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Jabberwocks
Keywords: Opening
This opening formation based on 3-5 points has been played often by Ishida Yoshio.
There is a clear idea here: if Black encloses with 1 and White plays 2, Black can continue with the press at a, or (more likely for pros) with the taisha joseki at b. Black then is threatening to build a broad framework across the whole side. If Black does play the taisha, White by adopting one of the simplifying lines will only help Black's strategy.
Therefore White's approach at 1 is seen as early as move 4 of the game. Black may still be aiming to play taisha at c.
This fuseki illustrates some taisha-led thinking. If White plays 2 in the adjacent corner as shown, then after 3 and 4 White 2 can act as a ladder-breaker in a taisha to come.
If White played in one of the other two corners, that wouldn't be true. For example White 2 here means Black will be able to set up the 'jabberwock' plan of the first diagram, or to play a taisha with all ladders good after White 4. This may not be provably bad for White, of course. The same sort of idea may be set up with 4-5 point, or even 3-6 point and 4-6 point plays.
In this case the wedge 2 is useful for White, because Black then has two insecure corners. This is a good illustration of miai thinking.
This is from an Ishida magazine article. If Black is happy playing a 3564 enclosure (or perhaps a 3555 enclosure), the same type of formation can be set up from the (unorthodox) starting position. See also Crab Eyes. Mostly there is no Japanese name for side formations - 'crab's eyes' is one, but exceptional. Jabberwock is just something I made up (after the Lewis Carroll poem, about a scary hard-to-define monster and how to slay it ...) Perhaps I should say that the idea of the 4-6 example is something I found in a book of Shirae Haruhiko. This is a thoughtful and interesting page. --Hu of KGS This is a copy of the living page "Jabberwocks" at Sensei's Library. ![]() |