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Liberties

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Liberty
Path: GiveMeLiberties   · Prev:   · Next: ShortageOfLiberties
  Difficulty: Beginner   Keywords: Go term

Liberty has two different, but related meanings in English.

The first is an empty point adjacent to a stone or chain of stones.

The second is a play required to capture a stone or chain of stones.

When a stone or a group of stones loses its last liberty, it is said to be captured and is removed from the board. Sometimes it takes more plays to capture a stone or chain of stones than its number of adjacent empty points. Often an approach move is counted as a liberty in the second sense.

[Diagram]
Diag.: Liberties

As you can see in this diagram,

  • a stone which is not on the first line has at most four liberties
  • a stone on the first line which is not in the corner has at most three liberties
  • a stone in the corner has at most two liberties

[Diagram]
Diag.: White's liberties

The group of three white stones has three liberties.



Comments:

  • Liberty in Chinese is 气 ("Qi" in pinyin), which means "breath". The thought is that stones need breathingspace and that once the last breathing space is removed, the stones die.
  • This is the same "Qi" as the one considered to be beneficial in terms of Feng Shui.

Further reading

Give me liberties: a path to all subjects where liberties count.


Authors



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