From: yychen@watdragon.uwaterloo.ca (Youyi Chen)
Subject: Re: The Mysteries of Weiqi (part 8)
Organization: University of Waterloo
Date: Sun, 3 Jan 1993 03:15:05 GMT

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!!! Warning !!!
        Go isn't everything.  Go is the only thing.

                                  -- Zhuge
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Number 10 golden rule is:

                "Si Gu Qu He"

Si4 = shape, influence;
Gu1 = isolated, alone;
Qu3 = look for;
He1 = peace

This is an easy one. It means that one should
"look for peace, avoid fighting in an isolated or weak situation".

I guess everybody agree that one should "Qu He" when "Si Gu".
However, to understand is one thing, to apply on the board is
another thing. It is usually too late to realize "Si Gu" when
one is already in a looking-for-eye situation.

To have a better understanding of this golden rule, we
should take time to summarize what we have discussed here.
Of all eight golden rules mentioned, following key words
perhaps share something in common:

    Bao (safeguard), Gu (take care), Xiang Ying (in concert),
    Huan (unhurried),  Wu Qing Su (keep good and thick shape), 
    "Qu He" (look for peace).

Knowing that Go is a game of contestation, one has to be surprised 
to note that nothing like "being tough", "being aggressive", 
or "go all the way to kill" appeared in the above list.
Some people may wonder if Go is a strange game which differs from 
the others or if Ji Xin Wang's golden rules are not that golden
after all.

To make a point, let me share with you one of my personal story.
I moved from the States to Canada a few years ago. While
I didn't feel anything like moving from China to the States,
one thing bothered me a lot was that car drivers in the North side
are too aggressive comparing to those in the south of the border.
(Those on Ontario's 401 compare to those on most US's Interstates.
But, Toronto City has no match with Chicago or NYC's Manhattan.)
After been tailgated and often humiliated on highway, I upgraded
my car with double horsepower and went to library to borrow a book 
about high performance driving (not sure if it's the one written by 
the king Richard petty). What I found surprising from the book 
was the following three golden rules for race car drivers:

    Number 1 : be smooth;
    Number 2 : be smooth again;
    Number 3 : be smooth all the time.

So, what's the point? The point is that Go is just like other games 
and Ji Xin Wang's ten golden rules share one thing in common ---- 
"Be balanced". As pointed out by Otake Hideo, these rules are about 
"balance of fast and slow", "balance of strong and weak", 
"balance of territory and shape thickness", and so on.

Finally, let's see two examples from Otake Hideo about "Si Gu Qu He".

Black to play:

 8 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  8
 7 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . O # . . .  7
 6 . . # . . . . . . . . . . . . O O . .  6
 5 . . . . . O . . . . O . . . . . . . .  5     Board 1
 4 . . . # . . . . . + . . . . . # . . .  4
 3 . . . . # O . . . . O . # . . ? . . .  3
 2 . . . . . O . . . . . . . . . . . . .  2
 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  1
   A B C D E F G H J K L M N O P Q R S T

Black to play:

11 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11       
10 . . # + . . . . . + . . . . . + . . . 10      
 9 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . O . . .  9
 8 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  8
 7 . . # . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  7
 6 . . . . . . . # # . . . . . . . O . .  6
 5 . . O . . . . # O O . . . . . . . . .  5      Board 2
 4 . . . O . . . . # O . . . . . # . ? .  4
 3 . . . . . . O . . O . . . . . . . . .  3
 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  2
 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  1
   A B C D E F G H J K L M N O P Q R S T

Blacks appear to be "Si Gu" in both Board 1 and Board 2's South-East corner.
Therefore, B should make peace in  Q3 and S4 respectively.


Youyi Chen                                yychen@watdragon.uwaterloo.ca