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Don't peep at bamboo joints
Difficulty: Intermediate Keywords: Shape, Proverb
Don't threaten vainly to cut the bamboo joint.
At the same time in a capturing race it is usually better to try to make a forcing move from the outside. Dieter: This is not my understanding of the proverb. What you describe is an attempt to cut it. Peeping at the bamboo joint is a kind of threat to cut something which can not be cut. The proverb in fact warns against moves that are not peeps at bamboos as such, but will inevitably become if you read a little further. There is a nice illustration of this proverb at dashn.com
Peeping at a bamboo joint is a wasted move.
Almost like playing against a wall.
White 4 here is called a trick play in a Korean book. That seems unfair. But the point is that Black might play at a in answer. Then after 6 to 9, Black would be peeping at both sides of a bamboo joint, which is taboo. One peep may be acceptable, but with stones at 9 and a it can't be that both are efficient.
Actually the correct joseki here avoids (postpones) the other peep, too. Black should play this way, so that the kikashi 7 is available. This does something to cover Black's weak point at b. When I have played this joseki, my opponents haven't done that, so perhaps it really is a trick play. I apologize if I'm missing something obvious here, but if black 9 connects on the second line (with 7), then white tenuki, doesn't black on the 7-7 point leave white lacking for eyespace? All I really see in there is a Bent Four in the Corner at most, probably reduced to three by a hane. Can white capture the four on the left first? Or does the connection simply demand a response towards the center? --Alex Baxter, 18k KGS Floris?: Alex, I agree with you. I remember seeing this position in a game between Shusaku and Ota Yuzo (in their sanjubango) and white (black & white reversed) already had more stones in the center like this:
This is a copy of the living page "Don't peep at bamboo joints" at Sensei's Library. ![]() |