Life In 19x19

Some thread necromancy!

I find this discussion funny, in some ways. There seems to exist some desperate need to precisely define things that probably are freaking hard to actually define precisely but trivially differentiated between by simple intuition.

My own thoughts come via Starcraft: Yes, destroying an opponent's expansion is definitely BIG, but it just isn't urgent. Killing that dropship that's about to deliver death to your mineral line is urgent. It must be done NOW. The expansion should die ASAP, but it can afford to wait a bit.

In Go terms, think about plays in fighting sequences where you will lose the fight if you divert attention elsewhere, but so will your opponent. The fight is urgent, while that nice territory grab is just big. Fight first, grab territory later. Another simple example of something urgent would be the response to a forcing move. It's often not big at all, but something that simply has to be done immediately or the opponent's probe would turn into some raging demon from hell.

Zombie wrote:There seems to exist some desperate need to precisely define things that probably are freaking hard to actually define precisely but trivially differentiated between by simple intuition.

I believe you mentioned in your introductory post that you don't play go. But if you can identify big and urgent points by simple intuition, I think you should definitely start playing; you have natural talent. Maybe you've been possessed by a go-playing spirit.

Taking two shots.

Shot one -

"Bigness" is simply a measure of size

"Urgent" is size plus consequences.

If something is 'big" enough, it becomes urgent.

Urgent is bigger than big, if the consequences of ignoring it/failing to play it are bigger than the simply big choice.

Shot two - each move has elements of both attributes. A moves bigness is its immediate value, while its urgency is its impact the rest of the board not merely the score. Almost all moves worth playing have elements of both. A big enough impact on the score makes a big move urgent, a move which both players need, at that precise moment becomes massively urgent, even if the value of the exchange is one point.

FWIW