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Mirror Go
Path: CentralLine · Prev: TengenStatistics · Next: SanrenseiLowVariant
Keywords: Opening, Strategy, Go term
IntroductionIn a game of mirror go (Japanese mane-go, "mimic go"), one player plays each move at a point that "mirrors" his opponent's previous move. Usually, the "mirror" is a 180-degree rotation about the tengen. The theory behind mirror go is that a move that mirrors the opponent's move can't be worse off. Also, the player who mirrors the moves can abort the mirroring process when his opponent makes a bad move, giving him an advantage. In present games, White is more likely to perform the mirroring as Black is burdened by a komi. Some competitions forbid mirror go to exceed a certain number of moves. (Which competitions do this? And why?)
Below are two games that demonstrates mirror go.
Countering Mirror GoMirror go played by White can be countered by Black playing on the tengen, although this is not necessarily the best way. Below shows two examples of countering mirror go. Of course, the result is absurd, but if the player who is mimicking aborts halfway, the other player would have succeeded in stopping the mirror go.
--unkx80 Various players have tried mirror go at different times. Here is Go Seigen's attempt against Kitani Minoru in 1929. DaveSigaty How about this kind of 6-H mirror go ? (Assuming that rules allow black to place handicap stones where he desires)
Since there is no komi, the extra moku given by the tengen should give victory to black. I see no obvious way to counter the symmetry. -- MrKoala
Here we see white beating the abovementioned mirror go. White 1 captures 36 black stones, but black 2 does not capture the corresponding white stones, because they have received 2 liberties through white's capture - Andre Engels Thanks a lot, Andre Engels. I think it could also be applied to the tengen-as-first-move mirror go, couldn't it ? -- MrKoala SAS: There seems to be a practical problem with the method shown above for countering the 6-stone handicap mane-go. If Black stops mimicking as soon as White plays on the first line, then White's position is pretty bad --- even allowing for the 6-stone difference in stength I think it may be difficult for White to win in the face of Black's huge moyo. Here's another standard anti-mane-go strategy that can be used instead. It assumes that some form of superko rule is in force. White starts by creating two kos; call these kos A and B, and their mirror images A' and B'. White captures in A, and Black mimics by capturing in A'. Then White captures in B, and Black captures in B'. Then White recaptures in A', and Black recaptures in A. Then White recaptures in B'. The superko rule forbids Black from recapturing in B, so he has to stop mimicking. Path: CentralLine · Prev: TengenStatistics · Next: SanrenseiLowVariant This is a copy of the living page "Mirror Go" at Sensei's Library. (C) the Authors, published under the OpenContent License V1.0. |