Page:Smith - The game of go.djvu/78

52 should have played at C 17, as we have previously pointed out.

Sometimes at the end of the game players of moderate skill may differ as to whether there is anything left to be done, and when one thinks there is no longer any advantage to be gained by either side, he says, "Mo arimasen, aru naraba o yuki nasai," that is to say, "I think there is nothing more to be done; if you think you can gain anything, you may play," and sometimes he will allow his adversary to play two or three times in succession, reserving the right to step in if he thinks there is a chance of his adversary reviving a group that is apparently dead.

No part of the rules of the game has been more difficult for me to understand than the methods employed at the end, and especially the rule in regard to the removal of dead stones without actually surrounding them, but I trust in the foregoing examples I have made this rule sufficiently clear. Moreover, it is not always easy to tell whether stones are dead or alive. There is a little poem or "Hokku" in Japanese, which runs as follows:

which might be translated as "Oh! what kind of a Go player is he who does not know whether his stones are alive or dead!" But while the Japanese author of this "Hokku" may have regarded it as a simple thing, the Occidental student of the game would not be likely to share his views. An instance of this is shown by the possibilities of the supposedly dead black stone on Plate 10, and I think it would be fairer to state that the skill of a good Go player is most