Chain

  Difficulty: Introductory   Keywords: Go term

Chinese: 整体 (zheng3 ti3)
Japanese:
Korean:

A chain is a group of stones that are all connected along the lines of the board. A single stone isolated from others of the same colour is a chain, in this sense.

For more formal talk, one can say:

A chain consists of

one stone together with all stones strictly connected to that stone (and only those).

That is, a chain is a collection of stones hanging together because of direct connection along a path made up of board lines.

Such a collection is often called a group, somewhat loosely. But groups in go are often made up of several chains that co-operate, without the solid connections that would link them into a single chain.

Another term used in this sense is "string". In various places, these have also been called 'armies' and 'units'. Prefer 'chain': this term is rarely going to be confusing.

The Japanese make no difference between stone and chain. Both are called ishi.


Authors: Dieter, Bill, Charles


This is a copy of the living page "Chain" at Sensei's Library.
(OC) 2007 the Authors, published under the OpenContent License V1.0.
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