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Jabberwocks
This opening formation based on 3-5 points has been played often by Ishida Yoshio.
There is a clear idea here: if Black encloses with 1 and White plays 2, Black can continue with the press at a, or (more likely for pros) with the taisha joseki at b. Black then is threatening to build a broad framework across the whole side. If Black does play the taisha, White by adopting one of the simplifying lines will only help Black's strategy.
Therefore White's approach at 1 is seen as early as move 4 of the game. Black may still be aiming to play taisha at c.
This fuseki illustrates some taisha-led thinking. If White plays 2 in the adjacent corner as shown, then after 3 and 4 White 2 can act as a ladder-breaker in a taisha to come.
If White played in one of the other two corners, that wouldn't be true. For example White 2 here means Black will be able to set up the 'jabberwock' plan of the first diagram, or to play a taisha with all ladders good after White 4. This may not be provably bad for White, of course. The same sort of idea may be set up with 4-5 point, or even 3-6 point and 4-6 point plays.
In this case the wedge 2 is useful for White, because Black then has two insecure corners. This is a good illustration of miai thinking.
This is from an Ishida magazine article. If Black is happy playing a 3564 enclosure (or perhaps a 3555 enclosure), the same type of formation can be set up from the (unorthodox) starting position.
This formation is known as 'crab's eyes'. It is more often adopted by White, as a way of countering Black's influence (for example against nirensei). That was the opening in the famous Sakata vs Takagawa game. Mostly there is no Japanese name for side formations - 'crab's eyes' is one, but exceptional. Jabberwock is just something I made up (after the Lewis Carroll poem, about a scary hard-to-define monster and how to slay it ...) Perhaps I should say that the idea of the 4-6 example is something I found in a book of Shirae Haruhiko. This is a thoughtful and interesting page. --Hu of KGS This is a copy of the living page "Jabberwocks" at Sensei's Library. (C) the Authors, published under the OpenContent License V1.0. |