Chapter Eleven. Cramp 11.1 Two-point extension: the placement {{Dia 708}} {{Dia 709}} This chapter gives the other side of the story on the two-point extension. When it is cramped by two White stones, as shown in the left-hand diagram, it can be attacked in many ways. The placement (right) at 1 or A is something of a revelation, when you first discover it. {{Dia 710}} {{Dia 711}} Next if Black blocks at 2, White should play 3 in the left-hand diagram; the other choice (right) can be criticised....

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Chapter Twelve. Outnumbered 12.1 Calculated risks There are several good reasons why you may want to leave a situation on the board, and play away. In the realm of tactics, you may wish to ignore a ko threat, or ladder-breaker. That is, you expect a greater advantage by playing elsewhere. There can also be good strategic reasons. Opening strategies from hundreds of years ago showed both players ignoring the plays of the other....

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Chapter Thirteen. Theory Applying to Effective Play 13.1 Doing the necessary, or losing the plot? The central character in Pushkin’s Queen of Spades is led to his downfall by overriding his cherished principle, of ‘not risking the necessary to gain the superfluous’. In go, it is often hard to understand how to distinguish the two. One aspect of improving your strength is to shed all unnecessary plays. In a sense this is more important than making good shape....

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Chapter Fourteen. Haengma The final two chapters of this book have something in common. They both touch on more advanced topics that can be said to require middlegame thinking. That is, they push on beyond the circle of ideas in the Introduction and early chapters, to deeper aspects of fighting. They also concern ways of playing that may appear dangerous to those who haven’t studied them. This chapter looks at examples of what Korean players call haengma (literally, the moving horse), a kind of distillation of the feeling of movement on the board that accompanies the development of groups....

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Chapter Fifteen. Sabaki The sabaki concept is one of the most important developed in the Japanese tradition of professional go. {{Dia 856}} {{Dia 857}} This example occurred in 13.3. White should have planned how to play before arriving in this position. (Left) Black has played an extra marked stone, to cover the possible cut in the attach-extend formation. After that the marked white stones are in White’s view disposable, non-key stones, and may be sacrificed....

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