okaoigo's AI Articles

Last year, thanks again to my friend, Frédéric Vieira 4d EGF — see this post about Little Knife God's Go Books —, I got to know another excellent Go online resource, especially for higher dan players: okaoigo. Its creator frequently posts on note.com, which is a Japanese blogging platform, similar to Medium or Substack — okaoigo is also present on YouTube, currently with frequent live streams.

okaoigo's Articles on note.com

To me, this teacher's biggest differentiator is his series on AI brilliances. He seems to collect most of them, if not all, from FineArt's — 绝艺 (jué yì) in Chinese or 絶芸 (zetsu gei) in Japanese — games on the Fox server, played either against pros or extremely strong amateurs. Those games are a treasure trove of incredible technique.

FineArt's games on Fox are public, by the way, you can easily access them through its profile.

Let's take a look at some examples of AI's superhuman abilities.

Masterful Technique #079

Here's a first problem with a majestic sequence from AI, from his Masterful Technique #079 post:

Dia. 1.

How should you deal with Black's cut?

You can use Google Translate, or any other translator tool, to have access to the original, Japanese text in his articles.

FineArt refutes the cut with a beautiful driving technique:

Dia. 2.

This requires reading, but it's mostly technique at its core.

If Black A, White B threatens the left Black group's capture while also being an atari on the original cutting stone.

Black will need to then accept terrible shape and overconcentration in the bottom-left corner, while White reaps all the benefits on the outside:

Dia. 3.

White even gets to capture the original cutting stone, A.

Masterful Technique #081

And here's another exquisite example of AI's next-level skills:

Dia. 4.

How can White survive or escape?

Black doesn't have the best shape, but, still, it looks difficult to live inside that area, or to get out. What can White do?

Dia. 5.

Through a sacrifice and a tesuji, White exposes Black's shortage of liberties on the left, and the cutting point at C, all at the same time.

If Black plays at A, White B is sente for rescuing White's 3 stone. If Black then fixes, the C cut gets activated.

What if Black blocks from D instead after White 3? Check it out in the original article!

Other Highlights

Here's a selection of a few other great posts from that same series:

• Masterful Technique #079
• Masterful Technique #080
• Masterful Technique #081
• Masterful Technique #086
• Masterful Technique #088
• Masterful Technique #092
• Masterful Technique #117
• Masterful Technique #119

His other posts and series all seem interesting as well. Do check them out! I'm even considering signing up for his paid series!