Black Continuations  

Overview of White Continuations

Subsequent moves  

Subsequently, may become a big point, igniting a pushing battle by threatening the hane at a. For this reason, at would be slack. Typically Black responds at if he chooses not to ignore , and up to is a common sequence. Note that if Black plays at , then Black loses the corner: see the next diagram.

Double hane  

Black would probably like to play the double hane of in this diagram, but here the aji of the marked white stones come into play. White can retake the corner -- or worse.

Two step hane  

This side stepping by Black does not really produce a good result, leaving weaknesses at a and b in gote. This is especially as Black usually chooses this joseki (two step hane after the 3-3 invasion) when a wall facing the top side is not very valuable, opting instead to take points in the corner.

Corner aji (1)  

If White gets the marked stone in place, will either link up as in the diagram or capture the marked black stones.

Corner aji (2)  

The other aji is that and threaten to extract the marked stones in the same way as above, so that becomes almost absolute sente. This in itself is not so bad, but it could be a minus if Black's reason for not following the standard sequence was that the top side is not interesting. According to GoBase, Black's responses to include a, b and c. If Black has a suitable extension on the right side, Black can also respond at d.

Overview of Black Continuations

Black move  

If White chooses to tenuki, Black may choose to exchange with . Subsequently, Black may hane at a, but in professional games Black is also seen to tenuki after the exchange (simply to prevent White from getting ).

Building influence  

If Black wants to build up the upper side, he can play immediately.

Black attack  

If Black has support on the left side, say , then Black may elect to attack at . In professional games, is seen replying at either a or b.

Note that without the support of stones such as , a Black move at is very likely to end up being a misplaced stone.

Discussion

The Presence of Other Stones

Continuation  

After the variation "taking the corner" White will most likely continue with these moves. In most cases, when White invades at the 3-3 point, Black has stones on both sides, at or around the places shown here. Black's left side stone has lost much of its value after this sequence.

References

• [1] Frequency statistics were obtained from Waltheri's Go Pattern Search using the full database restrained to a local search (accessed September 2022).