Jabberwocks

    Keywords: Opening

Jabberwock[1] is a name adopted here for an opening side formation of skewed 3-5 points.

Table of contents Table of diagrams
An Ishida favourite
The plan
Early approach
Whole-board planning: ladders
No ladder-breaker
Slanty-ren-sei

The position

[Diagram]
An Ishida favourite  

This opening formation based on 3-5 points has been played often by Ishida Yoshio.

[Diagram]
The plan  

There is a clear idea here: if Black encloses with B1 and White plays W2, Black can continue with the press at a, or (more likely for pros) with the taisha joseki at b. Black then is threatening to build a broad framework across the whole side. If Black does play the taisha, White by adopting one of the simplifying lines will only help Black’s strategy.

[Diagram]
Early approach  

Therefore White’s approach at W1 is seen as early as move 4 of the game. Black may still be aiming to play taisha at c.


Taisha and ladders

[Diagram]
Whole-board planning: ladders  

This fuseki illustrates some taisha-led thinking. If White plays W2 in the adjacent corner as shown, then, after B3 and W4, W2 can act as a ladder-breaker in a taisha to come.

GreenAsJade Why would black play B3 given W2, when B3 is intended to trigger the taisha, but White already has the ladder?

[Diagram]
No ladder-breaker  

If White played in one of the other two corners, that wouldn’t be true. For example W2 here means Black will be able to set up the ‘jabberwock’ plan of the first diagram, or to play a taisha with all ladders good after W4. This may not be provably bad for White, of course.


See also


Notes

[1] Derived from [ext] Lewis Carroll’s poem [ext] Jabberwocky about the slaying of the “Jabberwock”, a scary hard-to-define monster. Charles Matthews choose this as a suitable name for this side formation.


Discussion

Mostly there is no Japanese name for side formations – ‘Crab’s Eyes’ is one, but exceptional. Jabberwock is just something I made up (after the Lewis Carroll poem, about a scary hard-to-define monster and how to slay it ...)

Charles Matthews

This is a thoughtful and interesting page. --Hu of KGS

Quite brillig. -- Bill

My favorite! -- lovely

Also see my thoughts and variations on the double mokuhazushi fuseki? -- mafutrct

Patrick Traill: I cannot find those!

I looked through 100 pro games at eidogo featuring this opening (two 3-5 points), and when black plays it there is significant increase in winning ratio, maybe 4 to 1. Black did avoid taisha very often in the games I looked at. I used the opening for the first time this evening, and was very happy with both the result, and the ease of gameplay it gave me -- Pål


Slanty-ren-sei

gaius: This opening is one of my favourites. I recently started to experiment with what I call the “slanty-ren-sei” fuseki:

[Diagram]
Slanty-ren-sei  

Against an approach move at a, the press at b builds a nice center moyo. The approach move at c can be easily pincered at d (or taisha, maybe, depending on the whole-board position). I used to play at e instead of the middle hoshi point, but it feels a bit too far from the left and too close to the right. It looks so much nicer though :) What are your thoughts? It appears to be novel, as neither pattern gives hits on GoBase.

PYves: I like how well the 5-3 works with a side star-point (on either side of it), but it doesn’t feel efficient enough to be the first 3 moves. I would rather add a stone down a side first. I have tried changing the top left stone for the 3-3 point, which is more balanced, but possibly doesn’t work as well globally (though fun).


Jabberwocks last edited by PJTraill on June 25, 2018 - 16:07
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