Strange Openings
Introduction
In Lessons in the Fundamentals of Go, Kageyama says that if you can't win playing an enclosure-and-extension fuseki, you should adapt your opening to your own playing style. This advice probably doesn't extend so far as the Stanley fuseki[1], but pros and strong amateurs often play openings which differ from the classical "enclosue and extend" pattern.
Many examples from the New Fuseki era exist, of course, but that seems to have settled down in the latter half of the Twentieth Century. Periodically, though, you run into exceptions.
Examples From Pro Games
- Lee Changho vs. Paek Tae-hyeon: Lee plays double 3-5 6-4 enclosures.
- Hoshino Masaki vs. Tsurumaru Keiichi: a three-corner sanrensei versus a "tengen shimari."
- Takao Shinji vs. Yamashita Keigo: Takao plays 5-5, and Yamashita replies with tengen. It gets weirder.
- Yoda Norimoto vs. Kobayashi Satoru: Yoda plays double 6-4 points.
- Zhang Wendong vs. Liao Xingwen: Zhang 9-dan may be a bit of a bully.
- Yamabe Toshiro vs. Hashimoto Utaro: Toshiro plays tengen. Hashimoto immediately approaches. Arguably part of the New Fuseki era, this game is odd even for that period.
- Gan Siyang vs. Li Fan: Gan Siyang plays a unique move as Black 1.
Pros Noted for Unusual Openings
- Yang Keon plays experimental corner moves often.
- O Meien is also noted for original moves, though his fuseki isn't always non-standard. His innovations are called "Meienisms."
- More: see Center oriented players
Elsewhere
- The Great Wall is an unorthodox fuseki advocated by Bruce Wilcox.
- "Stanley,"[1] as mentioned above, plays a very unusual fuseki in conjunction with a greedy, overplaying style.
- Davou played an unusual tengen fuseki in a rengo with a 7-dan player.
- Alakazam? on KGS often plays the 6-3 point, Oomokuhazushi, also called "Phantom Kakari" or "Youkai Kakari".
- Ongoing Game 2, a Wiki rengo, featured an unusual enclosure based on an immediate approach and mokuhazushi.
-
hoshionly on KGS plays only star points in the opening, except to protect his star points from being captured. This is unusual because he will even contact 3-4 point stones to get the hoshi, and then tenuki. He then goes on to spectacularly kill most of the board.
-
rowurboat on KGS plays five in a row in the centre, then claims victory. Then there is a lot of fighting.
-
sevenseven on KGS plays the 7-7 point in the opening.
- Robert Jasiek's play is often very center-orientated:
sum
Some of these experiments are consistent with the idea that you should have no plan in the opening. Others just seem playful.
Footnotes
[1]: Note that the StanleyStandardFuseki page is flagged as Humour