Liberty
Liberty has two different, but related, meanings in English.
- The first sense of liberty is an empty point adjacent to a single stone or chain of stones. In a legal position each chain has at least one liberty.
This is the basic meaning. Such a liberty is called a dame in Japanese. The liberty - introductory page explains some of the more basic implications in fighting.
- The second sense of liberty, important for tactics, is a play required to capture a single stone or chain of stones. This is the sense you require if you want to say that the number of liberties measures time to capture a group. It is discussed in liberty (tactical sense).
Liberty in Chinese is 气 ("Qi" in pinyin), which literally translates to "breath".[1] The thought is that stones need breathing space and that once the last breathing space is removed, the stones die.[2]
Further reading
- Give me liberties: a path to all subjects where liberties count
- Liberty nomenclature
- Secondary liberties examples
- Neutral point, i.e. dame
- /Discussion
Authors
- JaredBeck:Diagram
- MortenPahle (10k)
- DieterVerhofstadt (WME on 30/10/2002)
- Bill Spight (WME on June 4 - 5, 2003)
- unkx80
- Zhang Hu
- Charles Matthews moved material on secondary liberties to Secondary liberty / Discussion 2003-06-02.
- mAsterdam
- Sebastian (WME on November 7, 2003)
[1]
This is the same "Qi" as the one considered to be beneficial in terms of Feng Shui.
(Sebastian:) It can also mean "life energy". Incidentally, this is the same character (apart from modern simplfication) as the Japanese "ki" in "Aikido".
UserGoogol?: Interestingly, the English word spirit comes from the Latin word spiritus, which also means breath. Deeper linguistic or metaphysical meaning shall be left as an exercise to the reader.
[2] Bill: Is breath (Chinese) also ambiguous? Or does it only refer to adjacent points?
unkx80: This 气, or breath as you call it, can be as ambiguous as liberty.