Hekomi is a Japanese go term that is fairly often used in Japanese go jargon, but is virtually nonexistent in its English counterpart. ‘Hekomi’ is usually translated ‘dent’ or ‘depression’; but in go terms, I find the former translation not very descriptive while the latter will get confused with the mental state. ‘Hollow’ would make for a more fitting noun translation, but one of the main reasons why the term is so often used in Japanese is because it can effortlessly be made into a verb: ‘hekomi’ (noun) becomes ‘hekomu’ (verb). Therefore, for an English translation, I would suggest ‘cave in’ – at least until somebody comes up with a better idea.
As for what ‘caving in’ in go means, it may be easiest to show by example. The key move to solving the problem below is a hekomi. This is one of the few times when knowing the kanji representation (凹) can also help.
Black to play.
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Hekomi seems to me to lead to a ko. Other moves seem to die, so it looks like it's the solution, but I just wanted to confirm.
Did you by any chance miss the ‘solution’ button below the diagram?
Maybe I should try to make that stand out more...
Haha, no, looks like I was the problem, not the insufficient prominence of the button! This makes me want to come back and revisit all those tough Sunday problems I was unable to solve :)