jfp@ucla-cs.UUCP (09/09/85)
In article <331@zaphod.UUCP> dkatz@zaphod.UUCP (Dave Katz) writes: >3. Have you ever noticed that there are no really good Go players who > are women. It seems that they can do quite well in the opening game > where the moves are more intuitive or patern oriented, but fall > apart when they get to the middle and end games. When the play is > more complex, requiring detailed analysis of moves or when you have > to weigh the impact of larger moves in the middle game, they seem to > fall apart. Is this maybe some sort of proof of the bioLOGICAL > difference between sexes? > Presumably this was meant to be inciteful rather than insightful. Or just trying to keep the newsgroup going. In any case, although women are admittedly underrepresented in professional go, there are some, including Ninomiya Hideko 1-dan, who defeated Chino Tadahiko 9-dan in the 2nd preliminary round of the Judan tournament in October 1984. This is apparently the only time a 1-dan, male or female, has defeated a 9-dan in a professional tournament. She is, or at least was at the time, the youngest woman professional in Japan (see Go World No. 35, p.63). Going back in time a little, the earliest picture of a go player, dating from around 690, is of a woman (playing on a 17 x 17 board) - see the cover of Go World No. 29. The highest ranked woman player in Japan is apparently Sugiuchi Kazuko 8-dan, winner of the 1983 Kido prize for outstanding woman player and winner of the 5th Women's Kakusei Cup. She is the first woman to reach 8-dan. That means she's much stronger than anyone on this net is ever likely to be, indeed stronger than any Westerner is likely to be for some time - I don't know if Michael Redmond has made it to 5-dan yet (these are professional dan ranks, of course, not amateur ones). Other strong women players in Japan currently are Kusunoki Teruko 6-dan, of the Kansai Ki-in, winner of the 2nd Women's Honinbo, Honda Sachiko 6-dan, her sister, Kobayashi Chizu 5-dan, winner of many women's championships, Ito Timoe 5-dan, winner of the 1979 Women's Kakusei (haya-go) tournament, Kobayashi Reiko 5-dan, winner of the 1981 Women's Kakusei and wife of top professinal Kobayashi Koichi 9-dan, and Ogawa Tomoko 4-dan (maybe 5-dan by now), known in the west as the co-author (with James Davies) of The Endgame book in the Ishi Press elementary go series. Ogawa made headlines in 1977 when she married the well-known actor Yamamoto Kei, who was about amateur 2-dan. In China, the top woman player is K'ung Shang-ming (age 29), wife of Nieh Wei-p'ing. She defeated Minami 9-dan in the 1980 Japan-China Go Exchange, and must be at least 6-dan. Yang Hui (22) also participated in that Exchange and she must have been at least 4-dan at the time. I don't have information on women players in Korea. For all of this, there are no women in the ranks of the top Japanese titleholders this (or any previous) century and, closer to home, it does seem that clubs in this and other western countries are also male dominated. But this is hardly any reason to propose a connection with brain differences between males and females. Far more obvious are socioeconomic causes - East Asian cultures aren't exactly known as bastions of liberal attitudes towards women, any more than our own is. Can you name any great female painters? Or is that too "left-sided" an occupation? I suppose the reason for the notable lack of famous female composers is that they can work out the overall plan - intuitive idea - of a piece, but when it comes to working out the details, the tactics - actually writing down the notes - they fall apart???!!!! I have never noticed the effect you report of women seeming to fall apart when it comes to the middle game any more than men do. I certainly have a tendency to fall apart then myself, and I don't think I'm alone - things often look pretty good at the beginning, even though a professional might tell you that you've lost the game by the tenth move. The situation naturally gets more complicated later in the game, and things which you didn't realize were so weak start to visibly crumble. Or at least that is my experience with stronger players. John Pedersen, Dept. of Mathematics, UCLA, Los Angeles, Ca. 90024. 213/825-7909 {ihnp4,ucbvax}!ucalla-cs!pic.jfp