Go Seigen Group

    Keywords: Go term

Go Seigen group is a term coined by John Fairbairn for side groups that are both alive and not easily hemmed in. While they don't end up making much territory themselves, they effectively remove any potential for both sides in a whole sector of the center.

For an invasion into a framework ending with a Go Seigen group is the preferred outcome.

John F. Completely wrong. The groups relate only to a quadrant, not to just any sector of the centre, and the locus is specifically the side of the board between the centre-side and the corner. They are not just strong, they are alive, Hemming in is irrelevant as the groups are alive anyway. They are not used for invasions in the usual sense.

tapir: How is it not important that it is not hemmed in (= out in the open / not enclosable) when the idea is that it controls the adjacent center area?

[Diagram]

This is not a Go Seigen group

[Diagram]

... but this is!

John F. First, readers should note that the original text has been amended in line with some of my comments, so my comments are not as weird as they now appear. Second, I do not regard the top group as a GSG group. In the bottom true example, hemming in is irrelevant. The group is alive so the question of Black trying to hem it in does not arise. Of course, if Black starts a hemming in operation early enough, a GSG group does not result, but as it then doesn't exist it can't be described.

Note also that making this page risks turning a light-hearted piece of journalism into more than it can truly bear. It was meant to stimulate thought, not to be dogma.

tapir: Well, I was contemplating whether I want such an article for a while. Though I believe the concept of center potential and denying of this potential isn't very well established among say lowly dans (that is where I am now). People go with "there is no territory in the center" and single mindedly go for territory, this way they have to spend many moves in the endgame to make sure that there really is no center territory. Even if you succeed in this you spend much more moves in the center as opposed to accessing it early as with a GSG. Or to put it in yet another way center potential = many moves with a large follow up = good endgame (many sente moves). Denying such center potential in a natural way is then very good.

"Not hemmed in" is just my personal way to express "access to the center", I should have dropped the "easily" though, a "quadrant" is afaik just a sector with a 90 degree angle. I thought it would be better received that I don't copy+paste or just paraphrase your piece.

I remember the conversation on the giraffe's neck (coffee machine). While this isn't yet a Go Seigen group it easily becomes one when it is attacked or approached in preparation for an attack. For me it was an idea that helped me in appreciating some 4th line opening moves that looked rather odd at first sight.


This is a copy of the living page "Go Seigen Group" at Sensei's Library.
(OC) 2012 the Authors, published under the OpenContent License V1.0.
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