If you play Go with Vietnamese speakers, or read Vietnamese Go material, you will meet a set of words that at first look unfamiliar. Many of them are Sino-Vietnamese: Vietnamese readings of the same Chinese characters used in Chinese and Japanese Go terms. Once you know the pattern, they are easy to remember, and they make conversations across the board much smoother.
This guide covers the most common terms, what they mean, and how they relate to the Japanese words often used in English Go writing.
The name of the game
- Cờ vây: Go. Literally "the surrounding game". Cờ means board game, vây means to surround.
- Vi kỳ: the Sino-Vietnamese reading of the Chinese name, used in older or formal writing.
- Bàn cờ: the board.
- Quân cờ or simply quân: the stones. Black stones are quân đen, white stones quân trắng.
Basic concepts
- Khí: liberty. The empty points next to a group. "Nhóm này còn hai khí" means "this group has two liberties left".
- Ăn quân or bắt quân: to capture. "Ăn" literally means to eat, and it is used for capturing in all Vietnamese board games.
- Mắt: eye. A group with two mắt lives. The word literally means "eye", exactly like the English term.
- Mắt giả: false eye, a point that looks like an eye but can be destroyed.
- Sống and chết: alive and dead. A category of study is sống chết, life and death.
- Cướp: ko. The word means to snatch or rob, which describes the back-and-forth capture well.
- Tự sát: suicide, a move that leaves your own stones without liberties. It is not allowed on this site.
Strategy and stages of the game
- Bố cục: the opening, the Japanese fuseki. Literally "arrangement of the layout".
- Định thức: joseki, standard corner sequences. It is the Sino-Vietnamese reading of the same two characters as the Japanese word.
- Trung cuộc: the middle game.
- Quan tử: the endgame, the Japanese yose. It is the Sino-Vietnamese reading of the Chinese term for the endgame.
- Đất: territory. Literally "land" or "earth".
- Tính điểm: counting the score.
Initiative and tempo
- Tiên thủ: sente, a move that keeps the initiative. Literally "first hand".
- Hậu thủ: gote, a move that gives up the initiative. Literally "after hand".
- Đi nơi khác or simply "bỏ qua" in casual speech: playing elsewhere, the idea behind tenuki.
The pairing of tiên thủ and hậu thủ is also used in cờ tướng to describe who moved first, so xiangqi players already know the words.
Fighting terms
- Thang: ladder. Literally "ladder" or "staircase", matching the zigzag shape of the chase.
- Lưới: net, the Japanese geta. Literally "net".
- Cắt: to cut.
- Nối: to connect.
- Chạy: to run, as when a weak group escapes.
- Đối sát: a capturing race. Some players simply describe it as "đua khí", racing liberties. Usage varies between teachers and books, so you may hear either.
Scoring words
- Komi: usually borrowed directly as "komi". Some players say điểm bù, "compensation points".
- Bỏ lượt: to pass. Two consecutive passes end the game on this site.
- Thắng and thua: win and lose. Thắng 3,5 điểm means winning by 3.5 points. Note that Vietnamese uses a comma for the decimal point.
Pronunciation tips
Vietnamese is tonal, and the marks on letters show the tone. A few tips for these words:
- Cờ has a falling tone, like a gentle drop in pitch.
- Vây is pronounced roughly like "vuh-y", said quickly, with a level tone.
- Khí begins with a sound close to the "ch" in Scottish "loch", with a rising tone.
- Mắt is short, with a sharp rising tone.
- Cướp is roughly "kuh-uhp" with a rising tone and a clipped ending.
Do not worry about perfect pronunciation. Vietnamese players are usually delighted when a foreign player uses even a few of these words, and the board makes the meaning clear.
Why learn the words at all?
You can play Go without saying anything. But if you want to learn from Vietnamese players, read Vietnamese books or simply make a friend over the board, a few words go a long way. They also show you something interesting about the game's history: the same concepts travelled across East and Southeast Asia, and each language kept the old names in its own pronunciation.
Using the words on this site
This is the English half of a Go site pair; its Vietnamese partner uses these terms throughout. On this site you can practise on the home page against the computer on 9×9 or 13×13, play people on the online page on 9×9, 13×13 or 19×19, and sign in on the account page to save your games. If you meet Vietnamese players face to face, try greeting them with "chào bạn" and saying "cảm ơn" at the end. Online games here have no chat, so there the board does the talking.
For more context, read Go in Vietnam and the English Go glossary.
How these words sound in a real game
In a casual Vietnamese game, you might hear a player murmur "còn một khí" (one liberty left) when a group is in atari, or "cướp rồi" (it's a ko now) when a ko starts. A teacher reviewing a game might say "chỗ này là định thức" (this is joseki here) or "nước này hậu thủ" (this move is gote). Spectators, if any, might say "chết rồi" (it's dead) about a group that cannot live.
You do not need to follow every sentence to benefit. Hearing the key words while watching the board is one of the easiest ways to learn both the game and a little Vietnamese at the same time. If you are learning with a Vietnamese friend, ask them to name each concept as it appears in your games. Within a few sessions, the most common words will feel as natural as their English equivalents.
Frequently asked questions
What does "khí" mean in Go?
It means liberty, the empty points next to a group.
What is ko called in Vietnamese?
Cướp, a word meaning to snatch or rob.
What is joseki in Vietnamese?
Định thức, the Sino-Vietnamese reading of the same characters as the Japanese word.
How do Vietnamese players say sente and gote?
Tiên thủ and hậu thủ, literally first hand and after hand.
Do I need to know these words to play?
No, but they make learning from Vietnamese players and materials much easier.
