Black should resign if one player has four corners

    Keywords: Humour

The proverb "Black should resign if one player has four corners" is a concatenation of two proverbs: "If Black has all four corners, Black should resign" and "if White has all four corners, Black should resign".

They are tongue-in-cheek statements based on the fact that normally White is a stronger player than Black.

Therefore, if White has managed to capture all four corners, it is assumed that Black has lost the game. Conversely, if White has let Black take all four corners, White has taken so much profit elsewhere that Black should still resign.

-- Morten Pahle (10kyu)


An example of a pro game where Black has four corners and loses the game: the first game of the Kisei 2003 between O Rissei and Yamashita Keigo. See [ext] at gobase. Dieter

Dansc: Well, technically black only has two corners there, the other two are dame. :)

See also Proverbs Do Not Apply To White.


I'm a little surprised by this proverb. If we consider a 9 or a 4) stones handicap game, the 4 corners are open. This proverb encourages beginners to protect their corners in handicap game even if it's a bad idea. Besides, if the white players invades the 4 sansan, black may want to resign (because of the proverb) despite of the fact he's probably winning. Guillaume Chanson?

Don't take it too seriously. In fact don't take it at all seriously. Charles Matthews


This is a copy of the living page "Black should resign if one player has four corners" at Sensei's Library.
(OC) 2004 the Authors, published under the OpenContent License V1.0.
[Welcome to Sensei's Library!]
StartingPoints
ReferenceSection
About