![]() StartingPoints Referenced by
|
An interesting point about direction
Difficulty: Advanced
Keywords: Opening
At the London Open last weekend I got an interesting comment on one of my games from Seong-June Kim (6 dan). I was Black and my opponent approached at
The natural development is for White to approach on the other side like this and Black to respond. All White's stones seem to be working well together here, as are Black's.
Can Black do anything about White's 'mistake'? Seong-June recommended this diagram. (sequence 1-a) This leads to the situation below.
Now Black has a nice formation across the top, and sente. Nothing earth-shattering, but I thought that this was interesting. -- Tim Hunt I think that the line given makes the huge assumption that White would go into the 3-3 point in answer to the pincer. That is not so terrible, but the counter-pincer is also conceivable and there is also the ikken tobi to consider (see also Changing Fuseki Dogmas) How does the fact that White has approached high in the lower right affect this? -- Simon Goss The general idea is approaching from the open side. Kobayashi Satoru no less introduced the "wrong" approach move in nirensei v nirensei a few years back. Simon's point about other joseki (rather than 3-3 invasion) after the one-space low pincer can be contrasted with a Michael Redmond remark in Go World about a closely related position, that "in practice you invade". -- Charles Matthews Now there are plenty of other ways of playing, and no-one can say that they are better or worse than these. But what can be said, based on large numbers of games by expert players, is that these are very good formations to make with three stones. Furthermore, they aim to do various things in future. Similarly, there are other things that are known to be good: playing first in an empty corner, making an enclosure, approaching a 3-4 stone, extending from an enclosure, pincering, ... And these moves also, mostly, have various aims. Hmm. I don't think I am doing a very good job of explaining this. One final attempt. The attitude I favour is
and an attitude I do not sympathise with is
Perhaps another key point is "Have a plan", though Pieter Mioch says: do not have a plan. See Controversial Statements. Question: Given that one can not find the optimal opening move, is it a waste of time to aspire to find the optimal opening move? --Tim Hunt
What about this alternative from Ishida vol. 3? He gives it as a leisurely approach when White is reluctant to enter at the 3-3 point. In this position if Black links up the upper side with a play around a, White gets the first play in the lower right (b perhaps?). Both the 3-3 points on the upper side are still open and White seems to be dictating the course of the game more than Black despite choosing the 'leisurely' line. I think that Black could put more pressure on White from further away in this case - with a three-space pincer (7 in the diagram) for example. Jonathan Cano: I thought the recent (i.e. last 5 years) fashion was to play the joseki that begins with 4 at c. White gets center influence while Black gets territory on top. White frequently follows up with an invasion at d.
DaveSigaty: In the case where Black has a stone on the 4-4 point in the upper right this joseki doesn't work well. After the usual pushing match along the top,
Therefore if White plays
There are a lot of possible variations that will present opportunities for White to slip up. A quiet line for both sides here would be for Black to capture at
BillSpight: It is true that the kakari from the top allows Black to make a Dual Purpose Play combining a pincer and an extension. There are other possibilities than the one-space low pincer. I like the three-space pincer, myself.
This is a copy of the living page "An interesting point about direction" at Sensei's Library. ![]() |