The Opening (1)

*	A game of Go is divided up into three stages: the opening, the middle-game fighting, and the endgame.
	The opening: the players build the outlines of territory and carry out the basic construction. The middle-game fighting: players make use of their opening frameworks to expand territory or fight to capture stones. The endgame: the players compete over the borders of their territories.
	The first question is where should one play right at the beginning of the game, that is, in the opening. According to the rules of go, you can play anywhere you like, but let’s think about this logically, looking at the characteristics of the Go board.
*	The characteristics of the Go board
	The Go board has four corners. The area between corners is called the side. The area in the middle is called the centre.
	Dia. 1
*	The lines around the Go board
	The first and second lines are in the sea or underground.
	The line around the edge of the Go board is called the first line. The line inside that is the second line. These are the low areas (marked in red) of the Go board. If you compare the Go board to the world, they correspond to the area in the sea or underground. The first and second lines are too low to play the first move on. If you take a broad view of the whole board, they are inappropriate and uninteresting places to build a framework of territory. (The first and second lines become particularly important in the late middle game and the endgame.)
	The fifth line and above are the sky and space.
	The lines running around the board on the fifth line or higher are the high areas (marked in blue) If we compare the Go board to the world, they are the sky or space. Playing the opening moves there is better than playing on the first or second lines, but it’s difficult to build a territorial framework, so stones played there may end up scattered instead of working together. (The fifth lines and above become particularly important in the middle game.)
	The third and fourth lines are the earth or the ground.
	On the go board, the third and fourth lines are neither too low nor too high; they are the happy medium (marked in green). If we compare the Go board to the world, they are the earth or the ground. Being neither too high nor too low, they are the most suited to making territory.
*	The corners, sides and centre of the Go board
	We have seen that the third and the fourth lines are the best places to play the opening moves. The next question is which is better: the corner or the sides?
	Dia. 2
	Please look at Dia. 2. Black has made three territories, one in the corner, one on the side and one in the centre, each using eight stones. The corner territory is 16 points, the side territory is eight points and the centre territory is four points. The number of stones may be the same, but there’s a big difference in the size of the territories. We can see that building a territory in the corner is most efficient, as we can make good use of the sides of the board. (In other words, we have to make only two walls.) Next most efficient is the side; the centre is most inefficient.
	To summarize, our conclusion is that the third and fourth lines in the corner are the most suitable places for playing the opening moves.
	In the next section, ‘The opening (2)’, we will look at the first moves in the corner in detail.