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Overconcentration discussion
Difficulty: Beginner
Keywords: Opening, Joseki, Tactics, Strategy
Overconcentrated refers to a situation where one player has used many stones to achieve relatively little.
An example is shown here. Black has played tenuki after the first kakari and pincered the second with a close pincer. White has invaded the 3-3 point and the sequence has been played out.
After the sequence, White has made a decent amount of corner territory whereas Black is left with a strong wall facing the top right. However, In a position like this, White can later (always depending on the rest of the board) further reduce Black's wall's effectiveness by pushing from e.g. a. Black will get very little benefit from his wall - he is overconcentrated.
You realize that this is (almost) joseki? The only difference being that White has sente instead of Black. So Black is not overconcentrated.
Since my joseki knowledge is limited, no, I didn't realise it.
However, I have played Black here and I always end up being squeezed from the direction of a, and end up with little territory. I have recently started playing
No, it is not a major disadvantage for Black, that White has the option to play the next move here. In the joseki that Arno mentions, which is shown in this diagram, top players often choose to play tenuki with Black. And if they do, White b is more common than White a.
What you do wrong, is probably the way you look at this position. Rather than seeing White a as a threat to your territory, you should see it as a stone that is asking to be attacked. In fact, White a itself is very bad, because it invites Black to make territory on the top, but if White plays lower, she will still get a pincer from Black and have her stone attacked. In that case, Black will indeed not get much territory here, but he will get it on the right half of the upper side. Apart from that, one should also take care when to play this joseki. If White can play from the direction at a (but please do so on the third or fourth line!) and get away with it, there apparently is a good white position in the upper right. In that case, this joseki is not a good choice. If Black has a useful position on the left side, he should play at
As for your pseudo-joseki,
Interestingly, the position you arrive at is quite closely connected to one that is known to be overconcentrated. If Black continues the joseki with -- AndreEngels (2D Europe) --- How much do you lose by overconcentration? Obviously, less than the value of a move in fuseki. For example:
How much does White lose compared to, say, a or b? --holigor
It depends on the position, how bad is your overconcentration? And what are its consequences? In the case you give, I don't think Saying that it costs less than a move in the opening does not say much - a move in the opening is worth about 25 points, Few strategic errors are that large. -- Andre Engels, 2D Europe This is a copy of the living page "Overconcentration discussion" at Sensei's Library. ![]() |