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© 2006 by Yilun Yang

Workshop Lectures, Volume 1

Yilun Yang

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Yilun Yang 7P is one of the most popular go teachers in the US. He has many Internet students, holds frequent workshops around the country, and has published many books about the game and his special approach to playing it, emphasizing following precepts rather than memorizing patterns and sequences.

Yang was born in China in 1951 and had an active career as a professional go player and teacher there before coming to the US in 1986. He lives near Los Angeles, California. You can contact him at yly_go@yahoo.com.

Yang’s workshops typically involve several lectures and thorough analyses of the games participants play each day. In the lectures he guides players through the special approach to thinking about and playing the game that he has worked out during many years of teaching. He believes that play should be guided by applying easily understood principles rather than by memorizing common patterns and sequences. This even applies to playing joseki, especially complicated ones, as one of the lectures in this book makes clear.

Yang argues that there are too many variables in go to make memorizing set patterns very efficient, but there are a relatively small number of easy to understand precepts that can effectively guide players' reading and play in every situation that arises. The three lectures in this book present some of these guidelines that are especially applicable to the opening stage of the game.

The first two lectures were given at the Yang Workshop in Germantown, Maryland, in March 2006, and the third was delivered to the Yang Workshop in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, in November 2005. They give the reader a small taste of the exciting approach to the game that Yang has developed and that he spells out in detail in the lectures and game analyses at his workshops. The actual lectures had more variations (many considered in response to questions by participants) than could be included in these print versions, but the main points are fully covered.

The first lecture in this volume, “When to Tenuki in the Opening”, presents Yang’s general guidelines for determining whether or not to play elsewhere in a situation and then considers in detail a special type of situation in which a tenuki is appropriate, although the general guidelines suggest otherwise. In effect, Yang shows us a somewhat more complicated principle that leads to a higher level of play.

In the second lecture, “Choosing the Direction of Attack”, Yang offers three clear guides for deciding from which direction to make an attack. Applying these guides in reading requires some practice and the development of a good understanding of such things as when stones are weak, what sort of area holds good potential for benefit, and what makes an attack severe. Numerous examples set the reader on the right path.

The third lecture, “Playing Complicated Joseki”, is a quite complex analysis. It focuses on the situation that leads to the famous taisha joseki, but shows how to deal with the situation in terms of basic principles of fighting rather than by memorizing lengthy, complicated sequences. In this lecture Yang provides brief introductions to several basic guides for various types of fighting. For readers unfamiliar with Yang’s principles, this lecture will require very careful and repeated readings to fully appreciate the wealth of material it contains.

William Cobb, June 2006

Copyright Page

© Yilun Yang

All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part is prohibited.

Slate & Shell
1425 Westshire Lane
Richmond, VA 23238
www.slateandshell.com

Special thanks are due to Matthew Bengtson, Evans Palmour, Gordon Fraser, and Juan Aristy for help with proof reading.

Edited by William Cobb

Cover design by Laurie M. Crammond

Conversion to SmartGo Books by William Cobb

ISBN of print edition:
1–932001–29–8

Table of Contents

Workshop Lectures, Volume 1

Introduction

Copyright Page

When to Tenuki in the Opening

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

Choosing the Direction of Attack

Playing Complicated Joseki

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When to Tenuki in the Opening

The opening is a time when there are really big plays to be made. Since it is a huge advantage to get more of these than your opponent, strong players are always looking for a chance to take one of the remaining big plays rather than answering an opponent’s play locally. Continuing to respond in a local situation often ends in gote, so it is advantageous to know when you can tenuki, that is, refuse to respond to a move locally and instead make a big play elsewhere on the board. There are some general guidelines for making the decision about whether a local response is necessary, and we will go over those first. However, the main focus of this discussion will be on a special situation in which you may well have been assuming that you must respond locally when in fact you should tenuki.

I will begin by going over the general rules for playing tenuki in the opening.

General Rules for Playing Tenuki

1. When the situation involves one stone against one stone:

Normal One Against One

If the situation is normal, with nothing strange or unusual, you may tenuki. In this diagram, White’s approach moves are normal in both cases. So Black may tenuki in order to make a big play elsewhere rather than responding locally.

Unusual One Against One

If the situation is strange or unusual you must not tenuki. In these three cases, White’s approach is strange or unusual. In such cases Black should not tenuki lest White get a better than normal result with a second move.

2. When the situation involves two stones against one stone:

Two Against One

In each of these three cases, White should not tenuki because the single white stone is weak.

3. When the situation involves three stones against one stone:

Three Against One

Generally, the three stones will be quite strong, as in this case, so the single stone is not that important. Hence, in this situation White may tenuki.

4. When the situation involves four stones against one stone, you must tenuki.

Four Against One

In situations like this one, resistance is usually futile. White should tenuki.

5. When two or more stones are weak and have a larger number of stones against them, you must not tenuki.

Weak Stones Outnumbered

In situations like these two, White should not tenuki. Generally, two or more stones are too valuable to give up.

What follows is a quick test on these general rules.

Question 1

Should White tenuki in either of these situations?

Answer 1

Answer 1

No. These are cases of two against one. The single stone is weak. White should not tenuki.

The full book continues this chapter with additional test questions and a section on Special Cases for Playing Tenuki, followed by chapters on Choosing the Direction of Attack and Playing Complicated Joseki.

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© 2006 by Yilun Yang

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