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Oryx
PageType: HomePage   Difficulty: Beginner  

Oryx's Go Jottings

These "Jottings" may seem obvious, and clearly they're the rude scratchings of a rank beginner. But we have to realize that when I learned them, they were new to me.

Table of contents Table of diagrams
Empty Triangle And Liberties
After a 3-3 Invasion
License to Kill


White takes the bait!

* About me & this home page

 Please see the subpage if you really want to know about me;
 but it's a lot less interesting than my Go jottings here



The Jottings

1. "3" (san) line is for territory, "4" is for influence

This is why the Star Points or 4-4 Point are nice to start with, but don't by themselves establish territory.


2. The Big Point

Always look for the biggest point you can play, or, look for your opponent's biggest point and play there.


3. Don't touch

When attacking a group, don't touch the enemy stone at first. That merely strengthens him.


4. Empty Triangles are BAD

OK, I still don't fully understand why they are bad, but I still try to avoid them.

Crimson: Empty Triangles are bad for many reasons. The list starts with a wasted stone which connects two stones that can't be seperated anyway, and would be better placed to form the CatsFace, which is lighter, connected better and has more eye potential. Also, empty triangles are heavy, and lack liberties in close fighting. Compare liberties with three stones in a row.

[Diagram]
Empty Triangle And Liberties

Here, the two shapes have the same number of liberties, even though the lower one contains one more stone. This is because of the two empty triangles.


5. "Walk to strength" ( Guo Juan )

I learned this one evening spent while 5-D Go teacher Guo Juan played a teaching game at KGS, with audio (!), with an on-line audience of almost 1,000

[Diagram]
After a 3-3 Invasion




If I understood Ms. Guo correctly, then at this point B should extend his strong wall towards the Star Point at BC.
This would be even more important if B had territory in the upper right corner.


6. Two escape routes: license to kill

This one's from Lynx?, a player at KGS.

[Diagram]
License to Kill





He pointed out that my seemingly live white group along the side here is really dead -- because while B invades, I can only defend one side at a time.

After BC, (a) and (b) are miai, and white dies. Painfully. So it goes.
Lynx: I'm not sure if it is dead, but it is clearly very weak. Perhaps a Dan could look at this and sort it all out?


7. Forbidden Fruit: a too-tempting hane

From a teaching game with czarny, a 7K player at KGS.



[Diagram]




We are at the very start of the game, four innocent moves, nothing special... then Black decides to look hungrily at White's lower right corner.

[Diagram]




White doesn't feel terribly threatened, and tries to isolate B5 with W6... only to see BC invade at the 3-3 point at the very start of the game!

czarny: White W6 is the most natural response for B's keima kakari to hoshi - the purpose of this move is to attack the single stone B5 in order to :
1) avoid b's from developing along the side
2) build thickness in case of invasion


[Diagram]
White takes the bait!




They exchage a move each, then White grins with avaricious glee: and hanes at [squared point]! AH HAH, he says to himself, Black's a goner here!

He doesn't read, however, the threat implied by BS...

[Diagram]



Black extends at B1, which draws W2 to block; Black cuts with B3, White atari... ending with Black atari on W8, and suddenly, because of the overriding presence of BS, the White group of WC-WC-W2 is short of liberties. Black takes the corner, and White's in tatters.

And all this, because White's unfortunate hane.
phantom? Interesting example... It seems a little specific to actually remember and apply to games, but I think it does a good job of making the point that other stones can really change 3-3 invasions.



This is a copy of the living page "Oryx" at Sensei's Library.
(OC) 2004 the Authors, published under the OpenContent License V1.0.