Rick moves vs Steve moves vs Jeff moves
My early days playing GO was in the 90s around Toledo, OH. My friend Jeff and I started the Toledo GO club, which does in fact still exist (under new management). We also regularly visited the Ann Arbor club, which historically is a club of some significance, but suffers a little from the rotation in and out of University Michigan students who come and go. I was just thinking about 3 players from back in the early days and the types of moves they made. These are real people, who out of respect I shall call “Jeff,” “Rick,” and “Steve” because that is their names, Jeff, Rick, and Steve.
I want to begin with Rick. Back in the 90s the Ann Arbor GO club had a strong youth, one of them there prodigies who was like maybe 7 years old but already 1 dan. Rick was just learning the game, I’ll estimate him at 25-ish kyu, or so. In a 9-stone game the young lad destroyed, and I mean destroyed, Rick. We’ve all been there, my friend! Rick quit GO that day! I don’t blame him, it definitely wasn’t fun—plus it showed him how much of gap there was between him as beginner and getting strong.
But, as a 20-ish kyu player, Rick had a tendency to do what many relative beginners do—just continuously play stones inside my territory in ways that really weren’t going to do anything. Kind of pointless moves, if you know what I mean. I would try to explain that if I didn’t answer, it was like giving me a point, because these stones would be captured. Over the course of the next few games, he still did this type of probing, I guess you’d call it, but I noticed that now every one of his moves inside of my territory had evolved into moves I had to answer. I realized that if I answered him, I was filling in one of my own points, so even though I gained a prisoner, I lost a point. It kind of balanced out, I guess. At the club, we started calling these moves “Rick moves”—late game invasion/probes that really didn’t do much but if I had to answer them then at least it was a wash point wise.
Then came Steve! Steve is still a current player in Toledo—he knows who he is!—and is a strong 6kyu. He does well in tournaments, often placing top 3 in the kyu division. When he was learning GO, and around 20-ish kyu, he would do these Rick moves, which I would explain to him were kind of pointless, but as long as I answered, I guess it was worth trying (to learn why they didn’t work). But, as Steve kept playing and getting better, say 15 kyu, something started happening. His late game probes into settled territory started becoming sharper somehow. He himself declared one day, “these aren’t Rick moves, they’re Steve moves!” Steve moves resemble Rick moves except for one key feature—if you didn’t answer correctly, they might actually work!! Steve moves I guess you could say are late game probes that seem a little desperate but if answered wrong they could become melt down moves. In other words, Steve moves are Rick moves that almost “work” LOL!
Thinking about Rick and Steve, both good friends, got me feeling nostalgic about Toledo GO, so I wanted to mention Jeff moves, too. Jeff co-founded the Toledo GO club with me. When I learned GO he learned along with me, but was like 3 months behind. Thus, I probably beat him at least 100 times in a row as we were learning. He used to laugh, “you know we’re best friends, who else would lose 100 times in a row and keep playing!” To be clear on a point, Jeff passed away a few years ago, and we all miss him, as does the Toledo GO club. He was also a very capable SDK who also did well in tournaments.
Anyway, what is a Jeff move? I noticed that when he played white in a handicap game, he would often begin by sprinkling white stones all over the board. He wanted a foothold in each region. And I mean, his first 5 or 6 moves as white might be in completely different areas. He hated it if black used their handicap stones to build up one part of the board and then later he had to invade. These moves were like pre-invasions! Or, better yet, they were like little seeds, that he gently spread around the board, to see what might sprout up later. These were Jeff moves, or as the Toledo GO club started calling them, Johnny Appleseed moves.
Let me conclude by saying that this post is dedicated to Jeff (R.I.P.), Rick, Steve, and all of our good friends that make up the experience of playing GO!