Page:Smith - The game of go.djvu/72

46 is called "Dame" in Japanese, but etymologically the word really means "horse's eye," as the Japanese, not being admirers of the vacant stare of that noble animal, have used this word as a synonym for all that is useless. Therefore the syllable "Me" does mean an eye, and is the same word that is used to designate the intersections, but its recurrence in this connection is merely an accident.)

It is difficult for the beginner at first to understand why the filling of these "Dame" results in no advantage to either player, and beginners often fill up such spaces even before the end of the game, feeling that they are gaining ground slowly but surely; and the Japanese have a saying, "Heta go ni dame nashi," which means that there are no "Dame" in beginners' Go, as beginners do not recognize their uselessness. On the other hand, a necessary move will sometimes look like "Dame." The moves that are likely to be so confused are the final connecting moves or "Tsugu," where a potential connection has been made early in the game, but which need to be filled up to complete the chain. In the Illustrative Game, Number, the "Dame" are all given, but a little practice is necessary before they can always be recognized.

When the "Dame" have been filled, and the dead stones have been removed from the board, there is no reason why the players should not at once proceed to counting up which of them has the greatest amount of vacant space, less, of course, the number of stones they have lost, and thus determine who is the victor. As a matter of practice, however, the Japanese do not do this immediately, but, purely for the purpose of facilitating the count, the player having the white pieces would fill up his adversary's territory with