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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 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.

line 10.

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

A B C D E F G H J K L M N O P Q R S T

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A B C D E F G H J K L M N O P Q R S T

times four more stones are given, and when given they are placed on the diagonal half way between the corner "Seimoku" and the center. These four stones are called "Naka yotsu," or "the four middle stones," but such a handicap could only be given to the merest novice.

We have now completed a survey of all the actual rules of the game, and it may be well to summarize them in order that their real simplicity may be clearly seen; briefly, they are as follows:

1. The object of the game is to obtain vacant territory.

2. The stones are placed on the intersections and on any vacant intersection the player chooses (except in the case of "Ko"). After they are played they are not moved again.

3. (a) One or more stones which are compactly surrounded by the stones of the other side are said to be taken and are at once removed from the board.

(b) Stones which, while not actually surrounded can inevitably be surrounded, are dead, and can be taken from the board at the end of the game without further play.

(c) Taken or dead stones are used to fill up the adversary's territory.

4. The game is at an end when the opposing groups of stones are in absolute contact (the case of "Seki" being the single exception).

It is not possible to imagine a game with simpler rules, or the elements of which are easier to acquire.

We will now turn our attention to a few considerations as to the best methods of play, and of certain moves and formations which occur in every game, and also to the names which in Japanese are used to designate these things.

IV

GENERAL METHODS OF PLAY AND TERMINOLOGY OF THE GAME

As will be shown more in detail in the chapter on Openings or "Joseki," the game is commenced by playing in the corners of the board, and generally on one of the squares adjacent to the handicap point. The reason for this is that the corners of the board are natural fortresses, and can be more readily defended against attack. It is also easier to form territory in the corners of the board. Next to the corners of the board the sides of the board are easiest to defend, and territory is more easily formed along the sides than in the center, and in an ordinary game the play generally proceeds from the corners and edges to the center. The importance which the Japanese attach to the corners is shown by their saying "Yo sumi torarete go wo utsu na,' or, "if the four corners are taken, cease playing." Against a good player it is next to impossible to form territory in the center of the board, unless it is based on one of the sides

or corners.

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There is, however, an old rule of etiquette which is not consistent with this theory of the opening; it used to be regarded as exceedingly impolite and insulting to play the first stone on the handicap point in the center of the board, called "Ten gen." It has been explained to me that the reason for this rule is that such a move was supposed to

assure the victory to the first player, and it is related that when on one occasion Murase Shuho had defeated a rival many times in succession, the latter, becoming desperate, apologized for his rudeness and placed his stone on this spot, and Murase, nevertheless, succeeded in winning the game, which was regarded as evidence of his great skill. It has, however, been shown by Honinbo Dosaku that this move gives the first player no decisive advantage, and I have been also told by some Japanese that the reason that this move is regarded as impolite is because it is a wasted move, and implies a disrespect for the adversary's skill, and from what experience I have had in the game I think the latter explanation is more plausible. At all events, such a move is most unusual and can only be utilized by a player of the highest skill.

When good players commence the game, from the first they have in mind the entire board, and they generally play a stone in each of the four corners and one or two around the edges of the board, sketching out, as it were, the territory which they ultimately hope to obtain. They do not at once attack each other's stones, and it is not until the game is well advanced that anything like a hand to hand conflict occurs. Beginners are likely to engage at once in a close conflict. Their minds seem to be occupied with an intense desire to surround and capture the first stones the adversary places on the board, and often their opposing groups of stones, starting in one corner, will spread out in a struggling mass from that point all over the board. There is no surer indication of the play of a novice than this. It is just as if a battle were to commence without the guidance of a commanding officer, by indiscriminate fisticuffs among

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