Taisha tobitsuke
If the ladder works for White, he can play b to keep things relatively simple. Otherwise it's off on the complicated variations with a.
HolIgor: seems to be a large yose move. I would not play it in the fuseki. After the ponnuki
, White is almost alive, so the attack with
does not seem to be severe.
mgoetze: Uhm, it seems to me that threatens to capture
and
... but I haven't had much sleep...
HolIgor: Yes, you are right. White can capture in gote, but Black is alive in the corner, so this is just big yose. is a mild attack on the white group though. In some situations in may become sente. Then it is very good. Build territory while attacking.
Last chance to keep things relatively simple with a.
Otherwise, b leads to the taisha five-way junction. The rest of this page will deal with a.
...so he could play like this instead. White at d is called "cowardice" by Kogo's Joseki Dictionary. I bet Kogo would be quite the coward here if Black had some good ko threats...
Anyway, Black continues with a (soft), b (medium) or c (I will destroy you with this ko! Bwahaha!).
HolIgor: There are no ko-threats in the fuseki. Even if Black wins the ko by allowing White to make two moves in a row somewhere else, White's three stones are not dead yet. Black's profit is large, no doubt about it, but it is difficult to say if it is large enough. This is a dangerous ko.
Dieter: Since White will take first, I think the main argument for not starting the ko is that it will be difficult for Black to find a ko-threat compensating for having two stones rendered useless. White will simply not allow Black to take back the ko.