Shut in

  Difficulty: Beginner   Keywords: Strategy, Theory

Chinese: 封 (fēng)
Japanese: 封鎖する (fuusa suru)
Korean: -

To shut in or to seal in or to fence in or to hem in or to enclose or to surround or to blockade a group of stones: these are flavours of a core aspect of Go, the surrounding game. Mostly, shut in, seal in, fence in and enclose refer to a group which is half surrounded by the opponent, half facing corner or side, moreover in a severe way, whereas surrounded is more general.

A general opening principle is not to allow for your stones to be shut in: avoid being sealed in.

Shutting opponent's stones in has many effects on the game: 1) prevent opponent's outward development, 2) increase your own outside influence and 3) attack the shut -in group.

Example 1.

[Diagram]
Black is enclosed  

B2, B4 tenuki (see Joseki-related life-and-death example 4 for the continuation).

Example 2.

[Diagram]
Black seals White in  

This example comes from a [ext] game between Nakamura Doseki (White), and Hayashi Monnyu.

W1 allows B2 to seal White's group into the top left corner.

[Diagram]
Direct ko  

W1 is a tesuji that allows White to make a direct ko for life.


Bill: I still think this page needs revision, but I have replaced the example with one based on Zinger's suggestion and one from pro play.

Caern: Explain "W1 is a tesuji" plz.

Bob McGuigan: W1 is a clever move that is far from obvious since B2 leads to the capture of W1. But these three black stones are now short of liberties and Black can no longer play at a as a local ko threat. If he does then White plays atari at b and captures the two black stones at B8 and a or the three black stones including B2 by playing atari at c.


Shut in last edited by hnishy on July 7, 2024 - 15:55
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