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Dame
Path: Endgame · Prev: MutualDamage · Next: Teire
Keywords: EndGame, Go term
Neutral points (Japanese dame 駄目 ダメ) are empty points on the board which are not part of either player's territory and have no prospects of becoming territory. Normally, remaining neutral points are filled in at the end of the game by alternation between the players. An alternative meaning of dame is an empty point adjacent to a stone or connected group of stones. Thus, dame points are those points that are (no more) than a liberty of a chain of stones in the sense at liberty - introductory The Japanese term damezumari means shortage of liberties. Here, though, the relevant meaning of dame is clearly that at liberty (tactical). See also dame is overloaded. Sometimes the word is used more dynamically, such as 'with this play, Black has made the lower edge into neutral points' - meaning that because of the way Black has played, the lower edge (which we suppose was one strongly influenced by White) will now likely not give (m)any points to either player - a net benefit for Black. In this case the area might be called dame-ba--a dame region. All of the above usages are independent of the everyday meaning bad, don't do it, although this meaning is common in discussing go moves. (Sebastian:) There is a connection, though, in that a main meaning of dame is "useless". (Maybe John can tell us how "loading a horse" came to mean "of low quality" - that would be stuff for a ...Talk page.)
This diagram shows the first meaning, of neutral points. The circled points are neutral. For all these points, it does not matter (under Japanese counting) which player plays them first. Note that during the filling of the neutral points, Black will at some time have to fill up at a. Because of this, a is regarded a neutral point as well - it is an empty point which (under Japanese counting) is not a point for either player. (See teire.) When using territory scoring, the intersections on which neutral points are filled do not gain points, for either player. When using area scoring, they do give points. Due to peculiar rules definitions even Japanese rules tend to require the filling of dame strategically or even explicitly. --Robert Jasiek Authors: WikiMasterEdit by Andre Engels, original page can be found at DameBeforeMasterEdit. Relinked by DieterVerhofstadt, after the WikiMasterEdit of scoring. Path: Endgame · Prev: MutualDamage · Next: Teire This is a copy of the living page "Dame" at Sensei's Library. ![]() |