List of Go terms
Players of the game of Go often use jargon to describe situations on the board and surrounding the game. Such technical terms are likely to be encountered in books and articles about Go in English as well as other languages. Many of these terms have been borrowed from Japanese, mostly when no short equivalent English term could be found. This article gives an overview of the most important terms.
Use of Japanese terms
Although Go originated in China before the Confucian era, where it is called Weiqi, the current English and Western technical vocabulary borrows a high proportion of terms from the Japanese language because it was through Japan that the West was introduced to Go.Many of these terms are from a jargon used for technical Go writing and are to some extent specially developed for Go journalism. Some authors of English-language Go materials avoid use of Japanese technical terms, and the way they are applied can differ in subtle ways from the original meanings.
A few Korean-language terms have come into use.
Terms
''Aji''
lead=yes refers to the latent potential of stones to open various avenues of play. The aji in various positions on the board impacts the course of the game regardless of whether a player makes moves to realize the latent potential. A situation is said to contain bad aji when the presence of the opponent's stones or weaknesses in one's own position create a threat of compromising the position at an opportune moment in the game. It can be very difficult for players to assess the best moment to play a move to realize the potential of aji in a position or to remove the threat of bad aji in one's own position.In the diagram, the triangled stone is dead, and the three squared white stones appears to be trapped. However, the aji of the triangled stone enables White to escape by jumping to White 1. If black resists, the two black stones can be captured with the help of the triangled stone.
''Atari''
is a term for a situation where a stone or group of stones has only one [|liberty] and may be captured on the next move if unable to attain additional liberties. A group in such a situation is said to be in atari or under atari. Beginners often verbally call out "atari" in a manner similar to calling out "check" in chess, but it is considered inappropriate for more advanced players. In the illustration, the triangled white stones are said to be in atari, because black can capture them in a single move. If black plays a move at a, the white pieces are immediately captured and removed from the board.In Japanese, is the nominalized form of , meaning 'to hit the target' or 'to receive something fortuitously'. The word is used in Japanese when a prediction comes true or when someone wins a lottery. In Chinese ta chi'ih ; Korean: dansu or sometimes adali.
Board positions
As the distance of a stone from the edge of the board has important tactical and strategic implications, it is normal to term the corner points of the board points, and count lines in from the edge.- Star point : an intersection traditionally marked with a small dot on the board. These are either
- * a) point in an empty corner, or
- * a) or point on one of the sides
- b) Origin of heaven: the center of the board, located at.
- c) Five by five: a point in a corner.
- d) Three by three: a point in a corner.
- e) Small point: a or point in a corner.
- f) High point: a or point in a corner.
- g) Large high point: a or point in a corner.
- h) Outside point: a or point in a corner.
- i) Outside the large point: a or point in a corner.
''Dame''
Divine move
A divine move is an exceptional, inspired and original move; one that is non-obvious and which balances strategy and tactics to create an unexpected turning point in a game. A divine move is singular; it is of such rarity that a professional Go player might reasonably hope to play a single such move in a lifetime. The term comes from the Japanese phrase, meaning 'move of God' or 'Godly move'.The famous ear-reddening move played by Hon'inbō Shūsaku in 1846 is sometimes considered to be an example of a divine move. A widely cited modern example is Lee Sedol’s move 78 in the fourth game of his 2016 challenge match against AlphaGo, a computer Go program developed by DeepMind, which was first described by Gu Li and later widely accepted by top professionals as a “divine move” for its originality and its reversal of a position widely regarded at the time as lost, ultimately leading to Lee’s victory in that game, his only win in the five-game match, and the last time a human defeated a top-level AI in standard Go match play.
Double [|''hane'']
The double hane is a sequence of two moves in succession that step around an opponent's adjacent group. It can be an aggressive and appropriate way to play, although it exposes the stones to cutting.Eyes
Eyes are internal, fully surrounded liberties of a group of stones. An eye cannot be filled by the opponent until all of the group's other liberties have been filled.The presence or absence of eyes in a group determine life or death of that group: A group with one or no eyes will die unless its owner can develop them; conversely, a group with two or more eyes will live since an opponent can never reduce the group down to a single liberty.
Eyes are counted as occupied territory of the group that fully surrounds the eye. When a group shares one or more eyes with the opposing player's groups, those eyes do not count as territory for either player. Sometimes those eyes are reduced to dame as other areas of the board change to give one or both groups additional eyes, allowing one or both players to fill the shared eyes. But sometimes those shared eyes do not resolve.
''Gote''
Playing means responding directly to the opponent's sente move.''Hane''
A hane is a move that goes around one or more of the opponent's stones.''Hayago''
means 'quick Go', 'fast Go' or 'quick play'. Most hayago games last either five minutes, with ten seconds allotted for each move, or ten minutes, with thirty seconds per move.''Jigo''
A is a tied score, i.e., the players have an equal number of points at the conclusion of the game. Jigo can be avoided by adding a fractional komi to white's score.''Joseki''
Joseki are established sequences of play which are considered to give an optimal result to both players. There are thousands of such lines that have been researched and documented.Often joseki are played out early in the game and involve dividing the corners. There are also "mid-game joseki", dealing with for example an invasion into a common enclosure or framework.
Though joseki have some parallel with chess openings, they differ significantly. Chess openings structure the whole board while joseki deal only with a local position. Therefore, the choice of which joseki to play in any given situation should be based on an assessment of the global position. This includes considerations of the direction of play, current balance of territory and influence, and one's own game strategy.
It is also quite possible to deviate from joseki and obtain a good result if the surrounding position allows. In other words, joseki are sensitive to the context in which they are played.
''Kakari''
A is an approach move to a corner position, such as at the 5-3 point or the 5-4 point when an opponent has previously played the 3-4 point, as in the diagram. More generally a kakari is low if it is played on the third line and high if it played on the fourth line. Kakaris higher than the fourth line are uncommon in professional play.''Keima''
A, also called a 'knight's move', is a stone placement which makes an 'L' shape.The term comes from the Japanese name of the knight piece in shogi, which is the equivalent of the knight in Western chess. Both pieces move in a similar shape to the keima shape in Go.
''Kiai''
translates as 'fighting spirit', meaning play that is aggressive or where the player takes the initiative. Kiai typically means keeping sente and not letting the opponent have his or her way. A sensei might say, "You play too passively — put some kiai in your moves!” Kiai moves can surprise an opponent and turn the game around. Examples of kiai include defending with a move that also counter-attacks or answering a kikashi in an unexpected way. Kiai is also a term used in Japanese martial arts, usually as a name for a loud yell accompanying an attack.''Kikashi''
Literally meaning 'an enlivenment', is a forcing move, usually one made outside the primary flow of play. Unlike sente, though, a move is kikashi when it yields a high efficiency in play by forcing the opponent to abandon a course of action. A kikashi stone will usually be sacrificed while conferring an advantage; for example, the kikashi stone could act as a ladder breaker or destroy the opponent's potential eyeshape, while the answering move has no value at all.Moves can be kikashi, or not, depending on whether they are answered with appropriate sophistication or not. If the answering move strengthens the position, then the play is not kikashi but aji keshi.