American Go E-Journal » Events/Tournaments

Presented here is the 3rd tsumego from Michael Redmond 9P’s coverage of the challenging tsumego problems featured at the 2016 pro pair go tournament. Michael gives the detailed solution tomorrow.

The author of this tsumego is Kono Rin 9P. Michael gives a solution hint for what you may notice as a curious part of this position:

“White’s 2 non-attached stones do not change the problem’s result, but have the effect of pruning one of two correct variations for Black at move 5 of the answer, and another alternative answer later in the correct sequence, thus limiting Black to only one variation throughout the entire correct answer. In tsumego, there must be only one correct first move, but serious tsumego composers will avoid variations later in the answer as well.“

Michael Redmond 9P is graciously providing all E-Journal readers with a set of tsumego problems featured at the 2016 pro pair go tournament. Of course, these problems are quite tough, but nevertheless entertaining to everyone, especially because Michael will later provide each solution.

In this tsumego contest, each pair has up to 10 minutes to answer each problem, but only the first 5 pairs can answer. The race to answer first makes these problems highly challenging. After signalling having an answer, a pair must play each move within 5 seconds. The pair team plays Black’s moves, while the composer plays White’s, which allows the composers to show their favorite variation for White.

Michael gives the background for this tsumego from Oba Junya 7P, who is well known for his pro level tsumego problems:

“This tsumego is not as difficult as it looks, as there is only one tesuji that jumps to mind for Black, and White 2 is forced, making the first 3 moves fairly easy to find. In fact, Ke Jie 9p slapped down the first 3 moves almost immediately. However, there is a very effective blind spot after that, which tripped some pros.“

Michael Redmond 9P is graciously providing all E-Journal readers with a set of tsumego problems featured at the 2016 pro pair go tournament. Of course, these problems are quite tough, but nevertheless entertaining to everyone, especially because Michael will later provide each solution.

In this tsumego contest, each pair has up to 10 minutes to answer each problem, but only the first 5 pairs can answer. The race to answer first makes these problems highly challenging. After signalling having an answer, a pair must play each move within 5 seconds. The pair team plays Black’s moves, while the composer plays White’s, which allows the composers to show their favorite variation for White.

Michael mentions that the author of this tsumego, Oba Junya 7P, is well known for his pro level tsumego problems.

Michael Redmond 9P is graciously providing all E-Journal readers with a set of tsumego problems featured at the 2016 pro pair go tournament. Of course, these problems are quite tough, but nevertheless entertaining to everyone, especially because Michael will later provide each solution.

In this tsumego contest, each pair has up to 10 minutes to answer each problem, but only the first 5 pairs can answer. The race to answer first makes these problems highly challenging. After signalling having an answer, a pair must play each move within 5 seconds. The pair team plays Black’s moves, while the composer plays White’s, which allows the composers to show their favorite variation for White.

Michael gives this interesting background for this tsumego from Ohashi Hirofumi 6P:

“This problem is misleading, in that Black’s first and 3rd moves are relatively easy to find, while White 4 is counter-intuitive. Ohashi tells me that he saw surprise and maybe shock in the top Chinese pairs faces when he played move 4, but Ke Jie quicky recovered, flickering his fingers in a burst of concentration, and was in time to give the correct answer.“