Don't take away your own liberties
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A common mistake in Go, is taking away your own liberties.
Example 1
White has taken territory and Black some influence. It is tempting to reduce White's territory by pushing at a.
However, after , Black's liberties are reduced from six to five. As his formation is still open to invasion, reduction or attack, losing a liberty is too high a cost compared to White's cost of one point.
Furthermore, this move loses a ko-threat, but that was not the issue here.
Example 2
Almost as bad as losing a liberty, is playing but not gaining any liberties.
The exchange -
leaves White with three liberties: the same number as she had before. This is one of the ideas behind hane at the head.
A more complex situation where removing one's own liberties gives a bad result: Removing one's own liberties Example 1
This proverb or heuristic also is at the base of the proverb telling you to fill outside liberties first in a capturing race.
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