Divine move

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A divine move is a truly inspired and original move in a game of Go. A divine move should be a non-obvious move which balances strategy and tactics to turn a losing game into a winning game. Divine move is singular—they are of such rarity that a full-time go player might be lucky to play a single such move in his or her lifetime.

The Divine Move is used in Go teaching as a motivation to look again at positions in games and consider not just the obvious moves but the less obvious and more innovative as well, in particular tenuki.

An example of one such divine move might be seen in the ear reddening move played by Honinbo Shusaku in 1846, during what is considered to be his most famous game.

From the Japanese 神の一手 "Kami no Itte" ("hand of god")

[edit] In popular media

The possessing spirit Fujiwara-no-Sai in the story Hikaru No Go must play a divine move to find lasting peace. Hikaru, at the end of Fujiwara-no-Sai's winning match in an internet Go game against Toya Meijin, noticed a move that if played as Toya's last move, would have allowed Toya Meijin to win. If this move that Hikaru noticed was played by Toya Meijin, it would be known as a divine move and Toya Meijin would have defeated Fujiwara-no-Sai.

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