[Welcome to Sensei's Library!]

StartingPoints
ReferenceSection
About


Paths
GoProverbs

Referenced by
Low
SagariTalk
4463Enclosure25Ap...
Submarine
PeepToReduceEyespace
Footsweep
KnowYourLines
ExtendingOnThirdO...
HighOrLow
4464Enclosure
DefectInAWall
StrengtheningYour...
InTheBeginning
NamingExtensionsJ...
OpenInTheCorner
Chapel
BQM55
SecondLineConnection
ChessWhizAgainstL...
NYR2002Moves51To90

 

Second Line
  Difficulty: Beginner   Keywords: Tactics

The second line is normally used in conjunction with plays on the third and fourth line. Making repeated plays along the second line is called 'crawling'.

[Diagram]
Black crawls

Here it is Black who is crawling in response to White's attacking plays 3 and 5. This is a very poor position to be in. Even if Black survives here, the territory gained will be small in relation to the influence of White's wall.

It is for this reason that there is a proverb: the second line is the route to defeat. Crawling plays are sometimes a necessary evil; but before the endgame they are essentially loss-making.



An extension from a third-line stone along the second line is called a slide. These are very useful kinds of shapes, though if a slide is long it will also be thin.


Plays made directly on the second line without immediate support from other stones are called submarines.

[Diagram]
A submarine play



This is a submarine technique that appears quite often in pro play.

[Diagram]
Continuation



If the game goes this way, White has managed something interesting by getting Black to answer the 3-3 invasion at 4, rather than 5.


Jumps down from the fourth to the second line

These are relatively hard to handle. It seems fair to say that none of them is strictly good shape.

[Diagram]
footsweep


This has become known as the footsweep, after a martial arts technique. This type of play was common in old Chinese go, and quite rare in Edo period go in Japan. After it started to be used in the Chinese fuseki, it became quite popular.


Don't provoke damaging plays on the second line



This is a copy of the living page "Second Line" at Sensei's Library.
(OC) 2004 the Authors, published under the OpenContent License V1.0.