Atari Atari
Difficulty: Introductory Keywords: Tactics
Once I dropped by a go club in Kyoto when an 8 dan was giving a class. I sat in. In critiquing an amateur game he said, "Atari! Atari! It feels good, but maybe it's not so good."
Before Black ataris White has two liberties and Black has a cutting point at a. After Black's atari and White's extension, White has three liberties and Black has two cutting points, a and b, to worry about.
This example illustrates the problem. It feels good to make forcing plays, but often the result is to strengthen the opponent's stones and to weaken our own.
Cases where atari-atari is appropriate include
- ladder (of course)
- driving tesuji.
See also Beginners play atari.