Reduce high enclosure

Starting position  

Assume that White wants to reduce the black framework here, and at the same time strengthen her own a bit.

 

White plays a probe at .

We shall assume that Black answers strongly at because he doesn't want White to live in the corner. If Black plays at , White plays at . If Black then plays to the right of to kill White, White will play a; have fun investigating that move, it's neat :)

 

Now White attaches and the sequence to follows.

Black has some bad aji in his territory and has to add a move, in particular Black cannot push through and cut above . Takagawa recommends that Black add a move at a.

The beautiful thing about this is of course the timing. White can only play the forcing moves in the corner before attaching at . If White omits the forcing moves, Black can cut after and is unlikely to answer the same way in the corner.

-- ChristianNentwich