Hand and Brain

How to Play

Hand and Brain Go (also "Brain and Hand" Go) is a variant dreamt up at the Seattle Go Center

Two players collaborate to make moves, the "Brain" says the Shape or Move name and the "Hand" plays that move anywhere on the board

• Move name examples: Hane, One-point jump, Knight's Move, Diagonal Move, Stretch, Bump, Peep, Block (and so on)

• Shape name examples: Ponnuki, Tiger's mouth, Table shape, Square, Stretch, Throwing star, Honeycomb shape (and so on)

• In the early game the Brain may say play in a corner, side extension, corner approach, approach star-point or tengen

• It is considered "Cheating" to explicitly tell the Hand what you are thinking, similar to Pair Go (teammates speak in Shapes)

Teaching Shape

• This variant can be a very effective teaching tool between Student and Teacher

• The Student attains a deeper understanding of Shape, while the Teacher can better understand the Students ability

Players

• This can be played 2 vs 1 with another human or computer opponent

• Alternatively this could be played 2 vs 2 similar to Pair Go

Thanks

Credit goes to players from the Go Center for the idea