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5-3 point
Difficulty: Beginner
Keywords: Opening
The 5-3 point (Japanese: mokuhazushi) is a common first play in the corner. In practice we arrive at mokuhazushi in one of two ways:
Black chooses the 5-3 play as the first move in the corner. White answers at 2 (depending on circumstances 'a' and 'b' are other common alternatives for W).
Black starts with a 3-4 play at 1. White plays a knights move approach at 2. If black answers this play we move into the realm of komoku joseki. If however, black plays elsewhere then we arrive at the same situation as the first diagram but with the colors reversed. In effect, white has played a mokuhazushi at 2 and black has approached at 1. Ishida has this to say about mokuhazushi:
The mokuhazushi is an interesting approach for everyone to practice with in their own games. By its nature it cedes the corner to the opponent. In exchange it looks for benefits on the outside either along the top, down the left side, or both. Since the best way to accomplish this will depend on the rest of the board, many different joseki have been developed over the years. For example, Ishida gives 'a' through 'i' as alternative responses to the White approach at 2:
BillSpight: In ancient games of a couple of hundred years ago, you would also see this:
The usual response was on the 3-3 (a), but sometimes b. W 2 may be the best play in certain circumstances. See OngoingGame2.
The 3-3 is the obvious response to the double mokuhazushi. However, if Black starts with the 3-3 and White makes the one-space kakari, B 3 looks a little slow. To me that suggests that mokuhazushi is an acceptable response to mokuhazushi. Nonetheless, it has fallen out of favor. ;-) dnerra: On the other hand, White would usually not approach a 3-3 stone with a one-space kakari. In the diagram, B3 might be a little slow, but W2 is too close to the very solid black position. So W2 probably needs another move, probably a two-space extension at a. My impression is that B has secured a little more territory than white with his two moves (Everyone welcome to disagree here! :-) ). So the conclusion would be that W2 is a special strategy dictated by surrounding positions. For example, W2/Wa might be an ideal expansion from a shimari in lower left. Or (in a later stage of the game) W could have very a strong position in lower left, so that she is planing Wb instead of Wa as a reply to B3. DaveSigaty: I have had this played against me several times. Regardless of what the pros think, I believe that it is a viable approach at the amateur level that prevents Black from trying anything tricky. This is a copy of the living page "5-3 point" at Sensei's Library. (C) the Authors, published under the OpenContent License V1.0. |