[Welcome to Sensei's Library!]

StartingPoints
ReferenceSection
About


Referenced by
OngoingGame2

 

Ongoing Game 2 Moves 1 To 10
    Keywords: Opening

An interesting opening

[Diagram]
Ongoing game 2 moves 1 to 10

HolIgor 5: This cannot be too bad.

BillSpight: 9 Miai.

HolIgor 10: Please, comment and criticize moves. If we talk while we play we can learn something. At the bottom everything is miai, so the big moves are elsewhere. The biggest points are: approach in the upper left corner; and a, setting up one more pair of miai. I think that the approach is more important.

BillSpight: OK. W6 is kikasare. White has gotten pushed around. W10 is a good play, preventing a double enclosure.

JamesA 1k: I played W6. What is kikasare? I don't know the term! I thought W6 was an interesting move as it prevents Black from attacking at the top and unsettles Black's top right stone. I'm happy to learn different though!

BillSpight: "Kikasare" is the passive form of "kikashi". Literally, it means made ineffective. I like to say, "got pushed around".

W6 was a thoughtful play, but compare the result with this position, which is roughly equitable.


[Diagram]
1

White is around 4 points better off in this position.

JamesA: Thanks Bill! I see what you mean. OK then, how about playing a similar move in the lower left corner for Black 11. Wouldn't that give Black the option of good moves at a and b below? I think it might be a good way to retain the initiative.


[Diagram]
Possibility for Black 11?

[Diagram]
Inefficient?

HolIgor: If Black had played san-san first and White approached at 2 wouldn't Black want to play at a?

JamesA: That looks convincing. However, doesn't that mean that Black 9 was a move without promise? What can Black do with Black 9 that is effective and useful? I think that Black 11 is playable because it is very solid, even though it may be a little inefficient. Doesn't there have to be a broad strategic point to every move in the opening?

BillSpight: And here I thought that Black 9 was the game-winning play. ;-)


[Diagram]
Is Black 9 a good move?

JamesA: In this diagram, I would have thought that Black would rather play the sequence Black c, White a than the sequence Black b, White d, certainly in terms of territory at least. However, if White a, Black would need to make another move in the lower left corner, perhaps e to get security in the corner.

On the other hand, if White gets to play at e, Black would need to answer at somewhere like b, which White would follow with d.

Therefore, why doesn't Black play e now, while it threatens the White 4 stone? Black could then look forward to playing the Black c, White a sequence in sente.

However, as HolIgor pointed out, if a black stone at e was approached by White 4, Black would probably answer at f rather than at Black 9.

Bearing in mind these factors, doesn't that mean that Black 9 was an unpromising move?



[Diagram]
Ongoing game 2 moves 1 to 10

DieterVerhofstadt (1k)'s opinion on the opening:

The first move I found somewhat strange was indeed White 6. With 2 and 4, White has declared a slight preference for influence towards upper and left sides. I would have played the taisha joseki.

After Black 7, White 8 indeed seems called for to prevent the natural extension from the black lower right shimari. However, as Bill pointed out, 8 and (preventing) the shimari in the lower left corner are miai. Therefor, I would have turned 6 into a good move by pressing at b. If Black makes a second shimari then with 10 (or left to 10), White can extend to c.

Still, Black comes better out of the opening than if White had played the taisha joseki. For one thing, he can exchange 8 for d , and then make a double wing formation at a, meanwhile threatening to draw out 1.

Bill, can you explain 9 ? I think a lot of players would rather have played at d komoku or sansan.



JamesA: I thought Bill was saying that preventing White playing at d and making a shimari in the top left were miai? I think White 8 was essential. I agree that White 6 wasn't good, and I accept blame as I played it!


BillSpight: Sorry for being so cryptic. White 8 is a clever play (a kakari in the top left corner is usual). If White makes a shimari at d instead, then Black can extend to 8, threatening a double wing formation or a double enclosure, and preventing White's normal extension to 8.

If Black 9 makes a double shimari, White can make the shimari at d, attaining the ideal extension from the shimari and threatening a double wing. This is playable by Black, but I think that preventing the White shimari is bigger.

If Black plays at the 3-3 or d, White can enclose Black and form a wall that works with White 8. If Black plays on the takamoku one point above 9, White can play at d and Black's subsequent position is crowded.

Black 9 is a kind of wedge, leaving an extension to the 3-3 and a two-space extension to the right as miai. That's the miai I was referring to in my comment.



This is a copy of the living page "Ongoing Game 2 Moves 1 To 10" at Sensei's Library.
(OC) 2003 the Authors, published under the OpenContent License V1.0.