Kikashi
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Kikashi, a Japanese go term adopted into English, is a sente move that produces a certain additional effect. Because it has done its work, it can normally be freely abandoned. It is usually translated as forcing move.
There has been a lively kikashi sente discussion which showed the necessity to quote from literature how we should understand the concept of kikashi. See also forcing move misunderstandings.
Quotes from well-known authors
From Attack and Defense by James Davies and Ishida Akira: A forcing move may be defined as a sente move that brings its player some potential advantage without having to be followed up or defended.
From Strategic concepts of Go by Nagahara Yoshiaki and Richard Bozulich: A kikashi is a forcing move played to produce an effect. That is, a kikashi is a play which must be answered, usually in just one way, the exchange of the kikashi and the answer being useful in some way to the player of the kikashi. The terms kikashi and sente may seem to have the same meaning, but kikashi is applied to moves which are more or less incidental to the main flow of play. Once played, kikashi stones can typically be abandoned without any great loss.
Rob van Zeijst in his column The Magic of Go: For an amateur, it is often hard to determine whether a move is a kikashi or a waste of potential. The average player will decide that a move is a kikashi if it is answered, as this will indicate that he has kept sente (initiative). There is no simple description for a kikashi. If in doubt, follow this rule of the thumb: A kikashi has outside significance while the answer to it usually has no or little value.
This appears to mirror the idea given about kikashi in Attack and Defense, incidentally: the only proviso is whether the outside significance creates more aji than the use of the forcing move dissipates.
Sakata, in the Sakata no Go series, vol. 5, How to Sacrifice Stones, p. 1, says this about kikashi:
Sente is certainly a condition of kikashi, but it is not the case that every play that is sente is also kikashi. If we compare the value of my play to the value of the opponent's response, only when my play does more work does it become kikashi. Accordingly, the value of kikashi, unlike that of plays in other situations, cannot be reckoned as so many points. On the one hand, the work done may be worth a mere fraction of a single point; on the other hand, a kikashi stone may later come to play a decisive role in winning or losing the game. In any event it is a subtle matter.
We professionals exercise a good deal of sensitivity in regard to kikashi. Often in game post mortems the question of whether a certain play is really kikashi or not becomes the subject of debate.[1]
-- Slightly polished translation by Bill Spight.
Part of the discussion was about the semantics of kikashi. The other part considered the relation with aji-keshi, sente and thank-you move. Consensus yielded:
The main point is that kikashi are sente and
- aren't to be criticised for bad aji keshi
- don't require defensive plays afterwards, so are light not heavy.
Otherwise forcing plays can be a mistake.
Examples
is a peep, a typical example of a kikashi. Due to his marked tiger shape, White is already connected, and there is hardly any aji left in this position. So Black's move is justified: he forces White to confirm the choice she already made: connect her stones.
does several things at a time: it destroys some eye shape, and it can serve as a ladder breaker later, or be a stone that is just in the right spot to win a capturing race. But
is a stone to be treated lightly. It is not an important stone. It is a kikashi stone.
From the same diagram, we see that White can also peep at Black's marked tiger shape. This move is sente : it also forces the opponent to answer, but it has a local achievement too. enhances the strength of the White wall, and should by no means be sacrificed, since that would imply the sacrifice of the whole wall !
Bill: I just noticed a problem with this example. What if Black replies at
? Will White play at
now, inviting
(or maybe a)?
doesn't threaten Black's top group much, does it?
at
starts to look like kikasare.
Suppose White is ahead in territory but Black has more influence. With and
, White forces Black to take some territory at the top. After his submissive answers, she jumps to
. Her stones
,
and
, will have some influence on the proceedings in the center. If Black makes an attempt to capture
and
, they should be sacrificed in order to strengthen
.
In this position, Black has a few forcing moves. He starts off with . If unanswered, White's position would completely crumble.
then forces White to take the two stones. White may decide (but is unlikely) to abandon her three stones, depending on the rest of the top side. Next,
forces once more to effectively take the stones off the board. Next, Black can play along the left side or connect around a.
and
are mere sente moves, moves that are played to keep the initiative while building the position.
is the only example of kikashi, because the stone is treated as disposable:
Later, close to the endgame, this may be played. The added value of is that it makes
sente again, compared to if Black had not forced White to capture as in the previous diagram.
In a game vs. Yamashita Keigo in the 29th Meijin league, Cho Chikun plays kikashi with -
before strengthening his center group with
. (See commentary at
http://www.asahi.com/igo/meijin29/16/05.html.)
Despite the proverb about sacrificing kikashi stones, only is in any danger.
LukeNine45: Are these really kikashi? It looks to me like White is just taking all the free moves he can before playing
.
Bill: Yes. The commentary says, 右辺を白70から76と利かし . White plays kikashi on the right side with W70 - W76.
My own comment is that these plays are more urgent because of White's running group. After White secures the group, they might not be so urgent.
LukeNine45: Interesting. I guess I'll have to think of kikashi as having a broader meaning. Thanks!
is a peep. Black can sacrifice
with b and d after White a.
From Charles Matthews - Shape Up! (p.48)
By the way, thank you for this excellent book. QWerner
Also, I think this is a 100 day thinking example for kyu players.
What is inside:
1. Kikashi ofcourse.
2. Shape, one way to use the Big Bulge and how to set it up.
3. Double purpose move. Not only in sense of the normal meaning of double purpose move. More in sense of the time changing purpose. First is needed to get
in the right place. Later it will treated lightly to get a strong position.
If W tenuki playing
elsewhere
is needed to cut. So this is another use of the Big Bulge here. Of course W tenuki is in this situation not the best idea, but this shows the dynamic of this shape. I will call it: A bunch of virtual live lines. In the moment where
is played all they exist, but only one get reality later (condensation). Therefore fixing a position reduce the value. From this point of view a good shape is a configuration which has enough nice future prospects to a brought variety of possible upcoming situations. A good feeling means than
to look somehow in the future knowing which live lines from different possible shapes over the goban will work later nicely together. This maybe is also called luck, I guess. QWerner
See also
Contributions by:
- Bill Spight
- Andrew Walkingshaw
- Dieter Verhofstadt, WME on April 3, 2003
[1] Bill: Sakata was known for playing kikashi early. On the contrary, Takagawa played kikashi late, and sometimes not at all. Games between these two are quite interesting in that regard.
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