This EPUB is provided without Digital Rights Management (DRM), allowing you to read it on your EPUB reader of choice. We trust that you use this EPUB file for your personal use only. Buying the book at gobooks.com ensures that authors and publishers get paid, and makes it possible for us to convert more books to digital format.

This EPUB contains static go diagrams only. This makes it compatible with more EPUB readers, but does not show the full potential of interactive Go Books. Get a download link for the interactive version at gobooks.com/support.html.

© 2011 Janice Kim

Learn to Play Go

Volume III
The Dragon Style

Janice Kim 3 dan
Jeong Soo-hyun 9 dan

Buy the full book at gobooks.com

From the award-winning series by Good Move Press.
Learn the secrets of professional Go playing from two top masters of the game.

Seven Go dangers – learn what to avoid

Eight secrets of winning play

Real games – even, high, and low-handicap – analyzed in depth

Extensive glossary

Praise for the 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 first two volumes:

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

• Volume II: The Way of the Moving Horse

Or the next two volumes:

• Volume IV: Battle Strategies

• Volume V: The Palace of Memory

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 © 1996 Janice Kim
Second edition © 1998 Janice Kim
Third printing 2011

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: 0–9644796–3-X

MikeSamuelGraphics.com
Drawings by a lee

Picture of Janice Kim by Timothy Greenfield-Sanders
Picture of Jeong Soo-hyun by Hankook Kiwon
Photos in chapters 2 and 7 by China Weiqi Association

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 III
The Dragon Style

Copyright Page

About the Authors

Preface

Part One: The Dragon Style

Chapter 1
Seven Dangers

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

Chapter 2
Eight Secrets

Part Two: Real Games

Chapter 3
Opening

Chapter 4
Middle Game

Chapter 5
Endgame

Chapter 6
A Nine-Stone Handicap Game

Chapter 7
A Three-Stone Handicap Game

Chapter 8
Even and Handicap Go

Part Three: Improvement

Chapter 9
Test Yourself

Glossary

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

The other day I was looking through a book called Knock ‘em Down and Take ‘em Out: Knife Fighting Techniques From Folsom Prison, in which the author rails against so-called martial arts experts, saying that martial arts training is a lot of stylized nonsense. Ignoring the obvious question—namely, if it’s so useless why is the author in prison while the martial artists are appearing in feature films?—I’d like to address what one might call the “foo-foo” factor.

The classic example of the foo-foo factor is the long-term student of karate who knows lots of forms, attends his weekly classes diligently, finally passes the test to become black belt, and then gets beaten up on the way home by the neighborhood bully. As Go is also a martial art, the analogue would be the beginning player who studies very hard and has learned a lot of theory, but who’s regularly crushed by a player who does everything wrong. When this happens one might indeed question the usefulness of martial arts when knocking ‘em down and taking ‘em out seems so much more effective.

I think this is a case of the head of the snake meeting the tail of the dragon. The snake may get in a bite or two, but if the dragon gets annoyed it can crush the snake with a sweep of its tail, hardly even tapping its power. But you don’t see dragons very often (even though it’s up to us which one we want to be).

Acknowledgements

Many thanks to the Good Move Press crew, especially Michael J. Simon, who made this book possible; Angie Lee, who’s done my favorite drawings yet; friends and family whose support never flags; and all the reviewers and readers of the Learn to Play Go series, especially Barbara London, who gave invaluable help and encouragement. A special thanks to the China Weiqi Association for their help with this volume; to Ahn Sang-soo, provider of dragons; to Brian D’Amato, the Reality Checkpoint Guy; David A. Mechner; and our little brother John Lee. Of course, I manage any errors all by myself.

Janice Kim
June 1, 1996

Preface to the Second Edition

As in the second edition of Volume I, there are a number of changes in this edition of Volume III, including my adoption of the convention of referring to Black as male and White as female, and using some very common Go terms such as hane, in order to ease a tortured sentence or two. More substantively I’ve tried to correct some of my errors and omissions, as well as clarify and expand difficult sections, particularly in the nine-stone handicap chapter – a special thanks to None Redmond for her careful and insightful comments on that game.

Volume III is designed to be comprehensible for those who have reached the 15–12 kyu level by various means, or by those who have read the first two volumes. However, I should mention that when reviewing games played by higher kyu or even dan level players, I use much the same commentary as that found in this volume. It’s my hope that this book will be beneficial to a wide range of players, and perhaps spark the interest of those non-players who must still be out there.

A note about rank changes – my teacher Mr. Jeong has since the first edition of this book been promoted to the top rank of 9 dan. I remain uncertain as to whether or not I should change his rank, or for that matter the order of his name on the cover (Koreans put their family name first). In the end I decided to keep it the same for now.

A special thanks to design god Michael Samuel for his invaluable work on this edition, and to the indefatigable Bruce Price.

Janice Kim
September 1, 1998

Notes on the 2011 Printing

Based on some workshops I’ve given in the Bay Area, in this latest printing of The Dragon Style I’ve altered the Seven Dangers and Eight Secrets sections so that experienced players can get a better handle on The Dragon Style. Although experienced players, particularly dan-level players, are frequently looking for advanced tactics and strategies to take their game to the next level, I’ve observed in my teaching that even top-ranking amateurs in the US could move their winning percentages from 50–50 to 60–40 by focused training on just avoiding the Seven Dangers. Although going from 50–50 to 60–40 may seem small, my observation is that this translates to nearly a one-stone gain, for example, from amateur 6 dan to amateur 7 dan. Although it’s not technically difficult to do so, it is extraordinarily difficult in practice because the things one needs to do are counter-intuitive to experienced players. For example, to avoid The Blunder, one has to develop a “gote posture” in a winning position. Since one doesn’t often get to a winning position for a gote posture, switching gears appropriately is very hard to do. Another example would be The Self-Defeating Move, when from a bad local position one tries to squeeze out some sente. Good players will try to do this, and hence fall prey to The Self-Defeating Move. Often making the whole enterprise negatively reinforcing is that one has trouble locating the cause of defeat in these cases, as even a simple problem can’t be fixed if you don’t know where it is.

It’s my hope that players will find the principles and examples in The Dragon Style accessible, and that experienced players will be able to see the application of the principles and find the examples in their own games.

Many thanks to the players of the Bay area and beyond for joining in the learning to play Go process with me. A special thanks to Roger Schrag of the Bay Area Go Players Association for his tireless efforts and enthusiasm.

Janice Kim
April 22, 2011

Part One: The Dragon Style

Chapter 1
Seven Dangers

1. The Thank-You Move

Don’t be afraid when you play with a stronger player. Fear is White’s strongest ally. Often what your opponent can’t achieve, you can achieve for your opponent if you are afraid.

Diagram 1

Here’s a classic example of scaring Black in a nine-stone handicap game. White plays at 3 and 5. At this point, many people are afraid the black stone on the right side is in trouble.

Diagram 2

So they play Black 6, trying to make life† inside. Black continues by playing 8, 10, 12, and 14 to make a base. This is a lot like running and hiding from a flop-eared rabbit. The effect is that Black has practically forced White to strengthen her stones and build a surrounding wall.

†Terms in boldface can be found in the glossary at the end of this book.

Diagram 3

White 5 intends to frighten Black by appearing to surround the side star point stone, but White’s “surrounding” stones are actually very weak. There are a lot of helping stones in the area, so Black doesn’t need to be afraid of White 5. The shoulder hit of 6, continuing the pressure up to 10, is an effective counterattack. Instead of a wall, White has weak, disconnected stones.

2. The Blunder

Perhaps 10% – 20% of games are decided by blunders. Usually good players make blunders, because they are overthinking a position when they are ahead. To avoid blunders, when you have a winning position, focus on your opponent’s moves as immediate threats, rather than looking for counter-attacks.

Diagram 4

Even very strong players make silly mistakes when they are agitated. For example, take a look at this diagram. White played 1. If Black plays at 2, what will happen?

Diagram 5

White can capture three black stones in a snapback with 3. Black is a huge blunder. This is the type of simple mistake that actually happens in Go.

Diagram 6

Black should calmly consider what White is threatening to do with 1 and protect against the threat by connecting at 2. (Notice if White next plays at A, Black can play at B, and if White B, Black A, so White’s group can’t make two eyes.) Simple mistakes can be avoided if you can think calmly in the heat of battle. You might find that your game improves more from trying to stay calm than from learning any specific moves.

3. The Overplay

We want to play the strongest move possible, but it’s important not to cross the line. It may be considered greedy if one risks a definite advantage in trying to get a bigger advantage. As the fable says, Much wants more and loses all.

Diagram 7

Black pushes at 1. Even though this group can live now, some people try to kill Black by blocking at 2. This may be considered a greedy move (or in my case, it shows my fear that I need a bigger margin of victory to be “safe”, so it could be considered a Thank You Move disguised as an Overplay).

Diagram 8

White has a lot of weak points, so Black cuts at 3. When White extends at 4, Black can play atari at 5, and then double atari on the marked stones with 7.

Diagram 9

In double atari, something has to go. If White escapes at 8, Black captures two stones with 9.

Diagram 10

This is the result after Black captures. White is separated, and the marked stones are now useless. With the immensely strong turtle back exploding into the center, Black has an enormous advantage. White’s greedy play has resulted in disaster.

Diagram 11

Returning to the original position, when Black pushes at 1, there’s no need to block. It’s enough for White to extend at 2. When Black pushes at 3, White can extend again at 4. White made thickness in the center, while Black crawled on the second line, so White is very satisfied with this result.

4. Playing on Auto-Pilot

It’s important to think before every move. Try to read a few moves ahead, particularly if the sequence is straightforward.

Diagram 12

White 1 puts two black stones in atari. If Black connects, what will happen?

Diagram 13

If Black connects at 2, White plays atari again at 3.

Diagram 14

Black connects at 4 without thinking. Now White can play atari at 5, and Black’s ten stones will all be captured.

Diagram 15

When White plays atari at 1, Black has to read what will happen after connecting at A. Perhaps more than anything else, reading is the measure of ability in Go.

Diagram 16

One big difficulty in reading is that you have to anticipate not just your own moves, but your opponent’s. One way to do this is to put yourself in your opponent’s shoes and ask, “Why did I play there?” Here’s an example. Suppose White peeps at 1. What should Black be thinking? He should be considering why White made this move.

Diagram 17

The meaning of White : if Black doesn’t connect, White plans to push in and cut Black’s one-point jump. Black’s marked stone is cut off without eyes, so a chunk of the upper side falls under White’s control.

Diagram 18

When White peeps at 1, Black should connect at 2. Now White’s two groups are separated and neither has a base, so Black has the advantage in future fighting.

Diagram 19

This example is a bit different. Here, White is strong on both sides. If White peeps at A, if Black auto-connects at B, Black’s whole group will likely die with White C. This is a good place to perhaps ignore White A, and to paraphrase Conan the Barbarian, find your own kingdom elsewhere.

5. The Self-Defeating Move

Don’t turn a setback into a loss. It’s a common error when suffering a setback to struggle for life after death, to force your opponent to completely surround or take off your dead stones, or try to attack and kill stones that would require your opponent to ignore many moves. For the most part these errors just eliminate opportunities that may come up later.

Diagram 20

Black 1 cuts inside White’s area, trying to capture White’s three stones. This is an unreasonable plan.

Diagram 21

Black’s plan is to block at 3 and catch three stones. If this could happen, of course it would be good for Black, but expecting this is unreasonable. Your opponent presumably will respond to Black by catching it in a ladder.

Diagram 22

Here’s a more subtle example. This position came up in the game of one of the strong dan players in a recent workshop. It’s not unusual that in nearly every game, players from beginners to experts make multiple self-defeating moves. Here, Black overlooked White’s clever tiger mouth connection. Now White can connect by snipping off a stone with A or B.

Diagram 23

Black can connect on only one side, so White cut on the other. Black was probably trying to make sense out of the loss of overlooking the cut, so after Black A and White B in the previous diagram, he pushed in at 1 and played atari at 3. These natural-looking sente plays are actually self-defeating moves. Black can easily read that he will be cut and can’t save his stones, but plays these nail-in-the-coffin moves anyway. It doesn’t look like a mistake, but at the very least, he is wasting ko threats. At worst, he’s losing an opportunity later when more stones are in the area to play a more valuable forcing move or rise from the grave. You don’t have to know what the opportunity will be, you can just be the recipient of the “good fortune” when it comes, if you avoid self-defeating moves.

6. Playing on Tilt

Most cultures with monkeys have a similar expression: Even monkeys fall from trees. Every Go player makes mistakes. You’ll need to acknowledge the mistake and move on. Unfortunately, many people go on tilt and decide it’s kill-or-more-likely-die-big time.

Diagram 24

Black traps a white stone in a ladder at 1. Next, when White plays 2, Black answers at 3. This is a mistake.

Diagram 25

Now White can escape at 4. At this point you may get that sinking feeling that there’s something you’ve overlooked: apparently, White is a ladder breaker.

Diagram 26

Imagine that Black sees red and persists up to 39. Here, the game is over. White connects to the ladder breaker at 40, and Black has no next move. Many weak points have been created. Since Black can’t capture, next White can play double atari all along the sides of the ladder. Black has collapsed because of a psychological inability to recover from one mistake. But most mistakes do not mean “game over” if you can quickly get yourself back on an even keel.

Diagram 27

When White runs at 4, Black needs to acknowledge the mistake, but take it in stride. The ladder doesn’t work, but Black can extend at 5 to strengthen the two black stones. If White cuts off a stone with 6, Black can play a two-point jump to make a base with 7. Even though the marked stone is trapped and Black has suffered a loss, this isn’t a decisive mistake. If White plays on the side star region at 8, Black can take another side at 9, maintaining some balance.

7. Playing to Not Lose

Everyone wants to win, professional players perhaps more than anybody. But thinking too much about winning has a negative effect. That seems to be the flip side of the somewhat tongue-in-cheek saying that when you observe a game, rather than play it, you are three stones stronger. You can use this principle to your advantage: Try to detach a little bit, and think where the best move might be if you didn’t have any stake in the game at all. You can make a lot of foolish mistakes and overlook many obvious good moves if you are anxious about losing or overeager to win. One exercise in detachment is being a gracious winner and a graceful loser. Since everyone makes mistakes they are not aware of, that your opponent failed to capitalize enough on your mistakes is not cause to celebrate your prowess, nor do you need to be too upset about losing, since the possibility of losing is what makes the game a growth opportunity, and interesting to boot.