20 style questions

General Go Discussion
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Back in 2003-04, there was a Japanese site which would ask you twenty questions about your Go style, from which it would tell you what professional you allegedly played most like.

The website died shortly after, but the associated SL page was left behind, listing the twenty questions. Let’s have a look at what they were and try answering them.

The intention of the site was that each statement should be answered with yes (Y), no (N), or something in between, which we’ll call somewhat or some of the time (S).

(See also Your "play signature", the moves you prefer)

  1. I play at the star point more than at the komoku.

  2. I play on the third line more [originally “rather”] than the fourth.

  3. I like to play territorially.

  4. I like to play the sanrensei a lot.

  5. I like to pincer.

  6. I like to expand quickly to the sides, rather than concentrating on the corners.

  7. Where I can cut, I usually cut.

  8. I play hane in response to an attachment a lot.

  9. Where I can peep, I peep often.

  10. I invade a lot.

  11. I play boshi [caps] a lot.

  12. I try to concentrate on shape.

  13. I try to concentrate on thickness.

  14. I am confident at making life.

  15. I look to defend my weak stones before attacking their weak ones.

  16. I get involved in a lot of ko.

  17. I am confident at yose [endgame].

  18. In the endgame, I take a lot of sente.

  19. I like tsumego.

  20. I’m not very good at calculating positions.

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no. bugcat KoBa your name here
1 N N
2 N Y
3 S Y
4 S N
5 Y N
6 N Y
7 Y Y
8 Y Y
9 N Y
10 Y N
11 S Y
12 Y Y
13 Y S
14 S N
15 S S
16 N Y
17 N S
18 S Y
19 S N
20 S Y

(Remember to keep the table formatted by giving the same number of underheadings (the “| — |” things) as headings, otherwise it won’t display as a table on Discourse.)

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Exhibit 23 for my response in the “Why are we still SDK?” thread :wink:

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I wonder what professionals these were supposed to exclude.

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Inseong Hwang talking about style of play at the AGA E-Go congress yesterday. (timestamped?, if no t=1h58m6s)

“If you play let’s say like 10 mistakes in your game… in my experience …most of the mistakes what you make are connected to your style of play”

“Your style of play makes mistakes.”

I thought it was an interesting point, and he gives a lot of analogies and things if you watch it.

“That’s why it’s very important to discover your style of play… it’s very important to know your style of play that’s confirmed by stronger players and after you got to know it then you should try to overcome it.”

“If you overcome your style of play you become stronger”.

(The game reviews and the lecture on 3-3 invasions was really interesting also btw, but a lot about 3-3 invasions after kick variations on the 4-4 point)

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