Mirror Go

Mirror Go (also called Mane-go) is a strategy in which one player copies the opponent’s moves at points related by a 180-degree rotation around the board’s center, usually with White mirroring Black. After the opponent plays, the mirroring player chooses the corresponding point obtained by rotating that location 180 degrees around tengen. The aim is to preserve board-wide symmetry and try to reproduce the opponent’s strategic results on the opposite side.

Mirror Go is specifically based on rotational symmetry around the center, not on copying across a vertical or horizontal line. It can fail or require a deviation when a move is played at tengen, which has no distinct rotational counterpart, or when captures, ko, other asymmetric features, local tactics, or move-order differences intervene. Continued mirroring may therefore be impossible or strategically unsound.