BQM 320

19x19 diagram  

This comes up all the time. Is there an attractive option for black here? Is there a tesuji to show white the error of her ways, or is this a good sequence for white to scoop out some points on the edge?

xela: I think this position is already attractive for black, there's no need to try and do anything special. The first thing that comes to my mind is black 'a'. White can probably live, but at the cost of making black very strong.

If there is already a white stone at 'c', then correct shape is for black to play 'd' rather than 'a'.

The double hane (black 'b') is tempting, but I think it isn't good here:

double hane is wrong?  

This looks like a good trade for white.

how to seal white in  

If black wants to defend territory on the left, this is the way to do it.

game example  

In this game (but not shown here), white has a strong position in the lower left and black has a strong position in the upper right.

Sagari  

Bill: The sagari, , comes to mind, securing the corner and hemming White in.

Small life  

Bill: In this variation White makes small life on the side, but his stones on the right are weakened. Without seeing the rest of the board, we do not know how strong Black's stones on the left are.

White runs  

Bill: White may also run with - . This is hard to judge without seeing the rest of the board. However, White looks quite heavy.

game example  

It did lead to a nice attack on the white stones on the right side, but black didn't come up with the immediate comfortable eyespace in the right corner that he had hoped for which blunted some of the force of the attack. I came out of the exchange dissatisfied and was wondering if it could have gone better for black.

Solid connection  

Bill: Black could try the solid connection at . White lives in the corner, but Black has a strong attack against White's stones on the right.

Ko  

Bill: If Black likes this ko, is possible.

Sente  

Bill: This way Black sacrifices for sente against White's group on the right.