should have played at C 17, as we have previously pointed

out.

Sometimes at the end of the game players of moderate skill may differ as to whether there is anything left to be done, and when one thinks there is no longer any advantage to be gained by either side, he says, "Mo arimasen, aru naraba o yuki nasai," that is to say, "I think there is nothing more to be done; if you think you can gain anything, you may play," and sometimes he will allow his adversary to play two or three times in succession, reserving the right to step in if he thinks there is a chance of his adversary reviving a group that is apparently dead.

No part of the rules of the game has been more difficult for me to understand than the methods employed at the end, and especially the rule in regard to the removal of dead stones without actually surrounding them, but I trust in the foregoing examples I have made this rule sufficiently clear. Moreover, it is not always easy to tell whether stones are dead or alive. There is a little poem or "Hokku" in Japanese, which runs as follows:

"Iki shini wo

Shiranu nonki no
Go uchi kana,"

which might be translated as "Oh! what kind of a Go player is he who does not know whether his stones are alive or dead!" But while the Japanese author of this "Hokku" may have regarded it as a simple thing, the Occidental student of the game would not be likely to share his views. An instance of this is shown by the possibilities of the supposedly dead black stone on Plate 10, and I think it would be fairer to state that the skill of a good Go player is most

clearly shown by his ability to recognize immediately whether a group is dead or can be saved; the study of our chapter on Problems will give further illustrations of the difficulty and nicety of such decisions.

We now come to the question of handicaps. Handicaps are given by the stronger player allowing the weaker player to place a certain number of stones on the board before the game begins, and we have seen in the chapter on the Description of the Board that these stones are placed on the nine dotted intersections. If one stone is given, it is usual to place it in the upper right-hand corner. If a second stone is given, it is placed in the lower left-hand corner. If a third stone is given, it is placed in the lower right-hand corner. The fourth is placed in the upper left-hand corner. The fifth is placed at the center or "Ten gen." When six are given, the center one is removed, and the fifth and sixth are placed at the left and right-hand edges of the board on line 10. If seven are given, these stones remain, and the seventh stone is placed in the center. If eight are given, the center stone is again removed, and the seventh and eighth stones are placed on the "Seimoku" on line K. If the ninth is given, it is again placed in the center of the board.

Between players of reasonable skill more than nine stones are never given, but when the disparity between the players. is too great, four other stones are sometimes given. They are placed just outside the corner "Seimoku,” as shown on the diagram (Plate 12), and these extra stones are called "Furin" handicaps. "Furin" means "a small bell," as these stones suggest to the Japanese the bells which hang from the eaves at the corners of a Japanese temple. When the disparity between the players is very great indeed, some