Guess the black stones

If @mark5000 doesn’t object, I would love to see your submission (with comments, I’m asking for the comments)

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Summary

Just being studying old games of Honinbo Shusaku, so that lower-left corner is very clear in my mind, where lots of stones are there to split the group. It’s one he played with Ito Showa. But I think the game is rotated in direction, the first black stone is usually on the top right for curtesy (maybe black has seniority when this game is played?)

I’ve put the variations on the demo board. And Shusaku won this game.

These exercises make me rethink some of the idea behind tewari, must be very careful using it as a tool to evaluate the worth of a move.

This is basically the extreme version of tewari, try to evaluate what is the intention of one side and white seeming look like a territory, must means the opponents have other “enclosures” (or influences) to compensate them, where normally in early games the game is still relatively balanced.

But this might not be the case for more modern games, since a lot of the focus now turn to mid-game fight, sometimes even yose. And it opened up lots of possibility for fuseki that might not looked balanced at all. Like some Lee sedol’s early matches must be pretty difficult where he left seemly “dead stones” all over the place.

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Spoilers

Well done for recognizing the game @claire_yang! I had several “doh!”-moments looking at the real position, especially the upper right corner I should have guessed. Such a common shape in older games.

I’ve also seen this game before, but just like you I remember it flipped . No way I would have recognized it from only white stones though, even if it had been rotated the way I remembered it :stuck_out_tongue:

Results from Round 4

@claire_yang knew the game and shared many details in the demo and in the posts just above this one. So way to go! And please refer to those posts for the details. It was a Shusaku game. I rotated it to a conventional orientation to aid those who didn’t know the game and thwart those who did!

Player Score
@le_4TC :trophy: 9 x 2 - 3 = 15
@Gia 3 x 2 - 6 = 0

Let’s consider @claire_yang’s board Round 5.

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I’ll give some hints.

It is a modern game, a post-AI era modern game. And local balance might not be the most important thing, but going into the center is.

Also if you are puzzled by the exact placements of black stones, maybe try to approach it considering meta-knowledge first (play styles of different players, and nationality). Since scores are also rewarded with information related to them. Even answer correctly for all black stones only yield 42 scores, less than half of the full mark.

There is no penalty guessing some of them wrong, hence go wild! don’t be afraid to guess as much as you want. I’ll set time limit maybe up to a week (Unless there are enough people replies, and we can have an early scoring).

Rd. 5

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Any thoughts on who these two players might be and from?

Andd who would look like to win this game?

I didn’t really have time to do it. I don’t think I would’ve gotten many stones right though.

I don’t think I have any good ideas where the Black stones go, nevermind who the players are or who’s winning :slight_smile:

Edit

An attempt


I can’t really see a pattern or sequence to the stones, but I’ve submitted something anyway.

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What’s your thought on the shape of the white groups? Are there particular weak points? If so, how risky are they? And I see you place many black stones, line up right next to white stones, what does this assumption tell you? When so many stones are close to each other, you have to check their liberties, and their connections, as well as invasions possibilities when pieces are all close to the “border”. Also, what’s the influence direction look like to you? Is white playing an influence game? What’s black’s counter-balance to white’s influence? And finally, does this looks like there is a fighting sequence involved? are all the white stones have bases? are there cut off or sacrifice pieces? And with many pieces venture into the 6th or 7th line, what’s the potential of estimated black territory already have? Is it too much or not enough for a 5th and 6th line black “territory” at this stage? If so, what have white trade it for (or just happy to seal black in?), where is the current white territory or moyo at this point? Are corners still important?

And finally asking a simple question about if you can remove a white stone at this point, which one is the least important? if so, why? If it’s difficult to pick, what does it tell you about the level of play of the players, and their ideal of the progression leads to? Territorial? Split and fight? invade and reduction? semeai fight? globally balanced? Are there signature post-AI, 3-3 invasion joseki? Does the spread looks light or heavy?

I guess a black stone on every empty point! If that’s not allowed, then see below:

My guess

Free points for guessing? Then they’re both Chinese. Through a baffling error that leaves the tournament directors scratching their heads, Ke Jie is playing both colors. And Black wins.

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Well, since there are only 21 spots allow, if someone guesses all intersections, I’ll just count the first 21 spots on the first line and second line :slight_smile:

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My guess has 22, so take out the black stone at M11. I think the fight must have just started.

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:+1:got it

@bugcat @Groin @Gia @le_4TC you guys want to take your guesses for this round? no penalty for this round, and extra points for guessing player nationality and results.

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I think I posted a guess, do we have a new board?

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I looked at some of the other guesses earlier, so this guess isn’t entirely independent:

My guess

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oh, I found it.

My bad :sweat: I only looked for replies after @mark5000’s #4. And forget I posted right after, before that round is finished…

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This is the answer and sequence for guess the black stone round #5


The scores for everyone participate are
:ballot_box_with_check:@Gia 6 corrects x 2 = 12
:ballot_box_with_check:@Harleqin 11 corrects x 2 = 22
:ballot_box_with_check:@shinuito 14 corrects x 2 = 28
:white_check_mark:@mark5000 19 corrects x 2 + one player nationality 4 = 42
:ballot_box_with_check:@Groin 6 corrects x 2 = 12
:heavy_check_mark:@le_4TC 13 corrects x 2 = 26

This game is from the 1st round of the 25th Samsung Cup last year (2020-10-27) by Gu Zihao 9p (black) from China and Ichiriki Ryo 8p (white) from Japan (this was before Ichiriki got his Tengen title in Dec, still 8p at the time). And Ichiriki won this game (by black timeout actually, although black was in a pretty bad position at that point), the record can be found here.
https://igo-kifu.com/kifu/9865

I chose this match, first, it is a Ichiriki game (duh!), and second, it is a very clear post-AI era style pro games, with 3-3 invasion, focus on the center and early fighting. Guessing the nationality is probably a bit tricky because Ichiriki is atypical to most Japanese players with his very aggressive and fighting style closer to that of a Chinese player. Combined with playing against another very aggressive and fighting style player like Gu Zihao, resulted in this game feels like being played by two Chinese players.

Kudos to @mark5000 gets almost every stone right, even the next black move at M11.

Thanks to everyone participating in this round, and I don’t know if the extra points reward is a good thing or bad thing to add, only @mark5000 took a guess. I feel even just guessing who won, or who are they from, can shake up the scores and make players of all levels participate in guessing and having fun. What do you guys and gals think? And who is interested in starting the next round 6?

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