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Sente
  Difficulty: Beginner   Keywords: MiddleGame, EndGame, Go term

A player has sente if it is his turn and he does not have to answer his opponent's last move. Thus, a player who has sente can decide where to play next.


[Diagram]
Diag.: A sente move

A move is sente if the opponent has to answer it, so the player who plays it will have sente after the exchange. For example, in this diagram black can play 1 in sente, because white has to answer at 2 to avoid dieing.

The opposite of sente is gote. Sente or gote is often a large difference: If you do the same thing in gote that could also be done in sente, that is a big difference - you lose a whole move.


[Diagram]
Diag.: losing sente

An example where this error has been made is in this diagram. Black plays atari with 1, white answers at 2, and black connects at 3. Black has defended the right hand side here, but he would have done better by playing at 3 immediately. This also threatens to capture the two white stones (by playing 2), but if white now answers, black has sente and can play elsewhere.

Also note that sente is relative: If black would play at 3 here early in the game, white will not answer at 2, but play elsewhere, because the threat of capturing the two stones is not large enough. Of course, also in this case black 3 rather than black 1 is still the correct move.

Comment: If the area to the right is Black's, B 3 is unlikely to be sente. It would be larger than the threat to take White's stones. --BillSpight



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