Magic Sword

    Keywords: Joseki

Chinese: 妖刀 (yāo dāo)
Japanese:
Korean:


A picture of a Muramasa sword: [ext] http://go.yenching.edu.hk/go_web.files/jphis/muramasa200.jpg


The Magic sword of Muramasa is the nickname of the following combination. The reason for this nickname is that many very difficult variations may follow from it.

It is common usage, if inaccurate, to call the pincer with B1 itself the 'Magic Sword'.

[Diagram]

The real 'magic sword'

This variation was played in a 1931 game between Kato Shin and Go Seigen (White: colours were reversed). It then perhaps went underground for a generation.

[Diagram]

The ladder pattern

This pattern appears in Ishida's joseki dictionary as White's way to make a peaceful end to this pattern. It depends on the ladder at W5, which is a prerequisite for White to play W1 as shown here. However, no such variation seems to occur in pro play and this most probably because the result is too good for White. So, Black shouldn't have played the marked move when the ladder works for White.

[Diagram]

If the ladder works for Black

If the ladder doesn't work for White the result is disastrous for her and she shouldn't have initiated this variation herself by playing the outside attachment. That is, WC was a poor choice. Or, going back further, perhaps White might rethink the original approach at WS.

In any case, the ladder must be good for one player or the other. Since either player can opt not to play this sequence and neither is happy if the ladder doesn't work for him/her, then this sequence should never occur. This would then be why there are unlikely to be real-life examples in high-level games.

There are several joseki which rely on ladders which neither side should initiate provided both read ahead to see whether or not the ladder is good. A compilation of just those joseki is to be found at Ladder Joseki.

As a comment on the unexplored joseki concept, it is probably the case that many analyses were published, but the move was played in few (maybe no) high-profile pro games. Such moves may be well known in magazines, and played by strong amateurs; but cannot be called joseki.


More material


Authors


This is a copy of the living page "Magic Sword" at Sensei's Library.
(OC) 2007 the Authors, published under the OpenContent License V1.0.
[Welcome to Sensei's Library!]
StartingPoints
ReferenceSection
About