Transposition

Keywords: Tactics

Chinese: 还原 (huan2 yuan2)
Japanese: 還元 (kangen)
Korean: -

Transposition is the process by which two differing orders of play lead to the same position. In Go, this occurs relatively rarely, but there are some occasions on which it is possible, particularly in the opening.

An example:

Cho Chikun played this way against Yoda Norimoto in a December 2002 Meijin match. Notably, this position can turn into the Large Avalanche joseki:

Of course, neither side is obliged to play this way (indeed, the Cho - O game rapidly went its own way).

Here's one that could be missed.

This is a bit unexpected, because it seems to be a slow-moving shape.

When White's approach is the marked stone, is joseki. Therefore the previous diagram can't be so bad for White.

This isn't such a familiar sequence, perhaps; but that's because the pincer with has been out of style for many decades.

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Transposition

See also