Gote
Losing the initiative. Pronounced "go-teh". Borrowed from Japanese, lit. "following move". From the standpoint of one player, describes any of:
- a move which loses the initiative, since it need not be answered by the opponent, thus giving him sente
- the state of having lost the initiative, by playing a move or sequence which need not be answered; "ending in gote"
- a position where a play will lose the initiative
As a position this endgame example is gote for Black; as moves, the -
sequence are gote; and as a state Black ends in gote.
Although gote has negative connotations, and non-gote moves are to be preferred to gote moves, playing a gote move is not necessarily a mistake. Informally, a gote move could be the best move if its value is more than twice that of any available sente sequence. (By deiri counting. Simply more than that of a sente, by miai counting.) This kind of calculation is typical of yose (endgame) play.
Traddles: yes, but even in that case, why not play out all the sente sequences that you can and then end with a gote sequence?
See also