Now the summer vacation is coming, and many of you may travel. When you travel, please do not make a $100 mistake below in terms of Go. I’ll show you how to prevent that, too.
When you review my materials or study a Go book, you should not copy just sentences.
I’ve met many Japanese adult players who copy only commentaries (sentences) and don’t copy diagrams probably because copying sentences is faster and easier. They mistakenly assume that learning commentaries (sentences) will help them.
Unfortunately, many of them do not realize the fact that without understanding a shape, memorizing a sentence is not at all helpful, but can be harmful.
( I state “shape”. This can mean, a good shape, a tesuji, a life-and-death problem, etc. It can mean anything. )
Why is it harmful? Here is the reason.
There are so many diagrams that look the same or very similar to amateurs. But even if two different diagrams seem to show almost the same in the eyes of amateurs, they are often completely different in the eyes of pros or top amateurs.
In most case if there is a subtle difference, a correct move can be completely different, and the results are totally and utterly different.
For example, for native English speakers, the words “memo” and “nemo” are completely different. But for English speaking beginners, they look very similar.
The words “evidence” and “evince” do not the same meaning. The word “basic” and “basis” are not exactly the same. The words “different” and “deferred” are not the same. ( I wish I could come up with better examples in terms of English words.)
For some Americans, Cambodia and Laos may look the same. For some Asians, Canada and the U.S.A may look the same. (Maybe these are extreme examples… But Go beginners make that kind of mistakes. )
There are so many misunderstandings in Go because of similar shapes.
Every game is different, and every situation can be different. The stronger you become, the more you will sharpen your ability to see the differences. To do so, you must understand shapes and differences of shapes. (BTW, this is why I try to make problems that show differences sometimes.)
Many talented children can become very strong very quickly. In less than a year, a 1dan talented child becomes a 7dan amateur and then becomes a pro because they never forget shapes.
But adults cannot remember many diagrams at once. So some adults try to rely on words, but that’s not a good idea because of the reason above. So please be careful.
Now the summer vacation is coming, and many of you may travel. When you travel, please do not make a $100 mistake by copying only sentences. You must copy your diagrams, too.
If you have iPad, all you have to do is to transfer my texts to the iPad.
One of my students sent me the following info. I don’t have iPad, nor have I ever used it, so all I can do is just copy his sentence below…
Here’s the process in case you wanted to share it with other students:
1. Create a zip file of all problems on computer
2. Buy Easygo app
3. Connect iPad to computer, open iTunes in computer, go to “iPad -> Apps -> EasyGo” and Add.. to EasyGo the zip file you created in 1.
4. Open EasyGo on iPad
5. Create new folder (“Kaz Problems”) and click on Import button – this should open the File Manager and you should see the zip file from 3.
6. Last note – view problems in Edit mode otherwise you will miss some comments on some moves.
Good luck to you!
via Go, Igo, Weiqi, Baduk. Kaz’s original Igo-advice & fundamentals of Igo http://ift.tt/1mM1do9
June 03, 2014 at 01:36PM
http://ift.tt/eA8V8J
in what turned out to be the tie-break game; as this game was played both cities had won a game (Board 1 – Seattle 1, Board 3 – Greater Washington).
Weiqi To Go 