Waist cut

   

Chinese: 跨断 (kua1 duan4)
Japanese: ツケコシ (tsuke-koshi)
Korean:

[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]

Waist cut

B1 is the waist cut, striking at the waist of the keima.



The basic technique for White is to answer with hane at a, not push through 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 push through is usually bad.



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

[Diagram]

Missing the waist cut

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 extending 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.


The Japanese term tsuke-koshi is literally attach across, Waist cut is not necessarily standard terminology. See StrikeAtTheWaistOfTheKeima/Discussion page.


See also: Sealing in by striking at the Waist

Authors: Dieter Verhofstadt, EGF 1 kyu


This is a copy of the living page "Waist cut" at Sensei's Library.
(OC) 2005 the Authors, published under the OpenContent License V1.0.
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