Bram Vandenbon / Mistakes

19x19 diagram  

Black should answer white's approach with a pincer (B?). If black plays the keima at X, white settles himself at the bottum, at that point black will be forced to make the small approach at A.

Situation  

Usually in this situation I simply play A or B. an attachement like C is not really my taste. But tonight I noticed a cool variation that might change that in future.

Joseki  

When there is an ogeima white can crosscut. Move 8 is gote for black and sente for white, :)...

Joseki  

avoids the annoying taisha fight variations. There is little white can do to prevent this sequence.

Trying to prevent it ...  

This result isn't good enough for white. his 2 stones at the bottum are at the waste of the bamboo. ==> not efficient.

Joseki  

There is some resemblance with this joseki. However, here A is a big point for both players. In the joseki we just discussed that isn't the case.

5 is a cool move  

I discovered the cool move of 5 to live in the corner.

mentioned in joseki dictionaries  

Some joseki dictionaries mention this variation.

Also joseki  

Can be played like this ... Next black will ...

Joseki continuation ...  

White gets a living cornergroup ... And offcourse there remains some aji around a ...

not for hoshi!  

Earlier I wrote that move 7 is something really great that I didn't see before. One important thing to remember maybe, is the low position of the sequence. This wouldn't work in the hoshi version of the joseki

Even worse for white now.  

In the hoshi sequence black would play the same way and then extend with 9, giving white an even worse result !

If black continues the cut  

After this white has lost the corner...

The sword of blablabla  

Against the high pincer I played the magical sword of blablabla. But then instead of the usual variation of A, he played the one of B. (A joseki not seen very often, imho something you should play only when you are strong at the opposing corner.)

B or A?  

The usual joseki continues with A. But after A, I would have expected black B to be dangerous, so instead I decided to take B myself. The situation converted to the joseki afterwards.

The way we continued  

The situation continued like this. The situation looked better for me. After the game we discovered that black 6 was actually a mistake. Black should have played at 9 !!!

The joseki continuation  

The joseki continues like this and gives an inferiour result for black !

Another interesting situation  

Allready refusing to play A earlier, I also refused to defend here. There just was a more important point imho. So I tenukied again. The following sequence followed...

A reduction in sente  

My corner became very small. and even more ... white played it all in sente.

Don't tenuki  

This variation is big: It is not only sente(!), but it also leaves some danger around A. Next I could reduce the influence with a keima in the top right corner, next give white the choice to defend at A or take the big point (the one I tenukied for in the real game).

A move I prefer  

This is the kind of move I play very often in several of my games. I know I am "supposed" to play A. ... I need to play forth line because it wouldn't fit with my previous moves.

The thing is A has sooooo many weaknesses. And B covers all of them. while the difference in influence isn't so important here.

Every time I play this in games I always get the same remark "Blablabla, you are supposed to play forth line". To all of those I would like to point out that the situation above is a game between Cho Chikun and Yoda Norimoto.

 

white defended against with . looks like nice shape but seems to abuse it anyway, as black can cut with . White next sacrificed his stone by playing at a.

7 is a nice move !  

I had never seen move seven before. Great move.

b ... hmm i don't like it.  

In the game black plays the given sequence. I don't like the result though. Imho the variation of a looks a lot better. In the game it looks like black wants to avoid white building up a wall and therefor black took his chance to play 3 himself.

B is better than A

In this position I played A. I noticed that B is played here in pro games.

corner  

The marked white stone is not played in sente in this sequence. The black pincer stone was at the perfect spot.

NOT joseki  

The marked stone is not a joseki move.

The ladder of the taisha works for white.  

I clicked my first moves a bit too fast maybe... I believed the following situation was advantageous for me: looked advantageous for me at first sight. A looked like the logic approuch here and after that I would start the taisha with B. C seems logic. But the ladder that is involved will work for me. See below.

Ladder should be avoided for black  

wA will trigger bB,wC,bD,wE,wF,bG. Well ofcourse black didn't play like this. Instead he played B. The answer I expected ... but it is a joseki I actually havn´t played in about half a year. :)

alternative for black  

The Result: I expected A, but Instead he played B. Totally unknown territory for me. Now that I look back on it C looks the right answer on first sight. But my mind was still thinking in terms of ladders and I played D. But either way. I believe playing taisha was the wrong idea here. Even If black played A I would have felt at a disadvantage. Remember, both top right and bottum left are white.

top and bottum could work better together  

should have been at A. The thing is, When I was playing at the bottum right I should have read out the next 9 moves. On the other hand you could also say that wasn´t good. Playing C there would fit the upperleft corner. Either way later on I regretted it. At the top left I had to extend low because of . (Later on he invaded with B and I messed up. At that point I was sure of my mistake earlier.)

After some searching I found the same situation in a pro game. (Oh Gyu-cheol 6p vs Jin Jixian 3p) Oh played like I did. But at the top he decided to play C. I should have played it like that.

19x19 diagram  

I have played a lot in situations like this lately. And very often I regretted . The large amount of territory is nice, but the situation at the top is very hard to deal with. and often I decide to ignore it and play a move like A-D later on. So I should more often grab the chance to play it myself, just to see if it really is that good. :)

By the way, I believe for an even result black should be able to play e instead of . Concidering bottum right is allready mine, that means I'll end up in sente again if he plays like that. And that certainly isn´t the biggest point on the board.

reference  

(Maybe I made it a bit too easy for black in the game.) I'll try to keep this as a reference for the next time i play it. And have to remember whenever bA, then wB :-)

The situation...  

The situation looked like this. Black to play ...

The way I played.  

I played it like this in the game ... And after that I left it along for a long time. Later on white invaded at A. It was very careless to leave it like that all game. Now that I look back on it, I am surprised I did.

The way Yoda Norimoto played in Round 6 of the 29th Meijin Title versus Cho U.  

He attached to the strong side instead and then he ended with the atari. A and B seem to be miai now.

According to a joseki dictionary  

According to www.joseki.com I should play like this. I should not play the tsuke of a, but play atari with 9. (Note that 4 isnt captured here yet. The net doesnt work. But if white tries to get out, then the marked stone will get in trouble.)

Last question left about this position  

What if white plays the marked stone ? This is in fact what happened. Now the cut at A is useless !

Kobayashi Koichi vs Rin Kaiho in the title match of the 16th Meijin in the 5th game.  

There are 2 options for black. He can either play or E. E seems to give white the corner and huts black to the center. (White would respond to E with G) In my humble opinion 1 would be more natural for black. White will probably respond by playing 2, allthough a move at F is possible too here. Either way black is alive in the corner. Much later when white plays A, black answers B and white plays C again, Then black has to add a move to defends his corner, for example D.

19x19 diagram  

First of all , the marked stone you do not see that often. But he surprised me completely with move . I should have drawn back to 2 I think. I pushed at A (careless) and ended in gote. Later on I got the chance to continue with to . So I was happy to have the cut at B.

In the middlegame I was tricked badly after an invasion I played a bit careless. :-) I resigned shortly after.