Shut in
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To shut in or to seal in or to fence in or to hem in or to enclose or to surround or to blockade a group of stones: these are flavours of a core aspect of Go, the surrounding game. Mostly, shut in, seal in, fence in and enclose refer to a group which is half surrounded by the opponent, half facing corner or side, moreover in a severe way, whereas surrounded is more general.
A general opening principle is not to allow for your stones to be shut in: avoid being sealed in.
Example 1.
This example comes from a game between Nakamura Doseki (White), and Hayashi Monnyu.
allows
to seal White's group into the top left corner.
Bill: I still think this page needs revision, but I have replaced the example with one based on Zinger's suggestion and one from pro play.
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