4-4 point 3-3 invasion, jumping away
This choice of is a relatively modern move, which became quite popular from the late 1980s onward. Its aim is to get sente. A black stone at a is more or less required. White usually answers at
. Exchanging white b for black c first is also possible; variations are not much different. Black
next is the proper move; Black d might be a bit of an overplay, although it has been played by professionals. After this, White can choose between d and e.
has been experimented with but rejected. It could be considered an overplay. Instead of
, white could also play white a or
, and after
there are no established variations. However, the outcome of all variations is similar: White lives in the corner in sente and black gets an outside wall with bad aji. I assume it is this aji that made professionals decide against this variation.
is the most common continuation after
. The continuation to
is joseki, after which White will either secure the position with
or play tenuki. There exist examples of Black playing
at
, leaving aji at the top in exchange for more influence in the center.
If White does not play at in the previous diagram,
is not sente: White cannot be killed. However, capturing a stone in sente with
and
gives Black an extremely strong position, while the white corner is reduced to about 5 points.
If White does play the marked stone, Black will usually not answer it. White's follow-up will probably be and
here. This also shows why the
stone is important. Without it, White would play the double hane at
rather than
, which would not be to Black's liking.
If black does play this variation without the stone, black answers
at
, apparently considering black's larger wall compared to the basic joseki more important than white's increased territory.
White's second option is to play at immediately, without first playing hane at a and connecting. It could even be played before
. After
, the joseki ends.
Black's aim in this joseki is usually to take sente, and one way to do this is to play tenuki immediately when white plays the marked stone. White then has the variation upto to settle the shape. The order of
and
can be reversed, and
to
can be skipped. Another option for white is to cut with
and fight.
Author: Andre Engels