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NewYearSRengo2002

 

Opening in New Years Rengo
   

The New Year's rengo reached this position early on, with black to play.

[Diagram]
Diag.: An early position in the Rengo

I entered a move at 'a' as black 9, which was criticised for various reasons, most of which I agreed with (had to really, they were made by much better players...). It seemed to be suggested that black should play in the top left, probably at 'b' or 'c'.

DaveSigaty: Ignoring the question below for the moment, I thought playing 9 at 'a' was quite an interesting choice in this position (not in the books but so what :-). The reason is that the marked W stone is low so although 'd' might be thought of as attacking the W stone to the right more strongly than 'a', it has no exciting follow up along the bottom. If B does not finish the bottom after 'd' then W is likely to take the opportunity to play to the left of 'a' at an early stage and B's choice is going to look more slack than strong. In handling her stone on the right after 'd' W can concentrate on limiting B's opportunities on the right knowing that the bottom is uninteresting. After 'a' on the other hand, B can concentrate on building up a right-side framework as W tries to deal with her stone.

My question is: doesn't this (B playing in the upper left) lose the initiative for black? Say black 9 was played at 'd', to attack the white stone more strongly, and white then played 'b' to make a second shimari. I think black can then play at either 'e' or 'f' and rely on the weakness of the bottom left white stone to take control of the game. This seems fine for black to me. What do people think?


BillSpight: (For some reason Dave's text does not wrap around the diagram on my Netscape browser. {see if we solve that with one of our new 'super' line breaks - Dave} {Very nice! Thanks, Dave. :-))
As for James's play at a (B 9 in the game), I did not mean by my remarks to imply that it was a bad play. :-)
If Black plays in top left, instead, I think that g is the normal play.
As for the question of initiative, the two corners on the left are miai. It is usual for White to make a shimari in one and Black to play kakari in the other. For Black to do that does not mean a loss of initiative. OTOH, Black is not required to prevent a double shimari. Go is not so narrow.

[Diagram]
Diag.: Black continues in the bottom right

B 1 puts pressure on White's marked stone. W 2 - B 3 is sente. White now regards her lower right stones lightly and plays in the top left corner. Moi, I like W 4. ;-)
It is important for White not to try too hard to save her floating stones in the lower right. They are kikashi stones, and should function as a thorn in Black's side (aji). Black has made 2 more plays in the bottom right than White, but has not made a shimari. Therefore these White stones have done their work and are easy to throw away.

DaveSigaty: I think that W would be better off to play elsewhere directly instead of adding 2 first. The exchange of 2 for 3 eliminates the aji of W 'a' among other possibilities. If W ignores 1, it is not clear how B can enclose the W stone in a way that justifies having played three more times in the lower right. B 2, for example, may look severe but at some point B will have to demonstrate a refutation of W 'a' or add still another stone.




This is a copy of the living page "Opening in New Years Rengo" at Sensei's Library.
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