Go terms
Encyclopedia
Players of the game of Go
often use jargon
to describe situations on the board and surrounding the game. Such technical terms are likely to be encountered in books and articles about Go in English as well as other languages. Many of these terms have been borrowed from Japanese
, mostly when no short equivalent English term could be found. This page gives an overview of the most important terms.
, the current English
and Western technical vocabulary borrows a high proportion of terms from the Japanese language
because it was through Japan
that Go was introduced to Western culture
.
Many of these terms are from a jargon
used for technical go writing and to some extent specially developed for go journalism. Some authors of English-language go materials avoid use of Japanese technical terms, and the way they are applied can differ in subtle ways from the original meanings.
A very small number of Korean-language terms have come into use (e.g. haengma as a way of describing the development of stones).
Above is a simple formation with only one stone (the white triangled stone) in danger of being captured. If black plays a, the white piece is immediately captured and removed from the board. White can escape toward the center by playing at a himself, creating a string with three liberties. Below, another white group is in , but playing at b along the side will do no good, since Black can then play c, then capture the whole group on the next turn.
As the distance of a stone from the edge of the board has important tactical and strategic implications, it is normal to term the corner points of the board (1, 1) points, and count lines in from the edge.: an intersection traditionally marked with a small dot on the board. These are either
神の一手 Kami no Itte, meaning "hand of god".
The Divine Move is used in Go teaching as a motivation to look again at positions in games and consider not just the obvious moves but the less obvious and more innovative as well, in particular tenuki.
An example of one such divine move might be seen in the ear reddening move
played by Honinbo Shusaku
in 1846.
The divine move is also the absolute most difficult move to make in Go history. Devoted Go player strive to play such a move before the end of their lifetime.
Eyes are counted as occupied territory of the group that fully contains the eye. There are cases where a group may share one or more eyes with one of the opposing player's groups. These eyes do not count as territory for either player; sometimes these eyes are reduced to dame as the board changes in other areas to give one or both groups additional eyes, allowing one or both players to fill these shared eyes, but sometimes they cannot resolve (see seki below).
Gote means "succeeding move" (lit: "after hand"), the opposite of sente, meaning "preceding move" (lit: "before hand"). Sente is a term to describe which player has the initiative in the game, and which moves result in taking and holding the initiative. More precisely, as one player attacks, and the other defends in gote, it can be said that they respectively do and do not have the initiative. The situation of having sente is favorable, permitting control of the flow of the game.
Applying these concepts to a whole sequence is basic to higher strategy. If Black starts a sequence that properly ends in an even number of plays, Black retains sente in doing this. If Black starts a sequence that properly ends after an odd number of plays, Black loses sente and takes gote. Accepting gote should only be in return for some profitable exchange. Correct play in the yose
(endgame) can consist of playing available sente sequences, and then taking the largest gote sequence on the board. That description is a simplification, though. A reverse sente play is a special type of gote play, preventing the opponent from making some sente move. The relative value of reverse sente plays depends on the overall position, but one can count it as twice the value of what it would be if purely gote.
A player has sente if he does not currently need to respond to moves made by his opponent. This can be achieved by tenuki (ignoring the opponent), as a kind of gambit. A player can break out of gote, and can gain sente, by choosing to accept some future loss, on the local level, in order to take the initiative to play elsewhere.
In the case that neither of the players directly respond to each other's moves, the game can become difficult. Both players will have sente on their turn, and the moves they are making are gote. This will likely end in large exchanges, or one player will be shown to have a weaker position, and will have to start answering to avoid heavy damage.
are established sequences of play which (locally speaking) are considered to give an optimal result to both players. There are thousands of such lines that have been researched and documented.
Often joseki are played out early in the game and involve dividing the corners. There are also "mid-game joseki", dealing with for example an invasion into a common enclosure or framework.
Though joseki have some parallel with chess opening
s, they differ significantly. Chess openings structure the whole board while joseki deal only with a local position. Therefore the choice of which joseki (of many possible) to play in any given situation should be based on an assessment of the global position. This includes considerations of the direction of play, current balance of territory and influence, and one's own game strategy.
It is also quite possible to deviate from joseki and obtain a good result if the surrounding position allows. In other words, joseki are sensitive to the context in which they are played.
An approach move to a corner position, such as at the 5-3 point when an opponent has previously played the 3-4 point. That would be a "low kakari". A "high kakari" would be at the 5-4 point.
(気合い) often translates as "fighting spirit", i.e. aggressiveness or initiative, but not unthinking greed. Kiai means keeping sente, that is not letting the opponent have his or her way. A sensei
might say, "You play too passively — put some kiai in your moves!” A passive player may follow an opponent around the board responding to each move in turn. Kiai moves are the opposite of passive or submissive and a player showing kiai will dictate the flow of play. Kiai moves can catch an opponent off-balance and turn the game around. Examples of kiai moves include snatching sente away from the opponent; defending with a move that also counter-attacks; or answering a kikashi (forcing move) in an unexpected way.
Kiai is also a term used in Japanese martial arts
, usually as a name for a loud yell accompanying an attack. Obviously this is outwardly more restrained in the context of a board game, but it is intended to be in the same spirit.
Moves can be kikashi, or not, depending on whether they are answered with appropriate sophistication or not. If the answering move strengthens the position, then the play is not kikashi but aji keshi (ruining one's own potential).
.
(コミ) is a bonus in score given to white as compensation for going second. There is no agreement on what Komi ought to be, but is commonly in the range of 4.5 to 7.5 points. Komi almost always includes a half point for breaking ties.
This occurs often. With respect to a group's development or survival, pairs of points are frequently seen, such that if one player occupies one of them, his opponent will occupy the other. Miai can be seen in the fuseki
stage on a large scale, or in a simple life and death
problem, such as a straight four-space eye. This shape is alive because of its two central points a and b: if White plays b, Black can answer with a and vice versa.
The term originates from the Japanese custom of arranging marriage through a series of meetings (miai) to view prospective spouses (見る miru, "view", 合う au, "meet").
played by Honinbo Shusaku
in 1846.
Seki (関) is a Japanese term used to describe an impasse that cannot be resolved into simple life and death
. It is sometimes translated as 'mutual life'. For example, a capturing race
may end in a position in which neither player can capture the other. There are numerous types of seki position that can arise, characterized as cases in which neither player adds a play to groups that do not have two eyes. The area remains untouched; at the end all groups involved are deemed alive, but no points are scored for territory. Under area scoring stones in seki are counted as live and do give points.
In the figure, neither White nor Black can play on the points marked a. White would put himself in atari and be captured immediately. Black would be captured as well, leaving a shape (four in line) where White can always make two eyes.
Thickness is a literal translation of the Japanese word and connotes the position of power and impregnability conferred by the thickness of medieval castles' stone walls. A group is thick when it has developed beyond the level of stability in its local area without accruing significant weaknesses, and consequently projects power at a distance, especially over vacant or unsettled areas of the board. Such positions have a profound influence on the flow of the game. In the diagram, though white has about 10 points of territory in the corner, black can expect the power projected outward by his thick position to more than make up for this. Note that his result would not be as good if white had a settled position in the direction black's influence is facing.
様子(yōsu) means situation or the state of things, and 見る(miru) is "to see", thus "yōsu o miru", to "see how things stand". In Japanese this expression is usually used to say that it's better to wait and see before taking an action (e.g. "shibaraku yōsu o miru beki da", it's better to wait and see for a little while). It is not a single word or a set phrase
except in Western Go literature, and "probe" is the preferred word, being self-explanatory and actually used by the speakers of its originating language.
Go (board game)
Go , is an ancient board game for two players that originated in China more than 2,000 years ago...
often use jargon
Jargon
Jargon is terminology which is especially defined in relationship to a specific activity, profession, group, or event. The philosophe Condillac observed in 1782 that "Every science requires a special language because every science has its own ideas." As a rationalist member of the Enlightenment he...
to describe situations on the board and surrounding the game. Such technical terms are likely to be encountered in books and articles about Go in English as well as other languages. Many of these terms have been borrowed from Japanese
Japanese language
is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family, which has a number of proposed relationships with other languages, none of which has gained wide acceptance among historical linguists .Japanese is an...
, mostly when no short equivalent English term could be found. This page gives an overview of the most important terms.
Use of Japanese terms
Although Go originated in ChinaChina
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
, the current English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
and Western technical vocabulary borrows a high proportion of terms from the Japanese language
Japanese language
is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family, which has a number of proposed relationships with other languages, none of which has gained wide acceptance among historical linguists .Japanese is an...
because it was through Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
that Go was introduced to Western culture
Western culture
Western culture, sometimes equated with Western civilization or European civilization, refers to cultures of European origin and is used very broadly to refer to a heritage of social norms, ethical values, traditional customs, religious beliefs, political systems, and specific artifacts and...
.
Many of these terms are from a jargon
Jargon
Jargon is terminology which is especially defined in relationship to a specific activity, profession, group, or event. The philosophe Condillac observed in 1782 that "Every science requires a special language because every science has its own ideas." As a rationalist member of the Enlightenment he...
used for technical go writing and to some extent specially developed for go journalism. Some authors of English-language go materials avoid use of Japanese technical terms, and the way they are applied can differ in subtle ways from the original meanings.
A very small number of Korean-language terms have come into use (e.g. haengma as a way of describing the development of stones).
Aji
The closest English one could use is 'latent potential.' From the Japanese, aji (味), meaning taste, and in Go refers to the lingering quality that even dead stones will provide possible avenues of subtle play. Though aji might never be used, it has a bearing on the course of the game. Good aji is when your groups are strong, and have little or no possibility of being compromised. Bad aji is where dead stones or weaknesses in one's own formation carry a latent threat of compromising an existing area, should the situation become ripe. Aji is different from a simple defect or weakness in that it can be exploited and/or repaired in more than one way, or at more than one stage of the game, and which way or time is best will not be clear until later; hence the "aftertaste" metaphor.Atari
"Atari" (当たり) (Chinese: dǎchī ; Korean: dansu ) is a term used for a situation where a stone or chain of stones has only one liberty, and may be captured on the next move if not given one or more additional liberties. It can be a verb to describe the act of placing a chain under atari, as well as an adjective to describe the status of a unit, as being "in (the state of) atari". Calling out atari during a game is sometimes done by beginners much like calling out check in chess, but it is considered rude by many players who have advanced beyond the absolute beginner level.Above is a simple formation with only one stone (the white triangled stone) in danger of being captured. If black plays a, the white piece is immediately captured and removed from the board. White can escape toward the center by playing at a himself, creating a string with three liberties. Below, another white group is in , but playing at b along the side will do no good, since Black can then play c, then capture the whole group on the next turn.
Board positions
| style="border: solid thin; padding: 2px;" | |
| Go board |
As the distance of a stone from the edge of the board has important tactical and strategic implications, it is normal to term the corner points of the board (1, 1) points, and count lines in from the edge.: an intersection traditionally marked with a small dot on the board. These are either
-
- a (4, 4) point in an empty corner, or
- a (4, 10) or (10, 4) point on one of the sides: the center of the board, located at (10, 10) on the standard 19×19 go board.: a (5, 5) point in a corner.: a (3, 3) point in a corner.: a (4, 3) or (3, 4) point in a corner.: a (4, 5) or (5, 4) point in a corner.: a (6, 4) or (4, 6) point in a corner.: a (3, 5) or (5, 3) point in a corner.: a (6, 3) or (3, 6) point in a corner.
Dame
Unfilled neutral points that will not benefit either side. Typically the term refers to vacant points that lie between two opposing forces, and will eventually be filled without altering the score. Basically, dame (駄目) points are of no interest, though they must be filled before counting the score under area (Chinese style) scoring. The Japanese rules define a dame as a vacant point that is not surrounded by live stones of only one color, so the term can also refer to an empty point that is tactically useful as a liberty for a unit.Divine Move
A divine move is a truly inspired and original move. It should be a non-obvious move which balances strategy and tactics to turn a losing game into a winning game. A divine move is singular—they are of such rarity that a full-time go player might be lucky to play a single such move in his or her lifetime. The term comes from the JapaneseJapanese language
is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family, which has a number of proposed relationships with other languages, none of which has gained wide acceptance among historical linguists .Japanese is an...
神の一手 Kami no Itte, meaning "hand of god".
The Divine Move is used in Go teaching as a motivation to look again at positions in games and consider not just the obvious moves but the less obvious and more innovative as well, in particular tenuki.
An example of one such divine move might be seen in the ear reddening move
Ear reddening game
The ear reddening game is a game of go of the Edo period of Japan, played on September 11, 1846 between Honinbo Shusaku and Inoue Genan Inseki...
played by Honinbo Shusaku
Honinbo Shusaku
Honinbo Shusaku was a professional Go player and is considered by many to be the greatest player of the golden age of Go in the mid-19th century.- Biography :He was nicknamed "Invincible" after he earned a perfect score for 19 straight wins in the annual castle...
in 1846.
The divine move is also the absolute most difficult move to make in Go history. Devoted Go player strive to play such a move before the end of their lifetime.
Eyes
Eyes are internal liberties of a group of stones that, like external liberties, prevent the group's capture, but unlike external liberties are much harder for an opponent to fill. The presence or absence of eyes in a group determine life or death of that group. A group with no eyes, or only one eye, will die unless its owner can develop them. Conversely, a group with two eyes or more will live. There is nothing an opponent can do to capture such a group, because it is impossible to remove all liberties of the group by playing one stone, thus any such play is a "suicide".Eyes are counted as occupied territory of the group that fully contains the eye. There are cases where a group may share one or more eyes with one of the opposing player's groups. These eyes do not count as territory for either player; sometimes these eyes are reduced to dame as the board changes in other areas to give one or both groups additional eyes, allowing one or both players to fill these shared eyes, but sometimes they cannot resolve (see seki below).
Gote and Sente
A move that leaves the player an overwhelming follow-up move, and thus forces the opponent to respond, is said to have "sente" (先手), or "initiative"; the opponent has "gote" (後手). In most games, the player who keeps sente most of the time will win.Gote means "succeeding move" (lit: "after hand"), the opposite of sente, meaning "preceding move" (lit: "before hand"). Sente is a term to describe which player has the initiative in the game, and which moves result in taking and holding the initiative. More precisely, as one player attacks, and the other defends in gote, it can be said that they respectively do and do not have the initiative. The situation of having sente is favorable, permitting control of the flow of the game.
Applying these concepts to a whole sequence is basic to higher strategy. If Black starts a sequence that properly ends in an even number of plays, Black retains sente in doing this. If Black starts a sequence that properly ends after an odd number of plays, Black loses sente and takes gote. Accepting gote should only be in return for some profitable exchange. Correct play in the yose
Yose
You may also be looking for the Hebrew name Yose; see Jose. is a Japanese language term used in the board game go in connection with go endgame plays...
(endgame) can consist of playing available sente sequences, and then taking the largest gote sequence on the board. That description is a simplification, though. A reverse sente play is a special type of gote play, preventing the opponent from making some sente move. The relative value of reverse sente plays depends on the overall position, but one can count it as twice the value of what it would be if purely gote.
A player has sente if he does not currently need to respond to moves made by his opponent. This can be achieved by tenuki (ignoring the opponent), as a kind of gambit. A player can break out of gote, and can gain sente, by choosing to accept some future loss, on the local level, in order to take the initiative to play elsewhere.
In the case that neither of the players directly respond to each other's moves, the game can become difficult. Both players will have sente on their turn, and the moves they are making are gote. This will likely end in large exchanges, or one player will be shown to have a weaker position, and will have to start answering to avoid heavy damage.
Joseki
JosekiJoseki
In Go, are studied sequences of moves in the corner areas of the Go board, for which the result is considered balanced for both black and white sides. Because games typically start with plays in the corners, players often try to use their understanding of joseki to gain local advantages in the...
are established sequences of play which (locally speaking) are considered to give an optimal result to both players. There are thousands of such lines that have been researched and documented.
Often joseki are played out early in the game and involve dividing the corners. There are also "mid-game joseki", dealing with for example an invasion into a common enclosure or framework.
Though joseki have some parallel with chess opening
Chess opening
A chess opening is the group of initial moves of a chess game. Recognized sequences of opening moves are referred to as openings as initiated by White or defenses, as created in reply by Black. There are many dozens of different openings, and hundreds of named variants. The Oxford Companion to...
s, they differ significantly. Chess openings structure the whole board while joseki deal only with a local position. Therefore the choice of which joseki (of many possible) to play in any given situation should be based on an assessment of the global position. This includes considerations of the direction of play, current balance of territory and influence, and one's own game strategy.
It is also quite possible to deviate from joseki and obtain a good result if the surrounding position allows. In other words, joseki are sensitive to the context in which they are played.
An approach move to a corner position, such as at the 5-3 point when an opponent has previously played the 3-4 point. That would be a "low kakari". A "high kakari" would be at the 5-4 point.
Kiai
In the context of Go, kiaiKiai
is a Japanese term used in martial arts. There are numerous examples of the battle cry in other cultures: kiai is perhaps primarily a development of this. In the representation of Asian martial arts in cinema and in animated cartoons, Modern Kiai are often written by westerners in Romaji as...
(気合い) often translates as "fighting spirit", i.e. aggressiveness or initiative, but not unthinking greed. Kiai means keeping sente, that is not letting the opponent have his or her way. A sensei
Sensei
' is a Japanese word that basically means "person born before another." In general usage, it means "master" or "teacher," and the word is used as a title to refer to or address teachers, professors, professionals such as lawyers, CPA and doctors, politicians, clergymen, and other figures of authority...
might say, "You play too passively — put some kiai in your moves!” A passive player may follow an opponent around the board responding to each move in turn. Kiai moves are the opposite of passive or submissive and a player showing kiai will dictate the flow of play. Kiai moves can catch an opponent off-balance and turn the game around. Examples of kiai moves include snatching sente away from the opponent; defending with a move that also counter-attacks; or answering a kikashi (forcing move) in an unexpected way.
Kiai is also a term used in Japanese martial arts
Martial arts
Martial arts are extensive systems of codified practices and traditions of combat, practiced for a variety of reasons, including self-defense, competition, physical health and fitness, as well as mental and spiritual development....
, usually as a name for a loud yell accompanying an attack. Obviously this is outwardly more restrained in the context of a board game, but it is intended to be in the same spirit.
Kikashi
Literally meaning 'an enlivenment', Kikashi (利かし) is a forcing move, usually one made outside the primary flow of play. Unlike sente, though, a move is kikashi when it yields a high efficiency in play by forcing the opponent to abandon certain courses of action. A kikashi stone can generally be sacrificed but meanwhile it still might confer an advantage, e.g. act as a ladder breaker or destroy the opponent's potential eyeshape, while the answering move has no value at all.Moves can be kikashi, or not, depending on whether they are answered with appropriate sophistication or not. If the answering move strengthens the position, then the play is not kikashi but aji keshi (ruining one's own potential).
Ko
Ko (コウ) can refer to the Ko rule or strategic use of the rule in a fightKo fight
A fight is a tactical and strategic phase that can arise in the game of go.-Ko threats and ko fights:The existence of ko fights is implied by the rule of ko, a special rule of the game that prevents immediate repetition of position, by a short 'loop' in which a single stone is captured, and...
.
Komi
KomiKomidashi
in the game of Go are points added to the score of the player with the white stones as compensation for playing second. Black's first move advantage is generally considered to equal somewhere between 5 and 7 points by the end of the game. Standard komi is 6.5 points under the Japanese and Korean...
(コミ) is a bonus in score given to white as compensation for going second. There is no agreement on what Komi ought to be, but is commonly in the range of 4.5 to 7.5 points. Komi almost always includes a half point for breaking ties.
Korigatachi
The term korigatachi (凝り形) is often translated as 'over-concentrated', but more literally is 'frozen shape'. If a player uses his stones in an inefficient way, the result will be korigatachi. Knowing something about this problem should tell you how to avoid it. Placing stones too close together is a fundamental mistake, rather than safe play.Liberty
A vacant point that is immediately adjacent to a stone either directly up, down, left or right from it, or connected through a continuous string of same-colored stones to such a point is called Liberty (气). A stone, chain or group must always have at least one liberty to survive and a group should usually have at least two separate guaranteed internal liberties (eyes) to be considered alive. If a group is surrounded, having at least two eyes ensures that it cannot be captured by the opponent if correctly defended. Some living groups cannot be captured at all, and need no defense even if attacked.Miai
Miai (見合い) in Go are, in the simplest terms, a pair of vacant points on the board that are equivalent in terms of value. For example, if Black plays at A, White can play at B and suffer no disadvantage from the exchange.This occurs often. With respect to a group's development or survival, pairs of points are frequently seen, such that if one player occupies one of them, his opponent will occupy the other. Miai can be seen in the fuseki
Fuseki
Fuseki is the whole board opening in the game of Go.-Less systematic:Since each move is typically isolated and unforced , patterns for play on the whole board have seen much less systematic study than for Joseki, which are often contact moves which require specific and immediate responses...
stage on a large scale, or in a simple life and death
Life and death
Life and death is a fundamental concept in the game of Go, where the status of a distinct group of stones is determined as either being "alive", and may remain on the board indefinitely, or "dead," where the group will be lost as "captured"...
problem, such as a straight four-space eye. This shape is alive because of its two central points a and b: if White plays b, Black can answer with a and vice versa.
The term originates from the Japanese custom of arranging marriage through a series of meetings (miai) to view prospective spouses (見る miru, "view", 合う au, "meet").
Monkey jump
A particular move, usually used in the end-game, which can reduce one's opponent's territory significantly. A monkey jump can be played when the attacker has a strong stone on the second line and the defender has no nearby stones on the first or second line guarding his hoped-for territory. The attacker places a stone on the first line three spaces into the defender's territory from the strong stone. Due to the special properties of the edge of the board, the defender cannot usually cut off the stone.Moyo
Moyo is a framework for potential territory which usually consists of unconnected stones with some distance between them. The early game usually consists of competing for moyo by attempting to expand one's own and/or invade or reduce one's opponent's. This term is often translated as "framework", "potential" or "wall".Myoushu
Myoushu is an "inspired move", a move which turns a game around or otherwise exceeds expectations. An example of one such move might be seen in the ear reddening moveEar reddening game
The ear reddening game is a game of go of the Edo period of Japan, played on September 11, 1846 between Honinbo Shusaku and Inoue Genan Inseki...
played by Honinbo Shusaku
Honinbo Shusaku
Honinbo Shusaku was a professional Go player and is considered by many to be the greatest player of the golden age of Go in the mid-19th century.- Biography :He was nicknamed "Invincible" after he earned a perfect score for 19 straight wins in the annual castle...
in 1846.
Sabaki
Sabaki (捌き) is the development of a flexible, efficient position that is difficult for the opponent to attack, often by means of contact plays and sacrifice tactics.Seki
| A seki. |
Seki (関) is a Japanese term used to describe an impasse that cannot be resolved into simple life and death
Life and death
Life and death is a fundamental concept in the game of Go, where the status of a distinct group of stones is determined as either being "alive", and may remain on the board indefinitely, or "dead," where the group will be lost as "captured"...
. It is sometimes translated as 'mutual life'. For example, a capturing race
Capturing race
In the game of go, a capturing race is a tactical situation created in positions when both players have groups striving to capture each other, in some closely delimited area of the board. Typically it is not possible for each side to create a safe group with two eyes.One common outcome is that one...
may end in a position in which neither player can capture the other. There are numerous types of seki position that can arise, characterized as cases in which neither player adds a play to groups that do not have two eyes. The area remains untouched; at the end all groups involved are deemed alive, but no points are scored for territory. Under area scoring stones in seki are counted as live and do give points.
In the figure, neither White nor Black can play on the points marked a. White would put himself in atari and be captured immediately. Black would be captured as well, leaving a shape (four in line) where White can always make two eyes.
Shape
Shape is the configuration of stones in terms of their flexibility and efficiency at staying connected, forming eyes, and maintaining liberties. Stones are said to have good shape if they are efficient and flexible, or bad shape if they are inefficient. Classic examples of good shape are the ponnuki (four stones in a diamond created by capturing an enemy stone) and the bamboo joint (a 2x3 pattern of two stones, two spaces and two more stones). Examples of bad shape are the empty triangle (three adjacent stones forming an 'L') and the dango (large clump of stones not containing any eyes). Joseki is in large part the study of forming good shape with your stones.Tesuji
A tesuji (手筋) is a clever play, the best play in a local position, a skillful move.Thickness
| Black is better. |
Thickness is a literal translation of the Japanese word and connotes the position of power and impregnability conferred by the thickness of medieval castles' stone walls. A group is thick when it has developed beyond the level of stability in its local area without accruing significant weaknesses, and consequently projects power at a distance, especially over vacant or unsettled areas of the board. Such positions have a profound influence on the flow of the game. In the diagram, though white has about 10 points of territory in the corner, black can expect the power projected outward by his thick position to more than make up for this. Note that his result would not be as good if white had a settled position in the direction black's influence is facing.
Yosu-miru
A probe. A yosu-miru move is, in some sense, a sacrifice of a stone, but is designed to yield a very sophisticated kind of information about a developing group and how best to attack it, based on its response. Yosu-miru draws on other concepts such as kikashi, aji, and korigatachi.様子(yōsu) means situation or the state of things, and 見る(miru) is "to see", thus "yōsu o miru", to "see how things stand". In Japanese this expression is usually used to say that it's better to wait and see before taking an action (e.g. "shibaraku yōsu o miru beki da", it's better to wait and see for a little while). It is not a single word or a set phrase
Set phrase
A set phrase or fixed phrase is a phrase whose parts are fixed, even if the phrase could be changed without harming the literal meaning. This is because a set phrase is a culturally accepted phrase. A set phrase does not necessarily have any literal meaning in and of itself. Set phrases may...
except in Western Go literature, and "probe" is the preferred word, being self-explanatory and actually used by the speakers of its originating language.
External links
- Sensei's Library — Strategy
- Sensei's Library — Essential Go Terms
- Go terminology - A list of go terminology