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© 2010 Janice Kim

Learn to Play Go

Volume II
The Way of the Moving Horse

Janice Kim 3 dan
Jeong Soo-hyun 9 dan

Buy the full book at gobooks.com

Field-tested theory for the modern practitioner of the ancient art of Go.

New format – even easier on the eyes

Self-test chapter to check your progress

Second in a series that takes you step-by-step to stronger Go playing

Requires only a basic knowledge of the rules for comprehension

Helpful for beginners, or more experienced players who feel “stuck”

Praise for the award-winning Learn to Play Go series:

“By far the best English-language introduction yet published”
—Game Magazine

“Brilliant”
—R.G. Mills, British Go Association

“For those who want to get strong quickly”
—Cho Hoon-hyun 9 dan, Ing Cup World Champion

Don’t miss the other four volumes:

• Volume I: A Step-By-Step Guide to the Game

• Volume III: The Dragon Style

• Volume IV: Battle Strategies

• Volume V: The Palace of Memories

Copyright Page

The Korean Go Association’s
Learn to Play Go
is published by
Good Move Press/Samarkand
145 Town Center #685
Corte Madera, CA 94925
www.samarkand.net

Copyright © 1995 Janice Kim
Second edition © 1998 Janice Kim
Third edition © 2010 Janice Kim

All rights reserved. This book or any part or parts hereof may not be reproduced in any form without written permission from Good Move Press.

ISBN of print edition: 0–9644796–2–1

Drawings by a lee

Picture of Janice Kim by Timothy Greenfield-Sanders
Picture of Jeong Soo-hyun by Hankook Kiwon
Photos in chapter 2 by Nihon Ki-in

Conversion to SmartGo Books by John Mifsud

Note on names: Chinese, Japanese, and Korean names in this book are given family name first. Jeong Soo-hyun’s family name is Jeong.

Contents

Learn to Play Go
Volume II
The Way of the Moving Horse

Copyright Page

About the Authors

Preface and Acknowledgements

Part 1: Principles

Chapter 1
The Process of Go

The chapters in gray are included only in the full book.

Chapter 2
The Knack of the Opening

Chapter 3
Enclosures and Approaches

Chapter 4
Answering the Approach

Chapter 5
Bases and Extensions

Chapter 6
The Way of the Moving Horse

Chapter 7
Invasion and Reduction

Part 2: Skills

Chapter 8
How to Attack

Chapter 9
How to Defend

Chapter 10
The Art of the Capturing Race

Chapter 11
Ko Fighting and Ko Threats

Chapter 12
Life and Death

Chapter 13
The Art of Contact Fighting

Chapter 14
Ending the Game

Part 3: Synthesis

Sample Openings

Go on the Internet

Buy This Book

About SmartGo Books

About the Authors

Janice Kim

Janice Kim was born in Illinois in 1969. She became the first female student at the Korean Go Academy in 1983 and entered the professional dan ranks in Korea in 1987, the first Westerner ever to do so. She won the Fuji Women’s Championship in 1984, took second place in the World Youth Championship in 1985, and third place in the EBS Cup in 1994. She was promoted to 3 dan in 2003.

After graduating from New York University, Ms. Kim authored the five books of the Learn to Play Go series and founded the online Go company Samarkand. In 2008, in an effort to explore similarities in strategy games, she played in the World Poker Tour’s Woman’s Championship in Las Vegas and placed fourth. She currently resides in the San Francisco bay area with her husband and two children.

Jeong Soo-hyun

Jeong Soo-hyun was born in Korea in 1956. Since entering the professional dan ranks in 1973, he has played in numerous championship leagues, winning the Shin Wang title in 1986. He was promoted to 8 dan in 1994, and 9 dan in 1997.

A well-known teacher, Mr. Jeong has written more than twenty books and is a popular commentator on Korean television. He served a term as President of the Korean Professional Go Association, the youngest person ever to hold this prestigious post. Now a university professor teaching Go, he lives in Seoul with his wife and two children.

Preface and Acknowledgements

Volume II is the direct continuation of Volume I. I recommend that you review Volume I before reading this one, but it’s not strictly essential. Volumes II and III in the series are designed to take the reader to about 12 gup or kyu.

It was my intention to make it possible for those who only read Volume I to have all the information they need to play Go. Concepts which were not introduced until this volume were briefly included in Volume I. In an effort to keep it simple, certain terms were used that are unwieldy or imprecise in more advanced books. The biggest change in terminology is the word hane for “turn the corner.” The new terminology is introduced gradually to give readers a chance to familiarize themselves with new words.

The first three volumes are the introductory series, designed to give the reader the most solid foundation possible for quick progress. For that reason, stronger players who wish to wait for more advanced books are encouraged to review earlier volumes to make sure there are no gaps or “weak points” in your game. On the other hand, every effort is made to make the more advanced books accessible to new or inexperienced players, by avoiding jargon and analysis requiring specific prior knowledge, for example, “This high kakari in response to the nozoki is brilliant, showing a deep grasp of the fundamentals” becomes, “White 1, ignoring Black’s threat, means to give up the smaller area on the right in order to take the bigger area on the left.”

As always, I’ve tried to stick like a barnacle to Mr. Jeong’s teaching, but any mistakes here are strictly my own. (I have also added some commentary, in which personal pronouns refer to me, and not to Mr. Jeong, unless clearly stated.) Many, many thanks to the reviewers of this book and Volume I, and also to Michael Simon, Phil-young Kim, Paul Agresti, Barbara London, David Mechner, Timothy Greenfield-Sanders, and Angie Lee for contributing their talented efforts to this project. Additional thanks go to the Hankook Kiwon, the Nihon Ki-in, my family and friends, and to my students, who teach me more than I teach them.

Janice Kim
June 21, 1995

Note to the 2nd Edition

Volume II of the Learn to Play Go series represents what I think may be a new way of looking at Go for English speakers, based on what I call the “strength vs. speed” model I learned at the Korean Go Academy. While this book is designed for those who have read Volume I, and to be accessible to double-digit “gup” or “kyu” players generally, I hope it offers a fresh Go perspective even for very experienced players, or those who are interested in the theory and philosophy of Go and strategy games. The internal debates and breakfast meeting discussions I’ve had about such subjects as translating a Korean word into “extending” or “stretching” have proven unexpectedly rich for me – I would be very pleased if readers experience the charm of thinking about these kinds of things (not to mention the additional bonus that this may be of soon-to-be-discovered cosmic significance).

As with the second editions of Volumes I and III, this second edition of Volume II is only slightly different than the first one. The main changes are that I’ve been striving for more clarity, and the layout has been changed to make it a bit easier to read, and I’ve gotten a chance to correct my mistakes, which makes me inordinately pleased (I’ve found that no one seems to take me seriously when I suggest putting tiny little stickers over typos in each book – now I get a whole new printing, so they don’t drive me crazy.) I’ve also made some modifications based on helpful comments by readers of the first edition, particularly in my adoption of the convention of using “he” for Black and “she” for White, and a reworking of the Synthesis chapter, suggested by Brian D’Amato.

Additional thanks go to Michael Samuel, who created the new cover; one-man support group Bruce Price; Liz Shura and Team Samarkand; friends and family members, including the D’Amatos and Lottie; and to the readers of the first edition of this book and the other volumes in the Learn to Play Go series, who have been unceasingly supportive, kind, and generous with their time and efforts.

Janice Kim
October 21, 1998

Note to the 3rd Edition

My main goal in the Learn to Play Go series is to enable readers to play real, strong, thoughtful, beautiful Go, but to learn in a user-friendly way. To that end, many simple diagrams are used rather than a million words. It ends up being so graphics-heavy, that the job of the designer is vitally important, although as is often the case with jobs done well, the design seems effortless and obvious.

A special thanks goes to Michael Samuel, who in this 3rd edition has rebuilt it page by page in a modern format and enabled us to keep a high-quality print copy available. We are so fortunate in the Go community to have a graphic designer of this caliber among us who works tirelessly in the support of American Go.

In this edition, I’m pleased that I had the opportunity to utilize many additional years of Go teaching practice to make the text clearer and more informative in some rough spots and hopefully more useful to those who would Learn to Play Go. Using this series as a foundation of a Go knowledge base, and adding layers of experience in playing, reviewing, and watching games (whether in person or online), and doing Go reading exercises (collections of easier life and death problems are excellent for this) I feel certain that those who take up Go can enjoy and benefit from it, and might surprise themselves to find how far their thoughts can take them, and how well they can play.

Thank you also to my husband Bruce Price, Go players of the future Malachi and Ashira, and the Bay Area Go community, for your support and inspiration.

Janice Kim
April 5, 2010

Part 1: Principles

The ancient Egyptians learned the ideal way to build a pyramid through trial and error; collapsed structures built in different ways attest to this. In the same way, you could learn the basic principles of Go by trial and error, but it’s much easier just to read this book.

Chapter 1
The Process of Go

Go is a fight for territory. The player who has more territory wins, so each side concentrates on getting more than the other. Territory is made by surrounding empty areas on the board, but the best way to do this is not obvious. Those who are said to have a “knack for Go” have learned principles and techniques for making territory.

Diagram 1

Have a look at this opening. Black establishes a position in the upper right corner with 1, and White takes the lower left corner with 2. Next, Black plays at 3, right next to Black 1. White lays claim to another empty corner with 4. Black continues to surround the upper right corner with 5, and White takes the lower right corner with 6.

Diagram 2

Black continues to block off the upper right corner with 7, 9, and 11. Finally, he completes a territory of twelve points with Black 15. In the meantime, White takes strategically important points from White 8 to White 16. Even though she doesn’t have secure territory, White has taken almost all the important strategic points. In this diagram, which side is better?

You can answer this question by asking who stands to make more territory. Black made twelve points, but has stones in only one corner. White took many good points, so she has the beginnings of territory in many areas. White is better. This is an example of the first principle of making territory: playing stones right next to each other is a losing strategy, since each move only increases your territory by a small amount. So what is a better way?

Diagram 3

First, take important strategic points. This means staking a claim in the corners and sides, on or around the star points (one of the nine darker points on the board, used to locate your position).

Once you’ve staked a claim, you’ll want to solidify these areas, by fighting if necessary. After the main fighting is over, each player then has to establish the borderlines of his or her territory. Most Go games progress through these three stages, called the opening, middle game, and endgame.

1. The Opening

Taking important strategic points, outlining areas of potential territory, is called the opening.

Diagram 4

Here both sides have taken important points from Black 1 to White 14. Even though not many stones have been played, doesn’t it look like a lot of territory has been sketched out? Both sides have played the opening well, efficiently mapping out the basic shapes of their territory. Taking important strategic positions by putting your stones somewhat sparsely in big areas is the first step.

2. The Middle Game

The middle game, right after the opening, is the stage where real fighting starts. Even though Go is about surrounding territory, it’s often not so straightforward as just blocking it off. For example, your opponent may try to prevent you from making territory.

Diagram 5

When Black plays in the center with 1, White jumps into Black’s area in the lower right with 2. White 2 means to break up this potential territory. Black’s area is big, so instead of just giving it away, White feels compelled to fight for it.

Diagram 6

Black 3 attacks. White is concerned that there isn’t enough room to live (that is, make two separate points of territory) inside Black’s area, so she jumps out with 4. Black pursues with 5 and White jumps again with 6. The chase continues from Black 7 to Black 11.

In the middle game, fighting is often about chasing and being chased. Territory is solidified through this kind of fighting.

Diagram 7

The white group surrounds some space around A with 12 to 18. White has room to make two eyes (two separate points for living) now, so she has survived the attack. But while White was trying to make enough space to live, Black solidified territory on the right side with 13, 15, and 17. In the process of attacking White’s invasion, Black has almost completed a large territory along the right side.

2. The Endgame

After the middle game, each side’s territory is nearly determined, but the borderlines are still incomplete. The stage of Go where the borderlines are completed is called the endgame.

Diagram 8

Both sides have sectioned off some territory. Black’s territory is on the right side, and White has some territory on top, but the borderlines aren’t completely finished. For example, the border around A hasn’t been determined yet.

Diagram 9

If it is Black’s turn, he can play at 1. White needs to block at 2 to keep the territory on the top. Black “turns the corner” (plays hane, in Gospeak) at 3 and White blocks at 4. Next, Black connects at 5, and White connects at 6.

An effective strategy is to follow the three stages of Go – the opening, middle game, and endgame. First, take important points. Second, solidify your territory and contest your opponent’s territory by fighting. Finally, complete the borderlines.