Chapter 2: Molly the Go Player
As I stared at the board dumbfounded, I realized I was supposed to say thanks for the game. I had totally forgotten since I was so confused as to how he just did that. Quickly I corrected myself and thanked him for the game and gave a slight bow of the head.
“How did you do that?!” I immediately asked him. “There was no way I could have escaped that!”
“Yea,” He said. “That was called a ladder. It is one of the techniques in Go. This one is not possible to get out of once you trap your opponent in it. Mostly you have to see it before it happens.”
“How could I have seen it before it happens. I couldn’t even see it until I was already trapped in it.” I explained.
“Actually, I had difficulty seeing it for a while too. I still miss it sometimes. But according to Mr. Tom, you have to recognize the shape before it happens.” He then set up a position on the board with black being in atari and white almost surrounding him but the last stone was a little off to the side. “In this position, you can see black is in atari. But when he extends out, he only has two liberties thanks to this white stone.” He then point at the fourth stone on the board that is blocking one of the liberties of the most recent black stone. “Normally when you extend out, you have two more liberties then you started with. But with this white stone you only have one more. Once you are in this shape, I can do the ladder sequence you saw in the game. After you are trapped in the ladder, there is no way out.”
“I think I get it now.” I said. “But how can I prevent it. Once the ladder happens I lose no matter what.”
“Right.” He replied energetically. He seemed pretty happy that I was so interested in learning about Go. He probably thought I would be too upset to want to learn after that but honestly, I was more confused than upset. This trick had come out of no where and caught me completely off guard. I didn’t ever get the chance to be upset. “So in order to prevent this from happening, you have to see it coming before hand.”
He then set up a position to right before black goes into atari and get trapped in the ladder.
“Here,” Said Tommy, “This is the shape you have to look out for. If you see this shape you are one step away from being trapped in a ladder. You can think of this as being semi in atari. Though you have two liberties, there is no way out.”
I analyzed the position carefully while trying to memorize it. I really didn’t want to fall for that trap again and maybe I could use it sometime.
“There is a couple of exceptions to the ladder though.” He started. “For example, if you have a stone out the outside lowering my liberties then when you play out the ladder like so, I end up in atari along the way.” He explained while playing out the ladder with an additional stone next to his own. I noticed it to as he explained it. While black was running away with a bunch of ataries, white also was pushed down to one liberty. “Here you can see white must fix himself instead of continuing the ladder, and then black escapes. So this is called a “Broken Ladder,” or a ladder that gets broken when you try to use it.”
I just nodded is amazement. If this had happened in the game, the situation could have been much different. Though I guessed Tommy likely has many more of these tricks up his sleeve to use. I’ll have to learn them all one by one if I want to beat him.
“You always have to watch the surrounding stone and be wary of which direction the ladder will run to before playing it. According to Mr. Tom, a broken ladder is a ver dangerous position and we should always avoid it. ‘Never play a ladder that doesn’t work.’” He quoted in his best Mr. Tom voice. I didn’t think it was that good, but I still took the words to heart.
Hearing us talking, another girl in the class approached our desk.
“Are you teaching him about ladders?” She asked.
“Yes,” replied Tommy. “This is my friend Randie. He is new to the Go club.”
“Hello Randie,” she said. “My name is Molly. I’m just started not to long ago myself.”
“Nice to meet you.” I said, “What’s your level?”
“My level is 25kyu.” She replied. That means she is a bit stronger than Tommy.
“Would you like to watch us play a game Randie?” Asked Tommy. He probably thinks the last game wore me out. He isn’t completely wrong, but I was already eager to play another one to try out the ladder. But I guess watching them play would also help me learn a thing or two, and watching Tommy get beat should also be entertaining.
“Sound good to me.” Said Molly, “Is it Capture Go or Territory Go?”
Territory Go?” I asked confused.
“Ah, Capture Go.” Replied Tommy. “He doesn’t know territory Go yet.”
“So what is it?” I asked curiously.
“Basically…” Molly began. “Territory is where you play with the capture rule, but the game doesn’t end when you capture a stone.”
“Then how do you win?” I inquired.
“Whoever surrounds the most area.” She replied. “Each player tried to surround area on the board while trying not to get surrounded and captured themselves. You can think of it as sticking fence post in the ground and surrounding land with it. The difficult part is making sure it isn’t too small and letting your opponent get more, and also making sure that it isn’t too wide that your opponent can just jump in and escape.”
“That sounds difficult…” I said.
“It’s easier than it sounds.” Said Tommy, “But once you get the gist of it, the amount of tactics for invading, reducing, developing, attacking, and defending becomes very large. That’s why we play on smaller board to make it easier to make territory without so much risk.”
“I think I kind of understand.” I said doubtful that I actually did. “I probably will have to learn a bit more before I’m ready for that.”
Molly giggled and agreed, “Yea, it does take some getting used to. But once you get the hang of it, it becomes really fun.” Tommy agreed happily.
“So I guess you two are going to play?” I asked, eager to see how experienced players play.
“Sure.” Said Tommy.
“Of course.” Said Molly. “Should we play ‘Five Stone Capture Go?’”
Again I had a confused looked. So Tommy explained.
“Five stone capture Go is the same thing as capture Go except you have to capture 5 stones before you win. You can capture five single stones or a five stone group. Both are okay, but you have to have five or more before victory is decided.”
“Oh that makes sense.” I said feeling dumb for not figuring that one out.
“Normally after you get the hang of capture Go you move up to Mulitstone Capture Go.” Said Molly. “After one stone come three, and then five. Once you get the hang of five, you start playing territory Go. From there lots of fun stuff start happening.”
“Sounds great!” I said eagerly awaiting the day I can play territory Go. “First master capture Go.” I thought to myself and then I can take it step by step from there. Although this was only my first day at the Go club, I think I will probably become a regular here. Go seemed pretty interesting for now. Though once I master it, I wondered if i would get bored. I just pushed that thought to the back of my mind. I’d cross that drive when I came to it. After all, I’m sure Go wasn’t so easy I could master it in a few days. But I’ll probably get the hang of it by the end of the school year. I wondered if I’d find something like this again next year. Or maybe I’d be playing the teacher next year. That would be funny.
After explaining territory and multi capture Go to me, the two sat across from each other and started to play. Molly took the white stones since she was a higher rank than Tommy. Both told he other to have a good game and tommy placed the first move.
His first move was in the center of the board, same as mine. “well at least I had the fist move right…” I though to myself. Molly then placed her’s right next to Tommy’s. It was the exact same strategy that Tommy used against me. I was excited to see how Tommy would counter his own moves. I found out in the next second when he placed a stone next to his own to extend forward. His two stones were now connect so they shared liberties and now had five liberties open since white was blocking the sixth. Molly didn’t seemed phased at all by his move. She merely picked up another white stone and placed it on the end of his to take another liberty. Since it was diagonal of her own stone, her stones didn’t share liberties. But I guessed if bother played stayed connected the entire time, neither one would win.
Tommy noticing her stone weren’t connect placed his black stone on the spot where should could connect hers with another move. He successfully split her stones apart and reduced the liberties of both of her stones down to two. It was then I noticed that she was about to be trapped in a ladder shape. Tommy’s first move was apparently to set this up. It was quite interesting to see him using the ladder so readily right off the bat. Of course Molly didn’t fall for it though. Unlike me she’s played several games and knows about the ladder already. She placed her white stone next to her stone on the board that was about to get trapped and extended it away to gain two liberties. I also noticed that she had just put Tommy’s cutting stone in the exact same shape he had put her in and was setting up for another ladder.
“These guys are ridiculous!” I thought to myself. Both of the knew the ladder concept and both were easily using it to their own advantage. Right as I thought Tommy was putting her in a ladder, she countered by extending and threatening to put him in one. It’s a defensive move as well as an attack! Tommy though wasn’t surprised. I guess he knew that she was too good of an opponent to be tricked so easily. Until I learn more about this game, I realized I would be crushed be these two in just a few moves.
Tommy then placed his next stone, extending out and threatening her second group in a ladder again. Molly of course saw this and extended one more time and now all the ladders had been fixed in a simple manner. Both players had two groups of two stones on the board each facing their own direction. It was later that I found out this shape was called a “Windmill.” Mostly because it looked like one.
It seemed as if the opening phase was done and so both players start to attack each other aggressively throughout the board. It was an exciting game to watch but after many moves later Tommy had finally lost. Molly had finally captured five stones where as Tommy was only able to capture three. I had thought the fighting on both sides had been great and I could just barley follow it at all with my beginner’s understanding, but it seemed as if Molly had finally gotten the upper hand near the end by surrounded a stone of Tommy’s and pushing it to the edge. It seems that when you get trapped along the edge, you’re almost done for since you run out of liberties fast. After thanking each other for the game both players began to discuss it.
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