Intermediate Plays

Does Go have a concept of intermediate plays, to correspond to Zwischenzug , also known as intermezzos, in chess?

A standard modern opening  

This is an example (on the left side) brought up by Denis Feldmann on rec.games.go, in a quite normal opening pattern for modern pros. The game normally continues with White at a, after which Black can complete the joseki sequence in the upper left.

does have a function in the way of a probe here. Should it be taken as having the character of an intermediate move, too? Might an ordinary translation into Go terms of the concept be as an interpolated kikashi?

Charles Matthews

For a discussion of this opening pattern, see

• Probing during the attach and draw back joseki
• A Dictionary of Modern Fuseki -- The Korean Style, Pattern 21. A Change of Direction, page 85.

I think a key difference between chess and Go in the analysis of this concept is that, in chess, there's a much more "instant" victory condition (checkmate rather than scoring). As an example, if a zwischenzug is a check, it _must_ be answered immediately (by virtue of the rules of the game). In Go, you can make a decision as to how big (i.e. how many points it's worth) a threat (or otherwise forcing) move is - and one might be right to ignore it in a way that one usually can't during a game of chess.

- Andrew Walkingshaw

Bill: Taking your own (larger) sente before replying to your opponent's sente is common in go, but I do not know of a term for doing so. Zwischenzug fits, I think. Such a play can be a probe.

That having been said, I don't think that the above is a good example of either concept. is a good play in its own right, maybe the best play.

Discussion moved to Probing during the attach and draw back joseki /Discussion.