Ken

ken (間, literally 'space') is a Japanese Go term and a measure of distance between two stones.

ken counts the number of empty intersections in a straight line (horizontal or vertical) between the stones. The term is used for almost any combination of stones:

• For stones of same color
  • tobi (jump)
  • shimari (enclosure), -jimari in compounds
  • hiraki (extension), -biraki in compounds etc.
• For stones of different colors
  • hasami (pincer), -basami in compounds
  • kakari (corner approach), -gakari in compounds
  • tsume (check) etc.

The term is vocalized when combined with san (3) as sangen. In English, the equivalent word is "space" or "point" (as in one point jump).

19x19 diagram  

Upper left: Black ikken jimari (one-space enclosure)
Right: White niken biraki (two-space extension) and Black ikken tsume (one-space check)
Lower left: Black sangen basami (three-space pincer), White niken tobi (two-space jump) and Black ikken uke (one-space defence)