Go
players of New Zealand,
It
seems that go activity is on the increase.
I have heard rumours of an on-line competition between Otago and Auckland
in the near future, and also of the resurrection of the Go Kichi trophy
challenges. The Go Kichi trophy is
a very nice go-ban, which is sporadically played for (and on), and is held by
the winner until the next successful challenge. More on these events in the next
issue.
Meanwhile…
The
Auckland Go Champs
The
Auckland Go champs were held on 24-25 May.
From the sketchy details available, it seems that 16 players took part:
10 in the Open section and 6 in the Handicap section, with the following
results:
Open:
1st
- Lee Bum Woo
2nd equal - Li Long Yang and Du Shiyong
Handicap
1st
- Daniel Z
2nd - Wi Liu
Congratulations
to these players, and also to everyone who took part in the
event.
Answers
to Life and Death problems
OK, here
are the answers to the problems in the last newsletter. Both of them exemplify the first
fundamental of Life and Death, i.e. “widen your eye space” (for life) or “reduce
the enemy’s eye space” (for death).
The second fundamental is “occupy a central eye-making point (vital
point)” (both to live and to kill),
but when you encounter a life-and-death problem, the first fundamental is where
to start. This is the origin of the
proverb “There is death in the hane”.
Easy
problem: White to play and
kill
White
first reduces the enemy eye space with the hane at 1, then occupies the vital
point with 3. Finally, the throw-in
at 5 makes a false eye of the remaining space.
Advanced
problem: Black to play and
live
This
problem involves a play “under the stones”, where black must sacrifice some
stones and visualise the shape which will be left after they are
removed.
Diagram
1. Black widens his eye space with
1 then occupies the vital point with 3, forming at least one good eye. White must reply at 2 and 4, lest black
occupy these points to live unconditionally. Black 5 captures two white
stones.
Diagram
2. White must throw in at 6,
attempting to force a false eye, but black replies at 7, allowing white to
capture four stones with 8.
Diagram
3. Black has read out the entire
sequence, and visualized this shape.
He recaptures the two white stones with 9 to form his second eye, and
lives.
NZGS
subscriptions
The NZGS
subscription year ended on 30 June. If you wish to join or resubscribe,
please send your cheque and contact details (name, address, phone number(s) and
email address) on the attached form, to the NZGS
Treasurer:
Ira
Turvey
1/173
Mokoia Rd
Birkenhead
Auckland
Normal
membership costs $10. Half price membership is available to non-earners
(students and retired).
The
attached subscription form is a Word document. If your email system can't
cope with Word attachments, just use the information above.
This
newsletter is actually written as a Word document, and it would be better to
send it out as a Word attachment to an email, so that I can format it better,
and you can print it more easily. Could you please let me know if your
email system or your computer CAN'T HANDLE A WORD DOCUMENT. Depending on
the response, I will send future newsletters as Word attachments. I will
also include sgf files of any game records I publish, for those of you who
prefer the screen to a printed game record.
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Dan
July
2003
