Favorite or Most Useful Go Proverbs

Strategy and Tactics
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I thought it would be cool, as well as a useful storage place of information, to share our favorite or most useful Go proverbs here. Personally I think they are both enlightening as well as exciting. It’s the promise of new tactics and strategies held within a single sentence.

So please, share the proverb(s) you love!

“Divide and Conquer”
Love it.
Splitting an opponent’s groups of stones apart is not only useful (necessary) but it brings with it a sort of sigh of relief. You can split apart stones in the opening that are on their own, or split apart battalions of enemy units just one stone away from joining together to form an unbeatable multi-eyed monster, and then feel better knowing the grand power that was almost within your opponent’s grasp is now gone.

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My favorite proverbs are the following:

He who counts, he wins.

A rich man shouldn’t pick fights.

You don’t go fishing when your house is on fire.

A big dragon doesn’t die.

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Go Hard or Go Home.

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Urgent before big.

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The game isn’t over until the stones are back in their bowls.

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6

Don’t play near the strength

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Not a traditional proverb, but I like Baduk Doctor’s “the value of stones is always changing”.

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8

It doesn’t have to be traditional.

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9

When you have six groups, one is dead.

(Although, like many go proverbs, it doesn’t always hold. There is even a thread to showcase games where it didn’t hold: Share your games with 6+ groups)

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  • Kill-All Go
    • White wins all ko
    • Black has all ladders
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11

Is that a proverb?

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Cut first think later

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13

I prefer the phrasing “CUT! …then read” :joy:

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14

Or how about, “When in doubt, cut!”

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When in doubt, tenuki

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一碁一会
(Ichigo Ichie)

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18

French version is “quand tout foutu, couper quand meme” like “when all is fu**ed, still cut”

A favorite one between kibbitzers.

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That’s the name of a restaurant 50m from my home! Probably not with that kanji though. What does it mean?

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Quand tout coupé, foutu quand même
(when all is cut, still fucked)

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