Ken

    Keywords: Culture & History, Go term

Chinese: 间 (jiān)
Japanese: 間 (ken)
Korean: -

ken (間, literally 'space') is a Japanese Go term and a measure of distance between two stones.

ken counts the number of empty intersections in a straight line (horizontal or vertical) between the stones. The term is used for almost any combination of stones:

  • For stones of same color
  • For stones of different colors

The term is vocalized when combined with san (3) as sangen. In English, the equivalent word is "space" or "point" (as in one point jump).

[Diagram]

19x19 diagram

Upper left: Black ikken jimari (one-space enclosure)
Right: White niken biraki (two-space extension) and Black ikken tsume (one-space check)
Lower left: Black sangen basami (three-space pincer), White niken tobi (two-space jump) and Black ikken uke (one-space defence)


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