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Stones on the board are easier to defend in groups; connecting a group along the lines makes it harder to capture, since the opponent would need to cover all the liberties of the group, capturing the group completely, rather than capturing single stones. A good tactic to employ, then, is to attempt to divide the opponent into separate groups, while keeping one's own stones connected. (Note that when Black starts with a high handicap, his stones are mainly useful for this purpose; the White player's stones are threatened immediately with separation, while Black has many potential connections to begin with.) |
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Stones on the board are easier to defend in groups; connecting a group of stones makes it harder to capture, since the opponent would need to cover all the liberties of the group, capturing the group completely, rather than capturing single stones. A good tactic to employ, then, is to attempt to divide the opponent into separate groups, while keeping one's own stones connected. (Note that when Black starts with a large number of handicap moves, his stones are mainly useful for this purpose; the White player's stones are threatened immediately with separation, while Black has many potential connections to begin with.) |
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At the end of the game, groups that cannot avoid being captured during normal play are removed as captures. Groups can reach this state much earlier during play; because of the tactic of separation discussed above, a group of stones can quickly run out of options and further play to save it is fruitless. Similarly, further play to kill such a group is often of no benefit (unless required to gain liberties for an own group), since if it remains on the board at the end of the game it is captured anyway. Thus groups can be considered "dead as they stand", or just dead, by both sides during the course of the game. |
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A key concept in the tactics of Go, though not part of the rules, is the classification of groups of stones into alive, dead or unsettled. At the end of the game, groups that cannot avoid being captured during normal play are removed as captures. These stones are dead. Groups can reach this state much earlier during play; a group of stones can quickly run out of options and further play to save it is fruitless. Similarly, further play to kill such a group is often of no benefit (unless required to gain liberties for an own group), since if it remains on the board at the end of the game it is captured anyway. Thus groups can be considered "dead as they stand", or just dead, by both sides during the course of the game. |
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Much of the tactical fighting in Go focuses on making one's own groups live, by ensuring they can make two eyes, and on making the opponent's groups die, by denying them two eyes. |
Groups which are not definitely alive nor definitely dead are sometimes called unsettled groups. Much of the tactical fighting in Go focuses on making one's own groups live, by ensuring they can make two eyes, and on making the opponent's groups die, by denying them two eyes.ReadingDetermining ahead of time whether a group is currently alive, dead, or unsettled, requires the ability to extrapolate from the current position and imagine possible plays by both sides, the best responses to those plays, the best responses to those responses, and so on. This is called reading ahead, or just reading, and it is a skill that grows with experience. Many players study books of life and death problems to increase their skill at reading more and more complicated positions. High and Low |
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When a ko occurs, the player whose stone was captured to start the ko cannot immediately recapture; he must play elsewhere to progress the game so that a repeating position does not occur. However, this allows the player who started the ko to deny the opponent the chance to recapture the stone (usually by connecting that stone back to an own group, or by capturing a further stone to free more liberties). Thus, the player finding a move elsewhere would prefer to play such that the originator of the ko finds it more valuable to respond to this new play, than to ignore it and complete the ko. Such a move, threatening to gain advantage if it is ignored to complete the ko, is termed a ko threat. Once the ko threat is made, the player originating the ko has to choose between responding to the threat, or completing the ko. If she responds to the threat, the player who made the threat can then return and recapture the stone that started the ko. The situation then becomes reversed; the player whose stone was recaptured wants to find a ko threat that allows her to recapture again. Such a sequence of moves -- starting a ko, followed by a ko threat, followed by recapturing the ko, followed by another ko threat and so on -- is termed a ko fight. Eventually one player will win the ko by ignoring the latest ko threat to complete the ko. The player who made the last threat therefore gets to follow up on it, in effect getting two moves in another part of the board while the opponent completes the ko. It is thus worthwhile choosing ko threats that will give a definite advantage if ignored. Before deciding to start a ko, it is worthwhile evaluating what threats are available to both players, so that one can decide which side is likely to win the ko fight. Many of the playing skills come together in ko fighting (evaluating the value of moves; reading ahead to find likely moves of the opponent and best responses; choosing the best order of moves), and it is a topic of much discussion among players. This also causes many beginners to be fearful of fighting a ko, since they are not confident of their ability to evaluate threats. Sente and Gote ==Opening (fuseki) == Endgame (yose)/Talk |
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