Connect!

In order to connect around intervening opponent stones, you may have to threaten to capture them. Or perhaps you might have to play a sacrifice stone so that your opponent must take an extra move to capture it, thus giving you the necessary extra turn to make the connection. Or, you might have to merely strengthen a framework stone and await the opportunity to connect at a later stage of the game. You might even have no other option than to kill the intervening stones. But whichever way, if you think there is a reasonable chance of connecting, go for it! At the very least this will teach you what you can connect and what you cannot. But also, such an attempt to connect that just fails, as opposed to an exchange that merely makes the disconnection deeper (which obviously you must try to avoid), invariably has a silver lining. For example, you might create defects in the opponent boundary that can be exploited later on in the game, or perhaps make valuable eye space for a beleaguered framework stone whilst still retaining the initiative.

When it is not yet obvious how to connect a framework stone, be certain to play one stone to at least strengthen it. It might be tempting to try to connect towards such a framework stone from the outside. This would be a mistake because, unless the move ensures connection, in reply your opponent's block will weaken the framework stone. It is better to play stones that are (or can definitely be) connected to the framework stone and then later connect these stones to the outside in order to complete the framework link. Playing in this way will ensure life even if a framework link is not successfully established later on.

¨Connect! Example 1
¨Connect! Example 2