Counting Liberties and Winning Capturing Races

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This is a book by Richard Hunter published by [ext] Slate and Shell in April 2003.

Sample pages are at [ext] http://www.slateandshell.com/pdf/ssrh003.pdf

See also the reviews [ext] by Robert Jasiek and [ext] by David Carlton.


Table of Contents

Part One: Basic Principles

1. Counting Liberties
2. It's All Relative
3. Simple Counting Practice
4. Capturing Races Involving Ko

Part Two: Applications

5. Fighting Tactics

  • The Throw-in
  • Making an Eye
  • The Bigger the Better
  • Avoiding and Contriving Ko
  • Bamboo Joints (by Simon Goss)
  • The Art of Strategic Sacrifice

6. Problems
7. Commented Games
8. Additional Problems
9. The L Group

This book is based on my articles in the British Go Journal nos 102 to 120 (1996-2000). Some of the early articles were published in the Belgian Go Journal, translated into Dutch by Stefan Verstraeten (Is that right Stefan?).

Stefan: That is correct. Six articles covering the definition of Type 1 to 6 fights, plus the summary overview. Great to see that this must have material is now available in book form! Mr. Zandveld will receive my order very shortly.

Most of Chapters 1 and 5 was included in The Second Book Of Go

If you have already read all the BGJ articles, then the main new material is Chapter 4, which mirrors Chapter 1 but looks at capturing races involving ko. Chapters 3, 6, and 8 are mostly new too.

Types of fights given here in [ext] Liberty Counting Tables

In Chapter 1, I introduce six types of fights

  • Type 1: No eyes, at most 1 inside liberty.
  • Type 2: No eyes, at least 2 inside liberties
  • Type 3: One eye versus no eyes. This is widely known as Me Ari Me Nashi
  • Type 4: Big eye versus same size big eye.
  • Type 5: Big eye versus a smaller eye. This is called O Naka Ko Naka? in Japanese
  • Type 6: Small eye versus a small eye.

On page 1, I define liberties as the unoccupied points directly adjacent to stones and mention that this is a simplification that will be extended later. On page 16, after introducing approach moves, I redefine liberties as the number of moves it takes to capture the stones. If I want to refer to the dame on a group after that, I use physical liberties.

Use of Japanese terms

I have deliberately made minimal use of Japanese terms in order to make the book easy to read for beginners. The ones I have used are: sente, gote, hane, seki, ko, tesuji.
I have not used semeai, dame, or Me Ari Me Nashi etc.

Specific terms related to capturing races

inside liberty
outside liberty
eye liberty
exclusive liberty?
physical liberty
big eye
small eye
weak eye?
dogleg four
favorite
underdog
approach move

Comments

I carefully avoid using the terms mutual liberties, which is the cause of a lot of misunderstanding.
I hate the expression Eyes Win Semeais, which is a terrible proverb designed to ensure that weak players stay weak. It is a mistranslation of Me Ari Me Nashi. I shall comment on the relevant pages later.


This is a copy of the living page "Counting Liberties and Winning Capturing Races" at Sensei's Library.
(OC) 2005 the Authors, published under the OpenContent License V1.0.
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