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Strike at the waist of the keima
Path: GoProverbs   · Prev: IkkenTobiIsNeverWrong   · Next: DoNotPeepAtCuttingPoints
  Difficulty: Intermediate   Keywords: Shape, Proverb

Strike at the waist of the keima is a proverb designed to make you cut through the keima the right way.

Remark: Be careful with cutting through the keima: although the keima has the intrinsic weakness, it is generally not advisable to cut through it immediately. In some situations, you have to, and then ...

[Diagram]
The waist of the keima

The circled points show the weak spots of the keima.



If there are black stones near these weak spots, the spot farthest from the black stones is called the waist of the keima.

[Diagram]
Strike at the waist of the keima

B1 strikes at the waist of the keima.



The basic technique for White is to answer with hane at a, not at b.

[Diagram]
Hane away from the position

This (B3 and W4) is not necessarily the continuation, but by playing the hane away from the position, White limits the loss to WC.



[Diagram]
Hane into the position

To play hane and connect into the position is usually bad.



Black cuts easily with B3 and now two white stones are cut off.

[Diagram]
Not striking at the waist

Not striking at the waist of the keima, but cutting at B1 as in this diagram is zokusuji (vulgar play or bad style).



White's natural moves are good moves: blocking at W2, and either sacrificing WC in order to make shape as in this diagram, or applying the proverb "extend from a crosscut" as in the next diagram:

[Diagram]
Extending

If the surrounding position is strong enough, White can extend (stretch).



This is unlikely to occur, however, for if White were strong around, Black should not want to cut through the keima anyway.


Authors: Dieter Verhofstadt, EGF 1 kyu



Path: GoProverbs   · Prev: IkkenTobiIsNeverWrong   · Next: DoNotPeepAtCuttingPoints
This is a copy of the living page "Strike at the waist of the keima" at Sensei's Library.
(OC) 2004 the Authors, published under the OpenContent License V1.0.