Squeezing Out the Toothpaste
'Squeezing out the toothpaste' is a term sometimes used when a group is seemingly squeezed, but in reality is forced into a direction where it should have been stopped, in particular into the territory of the player doing the 'squeezing'.
Often contact plays will not stop the finger.
Charles ,
and
are bad. In particular
is a classic squeezing out the toothpaste[1] mistake.
Anonymous (~20k): Would be helpful to read a follow-up and discussion for black after 3. In Finger you explained, that it might be better to defend with 1 in two-space distance instead of one-space distance. But what to do now?
JoelR: The advice is the same as for ; play loosely, and not so close to White's stones. Let's try a couple.
Looks better, at least to me.
dnerra: Charles, I think this is a little more general than your text suggests. (I haven't had a GTL review yet where I didn't have to explain this.)
- Charles Yes, very general - in Teach Yourself Go I also introduced the idea of failing ladder, which is the same but with corners in the toothpaste ...
Forcing your opponent out with a move as is always bad, regardless whether there is black territory in that direction. It makes the black plays on both sides inefficient.
Here is an example from an amateur game:
Black plays to strengthen his group, then
to prevent the cut. Now he has weakened his center group more than he helped it.
One can argue whether
is necessary. But if Black wants to play it, he should play there directly, without the
/
exchange. (Leading to
at
,
at
,
at a).[2]
I always try to explain this with the following diagrams:
[1] I'm quoting myself here, a bad habit I know. Charles
[2] One can also make the point that would be better at b here.
See also: