Phases of the game

While the opening plays in a game have a distinct set of aims, they usually make up only 10% to at most 20% of the game. In other words, in a game of 250 plays, there may be around 30 or so opening plays, with limited "fighting". At the end of such a game, there will also be perhaps 100 plays that are counted as "endgame", in which territories are finished off definitively and all issues on capturing stones become clear. The middle phase of the game is the most combative, and usually lasts for more than 100 plays. During the middlegame, or just "the fighting", the players invade each others' frameworks, and attack weak groups, formations that lack the necessary two eyes for viability. Such groups must run away, i.e. expand to avoid enclosure, giving a dynamic feeling to the struggle. It is quite possible that one player will succeed in capturing a large weak group of the opponent's, which will often prove decisive and end the game by a resignation. But matters may be more complex yet, with major trade-offs, apparently dead groups reviving, and skillful play to attack in such a way as to construct territories rather than to kill.

expecting ko fights

The end of the middlegame and transition to the endgame is marked by a few features. The game breaks up into areas that do not affect each other (with a caveat about ko fights), where before the central area of the board related to all parts of it. No large weak groups are still in serious danger. Plays can reasonably be attributed some definite value, such as 20 points or fewer, rather than simply being necessary to compete. Both players set limited objectives in their plans, in making or destroying territory, capturing or saving stones. These changing aspects of the game usually occur at much the same time, for strong players. In brief, the middlegame switches into the endgame when the concepts of strategy and influence need reassessment in terms of concrete final results on the board.

Google Advertise

Who's Online

We have 1619 guests online