Revision as of 18:02, 28 August 2022

Proposed page: Question

A question is a move that forces a player to choose between two or more available options. The player can either answer the question, by playing one of the available responses, or not answer and play elsewhere, for example by asking a question of their own or playing a forcing move elsewhere. However, if the original question is sufficiently forcing, it must be answered right away.

Sometimes a player has a choice between accomplishing one of several different things in a given position. In that case, it is often in the player's interest to postpone the choice as long as possible, to keep their options open until they know more about what is going on on the rest of the board. By playing a question, the opponent can sometimes force them to make the choice earlier than they would have liked.

Example: U-turn

Perhaps the simplest example of a question is playing in the center of a U-turn. The U-turn is the following position, consisting of two overlapping bridges:

With Blue to move, Red has a choice between connecting A to B or connecting A to C, but Red cannot achieve both of these things simultaneously. By playing in the center marked "*", Blue asks the question "which or B or C do you want to connect to?"

The following is a position where asking this question is the only winning move for Blue:

With Blue to move, in the upper part, Blue gets to choose whether Red connects B or C to the top edge. In the lower part, Blue can force Red to choose whether to connect B or C to the bottom edge. By playing the question at "*", Blue forces Red to make this choice. If Red chooses B, Blue blocks B on top and vice versa.

Example: template intrusion

Consider the following edge template:

This template has the curious property that, with Blue to move, Red can choose to connect either A or B to the edge, but cannot guarantee to connect them both. (See edge templates V-2g and V-2h).

To be continued...

To do

Add other illustrative examples, such as a template intrusion that forces the player to decide whether the opponent gets stronger on one side or the other, or a trade-off between a stronger connection and letting the opponent get a ladder escape, etc.

Also point out that Josekis are essentially sequences of questions and answers.