<p>It is the proper way, and is used by most (if not all?) very strong go players (and many beginners as well!).</p>

<p>It allows you to easily place a stone in the middle of many others without touching them, and same to pick one up (when stones are captured you need to remove them from the <em>goban</em> (the playing board)).</p>

<p>In addition to this practical effect, pros and strong amateurs have a very gracious way to handle stones using this finger placement. You can see examples by seeing professional players on the net. I recommend Japanese players, as the whole ceremonial is quite precise, but also in the anime Hikaru No Go (especially Saï).</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-11-22T00:57:40.160Z
2016-11-22T01:33:33.337Z
2016-11-22T01:33:33.337Z
Olivier Dulac
<p>In an early episode of <i>Hikaru no Go</i> Akira Toya comments that Hikaru must be a beginner because he's holding his stones incorrectly. In the show, it is shown that real Go players use a grip that only uses their index and ring fingers. Is this true in the real world? And if so, what exactly is the advantage of this grip? It seems to me that not using your thumb would be more likely to lead to dropping a stone accidentally, so I'm having trouble seeing why it would be used.</p>

<p><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/F3wfH.jpg" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/F3wfH.jpg" alt="Hikaru holding stone"></a></p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-11-14T08:51:27.390Z
this, http://boardgames.stackexchange.com/questions/5497/why-are-stones-placed-with-index-and-middle-finger and to make such intense sound when placing a stone :)
Darjeeling
CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-11-15T11:25:41.337Z
I think they also grip the pieces like this when playing shogi. Both are board games popular (?) in japan and uses small pieces.
Unihedron
CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-11-22T04:00:51.333Z
IIRC when I learned Go, I was taught that this was the "correct" grip, but I don't know the reason behind it.
Maroon
<culture><hikaru-no-go>
Is the grip shown in Hikaru no Go really used by expert Go players?
# Is the grip shown in Hikaru no Go really used by expert Go players?
Posted by: username_0 on 2016-11-13
In an early episode of *Hikaru no Go* Akira Toya comments that Hikaru must be a beginner because he's holding his stones incorrectly. In the show, it is shown that real Go players use a grip that only uses their index and ring fingers. Is this true in the real world? And if so, what exactly is the advantage of this grip? It seems to me that not using your thumb would be more likely to lead to dropping a stone accidentally, so I'm having trouble seeing why it would be used.

[![Hikaru holding stone](https://i.sstatic.net/F3wfH.jpg)](https://i.sstatic.net/F3wfH.jpg)
**Tags:** culture hikaru-no-go
> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: this, http://boardgames.stackexchange.com/questions/5497/why-are-stones-placed-with-index-and-middle-finger and to make such intense sound when placing a stone :)  
> **username_2**: I think they also grip the pieces like this when playing shogi. Both are board games popular (?) in japan and uses small pieces.  
> **username_3**: IIRC when I learned Go, I was taught that this was the "correct" grip, but I don't know the reason behind it.  
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## 1 answers
### Answer by username_4 on 2016-11-22. Score: 6 | Accepted answer
It is the proper way, and is used by most (if not all?) very strong go players (and many beginners as well!).

It allows you to easily place a stone in the middle of many others without touching them, and same to pick one up (when stones are captured you need to remove them from the *goban* (the playing board)).

In addition to this practical effect, pros and strong amateurs have a very gracious way to handle stones using this finger placement. You can see examples by seeing professional players on the net. I recommend Japanese players, as the whole ceremonial is quite precise, but also in the anime Hikaru No Go (especially Saï).
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