HOW TO PLAY GO [3/3]

The rules of'Go'are practically all concerned with the'dead'and 'live'stones mentioned above. Now, let us see how a match might progress.At first, both players stake out territory by placing stonessome distance apart, rather than continguously. This phase of operation is called 'fuseki'or 'spreading stones.' In Diagram 11, black stones are placed from 1 to 11 consecutively. The first four stones placed by said earlier, it is more economical to establish territory by using corners. The black stones 1 and 3, 5 and 7; the white stones 2 and 8, 4 and 6 are not placed continguously. This is also for the reason of efficiency to claim territory with a minimum number of stones. More stones may be placed as need arises when the adversary approache with his stones to intertere with your plan. After securing corner territories, players are likely to place their stones at such points as 9, 10, 11, and 12.

Diagram 12 shows the stage of game immendiately following that shown by Diagram 11. The black player has placed a stone at 13 in order to cut into the white territory to obstruct the white player's plan to consolidate his own area. This is an open challenge and such a move as this signals the beginning of the middle phase of a game. This is called'chuban'(literally,'middle board'). The'Go'match is in essence a contest for territory.Now, follow the progress of the game from black 13 to white 16. The Black stones 13 and 15, which are placed with one intersection between them are said to form a pattern called'ikken tobi'('one point jump'). Although there is one intersection between the two, these stones, as they are now, are fairly secure because of their closeness. But, of course, they have as yet no'eye.' The White stones 12 and 16 to the right, on the other hand, have to some extent secured ground by making use of an edge line. This means that these stones have a fairly good chance of forming'eyes.' Thus, in this particulay area, the white player is in a better position than the black. This is because the black player has placed his stone at 13, after white placed his at 12, in order to cut into the white territory. Even though a battle formation seems in good shape at an early stage, it does not necessarily lead to a successful operation of encircling and'killing'enemy stones. It takes clever tactics to utilize such a battle formation to the greatest advantage.

After the battle is over, a game of'Go'enters the last phase called'shuban.' In this phase, the contestants complete their respective boundaries which are notyet definitely established. This operation is called'yose.' When there are no more moves abailable for both contestants, that would either increase or decrease their territories, the game ends. This is called'Shukyoku.'Diagram 13 shows a match at'Shukyoku,'where the territory gained by both players is to be counted. The spots marked (a) and (b) are located behind the boundaries of both players and, therefore, do not affect the territory of either. These spots are filled up by the two players alternately. Then the'dead'stones must be removed. The white stones marked and black stones marked are'dead'and are picked up by the adversaries. Then the players use the captive stones to fill in the territories of their respective adversaries and rearrange the configurations in such a way so that it is easy to compute the exact number of intersections won.After such rearrangement has been completed, the surface of the'Go'board may look like Diagram 14. The number in each block of territory is the number of open intersections. For the white player, these add up to be 85 and for the black player 90. Thus, black has won by a margin of five. The stones removed during the game are also used to fill up the opponent's territory. This means that the more stones you capture, the more damage you can inflict upon your adversary.

When there is a gap in skill between two players, a handicap is given to the inferior player in terms of stones placed before a match is begun. This is called'okigo.' When such a handicap game is played, white, the superior player, always plays first. Diagram 15 shows an 'okigo'game with a handicap of nine stones. The nine-stone handicap is called 'seimoku.' A beginner starts learning the game of'Go'with this nine-stone handicap.