Territory

  Difficulty: Introductory   Keywords: Strategy

Chinese: 地盘 (di4pan2); 地 (di4); 空 (kong4) 地域 (di4yu4)
Japanese: 地 (ji)
Korean: 집 (jip)

The key concept of territory can be understood in various ways:

  • Superficially speaking, territory is the empty points surrounded, or rather "controlled", by a player.
  • To specify what control means, we can say that territory is a part of the board that is surrounded by stones belonging to a living group, and in which the opponent cannot make a living group
[Diagram]

Artificial example

This black group delimits two areas, in which he will easily make an eye. The group is clearly alive. It is impossible[1] for White to create a living group with two eyes in the area. Black makes 21 points of territory.



The usage of the concept

The term territory is used in various ways when discussing a game of Go.

  • Definite territory, like it is defined above, mostly when it is counted at the end of the game
  • Estimated territory, during the game, when a position is sure to yield territory, but the exact amount is not yet known
  • Potential territory, during the game, when a position is likely to yield territory, but can still be invaded
  • The existence of territory necessarily means that the surrounding group has a base. Obviously, this base is often to be found where the territory is. Therefore, territory sometimes conceptually interferes with base or eyespace.
[Diagram]

Territory arising from real play

The exchange up to B8 is a common continuation of the 3-3 point invasion. The exchange of White a to Black d is more of an endgame sequence.

The circle-marked points constitute an area controlled by White, where Black can't make a living group (if White answers correctly). We can say that this 3-3 invasion makes roughly 10 points of territory.

See Also:


[1] Assuming normal play.


This is a copy of the living page "Territory" at Sensei's Library.
(OC) 2016 the Authors, published under the OpenContent License V1.0.
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