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Taisha five-way junction
Difficulty: Expert
Keywords: Joseki
This occurs some way into the main variation of the taisha joseki and may even be a six- or seven-way junction. The point of this page is to sort out which variations are attested as pro plays, and which are presumed just trick plays. The latter are perpetuated by joseki books.
For the hardcore enthusiast, this is position is the source of the major taisha variations. We'll look at Black a, less difficult than b or c.
Instead of the push of
This is the expected development, after a while the groups in the centre make some shape.
Black 1 here has been played by some top players down the years (Shusai, Sekiyama Riichi, Hashimoto Utaro). The line continues with 2 and 3, and is thoroughly analysed in Ishida.
Black 1 here is a pro play, though perhaps not recently (any advance on Kubomatsu-Kitani in 1934?) This is a pushing battle with a trick play in it. Black 3 may look as if it's easy to refute - but beware the two-stone edge squeeze!
This idea appeared in a couple of Go Seigen's games in the 1930s.
Black 1 and 3, not mentioned in Ishida, were played by Shuwa.
That leaves these plays a and b from Ishida unaccounted for; they may be outright tricks. Analysis is given there for a; for b too but that was played differently 1974-06-06 by Hashimoto Utaro against Magari Reiki (game on Gobase). Gobase also has a game 1973-10-31 between 1 dan pros Inoue Hatsue and Kimura Yoshio in which Black tries c. Sazn: A and B are Trick Plays Descent Variations
SnotNose: Instead of the push at a White plays the descent
Continuation 1. Black has sente, but his center stones are heavy. A Black play in the direction of a might be urgent. This continuation appears in WholeBoardThinkingInJoseki, as does another that includes a White atari at
Continuation 2. Black finishes with a and achieves a much lighter shape than in continuation 1 above. At the same time, White has less definitive eye shape on the outside. The cost of these advantages for Black is a loss of some corner territory. Perhaps this makes continuation 2 the better choice, in general. A continuation very similar to this appears in IshidasJosekiDictionary but with little commentary.
Another non-internet source for ideas involving the descent varation include NieWeipingOnGo (at least one game in that book uses this variation). This is a copy of the living page "Taisha five-way junction" at Sensei's Library. ![]() |