Episode #15 Creativity
Like many good stories, this story starts with Jan van der Steen.
Back in 1997 he was reviewing a game of mine and said something I won't ever forget.
He held up a stone between his thumb and index-finger and told me: "you have sente. You can play whatever move you want."
This single sentence inspired me a lot and I started thinking about all the possibilities there are in the game of go.
In previous episode we have been showing fixed patterns and josekis.
However, we would like to stress the point that you have to play the moves that make you feel best.
We are all amateurs and we play this game for fun. So play the moves you think are most fun and interesting.
Do you recognise this position on the board?
The last move played is the most famous one in the history of go. It's the ear-reddening move played by Shusaku in 1846.
To be able to play these kind of creative moves you have to practise your creativity. How to do that?
Let us show you a few ideas you might want to explore.
We hope you will be inspired and will try out and develop your own special ideas.
It's a fact that professional go players can also be inspired by amateurs.
Here we will show you a popular joseki that was invented in the amateur go scene and then copied afterwards and perfected by pros.
Many of you will know this move, which starts the avalanche joseki. Also called the [nadare] in Japanese.
Usually this type of move is bad style since white metaphorically 'bumps his head into a wall'.
Black blocks and seems to have a very comfortable result. This is exactly why pros never even considered these white moves.
But when an amateur player tried it, it was noticed by Kitani Minoru. He was surprised by the effectivity of the white moves and started playing it frequently from 1927.
This was an interesting time for the go world.
A lot of new ideas were being tried out in the professional go world.
Especially with the opening experimentation called Shin Fuseki.
To quote sensei's library: [The new fuseki, or Shin Fuseki in Japanese, was the explosive exploration of new centre, side and non-traditional corner strategies in Japanese professional go in the mid 1930s.
..It was the culmination of a great deal of dissatisfaction on the part of especially the younger pros with an excessive codification of go in the early 20th century in Japan.]
Let us quickly show you an example of a game played in this era.
Go Seigen is battling Kosugi Tei. Kosugi Tei is black and Go Seigen plays white.
As you can see both players are insane. Soon after the game they were hospitalised.
No, ofcourse not. We're kidding. Please appreciate their creative mindset.
Even earlier, in the 16th century, a different kind of go than what we know today was being played in Korea.
The formation you see on the board here was the standard position of every game.
The fuseki was set and black had to occupy [tengen] with the first move.
Even today, [Sunjang Baduk], which is the name of this type of go, is worth trying out yourself.
It forces both players to try something that they have never dealt with before. And it makes you think outside the box. Fighting is inevitable, which will lead to many creative situations.
Another creative opening pattern you might want to experiment with is called [The Great Wall].
The name refers to the shape of the Great Wall in China.
Contradictory to the concept of not playing in the centre in the early stages of the game, the Great Wall fuseki builds up thickness.
Black looks forward to use this thickness by fighting.
This opening is similar to that of the Great Wall.
Even more than the Great Wall, professionals would never play this type of fuseki.
For some time Kim, the guy sitting next to me, played this opening on KGS. He reached a solid rank of 5dan with this strategy and even got a 7dan rank at a certain point.
It is interesting to hear what professionals have to say about this kind of strategy.
According to them white should always try to break the wall and prevent black from completing it.
Another creative opening.
Black invades here because he would like to try a new idea he has been preparing.
Instead of the normal move at [A] black plays this severe cut.
We have no idea of how this fight will end.
But the marked black stones are sure to play an important part in the coming fight.
Try it out if you like it!
Ok guys, one final crazy opening.
Peter played this against Cho Seokbin 8dan at the Amsterdam tournament 2012. See the bonus tab to see their .sgf-file.
Again some professionals advise white to prevent black from playing this last move. It completes black's strategy.
White could occupy one of these 7-7 points himself.
Black builds up an interesting position. It is fun to try it out!
To conclude, also in more conventional openings creative moves can be played.
This for a change is an actual pro-game.
This is a nice example of the idea that you can play anywhere you want at any moment.
The normal move would be to just answer at [A].
But white chooses to fight back. A very creative response.
We hope you now have some inspiration to play whatever moves you want on the goboard.
Try out new ideas, even when they seem weird. Or especially when they seem weird! It will help you grow as a go player.
Thanks for watching and see you next time.