[Welcome to Sensei's Library!]

StartingPoints
ReferenceSection
About


Paths
EnclosureTechniques

Referenced by
Fuseki
3453Enclosure
WidestPath1960To64
ImmediateLife
SidePatterns
AllowingTwoShimar...
WidestPath1970To74
MigeruSQuestion1
EnclosureOpeningH...

 

Enclosure Opening
Path: EnclosureTechniques   · Prev: DonTAllowYourOpponentToMakeTwoShimari   · Next: OrthodoxFuseki
  Difficulty: Advanced   Keywords: Opening

Opening pattern along one side in which Black 5 creates an enclosure from a 4-3 point, in ideal relation with a 3-4 point in the other corner.

[Diagram]
Diag.: Enclosure opening

Black plays at the marked point to create a good territorial formation. This opening became very popular in the first decade of komi go. It developed partly because White 4 was less routinely played to prevent it; and because of experience with earlier use of the enclosure at a. That is still played, and enclosures at b and c are also tried occasionally. In the modern style Black will sometimes now play at d.



[Diagram]
Diag.: White's low approach, Black's pincer

When White approaches low in the right-hand corner, Black 2 became the orthodox choice of pincer, though all types of pincers were tried over hundreds of high-level games. Later Kobayashi Koichi adopted this pattern, with Black playing the pincer at a.


[Diagram]
Diag.: Orthodox play

This continuation became settled theory (Black 6 may be held back to a). White lives in sente. Now the area of the marked points becomes important.



[Diagram]
Diag.: High approach

When White makes the high approach here, Black at a is the usual play. The pincer at b will turn out well for White if she chooses the correct variation (on the page about this pincer apply the ladder-dependent variation in 2.1.1). The pincer at c is played sometimes in high-level games, but Black must seek complications to gain advantage from it.


[Diagram]
Diag.: From the two-space high pincer

This is the position after the main variation of the pincer at ''c''. White ends in gote but can regard plays in the directions of the two marked points as being nearly miai for a follow-up.

It is worth mentioning perhaps that while technically White can be said to end in gote here, in actual professional practice this is not usually the case when the lower right corner is controlled by White (as it normally is here). Black almost always extends down the right side for his next play, usually at a or b. As a result, White has a pretty strong expectation of being able to play next along the top when she chooses this joseki. --DaveSigaty

Yes, assuming a white 4-4 point in the lower right, as we're looking at it, Black next at b is recommended (if I recall correctly) by Go Seigen and Yang Yilun; while Black at a is also played. In a sense we should read this backwards: taking into account White's formation, Black should anticipate this standard outcome when playing the initial pincer. If White had a 3-3 point lower right, Black would perhaps be less worried about a fight on the right side. Charles Matthews



[Diagram]
Diag.: Onadare variations

The nadare has been tried many times by pros. An interesting idea (Cho Chikun in 1972) in the application of the traditional ''onadare'' main line was to replace a by Black 1 here. Black is aiming at an attack at the marked point, to make good use of his enclosure. The variations become complex, with White sometimes sacrificing her marked stones to escape shortage of liberties caused by her bamboo joint.


[Diagram]
Diag.: Classic outcome

The classic pattern here is, however, with this standard joseki. Black takes sente, having secured both corners. Black at a is a checking extension setting up an invasion at c, which is therefore very big; Black at a or White at b will be played soon.


[Diagram]
Diag.: An early probe

A surprising idea that must have been born out of professionals' dissatisfaction with that result is to play White 1 as a probe in Black's enclosure. This has been seen in numerous games.


[Diagram]
Diag.: Takemiya's way

An innovation of Takemiya was to play for central influence by making the solid connection with 5 here, and extending on the fourth line. This assumes White's nirensei on the other side of the board.



[Diagram]
Diag.: Wedge

An idea from Kitani Minoru in the late 1950s is for White to play a wedge on the side instead. White 1 is the point chosen in pro games: none of a, b or c is seen. After Black 2 and White 3, White has the minimum external pressure from Black's corner formations. If Black played 2 at a White would be happy to answer at 2.

This way of playing has been adopted from time to time by top players, so is presumably reasonable considering komi, to simplify the game.



John Fairbairn: Don't know where else to put this question ("What's going on?") as it's really a quite general one, but it does at least refer to this page. On my machine the text extends out beyond the right margin but the browser shows no horizontal scroll bar - i.e. I can never ever see the whole text. I can normally see all of a page OK but every now and then this problem comes up. Another occasional problem that seems to right itself eventually is that diagrams are limited to a fraction of their width.

Charles The latter problem I've seen - normally a refresh dispels it. The former I have seen in some cases, perhaps caused by wider diagrams - here there may be line break problems made by long link names. Suggest GuineaPigsFeedback if the condition persists.



Path: EnclosureTechniques   · Prev: DonTAllowYourOpponentToMakeTwoShimari   · Next: OrthodoxFuseki
This is a copy of the living page "Enclosure Opening" at Sensei's Library.
(OC) 2003 the Authors, published under the OpenContent License V1.0.