The pincer here may occur. White at a next is considered the main continuation, but there are other plays.
These plays are still the main line, though increasingly is played directly at
. White plays
for ladder aji.
After these moves, Black needs a further play here. If the ladder works Black can play at b (and then will need to capture shortly). It seems, from pro games, that this is a subtle discussion:
Naturally the evaluation of the position after Black at a must depend on the prospects in a fight if White's cutting stone escapes.
On the left side, black c might be a useful sente move, answered with white d.
Just like when is high (see 4-4 point low approach high extension slide pincer),
is still possible, but the further variations are completely different. After
, in this case the usual move is
here. The following moves allow little variation. In particular
at
(black answers
) and
at B0 (white answers
) are bad. After B0, white has two choices.
is one possibility. White takes corner territory while black gets strong influence. After
, white usually plays elsewhere, but later she has
to
as a large follow-up.
If white wants to avoid giving black so much influence, she can play here. However, white's corner territory gets much smaller too - in fact, she even needs another move to be certain of two eyes.
is possible as well. After this, white will connect under with
.
at a is not good. White answers at b, and black is in problems. Instead black plays
, after which the moves to
are most common. Note that in this variation, white rather than black takes the upper side.
The other ideas for White here:
The tsukehiki variation
Black plays on both sides and takes sente. White stabilizes with a fair amount of profit. Black better treat lightly:[1]
White has avoided being shut in, while occupying the 3-3 point. Black's two configurations lack a base.
[1] For another way to this position see 4-4 point low approach one-space low pincer, upper contact.