A two-stone handicap against a 13k

Today I played a handicapped game, and thought it would be nice to share it. Aside from being the first handicapped game we will look at, it will also be the first game in which I lost that is analyzed on this blog. It is against a KGS player called daimazin. He was 13k? at the time of play.

I already mentioned ranks in go. These work mostly as a measure of skill relative to other players. This means that the kyu/dan system can be used to determine a handicap for the weaker player, with the aim of evening out the game. If a handicapped game is started with a properly determined number of stones, it is considered that if the weaker player wins (with the handicap) it is as rightful a victory as any other. (note: imho, this is a clear sign that we are part of a culture in which victory is achieved by doing one's best, rather than scoring a particular amount of points) Usually, one rank is worth one handicap stone. Since I was 11k? at the time of the game, daimazin had two handicap stones. Handicap stones are placed in a predetermined order on the board. For two handicap stones, it is the upper-right and lower-left star (hoshi) point. The handicapped player uses black stones, and white gets to play first, since if black played first, he would be three stones ahead. Usually handicapped games do not include the komi rule. Komi is believed to be worth one handicap, so it normally balances out for white the fact that black plays first.

Enough smalltalk, though. Here's the game.

2012-02-23-Median-daimazin.sgf

Now that I look back, I think that I have made a mistake already at move 7.  I should have entered the upper right corner as I planned. Since he is the handicapped player, he can afford to ignore the move I made at the left-side star point and deny me the corner in the upper right. Shouldn't have allowed that.

SmartGo 4s

Ok, first off - I'd like to announce that from now on, I'm going to be writing this blog in English. A very good friend pointed out that I can reach a much wider audience this way, and really, there is no real reason to limit this blog to a Serbian audience just because a large majority of my friends are Serbian. Indeed, probably any of my friends that would even find it worthwhile to read this blog already use English well enough to not be hindered by my (lack of experience in) use of English.

Anyway, let's look at a game.

Yesterday I played a game against SmartGo on my iPod touch. Right now, I'd like to take a moment and talk about the AI that I've encountered so far, and my experience with it. Probably the most popular go AI out there is GnuGo. You can find GnuGo in many PC go clients (such as GoPanda, for instance). This is because GnuGo is only an "engine" for playing go. The brain, basically. Obviously, there are many different GUI applications built around GnuGo, but the logic is always the same. GnuGo is a pretty powerful AI, as well. I have won against it only a few times so far, and that was with undoing some stupid mistakes I still tend to make in the heat of battle. If you can, I suggest playing against a weaker AI when you are only starting out. Bear in mind that GnuGo is an ideal partner for working on your battle technique. Here I mean small, local battles, and not the "war" that goes on throughout the entire board.

Moja prva 15k partija

Dugo nisam igrao na KGS. Poslednji put kada sam igrao go, to je bilo protiv ortaka koji tek počinje da igra, i igrali smo na 13x13 tabli. Bila je lepa partija (zaista), ali nekako sam se tu više fokusirao na edukativni momenat, tj. da napravim situacije koje on može lepo da čita i da nauči što više. To je bilo pre 3 dana, a pre toga nisam igrao pune dve nedelje. Dve nedelje pre te partije sam prvi put bio u Klubu društvenih igara na Novom Beogradu, i odigrao jednu (za mene) veoma poučnu partiju sa igračem čijeg imena se ne sećam trenutno. Sramno sam izgubio, ali sam imao priliku da držim prave kamenčiće u rukama, i toliko mnogo sam naučio da mi poraz nije pao nimalo teško. Čak naprotiv.

Sa time u glavi sam se danas odlučio da pokušam da primenim stečeno znanje, i izgubim još koju partiju. Kada sam se ulogovao na KGS, on mi je dao (14k?) rang što me je malo zbunilo. Poslednji rang koji sam imao na KGS je bio 17k. Verovatno pretpostavlja da sam se poboljšao u međuvremenu, a ne obrnuto. To je interesantno. U svakom slučaju, upario me je sa likom koji je 15k, i očekivao sam da će me on definitivno dobiti, pošto nikada do sad nisam igrao protiv 15k. Mislim da jesam jednom, kad sam bio 17k, na samom početku online igranja, i to je bilo sa dva hendikepa. Bilo teško mlaćenje (mene). Valjda je to bio 15k.

Elem, ispostavi se da sam uspeo sa izvesnom lakoćom da pobedim. Tj. bila je velika razlika, a sama partija mi je oduzela puno snage i koncentracije. Imam utisak da taj protivnik nije trebalo da bude čak 15k. Pravio je neke baš nezgodne greške. Možda je isprobavao nešto. U svakom slučaju, evo partije:

Go go go!

Zdravo svima. :)

Za one koji su ovde nabasali sasvim slučajno nemajući pojma o tome gde su i šta je go, evo veoma kratak uvod.

Go je igra slična šahu, koju igraju dva igrača na tabli. Potezi se povlače postavljanjem kamenčića na preseke linija na tabli (linija ima 19 horizontalno i 19 vertikalno). Pravila go-a su veoma jednostavna, i mogu se naći (na primer) ovde. go je jedna od najstarijih igara ove vrste na svetu, i ima *mnogo* pisanog materijala o tome kako se igra, i kako može da se igra. Neću se time ovde baviti, jer bi to bilo apsolutno suvišno.

Na ovom blogu ću pisati o svom igranju go-a. :) A pozivam čitaoce da slobodno postavljaju pitanja, daju preporuke, pozovu na partiju i šta god im generalno padne na pamet.