Aspera Ad Astra Reborn - Go

"Deutsche Go Bundesliga"- Go victory!

nospam@example.com (Tom Geiger) — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 22:07:58 +0200

I played the fourth board in the "Deutsche Go Bundesliga" yesterday. I played white.

Click here for download: SGF- File

Victory in my first game at the "DIGoP"

nospam@example.com (Tom Geiger) — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 11:09:10 +0200

DIGoP is a germant Internet Go Tournament I signed up for. Yesterday, I played the first round.

If anyone wants to comment the SGF and send it back, I'd be very happy about a review.

Click here for download: SGF- File

Go- Editor Test

nospam@example.com (Tom Geiger) — Mon, 18 Jun 2007 13:23:05 +0200

Since I'm gonna put up a podcast and some Go- related stuff, I thought I'd try out embedding a goban into the blog. This is the first simple test.

Continue reading "Go- Editor Test"

Why I play Go...

nospam@example.com (Tom Geiger) — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 19:14:09 +0200

Enough said.

Go and 42?

nospam@example.com (Tom Geiger) — Tue, 29 May 2007 13:05:08 +0200

found on "Squares on a Go board" and quoted here:

"How Many Squares on a Go Board?"

Kami Kaze: How many squares are there on a go board? Go away and think about it and write your answer down before reading on!

20 kyu: 361 of course.

"Wrong" says Kami Kaze.

10 kyu: No silly, that's the number of vertices. There are 18x18 or 324 squares.

"Wrong" says Kami Kaze.

(A pause follows, but frantic calculations occur.)

1 dan: Aha, there are also squares 2x2 and 3x3 and so on, which means that the total is 18x18 + 17x17 and so on making a grand total of 2109!

crowd: Aaaahh very clever!

"But wrong" says Kami Kaze.

3 dan: You've forgotten that they aren't squares, they are rectangles. There are no squares on a go board!

crowd: That's a dirty trick.

"And still wrong" says Kami Kaze.

(Another pause, and many puzzled faces.)

crowd: Well how many squares are there on a go board then?

Kami Kaze: It is perfectly true that the smaller areas are rectangles, and each of these is one twelfth longer than it is wide. Therefore, if we take an area twelve rectangles long and thirteen wide, we have a large square, and this is the only size which works. There are (19-12 ) x (19-13) or 42 such squares. The answer is forty-two.

Douglas Adams: We all knew the answer, it's the question that we didn't know. Thank you Kami Kaze, the whole question of the meaning of Life, The Universe and Everything is simply "How many squares are there on a go board?"

Marvin: I tried to tell them, but you know what humans are like, they have the attention span of a dead gnat. Here I am with a brain the size of a planet, and having worked out all the possible games of go, the meaning of life is to have two eyes except in seki when ......

crowd: Which restaurant shall we eat at tonight?

(The crowd departs leaving Marvin talking to himself.)

Marvin: I can tell you what the strictly correct komi is if you really want to know? Oh never mind me, just carry on. I haven't got any feelings of course .....

(German only) Mein neuer Lieblings- Japan- Podcast

nospam@example.com (Tom Geiger) — Tue, 22 May 2007 13:38:55 +0200

Vor ein paar Tagen entdeckt:

Kilians Podkost

Ein "deutscher Podcast Ã¼ber Japan, das Leben und Arbeiten hier, allerlei kulturelles, sprachliches, kÃ¶stliches, kÃ¶tzliches, banales, witziges und auÃŸerdem alemannisches."

Kilian kommt wohl aus Grenzach, an der Schweizer Grenze. Das ist nicht wirklich weit von Waldshut weg, wo ich seeehr viel Zeit verbracht habe.

Sein Podcast ist sehr interessant gestaltet und bringt einem die Kultur Japans, die Eigenheiten der Japaner (Und der Deutschen) in sehr witziger und unterhaltsamer Form rÃ¼ber. Leider ist die letzte Folge schon etwas Ã¤lter. Schaut auch mal bei seinen Photos und seinem Blog rein: Kilians Photos und sein Blog

@Kilian: Ich warte, auf heissen Kohlen sitzend, auf die nÃ¤chste Folge!!!!

My favorite Go Resources

nospam@example.com (Tom Geiger) — Tue, 22 May 2007 12:41:57 +0200

I've been playing Go (an ancient board game, click here for a description and a tutorial) for about one and a half year now. I have played in the years before, but that wasn't worth mentioning, really.

Recently, I began studying more intensely, as my skill was not improving by "just playing",
and I gathered some links and resources I'd like to share.

First of all, "What is Go?" at Wikipedia: Description of the game of Go

Next, a tutorial about how to play it, available in many languages and includes very nice
interactive problems to get a feel for the game: The Interactive Way To Go

It's easy to play the game over the net, here are the two Servers I play on, one is turn based, the other "real time":

Kiseido Go Server: My favorite Real Time Go Server

DragonGoServer: A turn based Server, which allows you to play when you don't have the time to spend an hour or so straight on a game.

After playing a few games, I found studying easiest using Guo Juan's Audio Go Lessons.
They cost 1 Euro per lesson for a month, which is very well spent money if you want to improve fast. Also check out her Go School Website at Go Juan's Go School!

The Audio lessons can be viewed at http://www.audiogolessons.com/. Go Juan also offers some
free Lessons, be sure to check them out! All lessons are spoken by Pro- Level players!

The Dragon Go Server Tournament

nospam@example.com (Tom Geiger) — Wed, 03 Jan 2007 13:02:37 +0100

Some of you might know, I like to play Go, and I signed up for the 2007 Dragon Go Server Tournament. The first round just started, so you might want to have a look at it. I'm still open for games, so if you want just drop me an Invite on DGS for a game. My Username is TomGeiger (duh).

DGS Tournament 2007

If you are not familiar with the game of Go, have a look over here: What is Go?

A nice page to actually learn the game, in many languages: Interactive Way to Go