![[Welcome to Sensei's Library!]](images/stone-hello.png "Sensei's Library")
Has anyone here ever played a four-stone handicap game with free handicap placement? One time I managed to get one online at KGS (so many times you play Japanese rules) and made a ponnuki surrounding tengen. Its influence was truly spectacular. I suggest anyone try it out if they have the opportunity. Very fun!
While it's important to experiment and learn how to use the stones, I think it's also worth pointing out that the ponnuki in the center (without capturing a stone) might not give you as much as the four stones in "normal handicap placement."
If each move in the opening is supposedly worth ten points, you end up behind by using four moves to gain thirty...
Heh, well, that's true, but it is doubtful anyone receiving handicap could make the most of those points in the first place (else they wouldn't be receiving the handicap). This is a good point, though.
Have you ever tried it? Because personally, in a four stone game I'd take that shape over the japanese placement or even two small low enclosures every time if I could.
True, but I think you get more benefit (in the long run) from learning to use the 4-4 stones than you do from trying to use a ponnuki around the tengen. To be honest, a ponnuki in the center is a lot easier to manage as the play gets better. I have given my opponent a ponnuki in the center and then later reduced its efficiency and subsequently won the game. It is powerful, though, and shouldn't be taken lightly. It also should be said that something like that can be very powerful when playing against opponents that have "joseki blindness" and don't consider the board in full.
To be honest, I think I do better with the Japanese placement of the four stones, but I think I tend to get more out of them (and am better off on all the corners) than I do from having extra power in the center. I don't think I'd play two corner enclosures in a free-placement handicap game. The position is too overconcentrated.
This would be a diamond shape, not a ponnuki, which results from capturing a stone.