Ranking and Time Zone

General Go Discussion
61

I think tsumego also relies a lot on memory (especially when they are easier puzzles but time restricted). A good performance in that format would rely on recognition of patterns seen during tsumego practice.

62

But it requires you to correctly identify which pattern it is. For kata the pattern is preknown and practiced

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63

Yes, itā€™s not exactly the same, but if one is looking for an analogy of martial arts kata in go, I agree with @mafidufa that tsumego would be a good one.

I dabbled in martial arts for some 10 years, most of it aikido (other than that judo and jiu-jitsu when I was a kid/teenager).

I suppose one could argue that aikido more or less consists of kata only (although it may include improvisation), there being no real competition in aikido (except for Tomiki aikido, which is a bit of a mix between aikido and judo).
After some 1500 hours of practice, I got a brown belt in 2 aikido styles (Aikikai and Yoseikan), but I quit when my knees started giving me too much grief some 7 years ago.

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64

I think there is no clear equivalent for kata. Instead, a paper test that covers opening, tsumego, tesuji, middle game positions and yose would be a good counterpart, and something a set of more advanced players could use to judge overall understanding of concepts.

For the fighting part, there could be a series of slow or corresponfance games (e.g. 3 to 10) that again require a review by an advanced player or pro to determine pass or fail.

65

Just to add to this, the important point imo is the pedagogical value of ranks, and the potential they offer in expanding the greater populationā€™s interest in Go.

For martial arts, there are many physical and mental benefits of learning them even if you donā€™t like fighting. If karate was just about fighting, I wouldnā€™t have learned itā€¦ Iā€™m quite the pacifist and was pretty bad at it.

I feel the same for Go (at least in terms of benefits to mental health). For folks that donā€™t like competions because of the time pressure or other reasons, rankings is another interesting avenue to explore.

66

This is not the case. Thereā€™s a post in the forum comparing live and correspondence number of games and the live ones are definitely outnumbering the others.

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