9x9 Tengen Openings

    Keywords: Opening

Nico: As I have seen that this is the most frequent move, I'd love that some experienced players illustrate some typical 9x9 openings at tengen, to first show how to use it effectively, but also how to defend against it.

[Diagram]

Tengen opening

Charles Matthews Many 9x9 games are available at [ext] http://gobase.org/9x9/. This opening is the standard, I believe.

Strategy depends somewhat on komi, I'm told. Assuming 6.5, the conventional wisdom says that White must make two separate living groups - which isn't so easy. That is, low-ranked pros seem to find this an interesting speed game.


[Diagram]

White to play

Matthew Macfadyen once used this 9x9 position when I asked him some question about probing moves. (I can't remember what the question was now.)

Anyway, where should White play next?

[Diagram]

Probe

The idea is for White to probe at 1. Black then will normally want to answer at one of the circled points. Then ...

[Diagram]

Probe

The symmetry is broken, so White can choose to play 2, which is now better than the circled point.

Well, I thought this was interesting. It probably does not belong on this page. So feel free to move it to a better home. --TimHunt

Oh, shall. A bit questionable that, though. Black could for example answer at a. White can claim a good exchange perhaps, but anything on this size of board is so tactical that you need some concrete continuation. Charles


[Diagram]

White to play

If Black doesn't break symmetry, the game could also be very interesting. Kosh

[Diagram]

White to play

one possible (symmetry breaking) continuation...


Charles Matthews Just found this link in a rec.games.go posting by Richard Hunter: [ext] http://pr.fujitsu.com/jp/news/1998/Mar/minigo.html

The game record there is of exactly this opening, although sadly a ko fight going on where the probe was played obscures it a bit. And there was I being sceptical about all this. What is said on the game record image is that this is a game from 1994 between Yamada Kimio 5 dan and Cho Chikun, with komi at 5.5.


This is a copy of the living page "9x9 Tengen Openings" at Sensei's Library.
(OC) 2007 the Authors, published under the OpenContent License V1.0.
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