Re: computer-go: Move selection

[David Mechner <mechner@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

"Urgent" moves often have to do with the attack and defense of groups;
"Big" moves are usually just territorial. Amateur players, even strong
ones, often make the mistake of neglecting a weak group to take a big
territorial point. This is probably because it's usually easy to see the
value of the "big" move, and often hard to see the value of a defensive
(or offensive) move when the group in question isn't likely to die. 

In my opinion knowing whether a move is urgent is about as hard as go --
the proverb (and Mr. Yang's variant of it) is essentially just a
mnemonic so players will remember to ask themselves whether there's an
urgent attack/defense move before grabbing territory. 

-David



"Xu, Mousheng (SEA)" wrote:
> 
> (from mr. yang) if there is an urgent situation then play there,
> otherwise
> play in the biggest area.
> 
> * Then how do you know a position is "urgent"?
> * One of my long lasting question is: what's the difference between an
> urgent place & a big area? In terms of value, they are all big. If a
> "urgent" place is not as big as a big area, play the big area first. Why
> people say "an urgent place is bigger than a big area"?
> 
> * Thanks.
> 
> -- Mousheng Xu