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Heavy
Path: Mistake · Prev: Greedy · Next: HomeAdvantage
Difficulty: Beginner
Keywords: Shape
Charles Matthews A heavy group is one that is too important to sacrifice, but which requires so much defence that defending it will result in a significant loss. Overconcentration is a local property of shape. Being heavy is quite different: it refers to a whole group, not some part of it, and also to the overall position in terms both of influence (fighting) factors and the score. deft If you played a stone which was not kikashi, it represents some investment - if you want to give it up you need to make back that investment somehow, but the problem with a heavy group is that you've made a huge investment in something which turned into a weak group of stones. Now you cannot sacrifice it, because you won't be able to make back the investment that the group represents. SAS: The description below is not a correct definition of "heavy". For a group to be heavy, it must be weak and not easily sacrificed. Perhaps someone could attempt a correct definition. Dieter: I suggest: weak and not easily sacrificed. Overconcentrated and heavyHeavy shape (omoi katachi in Japanese) is bad shape. Light shape is good. A basic way to think of it. Heaviness is a description of inefficiency. The game is almost entirely about the efficiency of movement, thus creating heavy shape is ultimately just a symptom of the disease called inefficiency. Shapes in the endgame may look heavy, but only as necessary, and then only as the territory has been essentially secured. If such heaviness appears early in the game, is a clue that a player's thinking is not yet geared for making moves that count. Thickness can be heavy shape, and is effectively so, if it is not put to good use by extending from that thickness. Bill: I used to think of heavy and light in terms of shape. I came to realize that often it is not the shape that matters, but what you do with it. Now I think that the most important aspect of heaviness and lightness is attitude. :-) John F Yes, that's a nice insight, Bill. Regarding the comments above. I disagree completely that thickness can be heavy. A thick group is by definition safe. A heavy group is by definition a burden. I suspect the writer is mixing up thickness and influence. It might be a useful corrective to take Bill's advice to extremes and forget shape altogether. victim I think the main difference between heavy and light is: in a heavy group the stones are solidly connected, while a light group consists of stones that can still be cut. That way you can throw away parts of a light group, but a heavy group can only live or die as a whole. The words heavy and light apply only to groups in the opponent's sphere of influence. You should connect solidly in your own sphere of influence, since you don't want to lose any of them, but in the opponent's sphere of influence, scatter your stones - since you don't need to save all of them in order to succeed. Path: Mistake · Prev: Greedy · Next: HomeAdvantage This is a copy of the living page "Heavy" at Sensei's Library. ![]() |