The one-eyed leading the blind…

So a former colleague of a colleague, or someone who worked where I now work before I worked there, likes to play chess; she says she rarely has time and isn’t good at it, but she likes strategy. So of course the first time I tell her is that she should try playing baduk; I mean, gotta recruit a few more girls into the game, not to mention recruit people in general in Southern Africa.

Mostly, I found it funny, however, that I am trying to teach someone… I’m 24k on KGS, BC on IGS, and 28 (+44%) on OGS – though on OGS I’ve only finished one game in total, so that might not be too accurate. Suddenly, I’m trying to explain things such as eyes, ladders, life and death, and all that stuff; I’m kinda surprised at how much I do know… Until I went online tonight and got completely annihilated again… So yeah, in the land of the blind, this one-eyed woman just still has one eye in the end.

I hope she continues playing, which isn’t easy if there aren’t any clubs around. I mean, playing online is one thing, but I find it extremely hard to be a beginner on places like KGS; mostly, people really don’t like to play against weaker players, apart from OGS, from my experience.

Explosive and aggressive games

Whenever people talk about baduk, it kinda sounds violent: attack, defend, kill, life, death, poke out eyes (as opposed to profiles people you like on Facebook.) So this Japanese advert was posted on Facebook recently. It is for some Japanese mobile app game full of explosions, I gather; my Japanese is really really bad, so no clue what they’re saying. But gotta love the concept.

It reminded me of this comic by Chidori. But truth be told, the balance between aggressive and defensive is quite hard to get in baduk… My recent games, where I try to challenge and invade my opponents territory is just one example where explosive results happen; mostly, what is still alive on the board for me gets nuked into the higher heavens…

(source: emptytriangle.com)
What about proximity detectors and small charges of nitroglycerine inside the stones? hmmm… it would make things more interesting

No true explosions have been recorded in games of baduk… though I hope someday it will, that would just be so cool. The closest anything came is probably the famous “Atomic Bomb Game” (which didn’t go like the above comic, the stones were not nuclear), played at Hiroshima when the bomb fell… They were 5 kilometres from the epicentre; the building was severely damaged and several people at the match were injured, so they did the only thing they could do: they took a lunch break and kept on playing until evening that day. If you want something more visual, the “Blood-vomiting Game” was played in 1835 in Japan; the match lasted 4 days without adjournments; white won, and black vomited blood over the board and died a few weeks later.

 

[website] The Interactive Way To Go

While I knew the rules of baduk from years ago, when I submitted myself to humiliating losses once every half year, it is only since a few months that I seriously looked beyond the basic rules of the game (meaning, I knew the aim was to surround, and I know how to capture, that was pretty much it.) The place where I actually got a taste of the true complexity of this game was at The Interactive Way To Go, a great website that not only shows you the basic rules, it goes into tactics and strategy.

The website is interactive (duh…) and gives you exercises using a little flash plugin. Overall, of course this makes it more convenient than dealing with diagrams in a book, though it tends to illicit the click-blind-and-see-if-it-is-correct behaviour. Also it uses flash or java, so if you’re trying to access it on a tablet or phone it won’t work. The lessons are intersected by problems catering to the specific rules that have been learned, and in some cases rules are learned simply through trying to solve problems; the problems are rated from 50k up to 34k by the last lesson… Though, a translation would be more like 35k to circa 20k (depending on how well you manage to apply the lessons), according to a lot of books and other tutorials out there.

What is great about this website is that it is available in a lot of languages… Arabic, Basque, Belarus, Bulgarian, Catalan, Czech, Chinese (Simplified characters), Chinese (Traditional  characters), Croatian , Dutch , English , Esperanto (!!!), Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hungarian, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Latvian, Lithuanian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish, Swedish, Thai, Turkish, Ukrainian; I’m surprised they didn’t translate it into Klingon or Sindarin. Some use Java instead of Flash, not sure why, and there is no Korean… which is an almighty sin which will rain down fire and tear open the earth (or maybe I just find it a pity…)

The overall layout of the website reminds me of the days before Web 2.0, with html-only and flashy banners, and the absence of CMS; it’s kinda retro, and a plus is that it can be accessed over a slow internet connection.

[film] Tokyo Newcomer

“Under my umbrella~ ella~ eh, eh, eh”

Tokyo Newcomer [東京に来たばかり ] is a film about a Chinese student and amateur baduk player who arrives in Japan. He’s still struggling with Japanese, doesn’t know anyone, and has no job; when he drops his baduk stones by accident, he meets an old lady who lives in a village close to the city and travels up and down to sell vegetables she grows. Soon, he builds up a familial relationship with her and her estranged grandson.

The movie is simply beautiful, though if you’re used to Hollywood style exposition and grandeur it will be a very different experience. The way the movie flows is slow and quick at the same time, but every scene is lives in the moment. I loved this film, not only for the young-baduk-player storyline, but for the poetry it espouses.

Also, until YouTube-slash-Google take it down, you can watch the entire film on YouTube with English and Chinese subtitles:

Spoiler alert (small one…)

Part of what I really liked wasn’t just the beautiful scenes, but the old lady; it is rare to see a woman baduk player portrayed in such a strong way. The anime Hikaru no Go is one example of women in relation to the game being portrayed as less capable (or in this specific case, just plain bad and stupid) than men. The issue of gender in Go is one that is discussed quite a bit (though, unsurprisingly, lacking depth and mostly by men) on Sensei’s Library, and recently at the Cape Town Go Club; overall, the world of baduk is a reflection of broader society, lacking proper representation on the top due to prevailing gender norms and stereotypes… Of course, the game in general sees under-representation by anyone not male, which leads to sexism at times remaining unaddressed. So I loved to see this unassuming grandma being revealed by the end as a brilliant baduk player and lecturer; her entire storyline is what really drew me to the movie, and I loved the actress’ portrayal.

Don’t mess with grandma

Some reflections on my weekly game

So, have I improved? Well, I did better than last week, when I lost by -50 points or something against 10k with H9… Today, I played similar conditions, H9 against 2k teaching game, and came out with 10 points or so… I wish I had thought of taking a picture of it, but it slipped my mind. Basically I managed to secure 2 corners, and had 3 points in the middle from a group I kept alive after what can only be described as an epic struggle. The person I played against was actually the first person I played when I started going to these weekly meets, two months ago; overall I have improved significantly, according to him, as I challenged him a lot more, and made it harder for him to kill me. I’m not yet where at the point where I can play a game with a 9 stone handicap and win against any of them at this point (10k being the lowest rank at those meets) but give me some more months and we’ll see. Overall, the comments I got is that my reading needs improvement, but how I look at the board and interpret moves is getting better… Though the question whether to defend or attack is just still killing me.

(source: github.com)
Since I’ve improved, I’ll be very courteous and give you black

Lacking a picture of the outcome, I’ll provide something I found online to the left here; and I’ll regale to you how my coming out went. Yes, I told the people at the club that I am in fact trans, since they were getting the pronoun wrong. I haven’t done this sort of coming out in a while, so it was interesting, and luckily painless. I mean, from a bunch of people who try to attack, poke out eyes, and kill, at every game… never know ^_^ But I was safe, had both my eyes, and talked about gender issues, the lack of women who play the game in South Africa, and Sally Gross. Who is Sally? Well I knew her as the Director of Intersex South Africa, a strong activist who had passed away earlier this year; I didn’t know she had been a member of the South African Go Association, and went to the same meet-up in Cape Town that I am going now… She had a keen interest in the game apparently; I knew she played now and then, but never knew how serious she was.

[serie] Misaeng – upcoming K-drama

Tagline reads: “on the baduk board of life, no stone is worthless”

So I just found out that in October this year a new K-drama is set to premier, all about baduk; the drama is based on the popular web comic Misaeng [미생], meaning “Incomplete life”. Apparently the comic is quite popular and is available on Daum for a small price per issue, about 1 000₩; I have no idea how to pay for it though, so it is fairly inaccessibly unless you’re in Korean or have access to a Korean bank account, or know how to break into the Daum website.

The story is basically about a failed pro-baduk player who falls into a depression and then tries to get out of it, slowly picking up his life. As he takes job at some company, and is all existential about his future, he learns to apply the lessons he learned from baduk to his life.

I wish I could read the web comic, but that is won’t happen because a) I can’t access it, and b) my Korean sucks harder than a [***censored***] So basically I am waiting for the adaptation to premier end this year, and find a way to get it… “somewhere”. Considering the cast and crew I am quite excited about it. Production is in the hands of the same guy who did Sungkyunkwan Scandal, and in the lead roles Kang So-ra and Im Shi-wan… which, unless you watch K-dramas often, doesn’t mean really that much. Just take my word for it, as you should on lots of things.

I love the premises, the lessons of baduk and how they can be applied to life in general; and while baduk related movies have been released in recent years (e.g. The Stone, The Divine Move, Tokyo Newcomer, The Go Master, etc.) I hope a TV series will be able to go more in depth in terms of the details and complexity of the game. At the very least I have a double excuse to procrastinate in life by watching this for the purpose of improving my Korean language skills and for improving my baduk skills, whether it’d actually help with any of that is really besides the point. For those understanding wanting a preview, and understanding Korean, here is a web prequel that was released a while back:

[book] Go for Beginners

Simple, and straightforward… and points for not being titled “Go for dummies”

I recently purchased Go for Beginners by Kaoru Iwamoto, mostly because I was looking to improve my basic skills at baduk. Honestly, I really wish it wasn’t referred to as go… at the very least, if there is preference for the Japanese word, then call it igo; it just would make googling information on it a lot more straightforward. Anyway, so I got the book and I really like it. It’s fairly thin, but there is a lot of information there. Most of the stuff in the first part you can find online as well, on various introductory websites; I started going through The Interactive Way To Go when I got back to playing baduk, and I as a result I kinda flew through the first part. I think an argument can be made that a lot of the material in this book, and I assume in a lot of other introductory books, is just for those not being able to access the internet nowadays. Still the information is very well explained, and I grasped a more in depth understanding of some of the basics; this might also be because I read printed information better than on a computer screen, somehow. The second part of the book, which I am reading right now, is quite helpful. While of course a lot of it is also to be found online nowadays, it is good to have it nicely structured. It goes over some general strategy, very basic jungsuk (aka joseki), and give example games with commentary.

What I thought was funny is that at one point the author states that one would go from 35k to 10k within a few months, which part of me hopes is right, but I’m somewhat skeptical about. Of course, considering the year it was written (1972) the ranking system might be somewhat differently somehow, as nowadays 30k is the bottom rank. The style of writing is clear, and at points opinionated; he gives clear indications of what he considers bad etiquette and behaviour when it comes to playing a game, calling things vulgar and boorish at times. The only minor issue I found with this book is the fact that some of the diagrams are out of place in terms of the text: they appear sometimes above, sometimes below, sometimes on another page all together from the point where they are mentioned. Though overall, I found this little gem very helpful; the question remains, however, how will I fare coming Tuesday?

My board and stones, and life in the corner

Somehow ironic, I came to South Africa from Korea to start playing a Korean game a year after I left to come here…

So I bought a baduk-pan (or giban… basically a baduk board) and a set of biconvex stones today. Yes, that is how serious I am getting about this, I went out of my way to buy a Korean produced board and stones in South Africa; mind you, you pretty much can’t get that in any shop here, I had to buy it through the SA Go Association – which, after my undercover mission succeeds, will be renamed the SA Baduk Association.

I decided thus, at the weekly Cape Town Go Club meet, to have an epic loss on my new board to baptise it; which I did by losing by more than 50 points. By the endgame, I ran out of stones ’cause my opponent had captured so many; when scoring, there wasn’t a single point left on the board for black, while he still had prisoners left. Epic, as in the worst defeat I’ve had since I started playing there. Interestingly, when reviewing it, it seemed that I actually did progress; though I had fared better against the same opponent, with the same handicap, a few weeks earlier. As I get more proactive, and less defensive, there are more risks; my groups got annihilated, ripped apart, shredded. I’ve been assured that this is part of the process of learning, and that when I learn to balance my proactive (read aggressive) play with more whole-board strategic thinking and defense, I’d actually improve.

Though I do want to mention that I managed to keep my corner alive! Okay, I might have pretty much lost the rest of the board, and the little territory in the corner that I had was gone when captures were filled in during scoring, but I kept it alive!

(source: go blog on fb)

Oh, maybe I could grow some roses and cabbages, or an apple tree…

I’ve also put in my membership at the SA Go Association, since I am getting quote-serious-unquote about this. However, a new dilemma has presented itself (as it usually does in my life); when I started playing, thinking it just to be an occasional thing, I didn’t really care about how the others perceived me; Now, however, that has changed since it has become a regular part of my life. The reason why this matters is because being transgender (yes, I’m transgender, blablabla, get over it) means that how they perceive me is not as the girl I am… Not sure when to breach this topic, though I know I’ll have to at some point… Kinda like baduk actually: when do we play where? Timing can be everything…

Reflections on a single stone

Wait… Checkmate? in baduk?? Maybe I’ve been playing this game all wrong; that would explain my terrible skill at it…

None the less this short film by the Hong Kong Academy of Performing Arts is beautiful! I love it, everything about it! And I do understand the use of the word “checkmate” in the subtitles (I’m not sure what the actual spoken word is, as my knowledge of vernacular Chinese languages is worse than my knowledge of Ancient Sumerian), and the sentiment that is expressed through it. Once a stone is put on the board, it is final: unless it is captured by the opponent, it cannot be moved or taken back; the moment the man says “I have no regrets” despite his move being the wrong one, that moment I think reflects what baduk tries to say about life.

It kinda reminds me of this one scene in this K-drama that I’ve watched (and fell in love with); the series – set during the Joseon Dynasty – is called Moon Embracing the Sun [해를 품은 달] and in it the young protagonist, like other young girls of the higher castes, are called up to participate in the selection process for a new Crown Prince. Secretly the Crown Prince and her had already met and fallen in love… However, the selection process is rigorous and if not selected she would never be able to marry, or lead a life. She uses a baduk rule to explain herself; the sentiment really being that once a move is made, it cannot be changed, whether in life or on the board. Once a stone is placed, whether it be the right or wrong move, one must continue the game and accept it, rather than give in to regret should it not work out.

Perhaps it is a bit cheesy (though, I would related it more to another food illustrated sentiment), but somehow I do find that it shows the depth of the game; there is such simplicity, but such complexity… Or, in true nerdy fashion, IDIC… Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations… all in the monochrome movement of stones on a board.

Kim Satgat – Baduk

This a post on a blog I follow by Kuiwon, who translates Classical Chinese poetry by Koreans as a hobby. This poem specifically is part of a series he did on traditional games, and explores baduk (or gi [기, 棋], as it often appears in compounds, such as the Korean name of the Korean Baduk Association: Hankuk kiwon [한국기원])