Joelnelsonb wrote:
But what is the purpose of the hane if you're just going to let your opponent have that stone if he wants it? Why not just play somewhere else to begin with and let him hane for that matter?
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So back to my question, I'm trying to learn how to know when to let stones go and this particular example is what I'm talking about. Now I understand perfectly why you wouldn't want to protect that stone and would rather play tenuki. However, I can't imagine what would then be the purpose of the first move to begin with. In other words, why play a move if it's unproductive to play that moves natural follow-up?
maybe my replies aren't helping, I don't know, I replied from memory of reading the thread before. Now I re-read the thread. Maybe these aren't the best examples, and its a concept I'm learning to apply in my games lately as well, so I still may not have the best handle on it myself.
But the general concept is not only sente verses gote, but also a bit of double-sente and double-gote, I think.
If I'm reading the situation right, it comes down to who gets to play the hane first. (I'll try to stick to a general description, because I may not be totally accurate with these specific examples)
The hane is a big play to be sure, and it may be bigger, depending on who gets to take it first.
Ok, let's look at both cases:
1) He plays first. We finish the sequence locally. He keeps sente.
2) You play first. We finish the sequence locally. He gets sente.
In this case, keeping/getting sente means getting to take a really big point in another part of the board. I get behind so quickly in my games because I try to save every stone and am constantly relinquishing sente when I didn't need to. I may take what looks like a big point initially, but by the time it plays out, if it ends in gote for me, my opponent usually gets the next bigest point with his sente afterwards. Enough of those, and I quickly fall behind.
So, how can I turn a gote sequence back into sente? By sacrificing.
I play first, he responds. You need to protect, but if you do, its gote.
So leave it unfinished for now (possible sacrifice). Keep sente and take the next biggest point elsewhere. If its a play that he must respond to (else, it wouldn't be sente, would it?), then its still your turn, and you can come back to finish the gote sequence you previously left unfinished.
That means you got both big plays (no sacrifice at all).
Otherwise, if you finish the gote sequence first, then he get the other big point, and you may have lost out in the overall trade.
Also, maybe you can leave it unfinished for a little bit longer? Take a few more big plays, if there are any.
Go is a game of trading. I'll take this over here, and let you have that. You're offering a trade. See which one he takes. Hopefully your value judgement will be better than his and you'll get the bigger half.
And if he takes your sacrifice, its only one stone. And more importantly, it still ends in sente for you!!
You're opponent doesn't want to take the stone, because its gote for him! Eventually, its value becomes big enough that he will take it, so keep an eye on it (so to speak). You got to know when to hold 'em, you got to know when to fold 'em.