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Putting away the stones
Path: GoodHabits   · Prev: HowToResign   · Next: AnalyseTheGame
   

When clearing away the stones and putting them back to the bowls, it is a good habit to only clean up stones of your own colour. You can slide the opponent's stones aside on the board.

I read somewhere that this habit is followed to avoid the hands of both players colliding when they simultaneously put away stones to the same bowl. I have never bothered in my (Western) amateur tournament or club games, and I know of nobody who ever felt offended in this way. And I don't know how strictly this one is followed in the Orient.

--Stefan


Another explanation that I have heared for this rule, is that by taking your opponent's stones off the board, you appear to be capturing them. But I agree that it is not a rule that I normally think about.

-- AndreEngels


Still, this habit (I don't know if this is a "rule") is very strictly followed by "Oriental" players: none of the many I've played in my life has ever put away "my" stones...

--AvatarDJFlux


Scartol: Online, I always remove my own stones at the end of play. It just seems rude to snatch up the stones of one's opponent. Even if they are dead, it feels like a way of adding insult to injury. I like being able to be the pallbearer for my own stones. Yes, they're dead, but at least I got to bury them.

Stefan: You refer to dead stones at the end of the game, right? This is strange, since this reverses the normal procedure followed during the game. And don't feel sorry for dead stones, Scartol. The more there are, the better! Sacrifice!! Sacrifice!!!! :-)


Personally I like to laugh like a maniac as I take my opponents stones during the game. And start crying like a baby as I remove my own at the end. Sometimes I give my dead stones names and make a prayer about their valent effort to survive, I then excuse my self as I burry them outside, then come back and start beating on my opponents prisoners as emotional release for the suffering my stones had to indure. After such statements as "send him back to the hospital quickly" and "for the last time, they aren't junior-mints" I find my self getting banned from more and more go clubs these days.


I asked a young Korean professional (1p) whether she only picked up her own stones at the end of the game. She answered that if she won she would pick up either colour, but if she lost then she would only pick up her own.



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This is a copy of the living page "Putting away the stones" at Sensei's Library.
(OC) 2003 the Authors, published under the OpenContent License V1.0.