Game of Go – Proverbs

General

  • Keep a balance between territory and influence. 
  • When winning, keep the game simple; make it complex only when losing.
  • The enemy's vital point is your own.
  • Win the stones, lose the game; give up worthless stones.
  • Use contact moves for defence; do not attach when attacking.
  • Attack after making the enemy heavy.
  • Make your own groups strong first, then attack.
  • When your opponent has two weak groups, attack them both at once.
  • Avoid moves that strengthen your opponent.
  • With only one group, you will win.
  • Five groups might live but a sixth will die.
  • The fourth line is the line of influence, the third line is the line of territory and the second line is the line of defeat.
  • The strong player plays straight, the weak diagonally.
  • Always grab the border point between two moyos.
  • Never ignore a shoulder hit.
  • Don't try to enclose an open skirt.
  • Nets are better than ladders.
  • Do not fear furikawari (exchange).
  • Fill in a semeai (race to capture) from the outside.
  • Eyes win semeais (races to capture).

 

Thickness

  • There is a thin line between thick and slow.
  • Keep away from thickness; don't make territory near thickness.
  • Use a wall to attack, not to make territory.
  • Thickness? Ladders always work!
  • When your opponent is thick, you must also become thick.

 

Liberties

  • Don't reduce your own liberties. 
  • There is damezumari (shortage of liberties) at the bamboo joint.
  • Five liberties for tactical stability.
  • With fewer than 15 stones in danger, tenuki (play elsewhere).

 

Fuseki (start) and chuban (middle game)

  • Keep sente in the opening; a premature attack loses sente.
  • In the opening, when you don't know what to play, make a shimari (corner enclosure). 
  • 5 lines for extension in front of shimari (corner enclosure).
  • Keshi (reduction) is worth as much as an invasion.
  • To reduce an opponent's large prospective territory, strike at the shoulder.
  • Learn to play under the stones.
  • If you plan to live inside enemy territory, play directly against his stones.
  • To invade, you need 20 points of open area; otherwise, keshi (reduction) is best.

 

Shape

  • Be willing to sacrifice for good shape.
  • Grab the shape points as kikashi (forcing moves).
  • Grab the 4th point of the bamboo joint.
  • Don't disturb symmetry.
  • If a formation is symmetrical, play at the center.
  • Against three in a row, play right in the center.
  • Empty triangles are bad.
  • Don't make dangos.
  • Connect with good shape and don't play on dame points.
  • Learn the eye-stealing tesuji.
  • If your stone is capped, play the knight's move.
  • Add one stone, then sacrifice both.
  • 2-1 is the vital point in the corner.
  • Avoid the plate connection.
  • A knight's move near the edge of the board cannot be cut.
  • Strike at the waist of the knight's move.
  • From a cross-cut, extend.
  • Don't peep at cutting points.
  • Attach to the strongest stone in a pincer.
  • Use the keima (knight's move) to attack, the ikken tobi (1-point jump) to defend.
  • Ikken tobi (1-point jump) is never wrong.
  • If you have one stone on the third line, add another, then abandon both of them.
  • Answer the keima (knight's move) with a kosumi (diagonal connection).

 

Hane

  • There is death in the hane.
  • Respond to attachment with hane.
  • Hane? Extend! Make it a habit.
  • At the head of two stones in a row, play hane.
  • At the head of three stones in a row, play hane.

 

Ko fights

  • Dead group? Always win ko fights!
  • The weak player fears ko, the strong player seeks it.
  • There are no ko threats in the opening.
  • The carpenter's square becomes ko.
  • Start with the smallest ko threat that works.
  • In a semiai (race to cature), take the ko last.

 

Life and death

  • The L-group is dead.

 

 

 

 

 

  • On the second line six die, eight live.




     
  • On the third line, four die, six live.




     
  • In the corner, five stones in a row on the third line are alive.


     
  • The rectangular six is normally alive.


     
  • For rectangular six in the corner, dame is necessary.

      
     
  • The comb formation is alive.


     
  • For the comb formation in the corner, dame is necessary.

     
     
  • If there is a stone on the handicap point, the carpenter's square leads to a ko.
    Black lives at A, White creates a ko after playing at A.


     
  • If there is no stone on the handicap point, the carpenter's square is dead.
    Black lives at A, White kills the corner after playing at A.

     

  

  

  

 

 

Territorial evaluation

  • Ponnuki (capture of one stone) is worth 30 points.
  • The tortoise shell is worth 60 points.
  • The monkey jump is worth 8 points.
  • Each step in a ladder is worth 7 points.
  • One point in the center is worth 10 in the corner.

Find more proverbs at Sensei and DashBaduk.

 

 

Compiled, developed and maintained by Philip Smith