Go terms

Players of the game of Go often use jargon to describe situations on the board and surrounding the game. Such technical terms are likely to be encountered in books and articles about Go in English as well as other languages. Many of these terms have been borrowed from Japanese, mostly when no short equivalent English term could be found. This page gives an overview of the most important terms.

Although Go originated in China, the current English and Western technical vocabulary borrows a high proportion of terms from the Japanese language because it was through Japan that Go was introduced to Western culture.

Many of these terms are from a jargon used for technical Go writing and to some extent specially developed for Go journalism. Some authors of English-language Go materials avoid use of Japanese technical terms, and the way they are applied can differ in subtle ways from the original meanings.

A very small number of Korean-language terms have come into use (e.g. haengma as a way of describing the development of stones).

The closest English one could use is 'latent potential.' From the Japanese term aji (味), meaning taste, it refers to the lingering ability of dead stones to open possible avenues of subtle play. Though aji might never be used, it bears on the course of the game. Good aji is when your groups are strong, and have little or no possibility of being compromised. Bad aji is when dead stones or weaknesses in one's own formation carry a latent threat of compromising an existing area should the situation become ripe. Aji is different from a simple defect or weakness in that it can be exploited and/or repaired in multiple ways at multiple stages of the game and the best way or time is not immediately clear; hence the "aftertaste" metaphor.

In Japanese, atari (当たり, あたり, or アタリ) is the nominalized form of ataru (当たる, あたる, or アタル) (verb), meaning "to hit the target" or "to receive something fortuitously". The word 'atari' is used in Japanese when a prediction comes true or when someone wins a lottery. In Chinese: dǎchī (打吃); Korean: dansu (단수). Atari is a term used in Go for a situation where a stone or chain of stones has only one liberty, and may be captured on the next move if not given one or more additional liberties. It can be a verb for the act of placing a chain under atari, as well as an adjective to describe the status of a unit, as being "in (the state of) atari". Calling out atari during a game is sometimes done by beginners much like calling out check in chess, but it is considered rude by many more advanced players.

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