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Mutual Damage
Path: Endgame · Prev: Semedori · Next: Dame Path: ForcingAndInitiative · Prev: Tenuki · Next: Fujite
Keywords: EndGame
The general principle of mutual damage is to accept loss of territory, rather than defend territory, provided one can inflict equivalent damage on the opponent. Hence, mutual damage is a like a kind of exchange. Defending is a way to accept gote. If you pursue a mutual damage plan, not answering the opponent's destructive plays directly, the possession of sente is actually in the balance for a while. You only find out who has it when the dust settles. A mutual damage contest can be set off by miai: one player doesn't accept the idea that the other will get both of a pair of closely equivalent plays that are ordinarily sente. It can end in a game of 'chicken' (less colloquially, who blinks first). Mutual damage in the opening is unusual.
BillSpight: It is also what is normally called a double sente. It is worth around 9 points (miai), I believe, a huge play.
Locally, the sequence comes to an pause after
Experienced players will agree the game is finished after White
Mutual damage is in fact an application of the miai concept to the endgame. The moment Black plays
BillSpight: See also Costly atari.
If Black answers White's hane, White keeps sente to defend against Black's hane at
One reason many players fail to apply mutual damage, is that the situation can become very confused if either player refuses to give in as in this diagram.
Another reason is that the situation rarely is as symmetric as in this simple example. Even here it isn't quite symmetric: White a is atari whereas Black b is not. BillSpight: And White c threatens a snapback at d. Still, if one player passively answers all "sente" endgame moves by the other, he or she follows a sure path to defeat. TakeNGive (10k): Wow -- somehow I had never noticed this. Suddenly, BillSpight's endgame analyses take on new value. Authors: Path: Endgame · Prev: Semedori · Next: Dame Path: ForcingAndInitiative · Prev: Tenuki · Next: Fujite This is a copy of the living page "Mutual Damage" at Sensei's Library. ![]() |