Chapter Text
The morning sun was warming the bedroom, even in the shade. After a quick breakfast of crisps and a mint kitkat, Hikaru had closed the door to allow some time for studying. He had visited the bookstore for the first time and chosen a new book titled "Principles of Go for beginners". Following the kifu diagrams, he was placing stones on his ancient wooden goban. Despite seeming like just a thin bundle of black and white, there was much more than he could appreciate.
"What is a proverb?" Hikaru queried.
"Flowers grow with the rains and they die with the frost. A Go proverb is a short phrase that is easy to remember. Sometimes it advises you to prepare before you act, sometimes it describes the position, and other times it summarises what has already happened. Sometimes it is easy to apply and sometimes it is wrong, but it guides you to think." Sai was in a wistful mood. It must be strange not being able to eat or feel anything.
Tracing his finger over the words, Hikaru read out loud.
1. The corners are gold, the edges are silver and the centre is grass.
2. The first player locally has the local advantage.
3. The second player expects to be forcefully attacked.
4. Stones should be played in harmony with previous moves.
5. As more stones get added in a fight, both sides get thicker locally.
6. Play away from thickness.
7. Invade at the last possible moment.
8. Attack by pushing the opponent towards your thickness.
Sai explained the meaning of the first principle "It is easier to make eyespace and territory in the corners because it takes half as many moves to surround the same number of points. Once you have a living group, that helps support development. Although all points on the board count equally, it takes some time before the centre becomes valuable enough to claim. This is why the first four moves in almost every game are in the four corners."
"The relevance of the sixth principle is that moves are valuable when they help claim territory. Even influence oriented moves are aiming to create territory by attacking in the future. The most valuable moves affect the life and death of a large group, but moves that threaten a group while also building their own territory are the most common. "
"Look at Black's group here in the Honinbo final game. It is completely connected with 15 stones, spanning a whole side of the board. It already has one eye and lots of space nearby. This means that there is very little potential for White to attack it, which reduces the value of nearby moves. This is called Black's thickness. White would like to reduce it with a strong group and Black would like to complete a large territory with it by attacking to make another large wall far away and killing anything inside."
Sai thought to himself that more proverbs could be written about different options during a game and how that affects future strategy.
"Moves with more space leave more opportunities for the opponent to cut and attack. Although weak stones can be sacrificed, they can't be depended on to help rescue other weak groups. Moves with less space are more solid but the few weak points they have are more valuable to lean on since further defence is overconcentrated. A slow shape is more easily surrounded as a whole."
"Perhaps a wide area that Black dominates can also be seen as helping to attack neighbouring White areas? Perhaps that's the way to solve Go?"