Alejo's Tenuki

With the boom of the Go Blogs, there is an increasing need for tools which can replay SGF files. We all know the traditional ZGo (where the owner of 361points.com shows us the games from title tournaments) and FlashGoban (the one implemented in GoDiscussions). But there has been an announcement about the recently release of Eidogo.

I had already tried to implement it on this website but hadn't successed in it due to some file managing errors. This time, with the new release, I've been testing how EidoGo performs, as well as FlashGoban.

*: according to its developer, it's not necessary to add it on the header, it can be placed on the posts. I've tested and it works perfectly.
**: it can be modified through the  file player.css and resizing the images to the desired size. So you would need different folders to load applets with different sizes. Personally, I find it quite too hard in comparison with the other applets.

As you can see, each SGF replayer has its own pros and cons. We've all seen how heavy it is to load a Java tool on the main page of a website. Or sending it on the RSS feeds. For the ones who do not remember, I'll tell you that, with the initial boom of zGo, the RSS feeds started to be a little bit too heavy for the computers as they had to load a few Java windows and they glitched quite a lot when the user tried to move the window. Therefore, all the bloggers decided to publish the articles in a way that zGo would be feeded through the RSS system.

EidoGo: Though 100kb can make the surfing experience of a modem user quite a torture, the user discovers a board to play against another player, or the chance to edit a SGF and then save it to your computer.
Moreover if it's widely used among the Go-bloggers and someone tires to use a RSS feed without having a broadband connection. After contacting the developer, it seem spossible to customize the size of the board and to omit the head code if it's applied on the appropiate place. After a test, we've found out that the normal code isn't corretcly sent through the RSS feeds. If someone find a way to send them on the feeds, let me know.

FlashGoban, the eternal unknown... till today, the main disadvantatge of this SGF replayer is that its website is in russian. It's a very light replayer and customizable, though it has three major drawbacks: the lack of interaction, the awfull branch system and the lack of support in English. You can choose the size of the applet, it doesn't load too much your computer but I can't say a word about its perfomance on feeds.

The more dan-level games I watch, the less Go I know. That is the conclusion I've reached after a few weeks of contemplation. I guess most DDK and SDK think about this occasionally. One may even start to think that these dan players are crazy and it's not a proper way to play. But the kifu from some oriental tournaments come into our hands and we realise that we are the ones who are mistaken. On the right side you can see a game which I just watched on KGS. I guess it is against every single basic concept I adquired when I started playing. Though it's played on a 10 seconds byoyomi, the game shouldn't have gone too far from the traditional way of playing (that was what I expected), and, from the very first move, the players start breaking concepts. There is some crosscut, which is not bad, but on the 7th move we can already see how white breakes the traditional "extend after a crosscut". And the show goes on and on for the whole game.

If you don't see the game, you'll need to enter my site. I'm testing the new version of Eidogo with this post.

In order to make it easier to surf through this site, a search engine has been added to this blog. You can access it through the bar at the top of the site and there you'll find the possibility use Google on all the internet, only Alejo's Tenuki, only Sensei's Library or only GoDiscussions.com

On the last game I played (i.e. a couple of weeks ago) against Mr. Mk, I was pressing from all sides one of his floating groups till he made it live. As you may have noticed, when you press from all sides, you usually create a few weak connections or stones or even groups.

Another bad habit I suffer is my lack of time management. I don't use as much time as I would need on important spots and leave it for the the endgame, where there are little amounts of points to be played, and therefore I sometimes find myself commiting suicide in the middle-game.

On the left side you can already see what happened. I was playing white here and managed to get 2 empty triangles in an incredible small space... For some reason, by opponnent failed to see the way to punish the white move at A10.

Can you see it?

I'm pretty sure that you are able to kill white from this position, mainly because white has commited suicide. But... What would have happened if white had played properly?

White lives. Yes, white makes it and manages to live. In fact, I've been studying this tsumego for a while and I'm pretty sure that white can't be killed if black starts attacking at A9.

On the other hand... if Black starts his attack by playing at A8, white is dead... or not?

At the "continue reading" you have Zgo with this tsumego loaded. You can explore some branchs starting with the attack at A9 and A8. By the way, thank you to xed_over, who commented on a mistake I made on one of the branches.

Though it all started as a joke, there is a topic in Godiscussions.com about the "ultimate tsumego". You might think that an empty board with the clue "black to win" is a joke. I do too... if it wasn't, Go would have been solved.

Amazingly enough, there are a couple of tsumegos with an astonishing level of complexity. Personally, I think there is nothing else I can say, but to show you the image and offer you some resouces to enjoy this awesome piece of art.

From the "Igo Hatsuyoron" and believed to be written by Dosetsu Inseki (1646-1719) and kept as a secret to all but a few of his students. Though this specific problem was believed to be lost for centuries due to a fire which took place during the Edo period, a copy of the first edition of the book (which included them all) was recovered and republished in 1982 with the commentaries of Fujisawa Shuko.

You can find more information about his special tsumego HERE, though it's in French, you'll find a copy of the SGF file and the sollution. You'll find more information, as well, as the whole collection of tsumegos in the book "Igo Hatsuyoron" at the appropiate section in Sensei's Library.