Hane at the Head of One and a Half

  Difficulty: Beginner   Keywords: Shape

Once one has learned to hane at the head of two stones, it becomes a natural instinct to do it even when you have only one supporting stone instead of two. This seems to be a common problem around the 10k level.

[Diagram]

Bad instinct

If Black has a stone at x, B1 is excellent shape. But without that stone, he is asking for a fight in a situation where he is weaker. He has played into an atekomi and the cutting point at a is crying out to be exploited.

It is quite possible for B1 to be a fine move for tactical reasons based on nearby stones, but it should generally not be your first instinct.


[Diagram]

Good instinct

This is the standard response to WC (which in turn is the standard response to the shoulder hit of Black's first stone). Black's and White's groups are now equally strong, with the same number of liberties.


Author: Dan. I am only 5k, so comments and corrections are most welcome!


This is a copy of the living page "Hane at the Head of One and a Half" at Sensei's Library.
(OC) 2004 the Authors, published under the OpenContent License V1.0.
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