Hane at the Head of Two Stones

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  Difficulty: Beginner   Keywords: Shape, Tactics, Proverb
[Diagram]

The head of two

This proverb says that in a position like the one in this diagram, playing hane with Black a or White b (facing the center) is a very big move. If one is faced with a position like this, it is hardly ever good to play somewhere else on the board. The difference between these two moves is simply too large.

Enfors: Anybody care to add some elaboration as to why this is so important for us newbies who don't understand it on our own?

unkx80: Sure. This page needs expansion anyway.



Let's visualise the effect:

[Diagram]

Black hane

[Diagram]

White hane


[Diagram]

Hane at the head of two stones

Why is hane at the head of two stones so important? A typical sequence is B2 to B5. We observe the following:

  • White's influence increased significantly.
  • Black is pushed down with limited expansion? opportunities.
  • Black has a cutting point at a and the black+circle chain has only three liberties. This induces weaknesses around b (see eye-stealing tesuji), which is a burden to Black.

In some circumstances, W3 may choose to simply pull back at W5. But similar observations apply.



Author: AndreEngels, (WikiMasterEdit by Dieter).


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This is a copy of the living page "Hane at the Head of Two Stones" at Sensei's Library.
(OC) 2009 the Authors, published under the OpenContent License V1.0.
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