Haengma

[Robert Jasiek]

>From Master of Haengma I have got the impression that haengma
is not some particularly high level concept but more a rather
normal strategic concept as fundamental as life and death,
aji, or shape, e.g.

I now believe that haengma is
"the development of strategic objects (like a group or a moyo)
relative to a position's stones".

This means that it is about a process and not about something
fixed. It is not the same as "shape". It presumes tactical
and - as far as the direction of play might require it -
strategic reading, selects the best reading sequences for
the further development of a strategic object, considers
interactions with the further development of other strategic
objects, and finally chooses the best further development.
Always the positional environment is considered, too.
Developments are evaluated by all available means, if
necessary.

So haengma is an object orientated development. Therefore one
often gets the impression that it would be only a local
development, which is not true in general.

Haengma is much more than the creation of efficient shape;
it also creates the result of a development that fits the
directions of plays, the surrounding stones, and the global
directions and urgencies. Since haengma creates best
developments, the resulting shapes can also be good shapes.
This, however, is not important. Instead the focus is laid
on the general positional characteristics and strategic aims
therein.

In the English literature all I remember about haengma is
"the struggle to get ahead" and "the stones go walking" in
Lessons in the Fundamentals of Go. Otherwise despite its
most fundamental importance haengma is a new concept in the
Western go world!!! A single English word does not seem to
exist for it. Therefore I suggest to stick with the Korean
term. What do you think?

--
robert jasiek

[Simon Goss]

Robert Jasiek <jas...@snafu.de> writes

>In the English literature all I remember about haengma is
>"the struggle to get ahead" and "the stones go walking" in
>Lessons in the Fundamentals of Go. Otherwise despite its
>most fundamental importance haengma is a new concept in the
>Western go world!!! A single English word does not seem to
>exist for it. Therefore I suggest to stick with the Korean
>term. What do you think?

Stick with the Korean term. Find out more about what it means :)
--
Simon

[Roy Schmidt]

Volume II of the Learn to Play Go series by Jeong and Kim is titled
_The Way of the Moving Horse_, which is haengma in Korean. Quoting
from page 38, "Stones can't move after they are played, but you can
connect your stones together to form chains or groups. As the game
progresses and more stones are added, the chains of stones look like
they are 'running' or 'moving' across the board. Or so it seemed to
ancient Go players; you may prefer to think of haengma as simply a
relationship between two of your stones."

There are many examples of haengma in the book. One example is the
one-point jump.

My impression is that haengma is a very elementary concept, and that
the book Robert was reviewing is aimed at beginners. From what Robert
said about the diagrams in that book, there appear to be things we can
all learn from elementary books, if we look at them afresh.

Cheers, Roy

-------------------------------------------------
my reply-to address is gostoned at home dot com
-------------------------------------------------
Roy Schmidt
Part-time Translator for Yutopian
Full-time Professor of Business Computer Systems
Bradley University

"Simon Goss" <si...@gosoft.demon.co.uk> wrote in message
news:KQgFcAAo...@gosoft.demon.co.uk...

[Robert Jasiek]

Roy Schmidt wrote:
> there appear to be things we can
> all learn from elementary books, if we look at them afresh.

I read a lot of books for single kyu players, set my own
learning aims, and get something if only the book quality
is good enough.

--
robert jasiek