Take the last big point

    Keywords: Strategy

At the end of the fuseki, sometimes there is a choice between taking the last big point in gote, or starting a fight (maybe an invasion) in the hope of keeping sente and being able to take the big point later. Often it is worth accepting gote and taking the last big point, because:

% old version of first sentence, for reference:
%The strategic idea that it may be better to take the final point on the board that is demonstrably large in terms of taking territory, rather than start (or not ending in [sente]) the [middle game] fighting, usually by a deep [invasion].[#1] The reasoning behind this idea is usually like this:
  • after an invasion it may be unpredictable when one next gains sente;
  • it needn't be wrong to put your opponent in the position of having to invade.

It is probably also the case that adding a big point to one's own formation adds to its defensive strength in the case of large-scale fighting. Taking the last big point rather than invading would tend to increase the scale of the game.

Against formations such as sanrensei and the Chinese such an attitude may appear to be something of a luxury, since they are fairly much designed to make the opponent rush into an invasion. One can probably trace the development of counter-strategies in terms of postponing the inevitable invasions, on the basis of overall positional judgement.

See also discussion under oba (big point); also tedomari.


Actually, this may be made a general strategic guideline: play fuseki in such a way as to take the last strategic point. Since the number of strategic points is not constant (ie. tengen sometimes is one of them, sometimes is not), Black player should steer toward the positions where there is an odd number of them. This can be achieved in two ways: (1) making tengen count or (2) reducing the value of one of the points (like hoshi in the middle of Black formation in Kobayashi Fuseki)

Larsen 7 kyu

Charles But amateurs play tengen too often. There is no virtue in playing tengen just because it looks like a big point. In classical fuseki styles the last big point is often a quite short extension on the sides. Styles using the 4-4 point are rather different.


[1]

Or, in the case of amashi strategy, leaving one of your groups visibly weak.

Charles Matthews


related, more specific: GetTheLastBigMoveInFuseki


This is a copy of the living page "Take the last big point" at Sensei's Library.
(OC) 2012 the Authors, published under the OpenContent License V1.0.
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