When In Doubt, Tenuki
"When in doubt, tenuki."
A simple statement and a proverb I've heard in many forms. There are a few justifications for this particular formulation:
- If you're doubtful about whether you can gain anything in the local situation, perhaps it is because your opponent simply is stronger in such situations; at any rate, your instinct is probably right. Why play another stone that might be gote when you can take the initiative (sente) to start elsewhere?
- If there have already been a couple of plays locally, and there's no obvious local response to the last move, chances are the biggest play is somewhere else on the board.
- If you don't think you need one more move locally to seal your opponent's fate, you may be right. Alternately, maybe all you really need is a ladder breaker. In that case, you can get away with playing it far away (at least for the time being). So why not do just that? By playing it further away, nearer to some other battle, you may well find a dual-purpose play, a great tesuji.
Definition: tenuki. - shifting from one area to another in a different part of the board -- Dr. John C. Dealey
Bob McGuigan: I think tenuki is less about where on the board a move is played than whether it responds to an opponent's move.
Bill: Hi, Doc! The links to words like tenuki take you to a page that explains the term. You do not have to do so on every page where the term appears. :)
-- Karl Knechtel (~14k. Just trying to fill in a gap here.)
dnerra: I'd like to discuss this.
Bildstein: Actually, I tell myself "When absolutely sure, tenuki." But that's generally when I'm trying to figure out whether or not I need another move to secure life.
Other times, I follow the philosophy that even a local play can be tenuki: I forget about that area while I consider the whole board, I forget which was the last move, and then I make a move that happens to be in the same area as my opponents last move.
Also see: Tenuki is always an option
Bill: I made up this saying some time ago with tongue in cheek, but with some seriousness, too. To my surprise I have found a Japanese version here: "When you don't know where to play, tenuki."
(Later.) I also ran across it in Go Seigen's 21st Century Go. The Japanese proverb has been around for a long time, I suppose.