Dead Stones
Virtually all games will have at least a few dead stones, which remain on the board at the end of the game, when both players pass. Those dead stones are then removed, in an operation often called 'cleaning', which is a separate phase of the game. The stones removed are treated exactly like other captured stones. Under Chinese rules, which use area counting, stones removed during the cleaning phase are returned to their bowls.
It is a novice mistake to carry out the capture of dead stones before it is of tactical importance to do so. Such plays, during the game, waste a turn and may also cost points.
Single stones and small groups are often sacrificed. In cases where a group is more than of sacrificial value, that group typically must make life in order for one to have a chance at winning the overall game.
Generally each side will have at most 4-5 living groups on the board at the end of the game. There is a go proverb that says that "Five groups may live, but the sixth will die" which in a nutshell describes the need to emphasise connection between developing groups. The struggle for life can be solved by connection. Since each group needs two eyes, (and eyes are sometimes hard to come by) the alternative is to connect out to another group, thereby sharing both liberties and eyes.
Read more about this topic: Life And Death
Famous quotes containing the words dead and/or stones:
“I’d rather I were dead and gone,
And my body laid in grave,
Ere a rusty stock o coal-black smith
My maidenhead should have.”
—Unknown. The Twa Magicians (l. 17–20)
“Three million of such stones would be needed before the work was done. Three million stones of an average weight of 5,000 pounds, every stone cut precisely to fit into its destined place in the great pyramid. From the quarries they pulled the stones across the desert to the banks of the Nile. Never in the history of the world had so great a task been performed. Their faith gave them strength, and their joy gave them song.”
—William Faulkner (1897–1962)