Concept notes

Aji 味

Often translated as potential (the base meaning is 'taste') but more often used untranslated. It is used to describe the possibilities left, often deliberately, in a local situation through defects or dead stones. These possibilities potentially come alive later when more stones have been placed nearby. The player who has to worry about these defects is said to have bad aji (aji ga warui). If the possibilities are rather more concrete and there is a clear line of favourable play (but the timing is not yet right), the phrase te ga aru - 'there is a move here' - is normally preferred.

At the other end of the scale, if there is only a germ of an idea, it is described as fukumi (hidden idea). The term aya is often used when there are nasty interlocking complications (like a 'twill' pattern).

Useful proverbs

• Aji wo nokose - Play so as to leave aji
• Aji no nokoru wa gote de wa nai - Leaving aji is never gote
• Ajinokori wo yoseru na - Don't play endgame moves where aji remains
• Muyami ni semezu aji wo miyo - Don't attack impetuously but consider the aji
• Ishi no yoryoku wo wasureru na - Don't forget that stones may have hidden powers

There are several other useful derived words or phrases. Aji wo kesu is to eliminate aji (bad play if you are destroying aji useful to you). The noun form ajikeshi is often used in the west. Ajibaru is to play in an apparently straightforward way but actually so as to increase the aji. Ajitsuki is adding aji to a position, or creating aji. Kouaji is aji that has a possible ko within it.

© John Fairbairn & T Mark Hall (GoGoD), London 2007.