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 interactive go diagrams, which not all EPUB readers handle correctly. You can get a download link to a more compatible EPUB version containing only static diagrams at gobooks.com/support.html.

This EPUB reader does not support full scripting, so diagrams may not be interactive.

The Breakthrough to Shodan

By Naoki Miyamoto 9-dan
Translated by James Davies

Kiseido Publishing Company
Chigasaki, Japan

Buy the full book at gobooks.com

In this unique treatment of low-handicap go a 9-dan professional sets out to change your whole approach to the game. Step by step he shows you how to take the initiative, how to attack, how to handle the corners, and how to keep the game simple, all the while relentlessly hammering away at the negative mentality that keeps players from advancing. Absorb what he has to say, and the opponents you once feared may soon have to fear you.

Copyright Page

The Breakthrough to Shodan

by Naoki Miyamoto 9-dan

Copyright © 1976 by Ishi Press, 2021 by Kiseido Publishing

All rights reserved according to international law. No part of this book may be reproduced by any mechanical, photographic, or electronic process, nor may it be stored in a retrieval system, transmitted, or otherwise copied for public or private use without the written permission from Kiseido Publishing Company.

Originally serialized in the magazine Igo Shincho in Japanese under the title Shodan Kakutoku Saitan Kosu

Published by
Kiseido Publishing Company
Kagawa 4–48–32
Chigasaki-shi, Kanagawa-ken
Japan 253–0082

Converted for SmartGo Books by John Mifsud.

Contents

The Breakthrough to Shodan

Copyright Page

About the Author

Foreword

Chapter 1

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

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Go Books from Kiseido

Buy This Book

About SmartGo Books

About the Author

Naoki Miyamoto was born in 1934 in Hyogo Prefecture, Japan, which adjoins the city of Osaka. In 1949 he became a pupil of Utaro Hashimoto, 8-dan, (now 9-dan), who broke away from the Nihon Kiin the following year to found the Kansai Kiin. Miyamoto quickly reached the professional level. His promotion record is:

Shodan 1950
2 dan 1951
3 dan 1952
4 dan 1954
5 dan 1956
6 dan 1957
7 dan 1959
8 dan 1961
9 dan 1969

He won the Kansai Kiin First Place Tournament in 1960 and the Kansai Kiin Championship in 1968. In addition, he has gained coveted places in the Meijin League twice, (1963–1964), and in the Honinbo League twice, (1960 and 1964). He is perhaps best known, however, as the publisher and editor of the monthly go magazine Igo Shincho, and as the originator of pro-pro handicap go.

Foreword

How The Breakthrough to Shodan came to be translated.

This translation grew out of a visit paid in June, 1975 by Richard Bozulich of the Ishi Press and the translator to the offices of the Kansai Kiin in Osaka. The Kansai Kiin, or Western Japanese Go Association, is a comparatively new and growing body of professional go players, a sort of younger rival for the Tokyo-based Nihon Kiin. It puts out a monthly go magazine, the Igo Shincho, which has the distinction of being published and edited by a 9-dan professional go player, Naoki Miyamoto. Mr. Miyamoto has been responsible for a steady stream of imaginative feature articles in it, including a famous series of pro-pro handicap games and another series of, by now, over five hundred full-board problems. Parts of these two series have been printed in book form, and it was to inquire about translating them that we made this trip to Osaka.

Mr. Miyamoto was in a genial mood and talked at length about his experiences with the Igo Shincho and about go writing in general. He had few words of praise for most of the go books published in Japan. ‘They have different covers,’ he said, ‘but they’re all the same inside.’ He spoke in particular about handicap go. ‘Much of what you read about it is incorrect,’ he said, ‘a log of misconceptions passed on from one go writer to the next.’

It is a fact that while most Japanese go books list strong professional players as their authors, few of them are actually written by those players. A professional’s job is to give lessons and play in tournaments, not to write books. The task of organizing material, drawing diagrams, writing text, fitting things together on the page, proofreading, etc. is done by amateurs working for the outfits that publish the books. In some cases the professional supervises the writing and supplies the ideas and sequences that go into it, but in many cases he only lends his name to the finished product, taking little or no responsibility for its contents. Miyamoto’s comments about such books came as no surprise to us.

After getting his agreement about the books we had been interested in, we asked Mr. Miyamoto if he could recommend anything else for us to translate. He immediately suggested a series of articles that had appeared in the Igo Shincho about a year before, intended for readers who were trying to reach the shodan level. ‘I took a lot of trouble over that series,’ he said. ‘Even the people up in Tokyo, (i.e. at the Nihon Kiin), praised it.’ It had not been published anywhere in book form, so he hunted up back issues and showed us what he meant. We were favorably impressed and carried the back issues home with us.

The series ran from October, 1973, to July, 1974, and its ten installments form the ten chapters of this book. To augment the first seven chapters, I have selected fourteen full-board handicap go problems from the 1974 issues of the Igo Shincho. Both the text and the problems deal with three- and four-stone handicap go and concentrate on developing the awareness of whole-board strategy and repertory of techniques that a player needs to cross the barrier between the kyu level and the dan level. Miyamoto’s step-by-step approach and constant driving home of fundamentals make The Breakthrough to Shodan an eye-opening work, unique in both the English and the Japanese go literature.

James Davies
September, 1975

Chapter 1

‘I want to get to shodan quickly.’ That must be the first thought of everyone who learns to play go, but the barrier turns out to be unexpectedly thick. I sometimes hear people who are stalled at the four- or five-kyu level say, ‘I don’t have any talent.’ Nonsense—no special talent is needed to reach shodan. These people are simply falling back on that convenient term ‘talent’ to justify their mistaken methods of studying to themselves.

From where, then, comes the difference between those who make steady progress and those who do not? That question can be answered in one word: fundamentals. When a person knows lots of joseki, practices life-and-death problems, and plays a great deal, but still makes no progress, it is because his fundamentals are all wrong. ‘Fundamentals’ should be interpreted, not as something narrow like joseki, but in a broad sense, as one’s whole approach to the game. Think not of some flimsy structure that will collapse in a breeze, but of a tall skyscraper that gives itself to the wind, with only its foundation planted firmly in the ground.

A skyscraper cannot be built in a day, nor can you reach shodan overnight. I will take you to your goal, not in one jump, but in a series of easy strides.

In chapter 1 we shall take up four stone handicap go. If you can force a dan-level player to give you a smaller handicap, you are probably already nearly a shodan.

People often lament that. ‘I followed the book, but I still lost,’ or, ‘Halfway through he played a different move and I got confused.’ Their problem is that they have become slaves to form, without understanding the spirit behind the form.

‘When a professional plays a teaching game, once he makes it close, he doesn’t have to worry. Those people who act so happy because they think they’ve won by five or six points have almost always lost.’ Utaro Hashimoto, 9-dan, said this. If we think his words over, we will find a hidden clue about how to become stronger.

1st Stride. Have him play the large knight’s move.

Dia. 1

＞＜ ▶︎

Dia. 1 is from a game played against Honinbo Dosaku at four stones by Peichin Hamahika, a famous player of the Ryukyu Islands (now Okinawa), when he came to Japan in 1682. It is Black’s poor mentality, rather than White’s skill, that merits attention. Honinbo Dosaku made thorough use of his opponent’s compulsion to defend territory.

Dia. 2

＞＜ ▶︎

Sequences like Dia. 2 often appear. Realizing that his opponent is going to defend with the large knight’s move, White plans his opening so as to make the invasion at 5 most effective. The purpose of this 3–3 point invasion is not so much to gain territory as to frighten Black by appearing to rob him of his base.

Black proudly crawls out along the second line to 22, extends to 24, and seems to be thinking to himself, ‘Well, that’s one group safe,’ but he has been taken in by White’s ‘threat’. When White plays 25, the game already looks close.

Instead of playing 10 —

Dia. 3

＞＜ ▶︎

Black should have made the hane and connection at 1 and 3 in Dia. 3. When the sequence gets to Black 13, White has become unnecessary, and there is a nice ko, Black A to E, left in the corner.

Dia. 4
25 at 7; 26 at 15; 28: connects

＞＜ ▶︎

Those who feel compelled to defend the corners often make the diagonal contact play at 4 in Dia. 4, and jump to 6. Then comes the tesuji combination of the attachment at White 7 and the placement at White 9, followed quite likely by the sequence up to White 29.

Dia. 5

Dia. 5 should make the result easier to understand. White could hardly be more ecstatic.

Dia. 6
6: connects

＞＜ ▶︎

If Black makes the diagonal play at 1 in Dia. 6 instead of 18 in Dia. 4 and carries on through 11, he is one move ahead in the fight, so it is possible for him to thwart White’s measures, but this takes considerable reading out.

As the above is meant to show, White is glad to have Black play the large knight’s move. It leaves him room for any number of variations, and gives him the best possibility of forcing Black into a mistake.

You must not forget, however, to consider the reverse of everything in go. If we take ‘Have him play the large knight’s move’, turn it around, and look at it from Black’s point of view, what do we get?

2nd Stride. Don’t use the handicap stones for defense. Don’t miss big points.

If one listens to the complaints of people who are not making progress, one gets the impression that most of them are convinced that the purpose of the handicap stones is to defend the corners. With this terrible misconception for a start, they can hardly expect to make progress. It is only when the handicap stones are used for attack that they deliver their full power.

Figure 1 (1–10)

＞＜ ▶︎

Look at the game in the figure. The moves up to Black 10 may seem ordinary, but Black has already made some big errors.

To begin with, there is Black 6, apparently an attempt to make territory in the lower right corner. This move gives White an easy development. The big points were the pincer attack at 9 on the lower side and the san-ren-sei at A on the left side.

Dia. 7
2: elsewhere

＞＜ ▶︎

If White ignores Black 1 in Dia. 7, Black immediately makes the diagonal contact play at 3 and jumps to 5. Against White 6, Black plays 7 and extends to 9, bringing all his forces into action. White must now give first priority to taking care of his three stones. He has no time to plot any schemes of his own, so Black should be able to take the initiative effortlessly.

Figure 1a (10)

＞＜ ▶︎

Next there is Black 10. It is not so much the move itself that is bad as the intention behind it to defend the corner. Here again A on the left side, or B on the upper side, was the big point, but once Black sets out to defend, there is no stopping him. Perhaps a shortcut to making progress is to learn to be defiant enough to play in the opposite direction from the sound of your opponent’s stones.

Figure 2 (11–21)

＞＜ ▶︎

Black’s negative style of play continues in Figure 2. The handicap point on the left side, (21), would have been correct for White 15, but White had read his opponent’s thinking and was taunting him by turning away to 15.

Black’s last chance to take the handicap point on the left side was missed at 16. White arrived with apparent ease at 21, and if we take stock of the position at this moment, what with the four-stone difference in strengths, we can say that the game is already pretty close.

Let’s back up this statement. Black now has secure territory in the upper right and upper left corners, about fifteen points in each for a total of thirty. Even if one of the two corners on the lower side becomes fifteen points of territory that makes only forty-five points, although one must realize that in this type of position, both corners frequently end up as rubble.

For his part, White has territory in four places which seems likely to amount to, in all, about forty-five points. From here on, it is only a matter of the difference in strengths asserting itself.

All this came about because Black cared too much for the corner territory and neglected the big points on the sides.

In a four-stone game, if Black locks up all the corners, he gets sixty points, and that is all. If White can take control of four areas on the sides, he can quickly balance that amount of territory. Next the battle spreads into the center, but Black has no footing to push out from, and suffers a miserable rout.

Isn’t there a famous go proverb that says, ‘If you have lost four corners, resign’? Yes, there is, and it is an out-and-out lie. I think I would like to rewrite it as ‘If you have taken all four corners, resign.’ Play your own game, and don’t be misled by such facile ‘proverbs’.

Figure 3 (22–33)

＞＜ ▶︎

White has made a strange-looking invasion at 23 into what Black had thought was his territory. White 23 hits the weak point in this shape, and there is no good answer to it. Black could find no better move than the contact play at 24, but the sequence to White 29 made a wreck of his corner, leaving him without even eye shape, and as good as ended the game.

Let’s take a moment to study White 23. The sequence in the figure is close to ideal for White, but —

Dia. 8

＞＜ ▶︎

The ultimate would probably be Dia. 8, which shows Black really being kicked around and trampled on.

Dia. 9

＞＜ ▶︎

For Black 24 in Figure 3, the sideways contact play at 1 in Dia. 9 may be the best move. Since White is on the board, Black cannot fight very hard. When White is absent —

Dia. 10

＞＜ ▶︎

The descent to Black 1 and pincer attack at 7 in Dia. 10 become effective, but in neither case can Black’s result be called really good. We keep coming back to the fact that his original defensive moves were not good.

The thing I would like you to learn from this example is not to use the handicap stones for defense. Along with that, try not to miss the big points on the sides. Do this, and you will stop following your opponent around the board. Perhaps a whole new field of vision will open up before you.

3rd Stride. Side attachment? Extend!

I dare say that by now you understand that you cannot win by defending all the time. Let’s get rid of some more mistakes.

Figure 4 (1–18)

＞＜ ▶︎

There is nothing special about the moves up to Black 12 in this next game, but White’s attachment at 13 set Black a problem. Your first reaction to this side attachment should be to extend to Black 1 in Dia. 11.

Dia. 11

＞＜ ▶︎

If White answers at 2 and Black continues with 3 and 5, it is clear that White is in trouble.

Dia. 12
2: elsewhere

＞＜ ▶︎

What was wrong with the way Black actually played? At White 17, shift your glance to Dia. 12. Would anyone ignore White’s peeping move at 1 there? If anyone did, he would be pierced by White 3 and cut by White 5. I think you can understand my point.

Dia. 13

＞＜ ▶︎

Further on, at Black 18, there seem to be many players who connect at 1 in Dia. 13 and let White capture a stone with 2 and 4. This is a disgrace. Anyone who has been cheerfully playing this sequence up to now should banish it utterly from his thoughts. Where do such mistakes come from? As explained before, they come from trying to defend territory.

Figure 5 (14–28)

＞＜ ▶︎

Take a look at the position up to Black 28. Black has, to be sure, made about twenty points of territory on the upper side, but there is no telling the role White’s centrally oriented power will play in the game ahead.

4th Stride. Thwart your opponent’s aim.

It is all very well to drum ‘Extend against the side attachment’ into your head, but you have to know how to proceed from there.

Dia. 14

＞＜ ▶︎

White’s descent to 1 in Dia. 14 is no mean move. If Black makes the diagonal contact play at 2, expecting White A, Black B, he is expecting too much. White will cap him with 3 and start to dictate the pace of the game.

Dia. 15

＞＜ ▶︎

When White descends, I recommend the one-point jump to Black 1 in Dia. 15. White’s cross-cut at 2 and 4, however, presents a difficulty. If Black hurriedly plays 5 and 7 to keep White from linking up, he gives White a fine result; count the numbers of black and white stones in this diagram.

Dia. 16

＞＜ ▶︎

Instead of playing 7 in Dia. 15, Black should press with 1 in Dia. 16. The sequence up to 9 thwarts White’s aim completely. The group he is left with is not even 100 percent alive.

5th Stride. Welcome the 3–3 point invasion.

Figure 6 (29–38)

＞＜ ▶︎

White invaded at the 3–3 point with 29. This was absolutely necessary, for if he had done nothing, Black would have locked the door on him at 30 and completed a huge territory. The sequence up to White 35 was quite proper, but Black 36 carried it too far. Black should, of course, have turned elsewhere.

Black in this game is quite strong in local battles; his weakness is that he gets too involved in them and falls behind over the board as a whole.

Dia. 17

＞＜ ▶︎

As it stands, the corner is unresolved, because Black can hane at 1 in Dia. 17, make the placement at 3, and gain a ko with 9. White, however, will keep Black too busy to start the ko, and look for a chance later to exchange A for B in Figure 6.

Many people seem to fear the 3–3 point invasion, but you should welcome it. The corners offer White only cramped space, and after he has squeezed himself into it, you have the whole board to play with.

Dia. 18

＞＜ ▶︎

A mistake similar to Black 36 in Figure 6 that I often see is Black 8 in Dia. 18. Cut by White 11, Black has no time to kill the corner. It is his own stones, rather, that are likely to die.

Dia. 19

＞＜ ▶︎

Instead of playing 8, Black’s safe course is to press White down with 1 in Dia. 19. White crawls forward to 2, and Black hanes at 3, waiting for a chance to play A later.

6th Stride. Jump when White crawls in.

Figure 7 (39–54)

＞＜ ▶︎

The action shifts to the lower left corner. No doubt everyone has been through the experience of having White crawl in at 41 and peep at 43.

The trouble is with Black’s blocking at 42.

Dia. 20

＞＜ ▶︎

Look at Dia. 20 and learn the maxim, ‘Jump when White crawls in.’ This one-point jump, ignoring trifles and aiming into the center, is rarely a bad move.

Dia. 21

Let’s pause at White 47 and look at Dia. 21. The unnecessity of Black should be apparent at a glance. Every unnecessary move that you are forced to make means one move by which you have fallen behind.

Dia. 22

＞＜ ▶︎

Some books say that in this shape, provided the ladder is with him, Black can play 2 in Dia. 22. Next when White cuts at 3, Black descends to 4 to capture him, but this is not really good.

White will ignore Black’s move and start playing somewhere off to the right, secretly plotting his escape.

Dia. 23

＞＜ ▶︎

When everything is ready, he will play 1 to 7 in Dia. 23. Naturally he has gotten a stone in place that makes the ladder at A work. With 9, Black’s position crumbles.

Figure 8 (55–67)

＞＜ ▶︎

Taking sente, White sent his shock troops into the lower right corner at 55. Almost everybody answers this move with Black 56, only to be cut to pieces by White 65.

Dia. 24

＞＜ ▶︎

The ideal result for White from 55 is Dia. 24. Why this is ideal should be understandable from Dia. 25.

Dia. 25

＞＜ ▶︎

No one approaching the shodan level would answer White 1 there at 2. They would press back, naturally, at A.

Dia. 26

＞＜ ▶︎

Against White 55 I recommend the diagonal play at Black 2 in Dia. 26. White will counter this with the contact play at 3, and the next move is important. Most players seem to press at Black 4 and answer White’s cross-cut at 5 by giving atari with Black 6 and 8. Since White comes out badly positioned this sequence is not completely unplayable, but it is a shame to start by giving White so much territory. That tends to make the game close.

Dia. 27

＞＜ ▶︎

When this shape arises, it is good to give way with Black 1 in Dia. 27. White seems to be doing well, but Black should be satisfied, since he has received a tremendous gift in White .

If we look back at this game, it seems that Black has not developed his own way of playing. He has just repeated sequences that he has memorized, and I am afraid he has a long way to go. The first thing he must do is to grasp the spirit that lies behind the form.

7th Stride. Take the lead and attack.

Perhaps we have seen enough bad moves. It is not so much the badness of the moves themselves as the negative compulsion to defend the corners and the subservient spirit that follows the opponent around the board that is the cause of defeat. By now I imagine that you understand this.

Figure 9 (1–10)

＞＜ ▶︎

This time let’s build a model game on the ruins of Black’s loss in the last game. (White 13 in Figure 4 becomes White 1 in Figure 9.) Black 2 to 6 are a relaxed sequence. The diagonal contact play at 8 and one-point jump to 10 are two more ordinary moves, but the whole thing adds up to a severe attack.

Dia. 28

＞＜ ▶︎

At 8, Black could also blockade White with 1 in Dia. 28. White would probably go into the 3–3 point with 2. Black caps White’s stone with 9 and starts a double attack with 11, an ideal sequence for him.

Dia. 29

＞＜ ▶︎

Conceivably White will not play 2 in Dia. 28, but try to live with 1 in Dia. 29. Black peeps at 4, and after White lives in gote, comes crashing down on the handicap point on the right side. This type of play does not seem likely to present White with any good chances.

‘Take the lead and attack’ is the safest short road to victory. It goes without saying that attack serves also for defense. Keep your opponent off balance and attack with all your might.