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The Empty Board: Philosophical Reflections on Go #19

Sunday April 4, 2021

By William Cobb

I was thinking about Dogen, the 13th century Japanese Zen Master who founded the Soto Zen tradition, the other day. In his essay “Spring and Autumn”, written in 1244, he says that “you play go by yourself”. This seems so clearly false that it takes an effort to try to understand what he could be talking about.

He was trying to explain what it is like to be enlightened and playing go was apparently the best illustration he could think of. His point is that in playing go “properly” you lose any sense of separation from the activity of playing and the other player. It is not just a “shared” activity, it is a single, integrated activity. The focus is on the game, not its potential results and especially not on beating the other player. That last concern will definitely eliminate anything like an experience of enlightenment.

I see a lot of “unenlightened” playing, especially at tournaments. For many players, I think there is an overwhelming interest in beating the other player in order to improve your own rating. It is hard to get “lost” in the game under those circumstances. The whole point of ratings in go is to enable players to have games where they can get lost in the playing and enjoy not being in a situation where you feel like you are isolated, lonely, and being ignored or attacked by others. In playing go, you can experience an immersion in an enjoyable, exciting, invigorating activity that is very freeing. Happily, this can and does happen a lot in club play. I think that having experienced it, a lot of players are reluctant to play in tournaments, where it is hard to ignore the pressure of so much attention being given to winning and losing, that is, to the results of a game rather than to the experience of playing.

That’s why Dogen says enlightenment is like playing a game, not like winning one. (He does says it is not like playing a high handicap game—an issue to be explored another time.) It is unfortunate that modern life doesn’t seem to offer many other examples of an experience like playing go, though there are some. A good conversation can be this type of experience, or a walk in the woods, or reading a good book, or listening to Beethoven’s piano-violin sonatas. But activities involving another person that are like this are rare, unfortunately.

photo by Phil Straus; photo art by Chris Garlock

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The Empty Board: What Is Blitz Go? (#18)

Monday March 15, 2021

By William Cobb

I was thinking about taoism the other day (such things are a consequence of studying and teaching Eastern philosophy for many years) and realized that it offers a hint of what I might say to readers who are unhappy about the dismissive way I tend to talk about speed/blitz go. The hint is the notion of “non-action”, which is neither acting nor not acting. So I could say that with regard to go, there is “playing” and “not playing”. Blitz go, it seems to me, is neither of these; it is “non-playing”.

Taoism says that there is a difference between acting with a focus on what you think will be in your own best interest, that is, for clearly selfish reasons, and acting in a way that is simply a response to what you sense should be done. In the latter case, your motivation is not focused on some sort of egotism. Your motivation is based on an understanding of what is appropriate in the situation given the common values that are involved. That is, the values that are based on a recognition of the fact that you are not a self-sufficient ego that can benefit from harming or ignoring the needs of others. We exist as parts of a functioning whole, not as separate entities, so the appropriate way to act is in accordance with that understanding of the situation.

In go, this has to do with understanding both the game and the role of one’s opponent. It is obviously not consistent with the nature of go to play with an inappropriate handicap so that you can enjoy humiliating your opponent. Similarly, it is not playing go to just plop stones down on the board in a heedless way. The essence of blitz go is playing to the limit of your sense of what is going on in the game; it’s a way to discover just what those limits of awareness are. In “normal” play, you take time to analyze situations and possibilities much more deeply. Of course, there are always more layers to explore and time is not unlimited; in blitz go, you push to go as far and fast as you can. It would probably be a total disaster for beginners to try to play that way, given their limited knowledge base. But for experienced players, I suppose, it can be an amusing way to discover the limits of your understanding of various situations.

And, of course, blitz go can be wildly exciting if you enjoy activities in which you have little grasp of what is really happening. (You didn’t really think I would end up being in favor of it did you?)

photo by Phil Straus; photo art by Chris Garlock

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The Empty Board: Philosophical Reflections on Go #17

Wednesday February 17, 2021

By William Cobb

Have you ever tried to do something really fast? I can think of several things I would want to do as fast as possible: spit out something that tastes really bad, get out of a house that is on fire, run in a race, get out of the shower when the hot water suddenly gives out. Of course, there are things you wouldn’t want to do as fast as possible: finish the last bite of chocolate cake, listen to your favorite songs or sing them or play them. There are some activities that you naturally savor and linger over, not wanting them to end so quickly you can’t enjoy them. Where does playing go fit here? EJ reader Joe Mihara made a comment recently that Chris Garlock passed on to me: “What fun is Go if you have no time to think? I thought that the ’thinking’ was what was fun about the game?” This seems obvious to me.

I know that some people like to play “blitz” go, slapping down the stones as fast as they can. It can be wildly exciting, but only if you are not concerned about understanding what is happening during the game. Many go players are a little unhappy about having only forty-five minutes to play their moves in a game in most tournaments as there is so much to consider—and it is interesting, even enjoyable, to consider as many of the possibilities for every move as you can. It seems odd to suggest playing a game of go under circumstances that make it impossible to know what is happening in the game. In fact, I think that taking time to think about most things you do as you do them is a good idea. Trying to get through a fascinating process as fast as you can just makes no sense. Even if the only thing you care about is winning, how can you enjoy winning if you have virtually no awareness of how it happened? The issue is whether the process or the result is what you care about. To me, one of the most attractive things about go is that the rules make you lose half the time and win half the time. All there is to enjoy is the process.

photo by Phil Straus; photo art by Chris Garlock

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The Empty Board: Philosophical Reflections on Go #16

Saturday July 25, 2020

By William Cobb

Sitting around with way too much time on my hands and trying to think of something to do, I started thinking about go games in the old days. You may be familiar with this traditional Chinese poem:

Just one game they said,
And started to play.
That was yesterday.

For some reason it had never occurred to me that this doesn’t necessarily mean they were playing lots of games; it could still be the same game. The Japanese have some major title games where the players each have eight hours basic time so the games last two days. And there have been games in the old days much longer than that, such as the one in Kawabata’s The Master of Go. That one went on for months, though some of the time was supposedly a result of the sickness of one of the players.

But what would us normal players do with a lot more time? A good indication is the games we play on sites like DragonGo, where most games last at least a few weeks. Of course, that’s because the players are otherwise occupied. What if I started taking, say, fifteen minutes to make a move in a DragonGo game instead of the usual minute or two? I know what to think about: where are the weak stones, where are the open areas, where are the sente moves, where are the largest moves, what is the score, etc. I definitely do not sit and think about such things carefully. In fact, I’m sure a lot of my opponents never count the score; otherwise more of them would resign before the end of the game. I myself would be very embarrassed to lose by more than thirty points and not have resigned. Toward the end of such games, the one losing has no good moves. At any rate, I have decided to use the present situation as a golden opportunity to try really thinking about what is happening in my games. Maybe my winning percentage will go up, and almost certainly my enjoyment of the games will increase.

photo by Phil Straus; photo art by Chris Garlock

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The Empty Board: Philosophical Reflections on Go #15

Friday June 26, 2020

By William Cobb

I was chatting with the young man to whom I am teaching go the other day and I remarked that he was beginning to make a lot more plays that were like those of a real go player. His reply was that that might be true but in fact he felt like most of the time he had no idea what was going on.  It struck me immediately that I feel that way a lot of the time also. Moreover, often when I did think I knew what was going on I was mistaken. This feeling of being caught up in a rapidly shifting and somewhat puzzling situation is an inescapable characteristic of the game of go. This, of course, is another of the many ways in which playing go is like living life. Hopefully, with time and experience you begin to get some idea of what is going on in life. You recognize more of the actual opportunities facing you and you get a more realistic idea of what you are likely to be able to do in particular situations. Plus you also develop a better sense of what to expect from others.

Lately we’ve all been dealing with a host of realities we had not really been expecting though we knew such things were possible. It is very frustrating, not unlike playing an even game against a player who is much stronger than you. The new restrictions on living are too much like being told you can play a game of go but you have to hold the stones two inches above the board, drop them, and not move them afterwards. It would be hard to enjoy playing that way just as it is hard to enjoying living the way we have to now. Actually, the present situation has made playing go seem more like a very orderly activity—certainly one that involves virtually no frustrations. The lack of clarity about what is really going on in a game is now rather comforting in comparison with just living life.

photo by Phil Straus; photo art by Chris Garlock

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The Empty Board: Philosophical Reflections on Go #14

Saturday December 7, 2019

by William Cobb

“The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner” is a film that is hard to forget, though that may be because I was a Cross Country runner in college. Since moving to a very small town in the Ozark Mountains in Arkansas I am discovering another kind of loneliness: that of the go player living where there are no other players within less than a full hour’s drive away. I play lots of games on DragonGo, but it is definitely not the same. There is something important about sitting across the board from another player and placing actual stones on a hard piece of grid-marked wood. Go is a lot more than a fascinating intellectual activity of analyzing tactical and strategic possibilities in a very complicated situation. There is an intimacy of contact and involvement with another human being and real objects that is impossible over the internet. Insofar as go can function as a path to enlightenment it doesn’t happen with an internet connection. The online involvement of the players is just not as real or engrossing, nor is the handling of the stones when it is replaced by clicking a mouse. I really miss these physical and psychological feelings that make playing with another person on an actual set such an enjoyable and enlightening experience. I may have to start making that harrowing drive across the most harrowing roads I have ever encountered.

photo by Phil Straus; photo art by Chris Garlock and Karoline Li

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The Empty Board # 13

Sunday March 24, 2019

By Bill Cobb2019.03.23_empty-go-board-with-bowls-and-stones-heat map green

I’ve just finished reading Cho Hunhyun’s fascinating book Go With the Flow, which was highly recommended by several prominent members of the AGA. It’s fascinating, although the Korean publisher should be ashamed for choosing a translator for such an important book someone is far from fluent in English. The translator probably had a high school course or two. The barbaric language is a constant distraction since it often requires a moment of reflection to decide what Cho Hunhyun must have been saying. Nevertheless, the insight into how one of the best players ever both thinks about and experiences playing the game is both inspiring and enlightening. I think any go player would be happy he or she had discovered go and eager to be more serious about the game after reading this book. Happily, it is not expensive. The overused expression “go is like life” is really true. Thinking more seriously about what playing the game involves and how it is played really will help you to be a better person, or at least to be a more thoughtful person. I know there are a lot of players who don’t think this way about go, treating it as just another of the many games they play, especially on the internet, but they are overlooking a profound experience that will enrich their lives.

photo by Phil Straus; photo art by Chris Garlock

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The Empty Board: Philosophical Reflections on Go #12

Wednesday November 28, 2018

By Bill Cobb2018.11.26_empty-go-board-with-bowls-and-stones-bw-inverted

As in life, there is a color issue in go that has an impact on most players’ experience. The fact that Black plays first has an obvious effect. Most players, at least in the early years of playing, find it more comfortable to be Black in a game. It provides a certain comfort to feel like you are in control of the game for at least the first few moves. This preference is particularly evident in handicap games, especially high handicap games where the player with the black stones starts with an enormous advantage but feels like the white stones are invincible. No matter how isolated or surrounded by black stones, a white stone just seems inherently strong and dangerous. “The white stones never die” is a saying familiar to weaker players. I’m not sure that this ever goes away completely, though players who are especially successful with Black may feel differently. The fact that AlphaGo won slightly more often with White than with Black when playing itself makes many feel that part of the problem is that the komi has gotten to be too large. At any rate, this is not a real problem in enjoying the game, but it would be nice if we could at least sometimes in life try a policy of Black goes first.

photo by Phil Straus; photo art by Chris Garlock

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The Empty Board: Philosophical Reflections on Go #11

Wednesday October 31, 2018

By Bill Cobbart poster-purple

I’ve been working with Yuan Zhou on a new book about the astonishing degree to which pros are adopting an AlphaGo tactic that is a direct rejection of traditional theory about how to play. The move in question is invading on a 3-3 point behind the opponent’s 4-4 point stone very early in the game—even as Black’s third move! Any strong player would have laughed (or screamed if it was your teacher) if a relatively weak player had done that a year ago. But now, even the very top pros do it. I have seen several games in which Ke Jie 9p of China, considered by many to be the best player in the world, has done this, including invading with move 3 as Black. If you browse through the games in any pro tournament, you will find a lot of these early 3-3 invasions. I don’t know whether amateurs are picking up on this—the people I play on DragonGo often seem somewhat startled when I do it. But it is an amazing instance of how much freedom there is in playing go. The fact that AlphaGo has pretty much proved that go is not going to be “solved” so that a knowing player with first move can always win (even AlphaGo can’t do that), you can enjoy participating in something that truly offers a real opportunity for creativity and freedom. Of course, this doesn’t mean that anything goes and can be freely tried. Starting on the 1-1 points is not going to lead to a happy result. In that regard, go continues to be a lot like life. There are a lot of quite appropriate restrictions on our behavior, but no one really knows the limits of what can be done. Don’t just stay with the same old routines all the time—look for new possibilities. They could be revolutionary.

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The Empty Board: Philosophical Reflections on Go #10

Wednesday September 19, 2018

by William Cobb2018.09.16_empty-go-board-with-bowls-and-stones-water swirl

A big part of life is experiencing things you have never experienced before: flying in a plane, hiking to a mountain top, being in a snow storm, visiting a country where you don’t speak the language. We think of such things as enriching our lives, making life more interesting, and fun besides. There’s an obvious parallel to this in go: the game has a virtually infinite range of possibilities, but some players seem resistant to getting outside their already familiar circumstances. There are a lot of things that many of us have seldom if ever experienced: playing tenuki in response to an approach move in the opening, knowing what to do when the opponent attaches to a 3-4 point stone, being confident about the best way to continue after the first dozen or so moves, consistently judging the status of small groups accurately, knowing where to invade common positions, etc. In this regard, we’re like people who are perfectly happy to have never seen the ocean or a snow-capped mountain. The world is full of amazing and wonderful things; we’re happy to spend time, money, and energy exploring and becoming familiar with as many of them as we can. We should have the same attitude toward playing go. Just playing won’t get you to a lot of the amazing amount of beauty and fascination the game offers. You’ve got to get outside the familiar patterns you already know. This is why it makes no sense to refuse to read books, take lessons, or study the games of stronger players. There’s a truly amazing world out there. We need to spend some time and effort exploring it and not just stay inside the familiar area we already know. Don’t just buy books—read them. Don’t just look at the results of pro games—play through them. Don’t just play the same opening moves—try some you’ve not used before. You’ll discover that go is even more fun than you thought.
photo by Phil Straus; photo art by Chris Garlock

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