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Honte
  Difficulty: Advanced   Keywords: Go term

A move which is 'honte' ('the honest move') is one that is played to reduce the amount of aji in one's position. If one plays honte, one accepts that one gets less points than one would otherwise would get, or even that one has gote rather than sente, getting in return a solid position with little bad aji, thus freeing one's hands in the future.

[Diagram]
Diag.: Dia 2. Example of honte

Both moves 1 and 2 are examples of honest plays.

Bill Spight: I think that W 1 is honte, but B 2 is korigatachi. How about this?


[Diagram]
Diag.: Example of honte (ii)

This is a good example but in the Dia. 2 stone 1 creates an aji


[Diagram]
Diag.: Dia 2. An aji if black 3 tenuki.

It won't be easy to catch this group, specially with a little help from some friends.

Bill: Well, B 4 at 'a' looks better, eh? ;-)

Let's do tewari on the first example diagram.


[Diagram]
Diag.: Tewari

After B 1, the exchange of the two marked stones favors White. If Black is going to come back and protect at 1, better not play the keima first.


[Diagram]
Diag.: 1-space pincer

We see the exchange of B 1 - W 2 when Black has made the 1-space pincer (marked). Then Black does not come back to protect.



I like this discussion. I am most interested in what happens after joseki. The interest is even bigger taking into account that I managed to kill the black wall in a way similar to Dia. 2 this week :).

Now about the move 'a' on diagram 2. In a game between Kobayashi Koichi and Cho Chikun in a similar situation happened the following thing.

[Diagram]
Diag.:

This resulted in a furious fight.



[Diagram]
Diag.: White to move.

dnerra: Here is another example. Where do you think would white move next? Attack at a or b? Take a large move at c or d? No, the four white stones in the bottom right need attention! So maybe e or f?


Well, Takemiya Masaki didn't choose any of the above:


[Diagram]
Diag.: Moves 16 to 16

(In a 1992 Judan game against Kobayashi Koichi.)



This is a copy of the living page "Honte" at Sensei's Library.
(C) the Authors, published under the OpenContent License V1.0.