Otake Hideo/ Opening Theory Made Easy

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revo: I'm currently reading Otake's book "Opening theory made easy". Until now I think it's really improving my opening (I'm only 15k now and my fuseki is actually really weak).

One of Otake's advices really confused me. So I'd like to discuss it here. I hope I don't violate any copyright laws or something like this. If so, please tell me and I will delete this page.

The following diagram shows the move that confuses me:

[Diagram]

Dia1: Would you play this?


I'd always play B1 at a. And in every (high-)dan game I watched, if this situation occured, black settled his group by playing at a. (maybe the lower two black stones were not there or different).

Otake recommends B1 instead of settling oneself with a, because playing at a helps white to press black down as in Dia2:

[Diagram]

Dia2: good shape for white


Playing B1 instead of a (Dia1) would avoid this and would be faster in developing a larger moyo. But I would be afraid of white starting to escape. Otake states that this won't be a problem since white would have a hard time to do so, but if it's that easy, why haven't I ever seen someone playing this move? (Maybe I just watched too few pro games :)

Does anybody have experience with B1? If so, please post your ideas. What about the lower two black stones in Dia1? I think B1 could be a bad mistake if these stones were not in place, right?

pajaro: One of the first thing to learn in fuseki is to have a whole-board vision. In this example, the suggested move tries to build a big moyo, while your "usual" move takes profit. The difference is that the moyo won't surely become territory, but will probably give a lot of points and other advantages in other parts of the board. Sure, the white stone can escape. Sure, it may be hard for black to capture it. The point is not that white won't want to escape because it is difficult, but because it will be a burden for white. How much is worth that stone? If it escapes and black can't kill it, how much will be worth the thickness that black will get while attacking? And in the meanwhile, how many things can do a running stone, and how many things can do an attacking group? I think this is the idea after Otake's example. In a word: Think Big. And another thing: you said that you had seen this position in another games, but perhaps the stones in the other corner were different. This is not a small detail. It is very important to try to see the relation that the stones have. In this case, black jumps because he is building a moyo. Without the supporting black stones, there would be no moyo and everything would be completely different.

[Diagram]

Dia3: adding insult to injury

crux: You can't allow Dia.2, as White gets a great position and Black is somewhat squished (and White has the big moves of Dia.3 left). It's inefficiencies like these that allow stronger players to win handicap games. Don't allow yourself to be afraid of playing good moves.

If you've seen high dans play like this, then the KGS rating system is even more broken than I thought :-) Low dans sometimes make surprisingly bad moves, but I'd be surprised if any of them played as in Dia.2.


[Diagram]

Dia4: More common?

Anonymous: With the marked Black stone one line higher, B1 is even more common than at a, though you might need a pro to tell you why:

[Diagram]

Dia4.1: Common Continuation

...which might end up like this. Now Black will often respond to a with b. As you can see (hopefully), Black doesn't put too much energy into capturing the marked White stone. He's building thickness to face other parts of the board. Of course, Black would happily gobble this stone later if White allows it, but for the moment it's more important to build thickness.

Spirit?: Actually 9 at c might be more sound. 9 is clearly a move that put's pressure on white's group on the top but if black is planning on answering white a with b anyway, this pressure doesn't amount to much and would probably be better spend developping the center.


---

Incidentally, this page would be better as a Discussion subpage of OpeningTheoryMadeEasy. ---

Dieter: I strongly suggest moving it to the BQM.


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