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Squeeze Tesuji
Path: Tesuji · Prev: Geta · Next: ThrowIn
Difficulty: Beginner
Keywords: Tesuji, Shape
A Squeeze tesuji is a play where you squeeze the opponent's stone into an inefficient shape. Often a successful squeeze includes sacrificing one or more stones to make the opponent's shape bad first. The squeeze wrings out the liberties of a group of your opponent's stones by a combination of atari moves and/or atari threats. Squeeze plays are very rewarding and normally quite easy to spot. With a bit more practice, you can also see how to set up a squeeze by forcing your opponent into a bad shape before, and conversely, how to avoid being squeezed yourself.
In this example, after white plays 1, black invites the cut with 2, sacrifices 4 ...
... in order to force with with 6 and squeezes with 8 and 10 - ending up with good shape and leaving white in a dango shape.
In some cases, the squeeze can be so efficient that the opponent is captured. In this example, black sacrifices the marked stone to squeeze with 1 and 3 and subsequently kills with 5. --MortenPahle(10k)
Before connecting white pushed a little bit into the center with 1. Black could not resist 2. Instead of trying to save the marked stone, White plays 3.
Followed by 5, which seals the black group in.
Black must play 6, leaving him with a very bad shape, and white plays out to 7, guarding against a cut at 'a', and sealing off blacks escape route through 'b'. Another example:
Consider this position and focus on the cut at 'a'. Your first reaction may be that Black doesn't need to protect the cut if the ladder works for him, and that he needs to protect if the ladder works for White. However this analysis is incorrect.
Black has a clever defense if White cuts. He starts with an atari at 2 and then plays a geta at 4. If White now plays at 'a' or 'b', she will be caught in an inescapable atari, so there is only one possibility left.
She plays atari at 1, and again at 3 when Black connects. Her plan is to run out at 'b' if Black pulls out the stone at 'a'.
However Black now plays a tesuji at 1, which sets up the squeeze. Since White is in atari, she has no choice but to capture at 2.
After the capture, Black again plays atari at 1, and again White has no choice but to defend. After Black 3, it is clear that the white cut didn't work.
For reference the starting position is the result of this rather common san-san invasion under the black hoshi stone.
This completes the position. Verify for yourself that the defense against the cut doesn't work if White has a stone on one of the marked spots. In go terms this means that the position has some bad aji for Black. He needs to remember this in the continuation of the game, because in some other sequence later in the game White may play on one of these spots for another reason and in doing so change this local position.
--MortenPahle Path: Tesuji · Prev: Geta · Next: ThrowIn This is a copy of the living page "Squeeze Tesuji" at Sensei's Library. (C) the Authors, published under the OpenContent License V1.0. |