Editing Go strategy and tactics (section)

===Reading===

Determining ahead of time whether a group is currently alive, dead, or unsettled, requires the ability to extrapolate from the current position and imagine possible plays by both sides, the best responses to those plays, the best responses to those responses, and so on. This is called ''reading ahead'', or just ''reading'', and it is a skill that grows with experience. Many players study books of life and death problems to increase their skill at reading more and more complicated positions.

One of the most important skills required for strong tactical play is the ability to read ahead. Reading ahead consists of considering available moves to play, considering the possible responses to each move, the subsequent possibilities after each of those responses, etcetera. Some of the strongest players of the game can read up to 40 moves ahead even in complicated positions.<ref name="TreasureChest">{{cite book|chapter=Memories of Kitani|title=The Treasure Chest Enigma|author=Nakayama Noriyuki|year=1984|isbn=1-932001-27-1}}</ref>

In general, go players refer to analysis of positions as ''reading''. One major purpose of reading is to be sure that a local position can be neglected for a while. For instance, a player may be able to make gains by playing for a certain patch of territory. Yet, this play may be worth only a few points, and thus deemed unnecessary, depending on the state of the game. With confidence in one's reading, it becomes much easier to set priorities and switch around the board (see [[Go terms#Gote, sente and tenuki|sente]]). Not changing gears at the correct time can be a loss of opportunity.