dan-level amteurs and you will
find that they did not become stronger just by playing
their opponents for fun. Each one kindled the desire to
learn more, and put in no small amount of time study-
ing. Each one will have a few tales of hardship along the
way to tell. Rome was not built in a day. It may not take
years of devoted study to the exclusion of all else, but it
does take effort piled upon effort to become strong at go.
The only ones who fall by the wayside are those, be they
gifted or otherwise, who forget the word ‘effort’,
Nets
What comes after ladders? Why, nets of course — what
else? The two are like brothers. They are the basic ways of
capturing stones. One of the precepts I always teach be-
ginners is, ‘When it looks as if you can capture something,
hold up two fingers and ask yourself two questions: (1)
Can I catch it in a ladder? (2) Can I catch it in a net?”
The Japanese term for a ladder is ‘shicho’, which is a
slurring of ‘shitsuyo ni ou’, meaning ‘pursue doggedly’.
The origin of the Japanese term for a net, ‘geta’, takes a
well-fortified imagination to understand. Literally ‘geta’
— Bo means ‘wooden clog’, a common type of foot wear
in Japan, and if you can see that in the four black stones
in Dia. 1, then White’s A stone becomes the foot and
Black 1 the thong that keeps the foot from escaping.
Playing Black 1 completes the picture of the ‘geta’. These
are my own private etymologies for the two terms, but
don’t you agree that they fit quite well?
Tae
33
1]
Dia. 1
I dare say everyone would play Black 1 in Dia. 1 and
capture the stone by netting it. Another possibility
would be to capture it in a ladder, if the ladder was
working; that would do the job, but sooner or later
Black would have to play another stone and capture
it completely, or else face a ladder block. In other words,
the net captures with one stone, while the ladder would
require two. This is the main reason why nets are better
than ladders.
Next I would like to show you an example of a net from
actual play. In 1966 I became the final recipient of the
Takamatsu-no-miya Prize. I had white in the deciding
game against T. Kajiwara and countered his taisha joseki
opening with a new move.
cs 99 es CeCe !
Dia. 2
Dia. 2. Kajiwara followed one of his favorite var-
iations from Black 7 to the extension at 17. I answered
by departing from the joseki (‘a’) at 20 and trotting out
my new hane at 22. The next day I discussed this move
with T. Yamabe, 9-dan.
Yamabe: ‘How could anybody be so dumb as to hane
at 22 and let Black extend to a point like 23? And what-
ever possessed you to ignore this and play White 24? All
I can say is I’m astounded at you.”
He and I have always been on informal terms, and he
always speaks bluntly, even if I do not.
Kageyama: ‘I thought I was getting a pretty good result
when I played White 26, and Hashimoto (Utaro of the
Kansai Ki-in) genuinely admired my moves.”
—24- Yamabe: ‘That just proves you can’t tell when he’s
being sarcastic; and speaking of White 26, that narrow
extension was too miserable for words. Once you let
Black take a prime point like 23, the game is over; there’s
no question about it. I know Kajiwara lost, but the
way you play is so asinine that it makes your opponents
light-headed, that’s all.”
Now that I set these words down on paper and reread
them, they sound almost insulting, so let me make it
clear that for the sake of the art, strong and outspoken
Janguage, which makes a deep impression, is most wel-
come. Even though there may have been an element of
insult present, the hearer definitely did not feel insulted.
When J asked Kojima, 6-dan, and Yokoyama, S-dan,
they agreed that White 22 was bad because of Black
23; my proudly played new move was getting a poor
reception on all sides. The next day, however, Sugiuchi,
9-dan, described White 22—26 in the go column of the
Tokyo Newspaper as ‘a new pattern that gives a fair
result.’ This was more like it. My sinking spirits revived
alittle.
How can professionals have such widely differing views?
It comes from two different ways of looking at the game:
the intuitive approach and the profit approach. Profes-
sionals in particular tend to stress the intuitive approach
at the expense of the other, which may be only natural
since it is the intuitive players who usually have in them
some spark of genius. To these intuitionists, players
like me, whose fortes are the diagonal move, the hane
and the connection, must seem like the bottom of the
heap, and this too may be only natural.
For some reason Sugiuchi, on more than one occasion,
has expressed a high opinion of my game. ‘Interesting
—25— openings, powerful, clear judgement, and artistry of the
highest caliber,’ are the words in which he has extolled
it. If anyone else said this IT would think he was jok-
ing, but Sugiuchi, ‘the god of go’, is so straight-laced
that I am not sure what to think. Listen to him con-
tinue: ‘You ought to have more confidence in yourself,
Kageyama. It’s a pity that your momentary lapses of
confidence keep letting you down.’
Tam definitely not trying to belittle myself, but almost
everyone, including me, regards me as a kind of slow-
witted, overgrown amateur. The thought that at least one
of my superiors sees some promise in me makes me take
heart and face tomorrow with the determination ta do my
best.
Thave gotten off the subject. To return —
Dia. 3 (next page). Black 1 epitomizes a net. This one
move ends all chances for the three white stones to
escape. Y. Nakamatsu, S-dan, a top-ranking amateur,
however, made the following comment. ‘I don’t know
what a beginner would think, but the way I feel is that
Black 1 is too tight. White has forcing moves at ‘a’, ‘b’,
and so on. Isn’t that a bit hard to take? Black ought to
play 1 at ‘a’, at least.”
Black 1 or Black ‘a’? Which do you prefer? 1 put this
question to every dan-ranked amateur I met for a while,
and almost everybody answered ‘a’. What about profes-
sionals? They held Black 1 to be so natural and obvious
that the question was not worth discussing. I found this
extremely interesting.
A beginner would probably play Black 1 in high spirits,
~26— i i _|
CI
PP
al
pt fg | t+ t +
SEPT
L Py | pp I
ii “ae
CTP TT
Ltt
le . a
t
HE Seee Seen
Sri Jo
Dia. 3
rejoicing at having found a way to capture the three
white stones. That is, the beginner’s move would be
the same as the professional’s (although they would be
thinking differently). A stronger amateur would glare at
the position and play Black ‘a’, for a larger capture.
A professional, however, would find the threat of White
‘c’ after Black ‘a’ disquieting, regardless of whether it
works immediately or not. To him Black 1 would be the
natural and proper move, the only move to make.
Black 1 or Black ‘a’? Only an amateur would ask him-
self this question. A professional would simply dismiss
the issue. Neither the intuitive school nor the profit
school would give it a second thought. Here we can see
another difference between amateur and professional.
-27 That is what T say now, but what was I thinking dur-
ing the game? To be honest, I was expecting Black to
play ‘a’, which means that if it had been me, I might
have played ‘a’ myself. I even felt a little grateful to
Kajiwara for playing Black 1. As time went on, how-
ever, I began to realize the virtues of Black 1.
Faithfulness to the fundamentals is something that
becomes second nature to a professional. Call it a matter
of training if you will, but what changed me from an
amateur into a professional was getting a really firm grip
on the fundamentals. Yet here I am, twenty years later,
and I still have not acquired this one fundamental. ‘The
amateurish professional’ — that's my other name. I am
not bragging about this or feeling smug. I want to become
a ‘professional professional’, even if it takes me the rest
of my life
Dia. 4
Dia. 4. Black, for whom the ladder is on, is asking him-
self, ‘Should I grip the white stone with ‘a’, or not?’
Let’s answer him. ‘If you play ‘a’, you'll have to add
another stone at ‘b’. If you can finish capturing White
with one move, why look for anything better?’
= 28 [
i
t
T
Dia. 5
Dia. 5 (correct). Black nets White with 1. White 2 etc.
show that escape is impossible. Black 1 captures White
with one move, that is, it is more efficient than Black
‘a’ in the previous diagram. This is the main reason that
it is correct.
Neither this diagram nor Dia. 3 looks very much like a
wooden clog, so my etymology for the term ‘geta’ be-
gins to seem suspect. Surely it did not come from Fng-
lish, a play on the phrase ‘get her’, but K. Kodama,
S-dan, has a theory that it is derived from a similar wit-
ticism in Japanese, and he is probably right.
Dia. 6: Problem 1
Dia. 6. Problem 1. Black to play — what should he do?
—29- ay
+0). 07-05 5
Dia. 7
Dia. 7. 1 dare say this will be the most common answer.
“You mean it’s wrong?”
“That's right, it’s wrong.’
‘Look, you can’t be trying to tell me to capture the
stone in a ladder.”
‘God forbid the thought, but look at Dia. 8. You have
this option here too. It’s the kind of move that’s easy
to overlook.’
OO
LO
te
a
+4
138
cre
Dia. 8
Dia. 8. The atari at 1 is the correct answer. If White
comes out at ‘a’, Black nets him with ‘b’. Of course
= 30 Black 1 in Dia. 7 captures White just as surely, but when
there are two ways to capture with one move, the firmer
way is correct. It’s worth reflecting upon the value of the
firmness of Black 1 in Dia. 8.
Dia. 9, Problem 2. Black to play — should he capture
with ‘a’ or ‘b’? Both plays do the job in one move, but
one is quite clearly better than the other.
ey
Dia. 9: Problem 2 Dia. 10: Problem 3
The correct answer is Black ‘a’. If White tries to get
out, Black can net him, and if White keeps trying to get
out, Black has a squeezing tesuji (page 211). The reason
Black ‘a’ is better than Black ‘b’ is the same as in the
previous problem.
Dia. 10. Problem 3. Black to play. How should he
capture the two white stones? If you got the first two
problems right and slip up on this one, you did not really
understand the first two, for this is just an application of
them. The answer is restricted to two points, ‘a’ and ‘b’.
Which?
The answer is ‘a’, If White tries to escape at ‘c’, Black
stops him at ‘d’.
—31~ OQ
o OO
ee) Top
e
zl tT i eo!
{ T
T T71 T
Dia. 11: Problem 4 Dia. 12: Problem 5
Dia. 11. Problem 4. Can Black capture the A stone?
Dia. 12. Problem 5. Black to play. Can he capture the
three white stones?
We are getting into difficult terrain now, but even a
beginner should not give up, Read it out move by move
to the end — that is the only way. If you cannot guess
even the first move, then, well
TL. 6H TL Ta] 7
aS oge.|
- Pt
eS d 78 )
+ Se : eo
SCE FEE
Dia. 13 14 :connects Dia. 14
Dia. 13. Black 1 and 3 are good style, but they are
~32- the wrong answer to Problem 4. In this particular case,
after the forced sequence to White’s connection at 14,
Black is faced with both ‘a’ and ‘b’, so his result is un-
favorable.
Dia, 14. This Black 1, the correct answer, is an in-
teresting net tesuji, one that even White might over-
look. If White plays ‘a’, Black gives way with ‘b’. This
contradicts common sense, which would dictate blocking
at the point below ‘a’, but Black has it read out. Next
if White plays ‘c’, Black can capture him with ‘d’.
t Ke BE
S850
|
4 NOS
I +H ee:
Dia, 16
Dia. 15. Black 1 and so on, which are the answer
to Problem 5, have to be thoroughly read out through
the next diagram before Black can play them.
Dia. 16. \f White keeps trying to escape, Black holds
him fast with the sequence up to 8. It takes almost
twenty moves, but ends in White's utter defeat. Were
you able to read this out?
— 33 — When it looks as if you can capture something, hold
up two fingers and ask yourself: (1) Can I catch it in a
net? (2) Can I catch it in a ladder? This is one of the first
things taught in a beginner’s manual, but that does not
mean that a stronger player can afford to forget it.
The reason that so many people never master this ele-
mentary skill is that they keep ignoring it as being beneath
them. They are the people who cannot be bothered to
‘tread’; who try to capture the uncapturable group be-
cause it just looks as if it can be done or because they
figure they can muddle through somehow, and so they
tush headlong into disaster. They are also the people
who, when they face a slightly stronger opponent, do not
try to capture the capturable group because with their
fuzzy reading they are afraid of messing it up; who in-
nocently add unnecessary stones to their own already-
alive groups; who take fright without cause; who tremble
when they sit down at the go board; who play through
the whole game with a sullen expression; who lose every
fight; who eventually come to hate go. Sorry wretches,
through choice they have abandoned the most interest-
ing and enjoyable of all games.
No matter what age he is, a man’s brain cells are sharp-
ened and work better the more he uses them. Go is
perfect mental exercise. It is worth a few leisure moments.
Think of it, if you like, as the game that prevents brain
degeneration,
—34— CHAPTER 2
Cutting and Connecting
ws BS me Concerning Fundamentals
Each spring sees the opening of another baseball season.
This is one of my favorite spectator sports, but every
year there is one thing that bothers me about it. That is
the way that semi-professional, university, and sometimes
even high-school stars enter the professional leagues and
immediately display a skill that puts their veteran team-
mates to shame. There hardly seems to be any difference
at all between amateurs and professionals. Amateurs
play for pure enjoyment, while professionals play to
make a living. The difference between them ought to be
much greater.
In every confrontation with a real American profes-
sional team it seems that what we need to leam from
them, besides their technique of course, is how uniform-
ly faithful their players are to the fundamentals. Faith-
fulness to fundamentals seems to be a common thread
linking professionalism in all areas. If we consider the
American professionals as the real professionals in base-
ball, then I think we have to consider their Japanese
counterparts, who tend to pass over the fundamentals, as
nothing more than advanced amateurs.
The reason for the lack of polish in Japanese baseball
is probably just the short history it has in this country.
Each year, when the visiting American team makes its
tour, I sense an improvement on the Japanese side, so
that in another few decades, or another century perhaps,
when the necessary progress in technique and mental at-
titude has been made, I expect to see a world champion-
ship spanning the Pacific. I feel certain that no racial
—36— physical inferiority consigns us to second place.
The opposite case, where the difference between ama-
teur and professional is most striking, is Japanese sumo
wrestling. There even the collegiate grand champion has
to enter the professional ranks in the third division down
from the top and work his way up while being treated
like any other raw recruit. Collegiate wrestlers lack noth-
ing in body, weight, or strength, and they are gifted with
the advantage of intelligence. The potential is there,
all right, but on the other side there seems to be what
can only be termed a thick barrier between amateur and
professional, built by a long tradition among profession-
als of almost superhuman effort. It takes more than just
bodily size and strength to become a professional sumo
wrestler.
In the world of go also, a long tradition of intellectual
combat has distilled the professional into something that
an amateur can never hope to become. A professional has
undergone elite training in competition from childhood;
he has learned to view every other person as an opponent
to be beaten down and crushed. His mental, physical, and
emotional strength all have to be fully developed. If he
lets up anywhere, it will show in his performance on the
board and he will fail the professional test. The realm of
competition is stark.
No professional regrets the time he has had to spend
studying. ‘I've never spent a minute studying in my life,’
declares Yamabe, 9-dan. Let two professionals get into
a post-game analysis, however, and they will go on
endlessly, completely forgetting about time. Who will say
=8%= that is not studying? The way young players have taken
over the game can only be called terrifying. The time they
spend studying every day defies the imagination.
Professionals do this unquestioningly. Even a gemstone
has to be polished. ‘A man is always moving either for-
ward or backward,’ says Kano, 9-dan. ‘He never stands
still. This should be every go player’s motto, and he
should keep piling effort on top of effort no matter what
his age. He can be confident of always making progress.’
There was a game once in which Kano played the
following move.
Dia. 1. (next page) Black 1 is the move that caught
my attention. Looking at the commentary in the news-
paper, I found the writer (Bokushintaro) saying, ‘...and
Black 1 firmly captured the white stone. Had it been us,
we would have wanted to expand around ‘a’ and swallow
up the stone on a larger scale, Sugiuchi, 9-dan, the com-
mentator, had apparently read our mind, for when he
reached this point he said, “Black’s being exceptional-
ly thorough, but this seems to make the game close. It’s
probably correct. If he were behind, he would try a
larger move — Black ‘a’, for instance.” *
Provided it does not put him behind in the game, the
move Black wants to make is the ‘correct’ one at 1.
Any true professional would feel this way, As Sugiuchi
said, however, a condition is that it not put Black behind,
and if it does, then he can only try to enlarge his frame-
work with some move like ‘a’, whether it be correct or
not. The point of all this is that moves have to be chosen
with regard to the balance of the whole board. To be
overcome with admiration for the superficial correct-
ness of Black 1 is to miss the real professional attitude.
—38-— Dia. 1
What actually went on in Black’s mind before he play-
ed 1?
First of all, White has 60 points of territory, to which
a 5-point komi must be added. Black is countering with
15 points on the left side and in the upper right comer,
so he needs SO points from his double-wing framework
in the lower right or he will lose. This is a busy moment;
he would like to expand his framework the very first
chance he gets. How can he so calmly play 1? He certain-
ly could not play it if he were not confident about his
judgement of the balance of territories and about his
endgame. What we seem to be glimpsing here is the
astonishing amount of confidence a professional has in
himself.
—39- If Black omits 1, what exactly is there in the lower right
comer? The answer is that there is the bad potential
created by the sequence White ‘b’, Black ‘c’, White ‘d’,
Black ‘e’, White 1.
Here a stronger amateur interrupts to say, ‘That may be
so, but isn’t Black 1 too tight? If a professional is so good
at reading, shouldn’t he have White ‘b’ etc. read out, and
can’t he play Black ‘f’ or some such move, that would
serve both to secure the comer and to organize his frame-
work a little more?’
Absolutely right! Why can’t he? The answer is that
Black ‘f’ neither fully Kills the potential in the corner nor
fully takes control of the outside. It is a half measure all
around. There are more examples like this in professional
games than I could ever hope to mention. Any strong
player, even an amateur, has the right to doubt, and
wonder why professionals do not make more ambitious
moves. One might even go so far as to wonder if pro-
fessionals, too, are not subject to attacks of nerves, In the
end, however, it all comes down to the professional’s
faithfulness to fundamentals.
—and so forth and so on. What I am trying to show here
is how important the fundamentals are. When a beginner
learns the game, the first things he should learn are the
fundamental skills. When he advances to the point where
—40— he begins to think of himself as a strong player, the thing
he needs to do to become even stronger is to go back and
study the fundamentals once more.
Cutting and Connecting
Dias. I and 2. Black makes the cut at 1. If it is Black’s
turn in these two diagrams, he need not consider anything
else. The cut is the only move. Cutting is the most basic
tactic of all.
°
im |
rr 7
Dia. 1 Dia. 2
Dia, 3. If it is White’s turn, the only move he need con-
sider is connecting at 1 (or ‘a’). If he does not connect,
Black will cut. It’s that simple.
Dia. 4. When White connects in this position 1 is
the only move. White ‘a’, ‘b’. etc. would weaken the re-
sistance at ‘d’ that he can offer to Black ‘c’. White 1
is the best preparation for Black ‘c’, White ‘d’.
| | T]
Lo
Oe
