End of fuseki, start of chuban
Here we discuss when the fuseki (opening) can be said to go over into chuban (middle game).
DieterVerhofstadt: In the opening, both players sketch out their spheres of influence. The middle game starts when
- a player plays in the opponent's sphere of influence, and a fight starts
- a complicated standard sequence (joseki) extends into a fight
- a player makes a mistake in the opening, and his opponent punishes him by chasing him into a fight
In all cases, groups of both players run out into the center. This is the distinguishing feature of the middle game.
Bob McGuigan: I'm not sure there are such easy ways to tell when the opening is over. For example, probe moves against a corner formation may be played in the opening and these sometimes lead to a local fight. You could also say that joseki sequences are fights locally. I think that big points are also important in determining when the opening has ended. The opening is over when there are no more big points to be played. In actual games there are often early fights which reach a point of equilibrium and then the game switches to taking big points again. In a sense, then, there has been a bit of middle game activity and then a reversion to the opening. So, actually, there may not be a clear border between the opening and the middle game.
kikashi: Agreed, Bob. Although the terms "fuseki" and "chuban" have clear meanings, I think it refers more to the type of move actually played. One can have fuseki stones interspersed with chuban fighting and some areas that are very close to yose. I think a good benchmark to tell what "stage" of the game you are in is to analyse the general focus of the players. If the game is becoming influence-oriented, chances are you're in the middle. If you are trying to scrape up every last me, you're in yose. Am I close to right?
Bill: Well, the technical term in Japanese for opening is joban. It is synonymous with but not the same as fuseki. Fuseki has to do with arraying your stones in preparation for battle or further development. So you can have fuseki during the middle game. And you can have a game with hardly any fuseki at all, that is fighting from the start.
Add to all this the fact that joban', chuban, and shuban'' are all fuzzy terms, anyway, and things are not all that clear. ;-)
HolIgor: I don't think that introduction of additional Japanese terms is useful here. I met these terms reading Kato's book, but I thought those were just the usual language terms: opening, middle, ending, while the go community usually uses fuseki, chuban and yose.