D'ohsuji

A d'ohsuji is a skillfully bad play, possibly the cleverest fatal move to ruin any chance you had of winning. From "suji" meaning "line of play" and " d'oh," the noise you make when you realise what you've done, either four moves or 0.4 seconds later.

D'ohsuji is the result of misreading a sequence and playing what would be a clever move and then realising it's going to go horribly wrong. It could be summarised with the sentence, "Ah ha, I've got you now you... oh... wait... D'OH!" This page is an attempt to capture such examples, which include:

• Self-atari - the bigger the group the better! A real d'ohsuji involves playing a move which puts two or more of your own groups in atari^[1].
• Monkey Limp - not so much of a jump but more of a hobble onto the first line where you promptly throw away three or four stones. "But I'm sure this sequence worked the other day!"^[2]
• Magical snapback - a cunning snapback in which you don't actually place your opponent's group into atari when you sacrifice your stone. To the untrained eye it looks like you've just thrown a stone away for nothing because you didn't spot a spare liberty.
• D'oh tenuki (D'ohnuki?) - cleverly ignoring a sente move that will kill a large group in order to make a gote end-game move.
• Sicken Kakari - As the hand approaches the goban with a stone, one cleverly flips the stone between the fingers causing it to jump into one's coffee.^[3]
• Special kinds of D'ohsuji is the G'ohsuji?, the N'ohpesuji?, and the M'ohpesuji?.
• Following any books from the series of Get Strong at Go Parodies.

If you want to practice your d'ohsuji skills there are plenty of resources out there:

• dohproblems.com - from basics such as "White to move and lose" to more advanced d'ohsuji such as "Black has enclosed the corner - how many dead stones can you stuff into it? Hint: the large ko can be taken and defended with a half point threat for greater loss". -- holosys

• Books for study include classics such as 30k in 30 Days, How To Identify and Fill Your Eyes and Get Laddered! as well as high-level d'ohsuji titles like Let's Imagine That Line Two Is Line One And Play It Anyway, Tenuki: Always an Option!, and new from Kiseido, Get Strong at Resigning. Also, look out for D'ohsuji and Anti-Anti-D'ohsuji of Go, out soon.
  • mgoetze: And, of course, the timeless classic, Get Strong at Gote!
  • Semeai-nuki - The Lost Race, a new book by Hugh Kyu which teaches how to turn around a winning capturing race with a well-timed tenuki. A must read! Worked for me! -- holosys

unkx80: One of the best d'ohsujis to date, the eye shutting d'ohsuji, can be found on dohproblems.com here. =)

Feel free to add your own examples of d'ohsuji and helpful resources above :-)

Naustin- I think this has got to be the funniest page here at SL. I can relate to many of the d'ohsuji. I've finally found a place to call my own. By the way, does the fact that no matter what I try eating while playing, I will inevitably try to put a go stone in my mouth have anything to do with the sicken kakari?

Migeru: I agree, I laughed so hard and long it hurt.

Created by holosys and inspired by a humorous conversation with inimino on KGS.

[1] This can safely be regarded as a d'ohsuji of the highest level. According to a long-standing Go rumor, the first person who succeeds at creating two self ataris at once will be granted free beer by the ING foundation forever.

[2] Any example for a monkey limp?
Robert Pauli: How about MFG's performance with black when it battled GoeMate in the 8th Computer Go World Championship) , 2003:

1 - 7  

After superb kikashis and , time was ripe for the eye-stealing tesuji (which might qualify as monkey limp).

8 - 14  

White's aji keshis and only evoked Black's mild smile (you won't believe what those computer programs have learned by now), but seeing this smile suddenly faded: d'oh (and no surprise that MFG lost).

JohnMoser: I don't understand. Wouldn't at have been immensely powerful?

MrTenuki: This would depend on the rest of the board.

Possible sequence  

Due to a shortage of liberties, Black would have to make concessions after (namely, either sacrifice the circled stones by playing at a or let White cut through).

[3] I don't understand why you call this "Sicken Kakari". This is a clear case of an off-board tenuki. Sebastian -- 2003-09.14
The Sicken part comes after you drink the coffee forgetting the Go stone is in there ;) -TimBrent

I think food and drink related incidents are most commonly tesuji, but not always d'ohsuji (depends on who they distract more). There's hardly been anyone at my club who hasn't reached into a coffee cup for a Go stone during an intense fight (the hotter the coffee, the more likely it is to be d'ohsuji). One person, eating blueberry pancakes, managed to accidentally dramatically slide a blueberry into place and declared it a new tesuji. He was correct, I was so startled by the skidding blueberry and smear streak that everything I'd read out for the battle evaporated from my brain. -madamecp

corner  

See also: WorstMoveProblems