Recently I was watching a game between high Dan-level amateurs, far above me to be sure, when one of them made a one-space extension to make a base. I suddenly remembered the old saw of “extend two.” But, but they extended 1! The reason is simple: beggars can’t be choosers, as the old saying goes, and in some situations, a one space extension is all you get. This also reminded me of my earlier blog, "Every go proverb is wrong, and so is its opposite" (15 April 2025). Wait, if this is true, does that mean beggars CAN be choosers? Clearly, this is much more complicated than I first thought.
Like sometimes an empty triangle is bad shape and also the best move; and like sometimes a forcing is only a forcing move if your opponent answers as if it were a forcing move! GO is full of these proverbs that are not really so much law as, well, proverbial. Wait, what? I’ll be right back! … I’m back. Dictionary.com come defines a proverb as “a brief popular epigram or maxim”…??? Just a sec….
Back again, apparently an “epigram” is a “a concise poem dealing pointedly and often satirically with a single thought or event and often ending with an ingenious turn of thought” which is decidedly not what I was expecting there. Oh, definition number 3 is just “saying,” which I guess is simpler. Meanwhile, a “maxim” is (not a men’s magazine, but) a “proverbial saying.” Mehtinks someone needs to tell the editors at Dictionary.com what “tautological” means. Hold on, got it….. “Tautological” means, “ involving or containing rhetorical tautology: redundant” which seems to check out here.
To review, redundant means tautology, which means involving rhetoric, which means maxim, which means saying, which means ingenious turn of thought, which means a concise poem. So, whether it is in reference to empty triangles, forcing moves, two space extensions, don’t play too much blitz, never play blitz, on-line GO doesn’t count, or New Zealand rules are just being smarty pants, my rank if wrong, you’re rank is wrong you sandbagger, how many licks does it take to get to the center of a tootsie pop?, beggars can’t be choosers, or a wet bird does not fly at night, remember these are all just poems, and all that matters, is that this is why GO books come with their own dictionaries, none of which have the words “proverbial”, “maxim”, or “tautological” in them. Heck, even this blog is true, and so is its opposite, and its ideas like these that lead to movies like Inception.