Life In 19x19

Notes of ideas I am thinking at the moment.

Defend in sente, leaving aji they must fix or threaten while defending.
Keep sente when attacking before taking points.
Use same idea throughout the game, stay will one play stlyle.
Use sabaki and light shape to invade or reduce, sacrifice before heavy.
Stength and shape are keys, but sente and attacking are also vital. Gote good shape isn't as good as sente good shape.
Split weak groups, don't contact weak groups.
Shoulder hit and cap to reduce.
Flow or sente is better than safety with gote.






These are ideas from lee seedol and shusau games.

I don't really agree that sente should be a general goal of eg. joseki.

If there is an important point to get to (like the last big point in the opening), you want to get sente to go there, but this does not seem like a general idea to me.

After seeing modern and ancient pro games I say sente or flow is most important thing right with shape and strengths of groups

It's easy to fall into the trap of becoming too attached to sente and play moves that leave bad aji behind - often it's better to play solidly in gote than thinly in sente. The concepts of sente in gote and gote in sente are useful to know.

I did not say to leave weakness, but to defend with a threat rather than solidly connecting. When you first learn to value shape you do improve, but to get even higher you realize making sente defense moves is better if you can. I'm not saying to leave bad shape, if you have to gote connect is fine, but oftentimes there is a better way. For example look at the most recent lee seedol game, keeping sente during the fight influences a lot of their responses.

This is only my opinion.

I think that these are two different styles and both are playable - both thick, solid gote moves and quicker sente moves. The difference is that playing sente creates a more difficult, higher-tension situation for you, and if you can deal with that then it's fine to play that way. But it's not bad to play the other way either, in a lot of situations.