December  Narumi OSAWA 4-dan I mainly play Go on the Net. At present I am 1-dan. I play over game records and solve life-and-death problems. What is the best method of study to improve for someone like me who is studying by himself? I play as a 1-dan. How can I become aware of my weak points? I sometimes become aware of them when they are pointed out by the opponent, but in most cases I find the reasons for why I lost a game vague, that is, I lose despite not having made major blunders. In short, I can't work out what my mistakes were. If possible, I would really like to build on my mistakes to do better next time. Can you tell me if there is any good way of doing this? Novemober  Keiko KATO 6-dan Recently, after watching ‘Hikaru no go’, I thought of starting go. However, I have no idea where to start. Please tell me the process for learning go. I am being taught by my father, taking nine stones, but I can’t win. How on earth can I manage to win against him? October  Akino IZAWA 4-dan I have tried to recommend go to my schoolmates at junior high school, but they don’t show much interest. At present, I am 1-dan. However, I can’t solve 1-dan life-and-death problems. Please tell me how I can learn to solve them. September  Kaori CHINEN 4-dan I can’t play the opening very well. How can I improve? One of the things I find difficult about go is the relationship between profit and outward influence. Even if I am able to build a wall in the middle game, I have trouble making effective use of it. August  Kana MANNAMI 4-dan I do a bit of study with life-and-death problems and playing over games, but I don't improve.I feel like screaming, 'Help me!!' Can you tell me about the happiest game you played? And the saddest? July  Izumi KOBAYASHI 6-dan If you hadn’t become a professional go player, what job would do you think you would be doing now? I want to get a feel for the opening. Can you tell me the knack of erasing a moyo before the opponent sets it up? June  Ayumi SUZUKI 4-dan I haven't been playing go for very long, but I would like to ask a question.I'd like to be able to count territory properly so that I could make positional asessments. When I get promoted to 10-kyu, I just lose game after game and drop down to 11-kyu*. I then score successive wins and come back to 10-kyu. May  Tomoko KATO 5-dan When you are teaching children in elementary school who are playing go for the first time, what is the most important thing to convey to them besides the rules and basic techniques? How can one show them that go is a lot of fun? I find myself unable to play tenuki, that is, to ignore the opponent’s moves. I always keep him or her company by answering each move. Sometimes this works well for me, but sometimes it doesn’t. I can’t grasp the criteria for playing tenuki. April  Kumiko YASHIRO 5-dan I wonder if you could enlighten me on the following points? When I’m replaying a game, what should I look out for at the different stages, that is, the whole game, the opening, the middle game and the endgame? What kind of goals should I have when going through a game if I want to get stronger? I would be very grateful for your help. I often make self-indulgent or one-sided analyses [overlooking the good moves for the opponent]. I think it’s due to my lack of go strength, but I wonder if there’s any way to curb this bad habit. March  Mieko NAKAJIMA 1-dan Sometimes, even though I think I know where the next move should be (it looks like the vital point), I end up playing elsewhere. The opponent ignores my move and plays at the point I was thinking of. I tend to miss opportunities because I look here and there (trying to look at the whole board backfires). Do you feel that you have learned something by working with various professional commentators? Do you have any particular memories of the NHK Cup? Feburuary  Akiko TSUKUDA 5-dan Thank you for representing Japan in the recent World Mind Sports Games. What did you find the toughest thing in this tournament? Were there any interesting episodes? I would really like to hear about your experience. I can solve life-and-death problems when they are presented as problems, but in actual games I make mistakes, even if it’s the same shape. Do you have any advice for me? January  Kaori AOBA 4-dan I play really slowly, and I wonder if a beginner should play fast, with good rhythm, at his own level. Or is it better to play at one’s own pace, without worrying about the opponent? I’m bad at playing with white. When I have black, I can enjoy the game at my own pace, but things don’t go well when I have white. > backnumber 2013 > backnumber 2012 > backnumber 2011 > backnumber 2010 > backnumber 2009 > backnumber 2008 > backnumber 2007 > backnumber 2006 > backnumber 2005