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TableOfNotchers
Notchers

 

notcher code
    Keywords: Life & Death

On this page we devise a coding system for notchers, in order to set up a systematic approach to their life and death status.

Suppose the notcher is black and the surrounding group white.

[Diagram]
Notchers

Marked points: possible weaknesses
Circled stones: legs
Squared stones: notch



  1. The notcher has a notch of n spaces
  2. The notcher has a degree of weakness, depending on the color of the top corners of the notch. The letter W means that the stone is white (weak), N means that it's absent (neutral) while S means that it is black (solid).
  3. The notcher has a left leg of length k and a right leg of length l. The legs are the stones on the second line not belonging to the notch (not adjacent to the empty points that constitute the notch).

We put this information into a code nklxx where n, k, l take numerical values and the x-es can be either W, N or S.


Discussion

Several months after having devised this system, I see two problems, one of which unkx80 elegantly solved.

1. The S should not mean strong because it is often so that a neutral corner makes the notcher stronger than if it were occupied by the defender, because in effect this can lead to shortage of liberties. The suggestion is to make "S" mean "solid" (now that the harm of naming notchers this way is done).

2. Moreover, it sometimes matters whether all outside liberties are filled. The corners are hence not the only potential weakness. Therefor, the classification is not complete and maybe not relevant at all. For the moment, I intend to continue as we started but with special mention of liberties.

Dieter



This is a copy of the living page "notcher code" at Sensei's Library.
(OC) 2003 the Authors, published under the OpenContent License V1.0.