Ko Threat

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    Keywords: Ko, Go term

Chinese: 劫材 (jié cái)
Japanese 1: コウ立て (kōdate)
Japanese 2: コウ材 (kōzai)
Korean: 패씀 (RR?: pae ssum)

Definition

A ko threat is a move with a "big" follow-up, which you play after your opponent has captured a ko; if your opponent answers it you may recapture the ko. (You cannot recapture the ko immediately, due to the basic rule of ko.) If your opponent does not answer your ko threat, but instead proceeds to resolve the ko, you can follow through on your threat and thus gain compensation for losing the ko.

Example

[Diagram]

Example from a pro game

Here is an example: B1 takes the ko in a ko fight that decides a capturing race in the upper left corner. W2 is a ko threat. B3 decides to resolve the ko. W4 then executes the ko threat, taking the compensation.

Note that Black could also answer W2 by playing B3 at W4. Then W4 would recapture the ko and the ko fight goes on.

See Ko fight example from a pro game - 1 for the full discussion of this ko fight.

More terminology

  1. It is important to distinguish between local ko threats and non-local ko threats.
  2. The term ko threat can be used to refer to a potential threat as well as one actually played. Example: "White has more ko threats than Black."
  3. The term ko material? is an alternative to ko threat, which can also refer to the aggregate of all potential ko threats one player has, as in "Felix has more ko material than Oscar." The Japanese terms kouzai and koudate, do not distinguish between singular and plural, and thus may be used to refer either to ko material in the aggregate or an individual ko threat.
  4. The size of a ko threat? is, informally, the potential gain from making the threatened follow-up (when your opponent ignores the threat and instead resolves the ko).

More on the /Discussion page.

See also

Basic

Advanced


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This is a copy of the living page "Ko Threat" at Sensei's Library.
(OC) 2012 the Authors, published under the OpenContent License V1.0.
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