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Closed Side - Closed Mind
Difficulty: Expert
Keywords: Opening, Joseki
I once saw a sequence like this being played out in my club (White was 1 dan, Black 2 dan). I didn't say anything at the time, but it made an impression on me, about problems of perception.
Also it seems that Black's response to the approach is quite obedient. Wouldn't a pincer show that the approach from the inside is not so good? At least some mention should be made of it. Or is the pincer not even necessary for White's inside approach to be worse? [1]
The approach at These terms are relative, one should say.
With
But in the case under discussion, White is playing in a negative way.
The end result of the joseki gives us
Actually, White was probably happy with the result. Where is the problem? One can describe several aspects where White shows a closed mind: competent Go players can still be missing some basic ways of thinking.
If the joseki in the right corner were the other way round, is that better for Black?
First point. The two
Second point. If we looked at the rest of the board, we could probably see the effect of the
Suppose Black decided to play Not really. As things stand White a is a good focal play, while Black doesn't have an ideal play in this part of the board. Third point. Think in terms of ideal plays, not just in terms of negating plays.
Fourth point. Low stones that are well supported may be thick - but that doesn't imply they threaten to make excessive territories. It's rather the opposite: one should expect to concede some territory near them, and fight elsewhere. [1]
I think that White could be happy to take the corner in this variation of the one-space low pincer. Now
Andre Engels: Because of Black's low, strong position in the upper left, a play on the upper side is uninteresting. This is one reason why approaching from this side is wrong (or maybe one could say it's a quick way to see it). For exactly the same reason, it is wrong for Black to play a pincer. So, no, Black need not play a pincer to show the error of White's move. Rather it is the opposite: playing a pincer provides White with an excellent opportunity to correct the mistake.
The result in the first diagram gives Black two corners, which is quite important. This is a copy of the living page "Closed Side - Closed Mind" at Sensei's Library. ![]() |