General

• Keep a balance between territory and influence. 
• When winning, keep the game simple; make it complex only when losing.
• The enemy's vital point is your own.
• Win the stones, lose the game; give up worthless stones.
• Use contact moves for defence; do not attach when attacking.
• Attack after making the enemy heavy.
• Make your own groups strong first, then attack.
• When your opponent has two weak groups, attack them both at once.
• Avoid moves that strengthen your opponent.
• With only one group, you will win.
• Five groups might live but a sixth will die.
• The fourth line is the line of influence, the third line is the line of territory and the second line is the line of defeat.
• The strong player plays straight, the weak diagonally.
• Always grab the border point between two moyos.
• Never ignore a shoulder hit.
• Don't try to enclose an open skirt.
• Nets are better than ladders.
• Do not fear furikawari (exchange).
• Fill in a semeai (race to capture) from the outside.
• Eyes win semeais (races to capture).

 

Thickness

• There is a thin line between thick and slow.
• Keep away from thickness; don't make territory near thickness.
• Use a wall to attack, not to make territory.
• Thickness? Ladders always work!
• When your opponent is thick, you must also become thick.

 

Liberties

• Don't reduce your own liberties. 
• There is damezumari (shortage of liberties) at the bamboo joint.
• Five liberties for tactical stability.
• With fewer than 15 stones in danger, tenuki (play elsewhere).

 

Fuseki (start) and chuban (middle game)

• Keep sente in the opening; a premature attack loses sente.
• In the opening, when you don't know what to play, make a shimari (corner enclosure). 
• 5 lines for extension in front of shimari (corner enclosure).
• Keshi (reduction) is worth as much as an invasion.
• To reduce an opponent's large prospective territory, strike at the shoulder.
• Learn to play under the stones.
• If you plan to live inside enemy territory, play directly against his stones.
• To invade, you need 20 points of open area; otherwise, keshi (reduction) is best.

 

Shape

• Be willing to sacrifice for good shape.
• Grab the shape points as kikashi (forcing moves).
• Grab the 4th point of the bamboo joint.
• Don't disturb symmetry.
• If a formation is symmetrical, play at the center.
• Against three in a row, play right in the center.
• Empty triangles are bad.
• Don't make dangos.
• Connect with good shape and don't play on dame points.
• Learn the eye-stealing tesuji.
• If your stone is capped, play the knight's move.
• Add one stone, then sacrifice both.
• 2-1 is the vital point in the corner.
• Avoid the plate connection.
• A knight's move near the edge of the board cannot be cut.
• Strike at the waist of the knight's move.
• From a cross-cut, extend.
• Don't peep at cutting points.
• Attach to the strongest stone in a pincer.
• Use the keima (knight's move) to attack, the ikken tobi (1-point jump) to defend.
• Ikken tobi (1-point jump) is never wrong.
• If you have one stone on the third line, add another, then abandon both of them.
• Answer the keima (knight's move) with a kosumi (diagonal connection).

 

Hane

• There is death in the hane.
• Respond to attachment with hane.
• Hane? Extend! Make it a habit.
• At the head of two stones in a row, play hane.
• At the head of three stones in a row, play hane.

 

Ko fights

• Dead group? Always win ko fights!
• The weak player fears ko, the strong player seeks it.
• There are no ko threats in the opening.
• The carpenter's square becomes ko.
• Start with the smallest ko threat that works.
• In a semiai (race to cature), take the ko last.

 

Life and death

• The L-group is dead.

• On the second line six die, eight live.
  
  
  
  
   
• On the third line, four die, six live.
  
  
  
  
   
• In the corner, five stones in a row on the third line are alive.
  
  
   
• The rectangular six is normally alive.
  
  
   
• For rectangular six in the corner, dame is necessary.
  
    
   
• The comb formation is alive.
  
  
   
• For the comb formation in the corner, dame is necessary.
  
   
   
• If there is a stone on the handicap point, the carpenter's square leads to a ko.
  Black lives at A, White creates a ko after playing at A.
  
  
   
• If there is no stone on the handicap point, the carpenter's square is dead.
  Black lives at A, White kills the corner after playing at A.
  
   

  

  

  

 

 

Territorial evaluation

• Ponnuki (capture of one stone) is worth 30 points.
• The tortoise shell is worth 60 points.
• The monkey jump is worth 8 points.
• Each step in a ladder is worth 7 points.
• One point in the center is worth 10 in the corner.

Find more proverbs at Sensei and DashBaduk.