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Playing The First Move In The Upper Right Corner
It is custom for Black to play in the upper right corner first, on one of the marked points in the diagram. The rationale behind this gesture seems to be that White doesn't need to stretch her hand to the opposite side of the goban in order to either occupy an empty corner or directly answer to the first black move. (She has to stretch if she wants to force Black into a parallel fuseki, but that's another matter.) In professional games it is very unusual for a game not to start in the top right corner. However it happens, like in a big title match in Japan a few years ago. Yoda Norimoto opened in the top left against Cho Chikun to demonstrate his determination to take the title from the title holder. From a more pragmatic and modern point of view, there is another, albeit small, advantage to this habit: it facilitates classification and analysis of different lines of play, e.g. by a computer program searching game trees. This doesn't limit Black's opening options, as the board is symmetrical around tengen for the very first move. --Stefan I used to think that the first move is played under the heart of the opponent. --HolIgor I feel that the very corner spot is the most vulnerable one there is. Near it is all well and good, but if your oponent plays next to you your piece is doomed, and trying to save simply means they take more later on. I agree that you should play near your opponent, it's just that I was a little shocked by the title of this page. - Anonymous go newbie who has made this mistake all too often
A good problem for this topic over at goproblems.com is --unkx80 AFAIK, this is a traditional japanese etiquette: In the times of old, the Master would hold the white stones, and sit at the Goban in the place of honour, with his back to the "shrine", the little alcova very often with a calligraphy scroll and a flower arrangement. The disciple, starting the game playing black, would bow to the Master, and in doing so would place the first stone with the right hand in his farthest corner, i.e. the upper right one. Playing there is therefore a ritual bow to your Master, or, in our more trivial times, to the stronger player
Stefan mentioned that the circled points are the correct points to play. Just one thing to add is that I was also told that for example, black 1, not a, is the correct way of starting the game because when white plays at 2 or b to attack the corner, his/her hand will not have to cover black 1. --unkx80 Is there any such etiquette in China and Korea? DaveSigaty This is a copy of the living page "Playing The First Move In The Upper Right Corner" at Sensei's Library. (C) the Authors, published under the OpenContent License V1.0. |