Pushing from behind

A form of pushing battle where one player is pushing the other ahead, considered disadvantageous for the player pushing from behind. If you find yourself in a situation where you are tempted to push from behind, you should consider alternatives.

Pushing from behind  

---etc is pushing white from behind. In general this pattern is not good for black. If black continues, white is constantly ahead of him, and may choose to bend around (hane) on the front of black's stones (eg: at a instead). If black plays elsewhere (tenuki) after , white can follow up at a with a devastating bend.

Jumping ahead  

Usually, something like is better, jumping ahead. Now and are pushing from behind, and maybe black will hane in front.

Jump, cut  

The risk of , however, is that white will cut like this. Whether this is possible depends on the surroundings (eg: is the edge of the board nearby?)

Knight's move  

If you think that the cut is too dangerous, you can play the knight's move jump of instead. Now - might follow. This is better than pushing from behind.

Knight's move, cut  

Even with the knight's move, white can still cut. But this cut is much weaker than the previous one. In the previous cut diagram, and and - were separated in three groups. Here and are connected, so black only has two groups to worry about (- and -).

A little extra push  

If even the cut from the above diagram is too much for your position, then you are truly in a weak situation, and perhaps there is nothing for it but to push from behind (sometimes bad moves are your only option). Under some circumstances, pushing from behind for another move or two will lead to more favorable outcomes from a jump or knight's move. At left white has played a bend at the head of three stones, which is easier for black to defend than a bend at the head of two stones and gives black more tactical options, including the ladder at a.

Moves 12 to 21  

60th Honinbo title match, game 4, W: Cho U, B: Takao Shinji. through are an extreme example of pushing from behind.
The Japanese term translates as pushing the cart from behind--indicating that something is wrong, since in Japan carts are normally pulled, not pushed.

trontonic: This is no longer a bad shape, though?

All the pushing moves are good moves according to AI: https://ai-sensei.com/game/acCDHylpfgh5fmg6cDfz0p1lgdl1/vr13pbOYEYjeSgkaMmcY?move=21

xela: Noone said this specific example was bad! Here, a professional 9-dan thinks it's OK, and went on to win the game. In this case, the strong stone at means that black's influence isn't worth as much as it normally would be; in a sense, both sides are playing on dame points.

Here's the commentary from Go World issue 106:

Moves 10 to 19  

Komatsu Hideki: Cho's strategy with 10 etc. really made me happy.

Yo Kagen: He played quickly, too. 'Pushing is the only shape here,' he commented later.

Ishida Akira: Instead of 10, we would first of all consider the knight's move of A. Black would make good shape with B, but White could switch to C.

KH: I saw these pushing moves on satellite TV. I was a bit worried: Cho is usually cautious, yet here he was playing so boldly.

IA: He's certainly bold. Even so, it's not good. This is pushing the cart from behind. I consider it very dubious.

Matsuura Takamoto: Was it necessary to push six times? What about White 14 at D?

YK: That leaves Black with the vital point of E, so it's probably no good. White will be subjected to a one-sided attack.

KH: The same thing applies to White 16 at F: Black plays at G. And to White 18 at H: Black I. Once you push at 10, you probably have no choice but to keep pushing to 20.

(As with many pre-AlphaGo commentaries, AI disagrees with a lot of these evaluations! The knights move for , or is perfectly playable, and in all three cases AI prefers black to tenuki and play at the bottom right instead.)

trontonic: xela, it is listed as a bad shape here, though: https://senseis.xmp.net/?SixGoodAndSixBadShapes