Connecting Stones

1. The Firm Connection

The firm connection is your basic connection. According to our definition of connection (i.e. connected stones are vertically or horizontally adjacent) - the firm connection is the only real connection. It is shown in Position 1 of Fig 1-1 - two stones firmly connected - nothing can pray them apart any more - they stand together or they die together - they are fate-brothers forever! This is pretty straightforward stuff. An application of such straight connection you can see in Position 2 - black jumps with '1', white peeps with '2' (more on peeps here), and then black firmly connects with '3'. Simple.

Position 1	Position 2

Fig 1-1. Firm connection

Important:
All the different connection types discussed here has its sights on ensuring that such firm connection is possible!

2. Bamboo-joint Connection

Bamboo-joint connection is the second-most firm connection. It is illustrated in Position 1 of Fig 2-1 - the stones marked '1' are connected to the stones marked '2' through a bamboo-joint! So, as you can see, a bamboo-joint is nothing more than two pairs of stones separated by single file of empty spaces. Sometimes the "pairs" of stones are longer - they may be 3 or 4 or 5 stones in straight chains on each side of the empty spaces - but the basic bamboo-joint is two pairs of stones!

Position 1	Position 2	Position 3

Fig 2-1. Bamboo-joint connection

Technically, the stones in Position 1 are not connected - they are not only not adjacent horizontally or vertically, they are not even diagonally adjacent!! Bummer.... But this is one of the basic ideas of a connection in Go - it is less important what is connected, and more important what cannot be (easily) cut! This means that we can consider stones to be connected not only when they are firmly connected, but also (and even more often) if they are in such configuration that such firm connection is ensured - in other words, the opponent cannot separate such stones!! Wow! This is heavy, hehe...

Look at Position 2 of Fig 2-1. Black has a bamboo-joint connections, and white tries to cut him apart by wedging his stone in-between the "bamboos" with '1'. Well - all that black has to do to foil white's attempt, is to play at '2' in Position 3 and his stones are firmly connected, forming a single strong unit or group! Not only that - white has to run away and save his stone with '3' or it will get killed (if black was allowed to play at '3'!! Such attempt at a cut of a bamboo-joint is a failure for white! And this is why we consider it to be a connection, even though strictly technically, it is not!

There is a proverb related to a bamboo-joint which states that "You should not peep at the bamboo-joint!" (more on peeps here). Such a peep is shown in Position 4 of Fig 2-2. So - why is it a bad peep? Well - it is a bad peep because it does not threaten to cut, and so black can just ignore it!! Black does not have to play to defend his connection until white plays at '2' in Position 5 (and then he simply plays at '3' to firmly connect his stones).

Position 4	Position 5

Fig 2-2. A peep at a bamboo-joint

White '1' in Position 4 is a waste of time since it does not bother black at all to have a white stone there! The bamboo connection is as firm as ever - which white '1' in place or not!

3. Half-bamboo Connection

Half-bamboo connection is not really a part of proper Go terminology - but it describes a situation which happens so often that it almost deserves a special name. Who know - maybe it has one, I am just an ignorant fool and do not know it. Anyways - lets not think along these lines. Instead - lets look at Position 1 of Fig 3-1 - it shows the half-bamboo connection - it is almost like the bamboo-joint but with one stone missing! It is also a very strong connection, one that the opponent cannot cut (or at least not without the support of some extra stones)!

Position 1	Position 2	Position 3

Fig 3-1. Half-bamboo connectio

Position 2 of Fig 3-1 shows what happens if white tries to separate the black stones by wedging in-between with '1'. The result is sort-of similar to white's attempt to cut the bamboo-joint in Fig 2-1 except that black has to play an extra move at '4' to finish off the firm connection - a move which was not necessary in Fig 2-1. Nonetheless - black ends up with a firm connection and white's attempt at cutting has been successfully repelled. Good! For completeness' sake, Position 3 of Fig 3-1 shows what happens if black neglects to add this extra stone (black '4' in Position 2) - white can cut him in two parts by playing at '5' and thus severe the half-bamboo connection.

Because of this extra move black has to make to ensure his connection, connecting a half-bamboo is an operation which ends in gote, while the proper bamboo-joint represents a sente connection (concepts of sente and gote are explained here) - but this is partially balanced by the fact that it takes 4 stones/moves to build a bamboo-joint while it takes only 3 to build a half-bamboo connection. So, it is hard to say which of these shapes has an advantage - you can see both of them very often in Go games.

So - how about a peep against a half-bamboo joint? It is not so good, even though it does force black to answer, since if he does not, he will be cut - and a result of such cut is shown in Position 3 of Fig 3-1 - even if the sequence leading to this cut is a little different, all stones end up in the same places - I leave it up to you to work it out.

The reason why a peep against a half-bamboo is not that good is that black can answer the peep by making a full bamboo-joint, as in Position 4 of Fig 3-2 - and so, effectively, white '1' would create a shape of "peeping against a bamboo-joint" which, as we have already discussed, is not good.

Position 4	Position 5

Fig 3-2. Peep at a half-bamboo connection

Another way for black to react to a peep against a half-bamboo is to firmly connect at '2' in Position 5 - but this is usually not a good thing to do! The reason for this is that, even though it firmly connects the black stones, it does so with "bad shape" by creating an empty triangle (the marked black stones together with black '2') - and this is something to be avoided (the concept of good and bad shape is explained here - together with the concept of empty triangle).

And this, the shape consideration, is also one of the reasons to sometimes look for alternatives to the firm connection discussed in above.