Go Proverbs
Table of contents |
Go proverbs summarize wisdom in easy-to-remember phrases. The proverbs apply surprisingly often and are regularly used in game comments.
But be warned: Although proverbs often can help, one must always evaluate whether or not they apply in a particular situation. Often there's more than one proverb which applies. Sometimes they are even contradictory. Therefore, one proverb says Don't follow proverbs blindly. [1] Common sense must still be used.
dnerra suggests a paraphrasing of a proverb. [2]
General Pages on Proverbs
Proverbs for all situations
- Eat well, Sleep well, and gain two stones
- Your opponent's good move is your good move
- The opponent's vital point is my vital point
- Play on the point of symmetry
- Play double sente early
- Beware of going back to patch up
- Don't follow proverbs blindly
- When in doubt, Tenuki
- Don't go fishing while your house is on fire
Life-and-death proverbs
- There is death in the hane
- Hane, Cut, Placement
- Learn the eyestealing tesuji
- Six die but eight live (on the second line)
- Four die but six live (on the third line or in the corner on the second line)
- Four is five and five is eight and six is twelve
- The carpenters square becomes ko
- The L group is dead
- The door group is dead
- Strange things happen at the one two point
- Eyes win semeais
- Check escape routes first
Tactics proverbs
- Respond to attachment with hane
- Hane at the head of two stones
- Crosscut then extend
- Capture the cutting stones
- Beginners play atari
- The empty triangle is bad
- Ikken tobi is never wrong
- Don't try to cut the one-point jump
- Strike at the waist of the keima
- Cutting right through a knight's move is very big
- Do not peep at cutting points
- Even a moron connects against a peep
- If you have one stone on the third line in atari, add a second stone and sacrifice both
- Use contact moves for defence
- Never ignore a shoulder hit
- The bamboo joint may be short of liberties
- Nets are better than ladders
- Answer the capping play with a knight's move
- Approach from the wider side
- Block on the wider side
- Play at the centre of three stones
- Answer keima with kosumi
- Five liberties for tactical stability
- Take off stones captured in a ladder, at the earliest opportunity
- Two hanes gain a liberty
Strategy proverbs
- Urgent points before big points
- Don't throw an egg at a wall
- Play away from thickness
- Don't use thickness to make territory
- Make territory while attacking
- A ponnuki is worth thirty points
- Make a fist before striking
- Do not defend territories open on two sides (Don't try to enclose when you have an open skirt)
- Attach to the stronger stone in a pincer
- Make a feint to the east while attacking in the west
- Sacrifice plums for peaches
- A rich man should not pick quarrels
- Play kikashi before living
- Keshi is worth as much as an invasion
- Invade a moyo one move before it becomes territory
- Don't attach when attacking
- Five groups might live but the sixth will die
- Big dragons never die
- Grab the shape points in kikashi
- Give your opponent what he wants
- Avoid ippoji
- Don't trade a dollar for a penny
- There are no ko threats in the opening
- Strengthening your own weak group makes your opponent's weaker
- Only after the 10th punch will you see the fist - and only after the 20th will you block it.
- Don't touch weak stones
- Never upset your star-point stones
- Use the corner to conquer the side
- Greed for the win takes the win away
- >High move (4th line) for influence, low move (3rd line) for territory
- If you have lost four corners, resign
Military proverbs
- see Military proverbs
- see Secret Art of War
Meta Proverbs
- Learning Joseki loses two stones strength
- Black should resign if one player has four corners
- If you don't know ladders, don't play go
- Proverbs do not apply to White
- You can play Go but don't let Go play you
- If you don't like Ko don't Play Go
- If It Has a Name Know It
- Lose Your First 50 Games as Quickly as Possible
- Use Go to meet friends ("Yi Qi Hui You")
- Don't try to weasel a win out of a proverb.
- Don't be arrogant as a winner, don't look for excuses when having lost.? =
- [>Sei als Sieger nicht überheblich, als Verlierer suche nicht nach Entschuldigungen.]
Modern proverbs
(for those that don't believe that all wisdom comes from the past)
- You need half the points + 1
- Five Liberties for Tactical Stability
- When in doubt, tenuki
- Never make hollow ko threats
Other proverbs (that may apply to Go)
- Song Titles as Go Proverbs
- Song Lyrics as Go Proverbs
- Rice eaten in haste chokes.
- If you want to catch a tiger, you have to go into a tiger's cave.
- Though the heavens fall, there will be a hole to escape through.
- Butcher the donkey after it finished his job on the mill.
- Distant water won't help to put out a fire close at hand.
- When you want to test the depths of a stream, don't use both feet.
- You can't win a fight without attacking
- It's all in the mind
- Fear stops the anxious
- Kill two birds with one stone
- A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush
Fun
- Humourless go proverbs
- Humour Almost Proverbs
-
http://www.5z.com/tucsongo/randomproverbs/ computer generated go proverbs
Links to more Go proverbs
- The 10 Golden Rules of Go - famous Go proverbs called "Wei Qi Shi Jue" written during the Tang Dynasty (1,300 years ago)
-
Go proverbs -- at dashn.com
- Flemish proverbs applied to Go
- Old mottos
- Joseki Heuristics
- How about some Latin Go Proverbs
Books
Other links
- Basic instinct - proverbs for basic situations involving only a few stones; which move do you think of first?
- General opening principles
- Great Quotes for a wide variety of thoughts and views
[1] aLegendWai: You may treat the following as a humor or a lesson of logic. Correct me if wrong.
- Proverb A says we should do XXX.
- Proverb B says we should do YYY.
- Proverb C says we should do ZZZ.
Now one person feels the proverb is not trustworthy. So it creates Proverb D:
- Proverb D says, "Don't follow proverbs blindly."
Person A: Yes, Proverb D is right. I should not follow proverbs blindly. So I am not going to follow any proverb at all.
Proverb D tells people not to trust proverbs (without hesitation), but it is a proverb itself. ^-^
[2]
Paraphrasing dnerra on ThereIsNoTerritoryInTheCenter:
A proverb is a proverb, and a truth is a truth. I've always more or less automatically tried to translate a proverb into something more meaningful. Examples:
- "There is no territory in the center." means "Most amateurs overestimate the territorial value of center moves."
- "If there are less than 15 stones in danger, play tenuki." means: "Well, if a group of you is in danger, and it is a burden to defend it, and it is less than 10 stones, than you should at least consider for a moment whether it might be better to surrender it, maybe trying to get influence while the opponent is busy capturing it."
- "Ikken tobi is never wrong." means: "If you have a weak stone, and you have to run away, the default move you consider is an ikken tobi. But of course look for special circumstance which might favor other moves."
aLegendWai: I am doing the same when I understand the proverb. Instead of trying hard to remember the proverb (and its behind meaning. I simply rewrite the proverb. The following examples are my ways to understand them.
Forget this proverb! Remember this instead: A connection against a peep is one of the common responses. But it is not the absolute answer. Other reponses can often be seen. (Note: You connect because you can't protect from being cut, or you can't afford being cut.)
Forget this proverb! Remember this instead: Any move can be a ko threat if the opponent has to respond in order to prevent from loss/damage etc. There are ko threats in the opening, but their value cannot be accurately assessed.