Side pattern from VER 2003

White to play  

In this case White at a to suppress is always a big play.

White b or c might also be played, depending on the overall position. Here as usual restricting to a side pattern means that more hits can be found, in a database, than for a whole-board pattern (not surprisingly, the rengo deviated from pro play a long time ago). On the other hand one must be careful in judging any sequence, in isolation from the global position.

White attacks  

If it is too slow for White to play in the right corner, this is one interesting way.

This has been played by top pros: Kajiwara Takeo against Otake Hideo in the 1970 Meijin League; Fujisawa Hideyuki against Kobayashi Satoru 1995-05-25 in the Gosei (when White had an extra stone at x). Taking White's corner position to be quite thick after , this is a natural direction of play.

White attacks, continuation  

Otake jumped out of trouble with . Then is a play from the old Chinese games.

and are usual, but lead into a very serious cross-cut fight. In Kajiwara's style, this led to a large-scale sacrifice sequence (and victory).

Charles Matthews