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Life and death shapes to know

Posted: Tue Oct 30, 2012 5:51 pm
by NoSkill
Anyone have specific common shapes from joseki I should know at 1D level?

Like Ive hear of L, L+1, L+2, J, etc but dont really know much about them.

From my brief knowledge L= dead L+1= unsettled L+2= alive ?

Any other shapes with names that are common?

Re: Life and death shapes to know

Posted: Tue Oct 30, 2012 6:20 pm
by Bill Spight
See Eba's Dictionary of Basic Life and Death: http://www.h-eba.com/heba/JITEN/jiten0-4.html :)

Re: Life and death shapes to know

Posted: Tue Oct 30, 2012 6:45 pm
by Time
NoSkill wrote:Anyone have specific common shapes from joseki I should know at 1D level?

Like Ive hear of L, L+1, L+2, J, etc but dont really know much about them.

From my brief knowledge L= dead L+1= unsettled L+2= alive ?

Any other shapes with names that are common?


Like Bill posted, knowing all the shapes in a book like Cho Chikun's All About Life and Death is a good place to start (obviously at 1d you aren't expected to know them all).

As for ones that I think come up often, other than the L groups, you should know J group (at least know that it lives with the hane), tripod group (which comes up often against corner enclosure probes), door group (one of the most important basic side L&D shapes), and whatever the name of the one where you don't make a J group but you instead extend down to the first line to make a ko.

Re: Life and death shapes to know

Posted: Tue Oct 30, 2012 7:02 pm
by tundra
In your thread on christmas presents, you mention that you already have a copy of James Davies' Life and Death, from the Elementary Go Series. That book discusses all the groups you mention, and more. There are also articles on them at Senseis Library, e.g.

L group
L+1 group
L+2 group
Tripod group
J group
Door group

...and many others.

Re: Life and death shapes to know

Posted: Wed Oct 31, 2012 6:35 am
by NoSkill
tundra wrote:In your thread on christmas presents, you mention that you already have a copy of James Davies' Life and Death, from the Elementary Go Series. That book discusses all the groups you mention, and more. There are also articles on them at Senseis Library, e.g.

L group
L+1 group
L+2 group
Tripod group
J group
Door group

...and many others.


yes thanks, but i dont know which stuff to go over first. the beginning chapters are things you dont really need to know, so i dont know where to start reading

Re: Life and death shapes to know

Posted: Wed Oct 31, 2012 8:53 am
by Bill Spight
NoSkill wrote:
tundra wrote:In your thread on christmas presents, you mention that you already have a copy of James Davies' Life and Death, from the Elementary Go Series. That book discusses all the groups you mention, and more.


yes thanks, but i dont know which stuff to go over first. the beginning chapters are things you dont really need to know, so i dont know where to start reading


I don't have the Davies book, but the 2x3 rectangle in the corner turns up surprisingly often in actual games. (OC, I don't mean the completely enclosed single eye with stones descending all the way to the edge, with 0, 1, or 2 outside liberties.) What you really need to know is not so obvious.

From your remarks I think that perhaps you would like an encyclopedic joseki reference, which goes extensively into life and death. The following variations come from the Suzuki-Kitani Jouseki Shoujiten (Small Joseki Dictionary).