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Taisha

Referenced by
Joseki
Shusaku
BigQuestionMark
TasukiFuseki
TeachingGame66
AHoshiMokuhazushi...
AutomaticInvasion...
ShinFuseki
OngoingGame2Moves...
BQM13

 

Taisha Joseki
  Difficulty: Advanced   Keywords: Joseki

[Diagram]
Diag.: Taisha joseki

The taisha joseki is famous mokuhazushi pattern known as the "joseki of thousand variants" and is commonly regarded as one of the most difficult josekis. Even professionals sometimes make mistakes in this joseki and new variations are found on regular basis.

Taisha Main Continuations


[Diagram]
Diag.: Standard continuation

White 1 through black 9 is one standard variation of the taisha. A possible continuation is black 'a', white 'b' black 'c'.

AvatarDJFlux: the Taisha has really hundreds of variants. According to Ishida, once B gets to the position below, he can choose between a, b, c and d. Each of these, in turn, can lead to other 5 or 6 variations, and so on geometrically... Please bear in mind that all these variations need favourable ladders at every possible place, so in order to challenge your opponent with the Taisha you'd better check your zig-zags... ;-)

lavalyn: Which of course means that opening at tengen suddenly acquires new meaning - shicho-atari for every corner! Who needs to check the opposite corner of the board...

[Diagram]
Diag.: Black's possibilities


DJ: Very often the Taisha is used to start right away a colossal fight that would spread all over the Goban[1].
No wonder kyu players like me are scared by such joseki...
Luckily, the Taisha has simple variations also: if you don't feel like to go for complications and blood-thirsty fights you still have many WaysToAvoidTheTaisha!

Page created by DaveSigaty


[1] In the 80's this was seen as bad, because it simplified the game too much, taking the beauty of subtlety away from Go: at that time complicated joseki's like Taisha (or even the Nadare Joseki, for that matter) were therefore seldom played.
Today it is just the opposite: the simplification of the game is seen positively(AFAIK especially by Korean players), because it skips the difficulties of Chuban and brings the game directly to the Yose stage, where it is easier to perform calculations: see my other page WhereIsGoGoing



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