BQM 322

Almost familiar  

I couldn't remember seeing before but it seemed sensible. After the game I looked it up, but it isn't mentioned here or in Kogo's as joseki. There must be a reason for that, but I can't read anything blatantly exploitable in it. Can white benefit here?

For what it's worth, the game continued thusly ( tenuki) with the ladder good for white:

When in doubt, atari  

Andy Pierce: As white I'd worry that I've given black secure territory in the corner and a ladder breaker somewhere else.

 

Andrew Grant: and leave Black with an empty triangle.

Andy Pierce: In the joseki, black plays at . If black was supposed to play there but doesn't, that might suggest it is a good point for white to take instead (as in this diagram).

 

If White plays here, she can play which still forces , then there's no ladder to worry about.

Alex: Yeah, but Black a is painful. I prefer the previous diagram, which is what I would have suggested.

unkx80: A small side note. In this diagram, I would play at b, which lessens the effects of a White move at d later. The reason is that makes c somewhat less urgent, since if White already played at c, White will not play at .

Bill: I would play at .

 

unkx80: I don't like this too, because it entails a local loss for White. But if is played, usually is played here without any exchanges as shown in the previous diagrams. Then if Black a, then White b, and White should be happy if Black wants to continue crawling on the second line. Alternatively, White b may be played at c.

Solid connection  

Bill: The solid connection, , threatens the stones, and is sente. Now White has various options. (But the sacrifice of the stone is still normally inferior.)

Tewari no-no  

The reason being that you are not going to be able to apologise enough for , in any tewari you ever do. It almost always will look worse than .

Tewari  

I mean, this is joseki.

Crack of light  

If Black's idea is to attack with now, or at another circled point, well, yes, there is some point. White usually has some sort of sabaki, starting at a. That has gone AWOL here.

Varying  

If the left side is really that important, White might want to dance away with , or some other light play.