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Amashi
Difficulty: Advanced
Keywords: Strategy
Amashi is a strategy and a style. It means to take territory with every opportunity, even by not defending some weak groups. This way one puts pressure on the opponent, leaving them the problem to keep the balance by attacking the weak groups. This strategy is the complete opposite of the attacking style, which builds thickness and moyo. Amashi was developed by great players in the past, in the days of no komi, when playing with white stones.
Ancient masters of amashi: Honinbo Shuwa, Honinbo Shuei
Of course, a master of amashi should also be a master of shinogi. Are you certain about the definition? From what I can see in the 'Amashi' section of the Game Gallery at Jan van der Steen's GoBase, Amashi is a strategy in which one attempts to destroy any attempt your opponent makes to build terrority or a framework, instead of building one of your own. To quote: "Amashi You usually win a Go game by making more territory than you opponent. Sometimes a pro tries to win by preventing that the opponent makes any territory at all." On the other hand, looking it up in the InterGo Dictionary at GoBase gives this definition: "a strategy for White in no-komi games in which he lets the opponent take good points but as compensation takes territory, aiming to 'outlast' the opponent." Can anybody clarify for me? Amashi is a type of weak group strategy. Any weak group strategy is Greedy Go: take more territory early on, and hope to defend well enough to win in the end. Territory is taken in exchange for influence, normally; and influence is what you need to attack. The real point is that amashi strategy is the sophisticated, pro version. Players of all levels can play big points and hope their groups don't die. But you have to be really strong to 'dangle' weak groups successfully: leave them just weak enough that your opponent can attack them, and really must attack them, but has no attack that can successfully be pressed home. The amashi concept is related to amarigatachi, the creation by the attacking player of overstretched shape in the vain hope of killing a group. This is a copy of the living page "Amashi" at Sensei's Library. (C) the Authors, published under the OpenContent License V1.0. |