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Opening in New Year's Rengo
    Keywords: Opening

The New Year's rengo reached this position early on, with Black to play.

[Diagram]
Diag.: An early position in the Rengo

I entered a move at a as Black 9, which was criticised for various reasons, most of which I agreed with (had to, really, they were made by much better players...). It seemed to be suggested that Black should play in the top left, probably at b or c.

DaveSigaty: Ignoring the question below for the moment, I thought playing 9 at a was quite an interesting choice in this position (not in the books but so what :-). The reason is that the marked white stone is low so although d might be thought of as attacking the white stone to the right more strongly than a, it has no exciting follow-up along the bottom. If Black does not finish the bottom after d then White is likely to take the opportunity to play to the left of a at an early stage and Black's choice is going to look more slack than strong. In handling her stone on the right after d White can concentrate on limiting Black's opportunities on the right knowing that the bottom is uninteresting. After a on the other hand, Black can concentrate on building up a right-side framework as White tries to deal with her stone.

My question is: doesn't this (Black playing in the upper left) lose the initiative for Black? Say Black 9 was played at d, to attack the white stone more strongly, and White then played b to make a second shimari. I think Black can then play at either e or f and rely on the weakness of the bottom left white stone to take control of the game. This seems fine for Black to me. What do people think?


BillSpight: (For some reason Dave's text does not wrap around the diagram on my Netscape browser. {see if we solve that with one of our new 'super' line breaks - Dave} {Very nice! Thanks, Dave. :-))
As for James's play at a (Black 9 in the game), I did not mean by my remarks to imply that it was a bad play. :-)
If Black plays in top left, instead, I think that g is the normal play.
As for the question of initiative, the two corners on the left are miai. It is usual for White to make a shimari in one and Black to play kakari in the other. For Black to do that does not mean a loss of initiative. On the other hand, Black is not required to prevent a double shimari. Go is not so narrow.

[Diagram]
Diag.: Black continues in the bottom right

Black 1 puts pressure on White's marked stone. White 2 - Black 3 is sente. White now regards her lower right stones lightly and plays in the top left corner. Moi, I like White 4. ;-)
It is important for White not to try too hard to save her floating stones in the lower right. They are kikashi stones, and should function as a thorn in Black's side (aji). Black has made two more plays in the bottom right than White, but has not made a shimari. Therefore these White stones have done their work and are easy to throw away.

DaveSigaty: I think that White would be better off playing elsewhere directly, instead of adding 2 first. The exchange of 2 for 3 eliminates the aji of White a, amongst other possibilities. If White ignores 1, it is not clear how Black can enclose the white stone in a way that justifies having played three more times in the lower right. Black 2, for example, may look severe but at some point Black will have to demonstrate a refutation of White a or add still another stone.




This is a copy of the living page "Opening in New Year's Rengo" at Sensei's Library.
(OC) 2003 the Authors, published under the OpenContent License V1.0.