Forum.Gomoku.pl

[Owen]

Dear friends, World Correpondence Gomoku Championship is about to start!

We are waiting for your applications at renjusignup yandex ru.
More details here:
https://sites.google.com/site/correspondencegomoku/home (thanks Usiek for this site)
Playing site is renju.su
Registration deadline is 22 Dec, so please hurry!

With best regards, Epifanov Dmitry.

[Owen]

Sorry, the deadline for registration is 20 Dec. 22 Dec is a scheduled start date.

[angst]

Uzupełniając powyższe ogłoszenie dodam jeszcze, że jako osobę autoryzującą z Polski, wymaganą do wskazania w zgłoszeniu, Dmitry wytypował Uśka. Alternatywnie mogę być wskazany również ja

Zapraszamy do rywalizacji!

Pozdrawiam

Angst

[zukole]

Mistrzostwa rozpoczęte!

W turniejach rywalizują Angst (grupa C) oraz Usiek (grupa A).

[sandra113]

The world gomoku champion Zoltán László from Hungary is fighting a battle against the world correspondence renju champion Hao Tianyi from China in the world correspondence gomoku championship!

The current position is shown below. The opening was put by Zoltán, and Hao Tianyi chose white. The time control is 135 days. The remaining time each player has is shown on the left.



We see that the mighty Chinese is positionally outplaying the Hungarian, dominating and outpowering him. It seems obvious who is stronger, and it should not take too many moves before Zoltán gets pinned if he is not demoralised to continue at all. The last move made in this game was made more than a month ago.

You can always check the current position position at: http://renju.in/en/igrat/game/?id=30274

In this championship, Zoltán and Hao Tianyi are also playing a second game between them in parallel, in which the opening was put by the Chinese. In that game, the position is less obvious than in the above described game, but visually it seems that the Chinese is again positionally outplaying the Hungarian. Here is the link to the game: http://renju.in/en/igrat/game/?id=30275

Correspondence gomoku is a battle of strategists. What decides in this sport is strategic planning, the ability to focus on important branches, systematic thinking, skills of computer analysis, and deep understanding of the game. Correspondence gomoku is devoid of tactical blunders, so you cannot trick your opponent by setting a simple tactical trap as you do in live tournaments. It is a sport for those who have a great passion for analysis and appreciate the deep beauty of the game.

It seems that in this sport, the winner of the world gomoku championship is no match for the skilful Orient master. And it is no surprise to me. After all, gomoku is an oriental game.

[zukole]

[sandra113]

[zukole]

Gram korespondencyjnie w Renju, ponieważ online za bardzo nie ma alternatywy. Ile znasz stron do grania Renju online z anglojęzycznym interfejsem i zasadą Soosyrv-8? Od kilku miesięcy takie kryteria spełnia piskvorky.net.

Nie znam ich powodów, zapytaj

Top 50 rankingu korespondencyjnego vs ranking live

Cytat:

1 Zhang Jinyu China 2686 - 2376 2 Barykin Viktor Russia 2684 - 1941 3 Coco Yuang China 2684 - 0 gier live 4 Epifanov Dmitriy Russia 2644 - 2267 (69 miejsce live) 5 Balanova Jelena Latvia 2628 - 2262 (5 gier live) 6 Suslov Alexander Moldova 2624 - 0 gier live 7 Sushkov Vladimir Russia 2614 - 2494 (14 miejsce live) 8 Sun Chengmin China 2600 - 0 gier live 9 Ustimov Anatoly Russia 2584 - 0 gier live 10 Lunkin Vitali Russia 2566 - 2162 11 Hao Tianyi China 2558 - 6 gier live (bilans 1-5) 12 Bai Shi China 2552 - 0 gier live 13 Potapov Aleksey Russia 2538 - 2121 (132 miejsce live) 14 Zyazin Aleksandr Russia 2536 - 1690 15 Qi Bo China 2530 - 0 gier live 16 Aivo Oll Estonia 2526 - 2389 (34 live) 17 Song Xian China 2486 - 9 gier live (bilans 3-5-1) 18 Chen Wei China 2484 - 2324 19 Bashirov Rustam Russia 2475 - 0 gier live 20 Golosov Victor Russia 2442 - 2121 (131 live) 21 Glinka Vitaly Russia 2438 - 0 gier live 22 Yang Meng China 2420 - 0 gier live 23 Nikonov Konstantin Russia 2418 - 2269 (68 live) 24 Tarannikov Yuriy Russia 2410 - 2293 (60 live) 25 Ke Yang China 2410 - 0 gier live 26 Alonso Brazil 2402 - 0 gier live 27 Ibragimova Mariam Russia 2400 - 0 gier live 28 Melman Mark Israel 2400 - 0 gier live 29 Xu Liu China 2390 - 0 gier live 30 Filippov Sergey Russia 2382 - 2145 live 31 Gulyaev Igor Ukraine 2378 - 4 gry live (bilans 1-3) 32 Klimachev Oleg Russia 2374 - 0 gier live 33 Chuancheng Li China 2374 - 0 gier live 34 Xiaoming Wang China 2374 - 0 gier live 35 Balabhai Viktor Russia 2370 - 2007 (176 live) 36 Sviridov Nikolay Russia 2364 - 0 gier live 37 Mao Mao China 2362 - 0 gier live 38 Soosorv Ants Estonia 2354 - 2337 (43 live) 39 Kuznetsov N. Russia 2354 - 0 gier live 40 seabird 2348 - nieznany 41 Fedulina Tanja Russia 2342 - 0 gier live 42 Wu Xiaoning China 2332 - 14 gier live (bilans 4-9-1) 43 Lu FangHai China 2328 - 0 gier live 44 Filinov Vladimir Russia 2324 - 2049 (160 live) 45 Qiu Weifu China 2316 - 18 gier live (bilans 8-8-2) 46 Adamushkin Vadim Russia 2312 - 0 gier live 47 Wenzhe Lu China 2311 - 0 gier live 48 Fedorkin Oleg Russia 2308 - 2270 (66 live) 49 Bobkov Eugene Russia 2302 - 2384 live 50 Michal Zukowski Poland 2294 - 17 gier live (bilans 10-6-1)

Z korespondencyjnego top50 18 graczy ma ranking live 2000+ (178 miejsce na liście lub wyżej), 23 nie rozegrało żadnej partii, a 6 nie ustaliło rankingu. Viktor Barykin grał w lutym High League i w 15 partiach zdobył 2,5 pkt. Drugi gracz w korespondencyjnym rankingu Renju

sandra113 napisał/a:

What decides in this sport is strategic planning, the ability to focus on important branches, systematic thinking, skills of computer analysis, and deep understanding of the game

W grze live potrzeba wszystkich powyższych poza skills of computer analysis. Jeśli masz wyniki online/korespondencyjne/advanced a jesteś słaby live, to masz problem z psychiką albo brakuje Ci komputerowej analizy podczas gry.

[sandra113]

[sandra113]

[sandra113]

[sandra113]

The climax of the world correspondence gomoku championship is rapidly approaching. More than a half of the games have already ended, and not much time is left in the remaining games, but it is still very unclear as to who will win the first ever world correspondence gomoku championship title. It is still very unclear as to who will prove to be the best analyst. It is still very unclear as to who will prove to be the wisest, most skilled, most disciplined, and most devoted to our beautiful game. It is still very unclear as to whose analysis is longer and most skilful.

The main contenders are perhaps the most charismatic people in the gomoku world.

Great Lord Lamaza, whose secular name is Alex Popiel, is the godfather of the strongest and most fearsome gomoku clan, The Lords of XO, which won the largest number of the Euroleague titles as compared to all other clans and includes such strong players as Gergo, Adifek, Gelo, and Peking. Only a true leader could unite such ambitious players from various countries into a single family. The Great Lord's charisma, passion for analysis, charm, organisational skills, and result-orientedness are known to everyone. In terms of effort spent for analysis in his life he is probably second to no one. His clan possesses a unique database, to which a lot of effort was invested. The Great Lord is fighting for the honour of his clan.

Sensei Owen, whose secular name is Dmitry Epifanov, is a great renju trainer and the winner of the world correspondence renju championship 2007. He wrote perhaps the most detailed renju opening theory book ever, "The Caged Tiger," which includes 1400+ diagrams. Sensei Owen is also a vice-president of the Renju International Federation and won the Russian renju championship in 2013 and 2014. By participating in this correspondence championship, the great renju sensei challenges the might of best gomoku analysts, including the Great Lord himself, in their own game.

Usiek, whose secular name is Łukasz Majksner, is the only non-ex-USSR country analyst out of 10 players who managed to qualify to the High League of this championship. Also known as Grizzlyman, this aggressive Pole was the founder and captain of the Euroleagueo team "Get Rekt," whose name says it all, and is the current King of the Hill in real-time advanced gomoku. He is the Polish gomoku champion of 2016 and a team world champion of the same year. In the last world team championship, the aggressive grizzly was put by his teammates on the first board, where he defeated Martez in the decisive round and thereby brought the bronze to the Polish team. And now the brave grizzly fights alone against the Russian horde. The hearts of many Polish gomoku fans are definitely with their hero.

Popovich, whose secular name is Andrey Litvinenko, fights for the honour of the Tyumen gomoku clan, known as Polar Bears. Appearing pretty friendly and kind, this mighty Russian bear is in fact highly ambitious and a great analyst who is well known for his past analysis of a number of legendary openings. With a live rating of 1727, he is the highest rated Siberian player. His nickname, Popovich, is the name of a folk hero of Kievan Rus who is described in Russian ballads as a clever-minded warrior who wins by tricking and outsmarting his foes.

It stands to reason that all three medals of this correspondence championship will be distributed among the above four warriors, but who will win which medal? This is what is being decided now.

And one of the key games is between Sensei Owen and Usiek. The current position is shown in the diagram below. Sensei Owen put a new opening invented by himself, placing two stones on an edge to exclude them from the game, so the opening basically consists of only one stone. According to the grizzly, the opening is so astonishingly tricky that he elected to add two stones, which is an extremely rare thing in correspondence gomoku because the player who chooses a colour is considered to be at an advantage. Thus, in effect, by putting such an opening the great renju sensei was able to turn the tables and get the right to choose a colour. Yet Usiek chose an elegant way of adding two stones, converting the sensei's opening to a well-balanced edge opening and thereby rendering the sensei's deep analysis of the opening superfluous. A positional fight ensued, and the mighty grizzly now appears to have positionally out-powered his foe and to be finishing him off. The timing of Usiek's last moves leaves little doubt that the bloody grizzly sees his win. And the A1 stone, which was intended by the sensei to be excluded from the game, may well end up being a stepping stone for the final attack by the grizzly!




In the other game between the same players Sensei Owen seems to have an advantage, and the key question is whether Usiek's thin red line will hold the attack. If it will, the mighty Polish analyst will emerge victorious in this principal two-game duel.

Usiek also impressively scalped Popovich, as shown in the diagram below. Popovich must have believed he had achieved a highly advantageous position. He put stone 47 at the upper flank, obviously intending to build his win there. In response, Usiek put a stone near the lower edge. It was a very tricky VCT that Popovich had missed. The VCT threat had been created by move 46, which was a blocking move. Popovich surely will remember this game for the rest of his life. Yet again Usiek made the name "Get Rekt" come true. As the other game between these two contenders ended as a draw, Usiek emerged victorious in the two-game duel against the Siberian bear.




Even the Great Lord himself fell victim to the grizzly's claws. Usiek chose a colour in the Great Lord's sharp opening and made him surrender already after move 37. The other game between them in underway and looks drawish.

Such a great performance by Usiek is somewhat spoiled by his underestimating some other participants and losing some points to them, so even his great performance in the direct encounters against his principal opponents may be not enough to win the title.

The decisive ability in this championship may prove to be the ability to avoid losing points to second-class opponents, and this is something at which Sensei Owen appears to be the best. After all, he is the only participant who technically has not yet lost even a half-point. His utmost care and extremely serious, professional approach are likely to bring him the title.

A very interesting battle is unfolding between the Great Lord and Popovich, who have some old Euroleague scores to settle. The current position is shown below. The Great Lord put quite a tricky scheme, and then Mikhail Kozhin intervened by publicly posting his own analysis of that scheme. Following this, Popovich chose a colour, but it is the Great Lord who now seems to be getting the upper hand. If he crushes the polar bear directly from the scheme put by the Great Lord himself, it will be an excellent demonstration of the Lords' power.




Have a look at the battles of this correspondence championship yourself: http://renju.in/en/turnaments/?tur=121&table . These games are perhaps the highest-quality gomoku games ever played.

Who will become the champion? Whoever wins the gold, he will most likely win it by the skin of his teeth.

[bbj]

[sandra113]

[sandra113]

I recently wrote an article comparing live games and correspondence games and am re-posting it here. Hopefully you will find my observations useful and thought-stimulating.

- begin of the article -

I recently found myself thinking about which kind of gomoku games - live games or correspondence games - is more useful in terms of developing qualities or abilities needed in real life. I made some interesting observations and decided to share them in this article.

Live games are about the ability to solve things in mind. You sit at the board for hours and think, think, think, being not allowed to make records of your thoughts. The competition is about the ability to store and process heaps of data in your short-term memory. Of course, knowledge of deep gomoku principles, gomoku shapes, tricks, or opening variants can give you some advantage or compensate for a somewhat inferior calculation ability, but you cannot do much if you see only 3-5 moves ahead. The greatest gomoku legend, Attila Demjan, was famous for his exceptional calculation skills.

But is this ability - the ability to solve complex things in mind without writing anything - really needed in real life?

I worked in science (physics) for many years and well know that even top scientists are not really different from ordinary people in the ability to, for example, multiply big numbers in mind or visualise complex things in mind. When people analyse complex things, they make records. They do not think for hours without writing anything. In research, we use many tools - computers, programs, equipment, etc. Even when we make simple calculations to derive simple formulas, we use a pen and paper.

In real life, you need two basic thinking abilities: (i) the ability to quickly think in, e.g., oral negotiations, and in order to quickly get routine things done, (ii) the ability to do ''homework,'' i.e., the ability to carefully and scrupulously analyse complex issues step-by-step by using any means you can use, such as a pen, paper, computer, books, written materials (e.g., laws or statistics), etc. Ability (i) corresponds to blitz games, and ability (ii) corresponds to correspondence games. The ability to solve things in mind by thinking for hours without making any records - as required in classic live games - seems to be something not really needed in real life.

If someone is an outstanding player in correspondence games and just an average player in live games, he may simply have not developed the ability to calculate far in his mind. He may have simply not been motivated to develop this ability, in the first place. What, after all, use could he make of this ability beyond live tournaments?

Some people might argue that live games are a brain training that physiologically develops the short-term memory (i.e., the physiological ability to store and process data in mind without writing), and might argue that a well-developed short-term memory is useful in that it helps you think more effectively and ''see more things'' when you think about something in real life, even when you can make records.

This argument might seem appealing to many, but there are two very strong counter-arguments.

First of all, is an overly developed short-term memory a good thing, in the first place? Is it a healthy habit to keep many things in the short-term memory? This is what top chess players are used to do, and a number of them ended up being pretty weird, with perhaps the most known examples being Paul Morphy and Bobby Fischer. They behaved in a very weird way and made bizarre statements, with Bobby Fischer even publicly saying, ''I want to see the U.S. wiped out.'' I heard many weird things from top gomoku players as well, including ideas about becoming the ruler of a country and organising a society built on some utopian principles. Mikhail Lomakin, a prominent Russian gomoku player, promoted the idea that the Mongols who conquered Russia centuries ago belonged to the white, not yellow, race. He also wrote a book whose central idea is that gomoku is the historic origin of all board games. I am therefore afraid that overly developing the short-term memory may create an unbalanced brain.

I recall a related argument I had in Australia with a friend of mine. He told me there was a proof or evidence that regular music exercises (e.g., playing piano) help develop the neural connection between the brain hemispheres in children, increasing the brain part that serves as the ''bridge.'' He used this to explain why children should attend music classes. I responded that it is for a reason that the neural connection between the hemispheres was designed by Mother Nature to have a very small transmission capacity. The hemispheres need to be almost entirely isolated from each other, as otherwise there would be no need for the mankind to develop two visually distinct hemispheres, in the first place. If it were beneficial to have a great transmission capacity between the hemispheres, such a capacity would naturally develop in the course of natural selection. Thus, I argued, if music classes indeed result in increasing the transmission capacity between the hemispheres, then music classes well may actually do harm, and then it is a good reason why children should NOT attend music classes.

Analogously, overly developing the short-term memory well may be a bad thing, and I can see a potential reason why. When you think about something, you have to focus on the most important or most relevant things. This prevents you from being distracted and helps you make decisions effectively. So you need to store quite a limited number of things in your short-term memory. If you have an overly developed short-term memory due to unnatural exercises such as live games, you may often get distracted and strayed away by excessive thoughts and excessive data accumulated in your short-term memory. You may get overwhelmed by various ideas or even get obsessive thoughts. We are given quite a limited short-term memory by Mother Nature for a reason.

The second counter-argument is that all intellectual qualities needed in everyday life naturally get developed to the extent you actually need them: For example, if you have a job that requires a certain intellectual quality, this quality naturally gets developed simply by your everyday work. So if you have not developed a certain intellectual ability to a certain extent, you probably do not need it. Why then do you need to develop it by doing mental exercises such as live games? You could spend your time for something more useful in terms of your life goals.

Some people might argue that live games help develop visuospatial and pattern recognition abilities.

But, again, is overly developing visuospatial and pattern recognition abilities a good and useful thing in real life? I have doubts, and my reasoning goes along the same lines as above. People who have overly developed imagination well may be prone to wild thoughts, analogies, and distractions. Everything you need in everyday life gets naturally developed on its own.

And these observations prompt a fundamental question: Actually why do people play live games?

I asked many players why they play live games, and practically no one mentioned the idea that live games may be useful in terms of developing abilities or qualities needed in real life. My impression is that a majority of people play live gomoku simply because they like it.

But exactly why do people like playing live gomoku?

Based on my talks with various players, my impression is that there are many reasons, including (but not necessarily limited to):
(i) self-affirmation, enjoying the taste of victory, feeding the ego,
(ii) enjoying being an artist by creating things on the board,
(iii) a refreshing change from everyday life, and
(iv) social interaction.

Component (i) seems to be prevalent for many. For example, Vladimir Semenov, a prominent Russian renju player and a talented writer, wrote (as translated by me from Russian): ''Playing on a real board with a good time control, i.e., a time control exceeding one hour, has its charm incomparable with that of one-minute gomoku or other kinds of online gomoku games. Here is one thing out of many that you cannot experience online: Catching the decaying hopeless look of the opponent at the moment he realises that he lost and has no escape route. The feeling you experience at that moment is something to which practically nothing in real life is comparable. Figuratively speaking, one can give everything in exchange for that feeling.''

Live games appear to be well suitable for self-affirmation if you need it. You physically see your opponent, you beat him on a real board and catch his decaying hopeless look, then he stops the clock and congratulates you, and then real people around you talk about your success and award you a medal. The victory is for all to see and indisputable, as live tournaments are devoid of cheating.

Have you ever wondered why live tournaments are characterised by a low proportion of females? Is it because, as some people believe, females are physiologically less capable? I do not think so, because, for example, in 2005 the Russian female renju player Yulia Savrasova won the Russian renju championship among men, finishing above such monsters as Sergey Artemyev, Pavel Salnikov, Konstantin Chingin, Vlad Kareev, and Konstantin Nikonov. I think the real reason for the low female proportion is that on average, females do not have such a strong need for self-affirmation as men do. Females tend to be more practical, more materialistic, more focused on real life matters, and less motivated to develop game skills and less interested in glory unless they can derive a profit from it.

Moreover, self-affirmation due to winning live gomoku tournaments is delusional to a great extent, because in live gomoku tournaments nothing real is at stake. Okay, you won a live gomoku tournament, but who said your opponents were really motivated? Ask yourself the following powerful question: Would you be able to win the same tournament against the same players if the prize were 100,000$ and announced well in advance so that the players could really prepare? It would be very different play, wouldn't it? So maybe you won simply because you were more motivated than your opponents were? What is then the reason to be proud? What is the reason to be proud of having been more motivated, as compared to others, to play a game that brings no real benefits?

Despite having never played in live gomoku tournaments, I well know what live games are like, as I participated in official live chess tournaments for children when I was about 10 years old. My parents wanted me to become a professional chess player, and I studied chess at a chess club at that time. I suppose I was more motivated than most gomoku players are. I saw chess as a profession, I saw games as a job, and I saw tournaments as exams. I did not feel that by studying and playing chess I developed something needed outside chess. And later I quit chess as a result of realising the extent to which professional chess requires studying and learning opening variants. I simply did not want to devote my life to studying and learning opening variants of a game with artificial rules.

I played a considerable amount of online gomoku games with time controls of 20-30 min, which must be comparable to live gomoku games in terms of developing various abilities, and at such time controls I clearly felt that everything boiled down to calculation. I clearly felt that it was primarily about who can see more. I clearly felt that it was simply about the ability to solve things in mind.

Summarising all of the above, I find it highly questionable that live gomoku games have a substantial value, especially in terms of developing qualities and abilities needed in real life. I started playing gomoku in 2015 and since then have been unable to find any motivation to participate in live tournaments.

But what about correspondence games?

They are about the ability to perform a great analysis and about research skills. By playing correspondence games, you learn a serious approach to strategy and planning. You learn a serious approach to analytical work. You learn long-term discipline. You learn to make very elaborated plans and to stick to them. You learn general principles of strategy. You become a great analyst and develop very useful analytical skills.

And you can use these skills in everyday life to take important decisions - e.g., devising a tax evasion scheme, starting a business, making important career decisions, etc. You do not need to make decisions on such matters in your mind without making any records, but you need to be able to perform serious analytical work using any means you can.

Correspondence games do not physiologically train your brain, but rather teach you useful concepts and approaches to analytical work and strategy. Correspondence games do not require keeping a lot of information in your short-term memory and thus do not subject your brain to unnatural loads, in contrast to live games.

Successful correspondence players are generally great people. For example, the main favourites of the current world correspondence gomoku championship are Great Lord Lamaza (aka Alex Popiel) and Sensei Owen (aka Dmitry Epifanov). The former is a successful scientist, a linguist, and the latter was very successful in Russian physics Olympiads and currently works at Yandex, the Russian analogue of Google. The last two world correspondence renju championships were won by Hao Tianyi, who also won a gold medal in the 25th Chinese Mathematical Olympiad.

So playing correspondence games well may be, in fact, more useful than playing live games, contrary to what many people might think.

- end of the article -