3-3 point shoulderhit - which way to push

    Keywords: Opening

Moved from 3-3 point shoulderhit.


BobMcGuigan: Which direction to push against a 3-3 point shoulder hit needs some thought. For example

[Diagram]

Diagram 1

Should Black play at a or at b?

It depends on the positions on the upper side and on the right side. Black wants to make the keima slide at move 3 be effective.

For example

[Diagram]

Diagram 2

When the WS stone is on the board, B3 works beautifully to undermine White's position.

On the other hand

[Diagram]

Diagram 3

This way White can play W4 instead of c, making use of WS.

I remember a game many years ago between Ishida and Nie Weiping in which a shoulder hit on a 3-3 stone occurred very early in the game, at a point when there were no stones on the two sides adjacent to the 3-3 point, and much of the subsequent opening maneuvers were focussed on making the keima slide a good or bad choice.

Charles Yes, there have been dozens of pro games of this kind, with B3 played as a shoulderhit and probe.

[Diagram]

Fuseki pattern with nirensei

For example when Black plays nirensei with B7 here, it signifies that W4 works better with a black stone at a.



A rare fuseki pattern is B1 at 3-3, W2 shoulderhit: even more so, White is trying to wrong-foot Black. There is a classic game Sakata-Go Seigen like this, from 1963, just on the cusp when Sakata was taking over as the top player.


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(OC) 2004 the Authors, published under the OpenContent License V1.0.
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