I follow the sound of the opponent’s stones when playing. When I look at professional games, I find that they switch elsewhere even in positions when I’d be worried if I didn’t defend. I tell myself that I should play in the opposite direction from the sound of the opponent’s stones, but in practice I find it hard to do so. When I play a stronger player, I find he or she keeps beating me to the points where I want to play. Can you tell me how to think about this, that is, how to play tenuki? Consultation One: Mr. Nagashima Hello, Mr. Nagashima. Thank you for a very good question. There are probably quite a few readers who share this problem. When should one tenuki? First of all, let’s consider a position where you definitely can’t tenuki. This is when you have a weak group under attack. You’ll get into bad trouble if you tenuki in a position like this. I think that the judgement of whether a group is weak or not will depend on your go strength. If you feel that a group is in danger, then don’t tenuki. Other cases: you don’t have a weak group, but the opponent tries to reduce your territory or he tries to expand his own territory. This is your chance to tenuki. When the opponent plays a move, you can’t help focusing on it and it looks big. However, you should pause, take a deep breath and look at the whole board. Quite often you will find there are bigger moves than answering the opponent’s move. In the future, even when the opponent is stronger than you, if you feel that there are bigger moves elsewhere, please have the courage to play tenuki. I am sure that you will make new discoveries and that your go strength will go up a rank.