From: yychen@watdragon.uwaterloo.ca (Youyi Chen)
Subject: The Mysteries of Weiqi (part 4)
Organization: University of Waterloo
Date: Fri, 13 Nov 1992 03:57:01 GMT

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!!! WARNING !!! This article contains violence,
parental guidance is recommended for children under 13.
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The number 3 golden rule by the ancient legend Ji-Xing Wang is:

                "Gong Bi Gu Wo"

Gong1 = attack
Bi3 = the other
Gu4 = give consideration, take care
Wo3 = self.
(We can understand it as:
one should give consideration to his own stones when he attacks the others).

Finally, we are talking about what we love the most --- attacking.

Let's first look into the following board. Black to play:

   A B C D E F G H J K L M N O P Q R S T
19 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
18 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
17 . . . . . . . . . O . # . . # . . . . 17
16 . . . O . . . . . . . . . . . . # . . 16
15 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
14 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
13 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
12 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . O . . . 12
11 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11     Board 1
10 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . O . . . 10
 9 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  9
 8 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  8
 7 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . # . .  7
 6 . . O . . . . . . . . . . ? . # . . .  6
 5 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . # O . .  5
 4 . . . . . # . . # . . . . . # O O . .  4
 3 . . O . . . . . . . . . . . . # O . .  3
 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . # . O . .  2
 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  1
   A B C D E F G H J K L M N O P Q R S T

In stead of attacking Q10 and Q10 stones or getting into north-west corner,
black chooses O6 to protect P5. What a chicken move --- we kibitz.
But after been informed that this time the black is Otake Hideo [9P],
Aha ... gee ... well, this O6 must be the most powerful and offensive one
we kibitz again.

Maybe the above example is a bit too hard to understand. Let me share with you
a true story on igs. Once up a time, an igs self claimed 6d met an igs self
claimed NR on the server. 6d gave NR some stones in their games. 
They always communicated during the games by using "tell" and the following was
part of their conversation:
...
[NR]: "You seem in love with big fighting"
[6d]: "What else can we do on the board ?" 
[NR]: "Well, I only want to keep my stone alive"
...
6d managed to kill and win the first several games, but he ended up
losing most of the games later. The result: NR improved 4 stones in
less than 2 months and that 6d is still a 6d. (btw, 6d later learned
that NR's go teacher was famous Tobe on igs).

My observation tells me that amateur games are usually more violent 
than professional games. All out attacking we see every day in amateur
games is not common in pro's games. Why do those professionals some time 
behave like chickens? To understand this, we should recall those advises 
given by ancient legends:

Pu-Liu Zhong [13P], (Song Dynasty, 960 - 1279) 
(actually, North Song, around 1078 and who Jialin Zhong may say is 
his grand...grand pa :-) ) in Chapter 2 of his classical "Qi Jue", wrote: 

        "Never be too sure about your plan, and
         always in doubt about killing your opponent's stones"

Again, in Chapter 3 he wrote:

        "Fighting must not be the the key of Weiqi. It should be reserved 
         as a player's last resource, and when carried out, one should be 
         extremely careful."

Also, Xue-Shi Zhang [13p] (again, Song dynasty) in Chapter 4 
of his acclaimed "Qi Jing Si Shan Pian" (Thirteen chapters on Weiqi) wrote:

        "The most important thing is be careful.
         Those who are good at winning don't usually contend;
         Those who are good at making shape don't usually fight;"

Doesn't sound like a 13P at all, right? Rather, likes those 13 kyus who chicken 
out on board most of the times. But, for those who are crazy about fighting
and are blood thirsty, yes, Xue-Shi Zhang had a great line for them too:

        "Those who are good at fighting never lose;"

Who can be that good? Well, I guess it means smart guys only get to a 
fight when he is absolutely sure that he can win (Sure, it doesn't apply to 
this coming Friday's boxing match in Las Vegas at which loser gets a huge 
price as well).

And finally, what if someone force you into a fight that you don't want
and you shed some blood on the board, the legend wrote:

       "Those who are good at losing never be in disarray". 

Good at losing !????! yes! The 13P legend means it.

Youyi Chen

P.S.
The  tell's, mentioned above between 6d and NR, were not taken 
from any super-intendant readable files on the server. It was reproduced
according to the moemory of one of the players involved in that story. 
And, of course, it is published here with permition :-)