Re: computer-go: Re: Joseki and Fuseki

[Richard Brown <rbrown@xxxxxxxx>]

Song Li wrote:


> >Joseki and Fuseki? I know there are two similar terms, one is the overall
> >openning on the whole board, and the other is certain sequence of moves
> >(usually) near one corner which usually lead balanced black and white. For
> >example, black (4, 4) and then white (6, 3). I guess Fuseki is the overall
> >opening, and the fuseki is the around-corner move sequence. Am I right?
> >
>                   ^^^^^^Joseki

Yes, you are right.

"Joseki" is easy to explain if you read Chinese.  In pinyin, the characters for
the word "joseki" are:

     ding4  meaning "established, fixed, determined, decided", and
     shi2  meaning "stones".

Thus, "joseki" corresponds exactly to the characters used for the Chinese
technical term, "ding4 shi2".

"Fuseki" is a bit more confusing.  I had always thought that it's written using
the characters:

     bu2 (or bu4) meaning "non-" [a 4-stroke character], and
     shi2 meaning "stones".

That has always made sense to me:  Fuseki is the "non-stone" part of the game;
there aren't any -- or at least there are very few -- stones on the board yet.

But I may be wrong about this, because when I look at the InterGo dictionary at
 <http://www.gobase.org/> , it shows for "fuseki" the characters:

     bu4 meaning "cloth" [a 5-stroke character], and
     shi2 meaning "stones".

Maybe gobase used the wrong bu4 character?  Or maybe I have been wrong, all
these years.

To further confound me, gobase claims that the Chinese technical term may be
either "bu4 ju2", or "kai1 ju2", but it doesn't show the ju2 character at all,
and I can't guess which one of several ju2 characters it might be:  Ball?
Chrysanthemum?  Mandarin Orange?  Or the one that seems to connote an illicit
love affair?

As for the kai1 character, I guess it must be the one that means "open" or
"unfold" or "unseal" -- but this character is not shown at gobase, either.

So, while I can guess at the meaning of kai1, I'm unsure about ju2, and
I have some doubt whether bu4 means "non-" or "cloth".  Very strange.

Anyway, gobase seems pretty sure that the term "fuseki" corresponds to
"bu4 ju2", but they don't show the characters, so I am still confused.

Rich
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