Bi Qiang Zi Bao
9. Bi Qiang Zi Bao? (彼强自保) - Against strong positions, play safely - Translation link
John F. This maxim illustrates a point that very often escapes the western audience. We use "defend" too loosely, and seem most often to think of it as responding to an attack (attack and defence is such a common pairing).
But in Japanese ukeru is used normally when responding and mamoru is usually to make a preventative defensive move along the lines of a stitch in time.
Bao above has the same idea. So it is not "make defensive responses if the opponent is strong (i,e. forget about hanky panky such as counterattacking)" but rather "if the opponent is strong nearby, play a defensive (prophylactic) move before he moves against you."
Learn and apply the true meaning of mamoru and go up two stones! At least I think that's the biggest single difference between pro go and ama go.
Actually it's interesting also to speculate on the meaning of "strong", because the different type of game that develops with starting stones in old Chinese go seems to cry out for a different definition from the one we are used to today (thick, mainly).
HolIgor: To have a diagram on every page one needs an example. Ishida's joseki dictionary describes in the following diagram as mamori.
protects against an invasion at a. After a long discussion of the variations that arise as the result of this invasion, Ishida writes that
defends against it. If White nevertheless invades at a, Black responds with b.
Bildstein: It really isn't my place to say, but perhaps in this case it means something akin to "Against strong positions, make strong positions". This, of course, gets into the realm of the obvious, and even seems to scratch the surface of semantics... thoughts, anyone?
Lotuspalm IGS 13k: Literally, the expression means something like: Against strong positions, protect yourself.
anonymous: "Prevention is better than cure"?