Endgame
Table of contents |
Introduction
The endgame is the final stage of the game when the life & death status of all big groups has been determined and the remaining moves aim at expansion of own territory and reduction of the territory of the opponent.
The endgame is all about Sente and Gote relationships, calculating or estimating the count, and then putting everything together into the right sequence. Practice is the best teacher.
Per Tomoko Ogawa, By the endgame the board has been more or less divided up into separate territories, and most of the fighting tends to affect only two of them, occurring at a mutual boundary. The opening and middle game are much like a single large battle between two armies; the endgame is like a number of smaller battles going on in different places simultaneously.
Suggested reading
- Basic Endgame Theory - basic advice on how to play the endgame and theoretical foundations on how to evaluate move size and urgency
- More about the Principles of Yose
- Practical Approach to Yose
- Endgame Tesuji
- Endgame Problems
Those who want mathematical theory and application can visit the Combinatorial Game Theory path.
Endgame terms and concepts
About sente and gote
- Gote
- Sente
- Sente-Gote (Sente position)
- Reverse Sente play
- Sente-Sente (Double Sente)
- Sente vs. Gote - Which to play
- Sente gains nothing
Calculation methods
- Count
- Miai value
- Deiri value (or Swing value)
- Method of Multiples
- Profit value
- Go Infinitesimals
- PlayingInfinitesimals
- Go Numbers
Endgame principles
Endgame Techniques
- Endgame Tesuji
- hanetsugi
- The monkey jump
- After the hanetsugi - to connect or not to connect
- hane-descend
Other
- Yose
- Ambiguous Position
- Miai
- Locally Speaking
- Endgame Coupling
- Semedori
- Neutral Points
- Teire
- Small endgame play
Problems and exercises
Organized Series
- Beginners Endgame Exercises - beginner level
- Endgame Problems - dozens of endgame problems about diverse themes
- Counting problems - determining the correct size
Isolated Endgame Problems
- Parkjr yose move
- Yose Jiten/Errata
- Yose Errors in Magic of Go
- Picky endgame problem
- Endgame from real games - 2002 Meijin
- GTL Review 1558 - beginner level, taken from a GTL review
Books
- Get Strong at the Endgame, by Richard Bozulich
- The Endgame, by Ogawa Tomoko and James Davies
- 200 Endgame Problems - Winning Tactics by Shirae Haruhiko
[1] The Chinese term 收官 (shou1 guan1) is a verb describing the process of playing the endgame.
[2] The Japanese term yose properly describes the 'drawing together' of territory or territories. The term for endgame is shuban.