Weiqi Famous Quotes and proverbs

Raj on January 2nd, 2008

While the Baroque rules of chess could only have been created by humans, the rules of go are so elegant, organic, and rigorously logical that if intelligent life forms exist elsewhere in the universe, they almost certainly play go.
– Edward Lasker

“the tactic of the soldier, the exactness of the mathematician, the imagination of the artist, the inspiration of the poet, the calm of the philosopher, and the greatest intelligence.”
- Zhang Yunqi,

The board is a mirror of the mind of the players as the moments pass. When a master studies the record of a game he can tell at what point greed overtook the pupil, when he became tired, when he fell into stupidity, and when the maid came by with tea.
– Anonymous

[War is] like a game of weiqi . . . Strongholds built by the enemy and bases by us resemble moves to dominate spaces on the board.
– Mao Zedong

Those interested in impressing others with their intelligence play chess. Those who would settle for being chic play backgammon. Those who wish to become individuals of quality take up Go.
- Microcomputer Executive and an expert player, when asked to compare Go with other games

Chess has only two outcomes: draw and checkmate. The objective of the game . . . is total victory or defeat â€“ and the battle is conducted head-on, in the center of the board. The aim of go is relative advantage; the game is played all over the board, and the objective is to increase one’s options and reduce those of the adversary. The goal is less victory than persistent strategic progress.
– Dr. Henry Kissinger

Chess is a Battle, Weiqi/Go is a war. – Anonymous

The difference between a stone played on one intersection rather than on an adjacent neighbor is insignificant to the uninitiated. The master of Go, though, sees it as all the difference between a flower and a cinder block.
- From The Challenge of Go: Esoteric Granddaddy of Board Games, by Dave Lowry

In chess you start with everything you have on the board. In go you start from nothing and build.
– Tim Klinger

Go uses the most elemental materials and concepts — line and circle, wood and stone, black and white — combining them with simple rules to generate subtle strategies and complex tactics that stagger the imagination.
- Iwamoto Kaoru, 9-dan professional Go player and former Honinbo title holder

* Your opponent’s good move is your good move
* The opponent’s vital point is my vital point
* Play on the point of symmetry
* Play double sente early
* Sente gains nothing
* Beware of going back to patch up
* Don’t follow proverbs blindly
* When in doubt, Tenuki
* Don’t go fishing while your house is on fire

* There is death in the hane
* Hane, Cut, Placement
* Learn the eyestealing tesuji
* Six die but eight live (on the second line)
* Four die but six live (on the third line or in the corner on the second line)
* Four is five and five is eight and six is twelve
* The carpenters square becomes ko
* The L group is dead
* The door group is dead
* Strange things happen at the one two point
* Eyes win semeais
* Check escape routes first
* Capture three to get an eye

* Respond to attachment with hane
* Wedge if possible
* Hane at the Head of Two Stones
* Crosscut then extend
* Capture the cutting stones
* Beginners play atari
* The empty triangle is bad
* The one-point jump (ikken tobi) is never bad
* Don’t try to cut the one-point jump
* Strike at the waist of the keima
* Cutting right through a knight’s move is very big
* Do not peep at cutting points
* Two stones are five times harder to kill than one[3]
* Even a moron connects against a peep
* If you have one stone on the third line in atari, add a second stone and sacrifice both
* Use contact moves for defence
* Never ignore a shoulder hit
* The bamboo joint may be short of liberties
* Nets are better than ladders
* Answer the capping play with a knight’s move
* Approach from the wider side
* Block on the wider side
* Play at the centre of three stones
* Answer keima with kosumi
* Five liberties for tactical stability
* Capture stones caught in a ladder at the earliest opportunity
* Two hanes gain a liberty
* The strong player plays straight, the weak plays diagonal
* There is no connection in the carpenter’s triangle
* Jump out once and then make eye?

* You need half the points + 1
* Five Liberties for Tactical Stability
* When in doubt, tenuki
* Never make hollow ko threats
* Trying to achieve light and airy gamestyle ends up blown away?
* If you have 30 minutes, use them?