Ancient Fuseki In Old China

    Keywords: Opening, Culture & History

Intro

This game is between Li Baixiang? and Jin Shiming? It is well attested and appears in many sources, starting with the [Carefree & Innocent Pastime] Collection. It was played in the Xianggong High Pavilion, Qionglin Garden, beyond the Xinzheng gate, Kaifeng. See John Fairbairn's "Wizardry from the Stone Chamber." The game is usually referred to as the Qionglin Game and is one of several games known from Kaifeng around 1100.

The players have several other games in the corpus (see GoGoD database).

As to the opening style, the pincer was very common and the "jump" out was normal - going into the corner was considered bad because of group tax, and Katago has confirmed this. Except it wasn't called a jump - it was called (making a) barrier, and was a very common move, with precisely that intent in mind, in order to separate the opponent's groups, again because of group tax.

Game opening and comments

[Diagram]

W, Li Baixiang vs. B, Jin Shiming pt1

PT1) Often seen at time this part is just use to secure from the pincer and keep corner weak, a double sided knife?

[Diagram]

W, Li Baixiang vs. B, Jin Shiming pt2

PT2) Black play is very well planned, and white has to live in gote.Move 17 has influenced many actual go players.

[Diagram]

W, Li Baixiang vs. B, Jin Shiming pt3

PT3) Just shows how white live on and black too!

[Diagram]

W, Li Baixiang vs. B, Jin Shiming pt4

PT4) White takes on gote.


Evaluation with KataGo

[Diagram]

W, Li Baixiang vs. B, Jin Shiming pt1

W4 -0.6 a B5 -0.8 a B7 -0.6 b W8 -1.4 b

[Diagram]

W, Li Baixiang vs. B, Jin Shiming pt2

W8 -3.6 a W10 -7 b

[Diagram]

W, Li Baixiang vs. B, Jin Shiming pt3

W6 -2.2 a

[Diagram]

W, Li Baixiang vs. B, Jin Shiming pt4

Black leads by 11,5 points, assuming komi and no group tax. The biggest mistake according to modern evaluation, is the marked connection. We can see how allowing Black to cut there, leaving White to live in the corner while Black is connected on the outside, could make a difference with group tax.


This is a copy of the living page "Ancient Fuseki In Old China" at Sensei's Library.
(OC) 2023 the Authors, published under the OpenContent License V1.0.
[Welcome to Sensei's Library!]
StartingPoints
ReferenceSection
About