Saturday 1 January 2005

Pic of the day: Even a preschooler might beat me at Go. Especially this preschooler (Touya Akira from the anime Hikaru no Go, a child genius and working hard on learning Go since the age of 4 or so.)

"I have nothing"

According to some fellow fans of Japanese anime and the ancient board game of Go, this is the translation of one phrase by which you may resign the game. From watching the anime Hikaru no Go I have noticed that there are two expressions that can be used for this purpose, but I do not know their literal meaning myself. Actually "I have nothing" sounds like a elaborate way of saying "pass", but then again that may be enough when you are clearly losing. After all, if you pass a move in Go, your opponent is free to either place a stone or end the game. If you are clearly behind, a pass might be a way to resign. What do I know? Japanese are overly polite, that's what I know. Or perhaps we are underly polite. ^_^*

Anyway, the expression "I have nothing" came to me unbidden as I looked at my own prowess and progress in the game. I have studied the basics all over again, and gained a much deeper understanding than the first year I tried this. (In late winter, 2003.) Basic live shapes make sense to me, as does the concept of seki (a kind of local terror balance where groups of stones share an area none of them can safely conquer). This should be a cause for celebration, but my problem is this: I simply do not know how to put it into practice. I don't seem able to arrive at even the simplest goals. I have nothing.

At the large and easy-to-read website Sensei's Library, I happened upon a home page for the Go Suite for the Pocket PC. (And some Smartphones, I think.) It is a more advanced program than the simple Pocket GnuGo I had first installed. It uses a GnuGo game core, but the program to show the game and take care of all the details and presentation ... wow. It is impressive in its sheer beauty, in its richness of options, the things you can do. Originally written to view and play through commented matches (a popular way for competent players to learn from others), it has been adapted to both do that and also play against the computer. You can even make the computer play against itself!

This program lets you choose one of 10 difficulty levels rather than less intuitive limit on search depth. I must admit that I am of two minds about what level to play at. If I set it too low, I will be encouraged without reason, as I will get used to the computer playing stupid moves. Being able to survive against a stupid opponent is not likely to prove useful in the long run, as stupid opponents (such as myself) are unlikely to play others. On the other hand, it is the only hope of ever winning. Then again, is winning my goal? If you can win by avoiding opposition, is it really winning? More importantly, will it help me improve? Or do I learn more from losing to a better opponent?

So far, I have not learned much from Pocket GnuGo, which was indeed far better than I. Usually I realized that I was doomed after two moves, as the computer somehow managed to both separate my stones and claim territory for itself at the same time. When I tried the same moves, it cut me off somewhere else. I felt like a baby in a boxing ring.

These problems remain. I simply lack the path to make my vague theory into practice. And without practice, I have nothing. Of course, this is true for various people in various parts of their lives. We may know the rules, know the goals, know the shape of what we want to make. But we don't know the path from here to there, and so we have nothing.

Still, knowledge of ignorance is the beginning of knowledge, or some such. ^_^