Bulky Five
Bulky five refers to a certain unsettled eye space of five points.
The vital point of the bulky five is the point. If White plays there, she is alive. If Black plays there, White is dead.
White can also live by playing at a (creating an bent four) or at b (creating a twisted four).
However, there are two points worth noting:
- the play at a and b may not work if the bulky five is crammed into the corner, as this will create a bent four in the corner or twisted four in the corner.
- both a and b leave Black with ko threats: playing at the marked point threatens to kill the whole group.
A play by White at the doesn't have these problems.
Black can almost-fill the bulky five into a farmer's hat (as shown) or a squared four.
Subsequently, when White plays at ,
kills. White is dead.
See also
Authors
Discussion
N.N.: In dutch we call this one the axe. Don't know why by the way ^_^
Charles In English, 'hatchet five' - I actually think that's better.
Andre Engels To N.N.: The reason is the shape, with the four points being the blade and the one point the handle. To Charles: I think the two (axe and hatchet) are actually the same word in Dutch, so there is no real 'better'. In fact, the Dutch meaning would be closer to hatchet, because the diminutive is used - 'axelet' would be a better translation than 'axe'.
Charles I did mean better than 'bulky'. Hatchet is euphonious, anyway, and carries an air of menace too.
Robert Pauli: Was this once knife five?
unkx80: Not sure about English terminology, but if directly translated from Chinese, yes. The first character of 刀把五, 刀柄五 and 刀五, all referring to bulky five, means knife.
Robert Pauli: Many thx, unkx80. Guess it then deserves to be an alias...done.
Fwiffo: I've also heard this shape described as a "Jeep" or "Truck" shape. Janice Kim uses "Jeep" in the Learn to Play Go series.
Robert Pauli: Run over by a jeep... :-)
After looking it up, I feel that chunky would be more to the point than bulky:
The cross has the same (stone-)mass, and for the purpose of shipping - it's bulkier.
Native speakers please correct me.
Dieter: Chunky five looks like a nice alias to me, but bulky five is widely accepted and understood as the name for this shape. Also, the crossed five may be more symmetric but itsfour indents make it less bulky than the bulky five, in my opinion. Snow crystals for instance, have more symmetry than a rectangle, but are far less bulky.
RobertPauli: Well, but getting the cross through a door or corridor in 2D is harder than this shape, not?