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Your Move/Readers Write: Perfect Rules Are Possible

Perfect Rules Are Possible: “I share Terry Benson's hope that ‘maybe someday the countries of the go world will agree on clear, logical, complete rules’ (Your Move/Readers Write: Spoiling a Masterpiece Unnecessarily 11/5 EJ),” writes Joel Sanet. “I would add to that list ‘perfect.’ For me ‘perfect’ means that there are no unnecessary rules. The AGA rules as they are currently constituted are not perfect. They contain an unnecessary rule forbidding suicide. As many people are aware, suicide can be a good ko threat. A rule that restricts a perfectly good move is a flaw in the rules. As far as I know, the only rule system that removes this flaw is the New Zealand rules. Maybe it's time for the AGA to join the progressives in New Zealand.” graphic courtesy Sensei's Library
Getting Stuck is Normal: “It's normal to experience plateaus as we progress, (The Spirit of Play: “I’m Stuck” 10/29 EJ)” writes Peter St John. “We gradually learn a bunch of little things, without perceptible progress; then those things gel in our minds, and we make a leap up, as if we had been straining at a leash that breaks. But then we slip a bit from the peak of our leap up, and have a new plateau, about at the level of the peak of our last leap up. This shape curve can be seen in rating histories on KGS and in chess. Secondly, ideal progress is to spend time interactively with people about two classes (say, about four stones) stronger than we are (people one or two stones stronger than we are don't really know why they are stronger; generally, a teacher can only bring you up to a level below himself). The process of keeping up with such strong players, understanding what they are saying and what they are thinking, as we play and analyse with them, makes us strong. Unfortunately, the stronger we get, the harder it is to find much time with people that much stronger; at the top, obviously it's impossible to improve from 8P to 9P this way, as people two classes stronger don't exist.”