Lesson 9c – 4-4 Point Joseki (3)

Hi Everyone. Today we will continue to discuss where we left off the last time. We will look at the block on the other side when White plays at the 3-3 point when Black pincers.

Before we begin, I wish to thank all those who have subscribed and I hope that there will be more subscribers as this will be the best way to be informed of new lessons when it is published.

Diagram 1.

Diagram 1 above is a typical opening where Black plays the San Ren Sei opening, i.e. the 3 Star Point in a row on the right side. Now looking at the diagram above and knowing that we have studied our opening fundamental where we discussed about stones needs to build relationships with each other, where do you think Black should block? At “a” or at “b”? This is a very fundamental thing that you all should and must know.

Diagram 2.

In Diagram 2 above, Black chose to block at “a” and the Joseki that we have studied in the previous lesson takes place. Although this is a Joseki, but Black’s blocking direction is wrong because after White played at 16, the effect of the Black 5 stone is now significantly diminished. Compare this with Diagram 3 below.

Diagram 3.

The Black block with 9 is the correct direction and after the Joseki to Black 13, you can see the beautiful relationship between the Black stones on the right side forming a very nice framework.

Compare Diagram 2 and 3, the Black stones in Diagram 3 has better relationships.

Diagram 4.

The block at “b” in Diagram 1 is only correct usually when Black has a stone at Black 5. If Black does not have a stone there or around there, White will follow up with White 14 in Diagram 4 above and Black’s framework will be split up.

Therefore, if Black does not have a stone at 5 or around 5, the usual Joseki to choose will be like in Diagram 2 above.

Now let’s look at the Joseki in detail.

Diagram 5 (Reference Diagram)

The sequence in Diagram 5 above is the basic Joseki.

Diagram 6.

Now, instead of White 5 in Diagram 5 White played at White 5 in Diagram 6, the sequence to White 13 is one of the continuation that we can expect. Effectively, this looks like Black blocks the other way, at “a” in Diagram 1 above but compare this result with the one in Diagram 2 where it is the Joseki when Black blocks at “a”, you will see that the result in Diagram 6 is that White has a smaller corner and as such White cannot be happy about this.

Diagram 7.

If Black wants the right side, it can also block with Black 6 in Diagram 7 above and the sequence to Black 12 can be expected. You may notice that this looks like our Joseki in the reference diagram but here, Black’s position is much more solid. There is no reason why White wants to help Black to become more solid, which makes it harder for White to invade or reduce Black’s framework later. As such, the result in Diagram 7 is also not satisfactory.

Therefore White 5 in the Reference Diagram is the move to play in this situation.

Diagram 8.

After White plays at 5, what if Black neglect to play at 6 in the Reference Diagram? In fact we have studied this in our 3rd lesson on our Joseki fundamental regarding shape. You may want to visit it again. However, what you can expect is White will play the good point at White 9 and through move 14, White successfully cut off the Black 2 stone, a very bad result for Black.

Therefore Black 6 in the Reference Diagram is really important to prevent this.

Diagram 9.

After Black 6 in the Reference Diagram, White can play at White 7 in Diagram 9 above, which is also one Joseki variant. Black will continue to Black 18 and consistent with its initial plan, it manages to sort of seal White in the corner while building influence towards the right side and center.

Diagram 10.

Instead of Black 14 in Diagram 9, Black wants to pull out the Black stone by playing like in Diagram 10. White will extend to White 15 and this puts Black on the spot. You remember that when Black blocks at “b” in Diagram 1 the intention is to build influence facing the right side and the center right? But by pulling out with Black 14 and allowing White to play White 15, Black doesn’t seem to know what it wants anymore. There is a conflict of strategy.

Furthermore, after White plays 19, the Black stones at the top will have to run and find life while the White stones at the corner is already fully alive. This result is not good for Black and is rarely seen unless due to some special strategies (e.g. Black is very strong at the top).

Diagram 11.

After White answers at White 7 in the Reference Diagram, Black will have to answer at Black 8 to make sort of a connection with Black 2. If not, White will push out as in Diagram 11 and cut away the Black stone.

Therefore, to conclude about this Joseki, there is two things that you really need to understand:

1. The purpose of the block at “b” in Diagram 1 is to build up influence towards the right side and the center. You will want to block at this side only when you have a stone at Black 5 or around there so that it will work well together. Once you have decided to block this side, be consistent with it as demonstrated in Diagram 9 and not as in Diagram 10.

2. You cannot let the Black pincer stone (i.e. Black 7 in Diagram 1 or Black 2 in the Reference Diagram) to be cut off. Therefore the move of Black 8 in the Reference Diagram is important to insure some sort of connection.

Why do I use the word “some sort of connection”? That’s because, as you see, the connection is still not 100% solid and White can cut it later when the timing is right but at this moment, White cannot yet cut it apart. So as it stand, it is sort of connected, which is good. Do not allow this pincering stone to be cut off as in Diagram 11.

Well, this concludes our discussion on this Joseki and also completes our discussion of the White playing at the 3-3 point in response to the Black pincer. In the next lesson, we will discuss about what happens when White makes a one space jump, i.e. why he wants to jump instead of going into the corner and digging out the territory (which is generally considered to be better) and the Joseki that follows.

Till then, have fun and remember to subscribe to this blog

Lesson 9b – 4-4 Point Joseki (2)

Hello Everyone! Today we shall continue with our discussion on the 4-4 point Joseki. Before that, please subscribe to this blog by clicking on the “Sign me up!” button on the right side panel

Diagram 1.

Against the White approach move of 1, Black 2 pincer is a common move. There are a few reasons why Black wants to do this. Firstly, Black may want to develop along top side, secondly, it wants to prevent White from developing the top side. Also, it may want to force White to go into the corner and then seal White up at the same time building a moyo like the one in Diagram 7 in our first lesson on the Opening.

This pincer is a very tight pincer and is very severe. But you may ask why not just be the most severe and contact it like in Diagram 2 below?

Like we have said quite a number of times in our previous lessons, you do not touch your opponent’s weak stone because doing that will make it stronger.

Diagram 2.

If Black attaches into the White stone with 1, it will provoke White 2 which strengthens itself while the two Black stones are now weak and separated. This is not good for Black.

However, you will not mind touching your opponent’s stone if it is already strong. By touching stones that are already strong, you will be able to make it over concentrated.

Diagram 3.

In the case of Black 4 above, Black does not mind touching the White stone because the White has already slide into the corner to make a base and Black has already played Black 2 which has strengthened his 4-4 stone.

Diagram 4.

When Black pincers at 2, White can jump into the 3-3 point with White 3 as in Diagram 4 above. Black now has two options depending on his strategy, i.e. he can either block at “a” or “b”.

Let’s look at these in more detail but before that, you may ask, why just “a” or “b”? Can Black play something else?

Diagram 5.

Why can’t Black answer at “c” or “d” in Diagram 5 above? What is wrong?

Well, to be honest, I don’t know but perhaps we can analyse this together. I have made a search on a database of more than 50,000 professional games but none of them has black answering at “c” nor “d”. There must be some good reasons why.

Diagram 6.

If Black plays at 1 in Diagram 6, White will play up to White 6. After this, the marked White stone can either be connected back via “a” or it can still run out if the time is ripe. As such, I feel that Black 1 is not tight enough to control the situation, leaving some bad aji behind.

Diagram 7.

If Black plays at 1 in Diagram 7, it effectively give White a choice of either playing “a” or “b” whereas it was initially Black’s right to choose which direction he wants to play. Therefore, this Black 1 also feels loose and gave White just a little bit too much freedom.

As such, I feel that the answer of either “a” or “b” in Diagram 4 above is good because it is tight and doesn’t give White much freedom of choice, as well as aji.

Diagram 8. (Main Joseki)

Diagram 8 above is a Joseki when Black blocks with Black 4 (i.e. “a” in Diagram 4). Black 12 can also be played at “a” which is more common nowadays as Black 12 above is perceived to be slow and over-concentrated. We will discuss more about this below. Therefore, if you compare this Diagram with Diagram 6 above, you will feel that in this diagram, Black is more solid and there is less aji.

Let’s study this Joseki in more depth.

Diagram 9.

When Black blocks at 4, instead of White 5 in Diagram 8, you may like to think why not White plays at 5 in Diagram 9 instead. Well, this variation is not unplayable and is sometimes played as part of a special strategy but in general, it is not Joseki. Why? Let’s look at Diagram 10 below.

Diagram 10.

Diagram 10 above is a common Joseki when Black blocks with Black 4 (i.e. “b” in Diagram 4 above). If you compare this diagram with Diagram 9 above, you will notice that in this diagram, White has a bigger corner. As such, if White plays as in Diagram 9 above, he will not be happy if he compares what he gets if the Joseki in Diagram 10 is played. Therefore, White’s sequence in Diagram 9 is only played when there is a special strategic situation but it is not common.

Diagram 11.

Let’s continue with our sequence in Diagram 8. Now let’s assume Black plays the hane of Black 6 in Diagram 11 instead of the extension in Diagram 8. This is one very common mistake that Black makes and I have seen this happen so many times. It is worth your while to try to understand this because chances are it will happen in your game too.

If Black hane with Black 6 in Diagram 11, White can punish Black severely with the descend of White 7. If Black tries to block with Black 8, White cuts with White 9 and then next threaten to play at “a” to capture the three black stones. Black will then have to atari with Black 10 and then come back to protect the cut at “a” with Black 12. White then captures one stone and has a superior position.

Compare this diagram with Diagram 8 and you will see that White has a much better position and has thickness facing along the right side and the center as a result of the capture of the Black 6 stone. This is the best punishment.

Diagram 12.

Instead of Black 8 in Diagram 11, Black may connect with Black 8 in Diagram 12 above. The sequence to Black 14 follows and as a result, White gets a corner that is not only slightly bigger if compared to Diagram 10 but also is superbly solid.

Therefore, the hane of Black 6 in Diagram 11 is a bad move of which White can exploit and get more out of the bargain. It is therefore important to remember to extend to Black 6 in Diagram 8 and not to hane in Diagram 11.

Many beginners confuse this with this joseki below.

Diagram 13.

Diagram 13 above is a common Joseki when White invaded Black’s corner by playing White 1 at the 3-3 point. In this Joseki, it is okay for Black to hane with Black 4 because White does not have a stone outside (i.e. White’s approach move of White 1 in Diagram 8). With one stone outside, Black cannot hane. So don’t confuse this Joseki with the sequence in Diagram 11.

Diagram 14.

Okay, after understanding why Black needs to extend to Black 6 in Diagram 8, let’s see why White plays the hane of White 7 in that diagram and not White 7 as in Diagram 14 above. The reason is because if White plays White 7 as in Diagram 14, Black will answer with Black 8. Effectively, White is pushing from behind.

Pushing from behind and letting Black plays one more stone towards the center is no good. Therefore, do not push from behind unnecessary, giving Black more influence towards the center which will certainly be very useful. Push just enough, then stop! Therefore, White forces with the hane of White 7 in Diagram 8 and Black has to block with Black 8, if not, White will save its stone and get a big corner. When White connects with White 9, Black has to connect with Black 10, else White will cut and again get to save its stone and get a big corner.

After forcing the corner and Black connected with Black 10, White jumps to White 11, getting out. Remember our fundamental? You need to get out and resist getting sealed inside.

Notice that White jumps out and not pushes out from behind. This is a very important technique.

After White jumps out, Black reinforces with Black 12 or at “a”.

Now you will probably ask why is Black 12 in Diagram 8 necessary. Actually, Black 12 is a rather slow move and makes Black having an over-concentrated shape and we rarely see it played nowadays (I think I mentioned this in one of our previous lessons). Nowadays, playing at “a” is more common. However, as a beginner, it makes no harm to play more solidly.

The reason for the need to reinforce whether at Black 12 or at “a” is to prevent White from using the aji of the White stone. For example, in Diagram 15 below, White can make use of the aji and play at the marked White stone and this threatens the sequence to White 5, digging out the Black base and put it on the run. A reinforcement by playing at Black “a” in Diagram 8 above prevents this sequence. Besides that, a Black move at “a” also reinforces Black 2 and gives it a base in case the White stone runs out.

Diagram 15.

Also, notice that White should not pull out the White stone immediately after Black reinforces. The following diagram explains why.

Diagram 16.

If White forcefully tries to pull out the White stone by playing at White 1, Black will first force with Black 2, threatening to seal up the corner and capturing a White stone. White has to answer with White 3, thereafter Black will poke with Black 4 to make White heavy, then connect all his stones with Black 6. Now the whole group of White stone is without a base and has to run for its life while Black is thick and strong. This result is not good for White.

Today we have discussed one of the main Joseki in a pincer of an approach move. This main Joseki is as in Diagram 8 above and we have also discussed why each move is a good move. I hope that this lesson has been helpful to you. We will continue to study more of the 4-4 Joseki in future lessons.

Till then, have fun, play more games and solve more life and death problems. See you next time.

Lesson 9a – 4-4 Point Joseki (1)

Hello Everyone. We have so far covered some Fundamentals of Joseki and from this lesson onwards, we will go deeper into each Joseki.

Diagram 1.

The Joseki in Diagram 1 above is a representative and very common Joseki of the approach move to the 4-4 point. The moves to White 5 is Joseki and both Black and White has a base and Black has sente. Both players are happy with this result.

Diagram 2.

Assuming instead of approaching as in Diagram 1 which is normal, White approaches with White 1 in Diagram 2 instead. This is very bad because after Black blocks with Black 2, The White 1 stone is severely weakened and if White wants to find a base by playing at White 3, Black 4 is a strong attack on White.

Now let’s look at Black’s various response to White 1.

Diagram 3.

If Black doesn’t want White to go into the corner, Black can defend the corner with Black 2. White finds a base with White 3. In this formation, Black has a weak point at “a” which White can capitalize. If Black plays one more move at “a” or one line further than “a” to secure the corner, White can Tenuki and as such Black will lose the Sente that it will get if it plays in accordance with Diagram 1. This is not to say that Diagram 3 is bad. It can be played but having Sente is very important in the opening and spending three moves to secure a corner at the opening stage is not efficient enough.

Diagram 4.

It is also possible for Black to answer with Black 2 in Diagram 4 but again, the result is the same as in Diagram 3. Black has a weakness at “a” and needs another move to secure the corner, else if White plays at “a”, Black won’t feel so nice.

Diagram 5.

If Black really wants the corner, Black can also reply by playing at the 3-3 point. This Joseki is playable and the continuation to White 5 follows. In this Joseki, Black gets Sente but if you compare this to Diagram 1, White gets a high position and Black don’t have the moves to capitalize on White’s low position.

Diagram 6.

The weakness of White’s position in Diagram 1 is that White is a bit low and Black can press from top with Black 1 in Diagram 6 above to restrict White from accessing the center. White 2 has to answer this move because if not, White’s position will be split apart if Black plays at White 2 instead.

Diagram 7.

Black 2 in Diagram 7 wants to attack the White stone and at the same time wants to protect the corner. White answers to White 5 and get an ideal extension, i.e. 3 spaces for a 2 stone wall. In general, this is not very good for Black because 1) White gets an ideal extension, 2) Black still has weakness at the 3-3 point “a” and White can still take the corner away, 3) Black still has a weak point at “b” where White can capitalize on.

Diagram 8.

Black 2 in Diagram 8 above is a very good attack against White if Black has a stone at either A, B, C or D because this stone will restrict White and deny it of an ideal extension. But if Black does not have a stone at any one of these points, Black 2 is not advisable as a Joseki locally (it may be useful for other purposes, but in general, as a Joseki, it is not advisable).

Diagram 9.

Black can answer the White 1 approach move by playing the large knight move at Black 2. The aim of this is that if Black can play at Black “a” later, Black will get quite a big corner.

Diagram 10.

The weakness of Black 2 in Diagram 9 above is that White can immediately play at the 3-3 point with White 1 and takes the corner away from Black. In the process, Black will get some influence towards the center/right while White gets the corner territory and some influence towards the top/left.

Black 2 in Diagram 9 can lead to some complicated Joseki and if you do not like the complication that may happen, you can just simply choose the Joseki in Diagram 1.

Diagram 11, 12

Black can answer White 1 with the high move of Black 2 in Diagram 11 instead of the small knight move in Diagram 1. However, due to the inherent weakness of the high move, Black will need to play another move at either Black “a” or “b”. If White find a chance, White will force Black by playing at White “a” as in Diagram 12 above and Black will have to answer with Black “b”, if not, if White plays at “b” instead, the Black group will be without a base and will be subjected to an attack.

Diagram 13, 14

One reason for Black playing the high move of Black “2″ is it can look forward to the nice high-low extension to Black “a” later. Compare this to Diagram 14, Diagram 14 is flat and the point of Black “a” is not attractive.

Diagram 15.

Some of you may ask. If there is a weakness if Black answers with a high move as we have discussed in Diagram 11 and 12 above, can White immediately capitalize on this and attack the Black group by playing White 3 in Diagram 15 above?

Diagram 16.

The answer is No. The timing is not right yet. This is because Black will counter attack with a pincer as in Diagram 16 and White is now split into two groups. While each group runs, they are bound to hurt one another, a classic case of brothers fighting.

Diagram 17.

We have discussed about the White weakness in the Joseki in Diagram 1 above, i.e. the White position is low and Black can press it down and restrict its access to the center. Now let’s talk about the weakness of the Black position in the Joseki. The weakness is as in Diagram 17 above. White can force from White “a” and Black will need to answer with Black “b” to secure a base to live.

Diagram 18.

If Black neglected to play at “a” in Diagram 17, White will play that point with White 1 and if Black blocks, White 2 will be the reply. The sequence to White 7 is bad for Black because the group of Black stone is now without a base while White gets to play and have a group on both the top side and the right side. Notice that because White has that forcing stone on the right side, it will connect with White 7 and Black cannot cut their connection.

Diagram 19.

Instead of Black 4 in Diagram 16, Black may attempt with Black 4 in Diagram 19 but after White plays at 9, Black cannot cut the White stones at “a” because White will capture the three black stones by playing a “b”. Now, what if Black makes the empty triangle and play at “b” instead and next threaten to capture the two White stones on top (White 1 and its neighbour)? How will White answer? Perhaps you would like to work this problem out yourself?

We conclude today’s lesson on the basic 4-4 point Joseki in Diagram 1. We have discussed several other moves and their strength and weaknesses. In the next lesson, we shall look at the same White 1 approach move but this time, we shall look what happens if Black pincers instead.

Till then, have fun!

Lesson 8c – Choosing Joseki (3)

Hello Everyone. Today, we will complete our Joseki Fundamentals before we move on to study each Joseki in detail. As I have mentioned in the previous lessons, rote memorization of Joseki is not good but it will do you a lot of good if you study Joseki because the moves in Joseki represents good moves and if you understand why those moves are good, you can apply them throughout your game, not only in Joseki. Also, just understanding why the moves are good is also not enough because we play Go on the whole board and therefore cannot just look at one corner. That’s why knowing how to choose the correct Joseki to play is as important as knowing why those Joseki moves are good moves.

The legendary Master Go Seigen said this in his book, A Way of Play in the 21st Century:

“Joseki cannot really be played so simply. Figuratively speaking, a joseki is like a medicine. A medicine precisely tailored to a particular illness is extremely effective, but making a habit of taking one and the same medicine all the time regardless of whether you have a headache, an abdominal pain, or a bone fracture is not very wise. Similarly, you should not use a particular joseki all the time just because you like it.”

So there you have it. I hope you get the point.

My copy of the the book autographed by Go Seigen sensei.

So let’s move on to today’s lesson. Choosing the correct Joseki based on the whole board situation.

In the previous two lessons, we have discussed about the various properties of the approach moves and pincers. Now let’s put these knowledge to use.

Here is an example from the excellent book Whole Board Thinking in Joseki by Yang Yilun. Let’s look at all these four diagrams before we move on to investigate them one by one. As you can see, the top left corner is exactly the same in all four diagrams. Black made an approach move to White’s 3-4 corner stone and White gave black a 2-space low pincer. Black has four choices in response to this pincer, being the points “a” to “d”. However, the whole board situation in all four diagrams are different and therefore in this perspective, Black shall answer differently based on this whole board perspective.

Diagram 1, 2

Diagram 3, 4

Answers:

Diagram 5.

The jump of Black 1 in Diagram 5 is the correct Joseki answer to Diagram 1. After White answers at 2, Black 3 is a good pincer-extension, pincering the White lone stone while extending from his 4-4 stone on the top right, enabling development potential on the top right area.

Diagram 6.

The second problem is different from the first one in that White already has a thick group on the right side. If Black plays as in Diagram 5 above, it is disadvantaged and there are also no development potential for Black as exists for Black in Diagram 5. Black answers with Black 1, pressing White’s head. This technique is often used to make the opponent over concentrated. The general rule of thumb is that you should not touch your opponent’s lone stone because doing that will make it stronger. However, in a situation where your opponent is already very strong, there is no harm touching it and making it stronger. In most cases, the effect is that you are making him over-concentrated, i.e. a group or several groups of very strong stones lumping together in a small space.

After Black 15 capturing the White 8 stone, Black built a strong stone to counter White’s strong stones on the right side.

Diagram 7.

Diagram 7 is the answer to Diagram 3. This diagram is different from Diagram 6 in that White do not have a strong group on the right side and Black can look forward to attacking the two over-stretched White stones by splitting them. However, Black need to reinforce itself first, making itself strong first before attacking. Black 3 ensures Black of a base and White extended to White 4 which makes no harm to the Black lower left corner since Black’s corner enclosure is already strong and facing the lower right side. Black can next aim at playing a Joseki on the top right that will have the effect of splitting the White stones. Where will you play?

Diagram 8.

In Diagram 8 above, it is obvious that White wants to play a center oriented strategy with the marked triangle stones. In this situation, the Black move of Black 1 is the correct move to try to nullify the influence of these marked White stones. Black reinforces its own group by making good shape with Black 5.

Therefore, as you can see, the shape in the top left corner is the same in all four diagrams but Black’s choice of Joseki is different in each of the four diagrams because the whole board situation is not the same. Therefore, in choosing and deciding which Joseki to use, you must look at the whole board situation before doing so.

I will end the lesson here but if you would like to study more, I encourage you to get hold of a copy of Mr. Yang’s excellent book. In the next few lessons, we are going to dive inside and study a few dozens Joseki moves.

Till then, have fun!

Lesson 8b – Choosing Joseki (2)

Hello everyone. Today we are going to continue talking about how to choose Joseki. But before that, let’s talk a little bit about the subject of Strategy. We often hear people say the word strategy but what does strategy really mean? We hear about strategies to win a war, business strategies, even strategies on how to win the love of a girl.

So what really is strategy? I am not a military man but I have reasonable experience in business strategy and also strategy applied to games like Go or the myriad of boardgames that I play. To think about it, when we talk about formulating a strategy, we are really talking about Choice and sticking to that choice that we have made, i.e. the choice that we make, such as the markets that we want to serve, the demographic or pychograhic segments that we want to target on, a particular plan of actions that we want to take to outsmart our competitors and such. One thing I learn about strategy is you cannot be everything to everybody.

In a way, I think this is the same when applied to Go, since Go is a strategic game. You look at the board and you formulate a strategy, that means to say, you think of a particular plan of actions that you want to take. Do you want to go for territory or do you want to build a huge moyo the cosmic style? Once you have chosen, you should follow that strategy till the end, and it will be a great disaster if in the first 20 moves you implemented a Territorial strategy and then in the next 20 you go for a Moyo strategy only to come back to a Territorial strategy in another 20 moves. This way of playing is disastrous. After you have made your choice, i.e. your strategy, you need to stick to the plan and see it into fruition and till the end. You need to persevere. Just by doing this, I believe your game will improve.

Okay, let’s move on to today’s lesson. Today we are going to talk about how to choose a pincer.

Diagram 1.

When White 1 approaches the Black corner stone, the first thing that Black need to think about are these:

a. To pincer or not to pincer?
b. Can I Tenuki?

If Black decides not to pincer, then he can play at “g” and if he decides to pincer, he can consider the points from “a” to “f”. “a” and “b” are called tight pincers while “c” to “f” are called loose pincers.

So first things first, how do you decide whether you want to pincer or not? Basically, you pincer because you want to deny your opponent of an easy base. Secondly, you may also want to pincer because you want to develop in the direction that you pincer from, i.e. a pincer-extension (I hope you did not forget about this), thirdly, you pincer because you want to disrupt your opponent’s strategy and fourthly, you pincer because you have the advantage of strength and you want to put your opponent into a fight that is to his disadvantage.

Once you have decided to pincer, then which pincer should you choose? A tight one or a loose one? Tight pincers are severe and engages the opponent into contact fighting. When you choose a tight pincer, besides knowing that you may get into contact fights, you also want to know that the pincer has less effect on the side that it is pincering from. A loose pincer on the other hand is just the opposite of the tight pincer.

Diagram 2.

In Diagram 2 above, Black 2 is a tight pincer against the low White 1 approach. The sequence to White 11 is a common Joseki and as you can see, there are a lot of contact fights, which are in accordance with the fundamentals that we have discussed previously. I will discuss more about this when we talk about this Joseki in detail in future lessons.

Diagram 3.

In Diagram 3 above, Black 2 is a loose pincer and as you can see in the diagram, the moves are more relaxed.

Since we said in Diagram 2 that a tight pincer will provoke contact fights, you will normally want to start a fight if you have more strength than your opponent, i.e. in this sense, strength means you have more stones in the area of fight than your opponent.

Another thing that you will notice when you compare Diagram 2 and Diagram 3 is that in Diagram 2, the top side of Black is higher. Compare the position of Black 8 in Diagram 2 and the position of Black 4 in Diagram 3. Obviously, Black 8 is higher than Black 4 and this is another characteristic of a tight pincer, i.e. a tight pincer will give you a higher position while a loose pincer will generally give you a lower position.

Next, how do you decide when to use a high pincer and when to use a low pincer? In general, you want a high pincer if you want more speed and you want the stone to participate more in the fighting while in a low pincer, you intend to settle the position quickly and get a base.

Diagram 4.

Black 2 in Diagram 4 above is a loose and high pincer and in the Joseki that follows, you see that Black is moving faster into the center and participating in the fight actively.

Diagram 5.

Diagram 5 above is an example of a tight and high pincer. The Joseki to Black 10 is a common Joseki and you can see that compared to the low pincer in Diagram 2 above, this high pincer is more active and develops faster.

At the end of the day, one cannot say that one choice is better than the other but the choice that you make must be from a whole board perspective as well as to fit into the strategy that you want to employ. The choice of Joseki is always thought in terms of these. You may have a good Joseki locally but it may be really bad if you look at the whole board and if it is a misfit for your overall strategy.

I am going to talk about this in the next lesson and till then, have fun. Play more go and solve more Life and Death problems please.

Lesson 8a – Choosing Joseki (1)

Hello Everyone. Good morning. Besides writing these lessons, I am opening an invitation to my readers to e-mail to me the games that they wish to get reviewed. If you have a game that you want to review but there is no one to help you, you can e-mail them to me and I will help you with it. This way, I hope I will be able to help you to improve your game.

Today, we continue with our discussion on Joseki and after talking about the Fundamentals of Joseki, i.e. the building blocks, the Lego blocks of Joseki, let’s now start to talk about how to choose the correct Joseki given the whole board point of view.

A Joseki usually starts with an approach move on a lone corner stone. But there are many places where one can approach that stone.

Diagram 1.

Let’s look at Diagram 1 above. White may choose to approach the Black 3-4 stone in the corner and he has a choice of “a” to “d”. These are the most common approach moves. “a” and “b” are said to be near approach, “c” and “d” are said to be far approach while “a” and “c” are said to be high approach and “b” and “d” are said to be low approach.

So out of these four choices, how does White select which one to approach?

Generally speaking, you want to make a near approach if you want to put more pressure on the corner stone. It is not to say that because the approach stone is near and because the opponent made a tenuki, therefore the opponent is worse off. We can just say that the result will be more favourable for the approaching party if the opponent tenuki locally, but don’t forget that because the opponent made tenuki in this part of the corner, he would have played a stone at another part of the corner and may have gotten advantage there. So from the global point of view, the result may be even. But for this lesson, let’s just understand that a near approach puts more pressure on the corner stone.

But before that, I want to say something that is very important for the beginner to understand. You may think that near approach puts more pressure on the corner and as a beginner, you want to feel good and you want to put maximum pressure on your opponent. This is a good feeling to have but I have seen many beginners play a move as in Diagram 2 below.

Diagram 2.

You may ask what’s wrong with White 1 in Diagram 2 above. White one is near and it feels like giving a lot of pressure to the Black stone. I might as well tell you now that this is a really bad habit because you only think about your present move and did not consider the impact of Black’s next move. This bad habit will haunt you again and again and again in the future. We call this “Wishful Thinking”, i.e. you play a move wishing that your opponent make an erroneous reply whereas the correct way to think, the good habit, is always to think for your opponent, assuming that they will make the best reply and then come back to check if your present move is good or not given your opponent’s best reply. This way of thinking will carry you a long long way.

Diagram 3.

If White would have tried to think a step further, he will realize that Black will play the block at Black 2. As you can see, once Black blocks at 2, White 1 is considerably weakened and even if it tries to find a base by extending to White 3, Black plays at Black 4 and weaken the whole White group again. Now you know why the nearest you should play is at points “a” and “b” in Diagram 1 above and not any nearer.

Okay, let’s come back from this detour. A near approach wants to give more pressure to the corner stone. Let’s look at a couple of examples.

Diagram 4.

The Joseki in Diagram 4 above is one representative Joseki when Black tenuki against a White approach move at White 1. As you can see, White settled himself on the right side, sharing Black’s corner. If Black had not made a tenuki, White surely would not have such a comfortable position.

Diagram 5.

We have seen Diagram 5 above in our previous lesson on the Tenuki Fundamental. As you can see, White settled himself quite nicely at the top and at the same time taken away Black’s corner. Should Black had not made a tenuki move, White surely won’t be able to profit so much.

Diagram 6.

If White approaches one line further as in White 1 in Diagram 6 above, Black defended the corner with Black 2 and White 3 got a base for the White stones. As you can see, a far approach has less pressure on the corner.

A far approach can be considered if you want to develop along the side where you made the far approach. As you can see in Diagram 6 above, after White extended to White 3, White intends to develop or play along the right side of the board.

In general, you want to play a high approach because you want to develop a framework or you do not want to be pressed down.

Let’s look at some examples.

Diagram 7.

When White made a low approach against the Black 3-4 stone with White 1, for various strategic reasons, Black may respond with Black 2, pressing White’s head and attempting to press White down. The Joseki to Black 8 follows and both players get to have one side. Compare this to Diagram 8 below.

Diagram 8.

In Diagram 8, White made a high approach move and although Black still attempts to press White down with Black 2, after the Joseki to Black 14, White’s position on the right side is considerably higher than in Diagram 7.

Here is another example in employing the far approach move. You want to make a far approach move because you do not want your opponent to have a nice pincer-extension against your approach move or you do not want to be involved in an unfavorable fight.

Diagram 9.

The Black framework and the combination of the Black “a”, “b” and “c” stones is what we call the Kobayashi Opening. Black now invites White to make an approach move on the Black “c” stone.

Diagram 10.

If White makes a near approach as in White 1 in Diagram 10 above, this gives Black a good opportunity to pincer with Black 2 and at the same time is an extension from the Black 4-4 stone on the top right. The sequence to Black 8 is bad for White because not only is the White group still floating, Black managed to get to play on both sides of the board.

Diagram 11.

To avoid being put into such a disadvantaged position, White will want to make a far approach with White 1 in Diagram 11 above. Black 2 secures the corner and White extends to White 3 to build a base. The continuation to Black 6 is better for White as compared to Diagram 10 since this White group at least have a base.

Here is another example from Yang Yilun’s Fundamental Principles of Go of playing a high approach, to develop one’s framework and avoid being pressed down or made into an over-concentrated form.

Diagram 12.

Having in mind the White formation on the top right, White will want to expand its framework as big as possible. The correct approach move is the high move of White 1. Black answers with Black 2 and White makes the jump to White 3, thus expanding its framework and working beautifully with its position on the top right.

Diagram 13.

Should White makes a mistake and make a low approach, Black 2 will press White’s head down and the Joseki to Black 18 is a common Joseki. However, this result is bad for White as all the White stones are now cramped and over-concentrated and the development potential of the White framework as shown in Diagram 12 above fizzles into thin air.

I hope by now you have some idea of when to play a near approach move and when to play a far one, as well as when to play a low one and when to play a high one. With more practice, you will come to grasp with it but you will have to play and experiment with it, and having this lesson in your mind every time you play an approach move against your opponent’s corner stone.

In the next lesson, we shall talk about how to pincer. Till then, have fun!

Lesson 7d – Joseki Fundamentals (4)

Hi Everyone! Time for another lesson on Joseki Fundamentals. I hope I am not moving too fast for you but in any case, please do take your own time and go through the lessons slowly and try to understand them. There is no rush at all.

Today we will discuss about the last three Joseki Fundamentals, making a total of 12 Fundamentals. These are not meant to be exhaustive but as a start for you, I think it is enough at the moment. In the next lesson, we shall start to discuss on how to choose the right Joseki for your game.

The Tenth Fundamental of Joseki is to know what is Thick and what is Thin. The word Thick also suffers from some lost in translations but when we say that a group of stone is Thick, we mean any one of of the following:

1. The group of stones is already unconditionally alive. Live groups are thick groups because whatever you do to it, it is already alive and it has no fear. Read together with 3 below.

2. The group of stones is well connected and has little or no weakness in its structure but it may not be unconditionally alive yet. But if it wants to live, it not hard. But to capture the group, it will take many moves to do so.

3. Usually when we say a group of stones is thick, the group of stones has this thickness radiating towards the side and/or center. A group of isolated and sealed-up stones in the corner cannot be considered thick even if it is alive because it is no longer actively participating in the game, and thus, there is no need to refer to them anymore.

Diagram 1.

In Diagram 1 above, the Black stones can be considered thick because the stones in the group is well connected with little defects and it has very good potential to live, although it is not perfectly alive yet. But to capture this group of stones is really very, very hard but if it wants to live, it is very easy.

Diagram 2.

Diagram 2 above is one common Joseki when White approaches the Black 3-4 stone. The sequence to 16 sees that White capured the 3-4 stone and has the group facing the top left while Black captured the White 7 and White 9 stones and is alive. Furthermore, the Black 8, 16 and 2 stones is a very strong connection with its influence radiating towards the right side and center. In this case, we can say that Black is Thick.

The next fundamental that we are going to discuss is a very important one, especially in the middle game. We are going to discuss about Fighting.

The Eleventh Fundamental of Joseki is to know that Joseki is a Fight and therefore the principles of fighting applies. What are the principles of fighting? Actually, the very basic principles of fighting is simple and revolves around the following:

1. Keep your stones connected
2. Keep your opponent’s stones disconnected
3. Know how to distinguish strong stones and weak stones. Always help your weak stones first.
4. Know what stones are useful and what stones have already served its purpose and can be discarded

Basically, the above four are the general principles of fighting which can be applied to our study of Joseki. We have studied connecting and cutting in our Fifth Fundamental but in this Fundamental, I really want to talk about how to fight, particularly points 3 and 4 above. Let’s look at one example. We use the above Diagram 2 to study.

Diagram 3.

After Black pincers with Black 2 in Diagram 3, White needs to find a way to settle itself and attach on the 3-4 stone with White 3. Now, this Black 3-4 stone has been weakened by this White move and Black cannot just leave it and play elsewhere. Black has to help the weaker stone and compared to Black 2, the 3-4 stone is weaker due to the White attachment and therefore must respond, else, White plays at White 4 and will damage the corner significantly.

Diagram 4.

Black responded with Black 4 to avoid the potential damage in Diagram 3 above and at the same time, intends to cut and capture White 3 instead. Since White 3 is weak now, White played at White 5 to help White 3 and this weakens Black 4, again. To help Black 4, Black 6 moves towards its Black 2 stones wanting to connect with it but White intercepts this plan by wedging in with White 7.

The fight continues.

Diagram 5.

Black has to respond to White 7 because if it didn’t White with the marked stone will split the Black position and at the same time threatens to capture the two Black stones. Black cannot allow White to cut him apart.

Diagram 6.

Black helps its stone by giving atari to the White 7 stone with Black 8. White responded by descending to White 9 threatening to capture the two Black stones 4 and 6. Black helps these two weak stones by giving atari to White 3 and White descended by playing White 11. Black then comes back to help the two stones by playing Black 12, if not, White will capture these two stones. White 13 captures the lone Black stone at the top because if it did not, this Black stone will descend and threaten to capture the two White 3 and 11 stones in the corner. Black gladly discards the stone as it has served its purpose in the fight. Black 14 firmly captures White 7 and 9 and White forces Black 16 by giving atari to it with White 15, discarding the two stones (White 7 and 9) which have also served their purpose in this fight.

As you can see in the example above, Joseki is a struggle, it is contact fight and in contact fights, think about weak and strong stones, cutting and connecting, which stones to discard and which stones to keep. We will visit these principles again when we go into our detailed Joseki lessons.

We now come to our Twelfth and final fundamental before we move on to our next chapter. The Twelfth Fundamental of Joseki is to know when to Tenuki. Tenuki is again a Japanese term meaning to play somewhere else and not responding to the last move by the opponent.

Tenuki is a very important concept to know because if you know how to use this wisely, you will give yourself a lot of freedom. This freedom derives from the fact that you are not responding to your opponent’s move and is free to choose to play wherever you like or you think is important. You dictate the place you want to play. You dictate the pace.

So how do you know when you can tenuki and when you cannot? Let’s look at Diagram 3 above. White will play at White 4 if Black tenuki and did not respond to White 3. This in itself is a very big move because Black is giving the corner away. Unless Black has a very good reason to do so, such as making a big capture somewhere else or getting equal or more compensation by playing somewhere else, it is normally not a good idea to tenuki.

Diagram 7.

When White approaches the Black 4-4 stone, it is possible for Black to tenuki and play elsewhere. Next, if White plays another move:

Diagram 8.

If White plays another move with White 2, the sequence in Diagram 8 is one of the continuation Joseki and Black is still manageable. In general, it is not urgent to answer an approach move on the 4-4 stone because of this and other continuations that I will show you later.

As such, this concludes our 12 Fundamentals of Joseki and in the next few lessons, we will discuss on how to choose the correct Joseki for your game. Although Joseki are by definition moves that both players can be happy with locally, but from a whole board or global point of view, that Joseki may not be good and we shall discuss how to choose a correct one.

See you next time.

Lesson 7c – Joseki Fundamentals (3)

Hello Everyone! Good morning. How are you today? I want you to know that in these Fundamentals of Joseki lessons, my intention is to expose you to the concept first so that you have an idea what I am talking about when we go into the details of our detailed Joseki lessons later because I will refer to these fundamentals in those lessons. This I find is good because you will learn to think in terms of the fundamentals instead of just pure memorizing the Joseki moves, which is not good for you.

In today’s lesson, we are going to talk about three more fundamentals of Joseki but before that, I want to share with you something nice written by Lao Tzu in the Tao Te Ching. This is quoted from chapter 33.

“Knowing others is wisdom;
Knowing the self is enlightment.
Mastering others requires force;
Mastering the self needs strength.

He who knows he has enough is rich.
Perseverance is a sign of will power.
He who does not lose his roots will endure;
To die but not be forgotten — that’s true long life.”

I hope the above gave you some inspiration in this good morning. Ok, let’s continue with our lesson.

The Seventh Fundamental of Joseki is to know how to balance speed and solidity. In short, how to achieve efficiency. As you may recall, this is principle is similar to one of our opening fundamentals but let’s look at how this is applied to Joseki.

Diagram 1.

The Joseki is Diagram 1 above is a popular Joseki where White approaches the Black 3-4 stone with White 1. The sequence to 7 is Joseki, with Black getting the corner and the top side extension and White getting a stable group on the right side. Black gets Sente. Do you still remember the Sente fundamental? If not please revise the previous lesson.

Diagram 2.

The Joseki in Diagram 2 above is similar to the one in Diagram 1 but instead of connecting solidly at White 5 in Diagram 1, White used a hanging connection and then extended one line further to White 7. This seems more efficient and faster than the Joseki in Diagram 1 but speed comes with a price and the price is that there is a weakness in the White shape in Diagram 2. This weakness is not yet apparent but may be used by Black in the future to its advantage when the time comes. This is what we call Aji, which we will come to later.

The Joseki in Diagrams 1 and 2 above is most of the time a matter of choice that the player makes. Some players prefer a more solid Joseki, some players prefer to play faster moves and find a way to protect the weakness that is a result of this speed. You are encouraged to try and experiment with both.

Our Eighth Fundamental of Joseki is what we call Aji. Aji is a Japanese word that means taste. It has the same meaning in Chinese too. What this means when we say there is Aji is that the position is still not 100% completed and there are some latent possibilities in the position which may be exploited later, or completed later. Unlike some English translation where we can often hear “Good Aji” and “Bad Aji”, this distinction is not so much emphasized in Chinese. We just say that there is still some Aji in the position but seldom say “Good Aji” or “Bad Aji”.

I mentioned the word Aji when discussing Diagram 2 above. Let’s go back to that diagram.

Diagram 3.

In Diagram 3 above, the Aji that we talk about is the invasion at A by Black. This move of Black is powerful because after playing it, Black can either connect under at “b” or move out at “c”. If you have studied the previous lesson well, this is our Miai fundamental. If you cannot remember, please go back to the lesson because Miai is a very important fundamental that you must know.

The Ninth Fundamental of Joseki is the knowledge of shapes. Making good shapes for your stones is something you must pay particular attention to. This is because if you play good shapes, your stones are stronger, more efficient, more effective and there is little scope for the opponent to punish you and make some gain for themselves. If your shape is bad, you will be forced to make inefficient shapes, you will be subjected to a lot of harassing by your opponent and in worse case scenario, your stones get captured.

So what are good shapes and what are bad shapes? There are many examples of good and bad shapes but I am not going into a lot of detail here. I will just give you a couple of examples in this lesson but we are sure to come back to this fundamental when we study our detailed Joseki in the future. Now, I just want you to know this fundamental so that you know what I am talking about later.

Diagram 4.

Diagram 4 above is a common Joseki when White approaches the Black 4-4 stone. Black pincers with Black 2 and the Joseki ends after Black 8. What I want to show you is the importance of Black 6. Black 6 is a move that prevented White from making good shape for its stones.

Diagram 5.

Now assuming that Black neglected to play Black 6 in Diagram 4 above, White will definitely play at that point as in Diagram 5. Look at the diagram. Not only is White out into the center, the Black stone on the left is now cut off. White also get good shape with this move and it now has plenty of eye space while eliminating the Aji that may be present later.

Diagram 6.

Therefore, whenever you see the formation as in Diagram 6 above, always think about playing at “a”. It is a point that both players wants to get, by Black to prevent the White bulge and making good shape and strengthening its group of stones and by Black to prevent this from happening.

Diagram 7.

The Joseki in Diagram 7 above is another common Joseki when White approaches the Black 4-4 stone with White 1. When Black pincers with Black 4, White takes the corner by playing at the 3-3 point with White 5. What Black effectively did was to trade the corner territory to gain influence towards the center and attempting to seal White in. Do you still remember this fundamental?

The move that I want you to notice is White 9. This is a good move because it looks to play at Black 10 if Black does not do so. It is a quiet move but is aiming at that aji all along. Now let’s look at how White can play a bad move here. I give you this example because I have seen this move played countless times.

Diagram 8.

I have seen countless times players play White 9 as in Diagram 8 above. This is call bumping own two stone head. In Go, there is a proverb that says always hane at the head of two stones. In this case, White voluntarily bump its own two stone head on Black. This is bad shape. The two diagrams below explains why.

Diagram 9.

After White bumps its own two stone head into Black 4, the continuation to Black 16 can be expected. Compare Diagram 9 to Diagram 7. In Diagram 7, White is not yet completely sealed off but in Diagram 9, White is completely sealed off.

Diagram 10.

Now let’s say White stopped short and did not continue as in Diagram 9. Black can make a descend by playing with the marked Black stone in Diagram 10 above, threatening to capture the two White stones and also again sealing White in. Therefore, it is best to just play 9 in Diagram 7 and wait and see the future development. Bumping your own 2 stone head on an opponent stone is a bad idea. It is bad shape.

The last shape I want to talk about in this lesson is the Empty Triangle. Contrary to popular believe, the Empty Triangle is not always bad. I have seen so many good empty triangles being played, from the times of Shusaku to the most modern professional Go games. But in its most general form, an empty triangle is not a good shape due to the reasons that I have already explained in the Module A Beginners Pack. If you have forgotten, please go and re-read it.

But let’s look at an example of a bad empty triangle in Joseki.

Diagram 11.

Diagram 11 is a reproduction of Diagram 1 in the previous lesson. I want you to look at Black 12. The name for the shape in Black 12 is called the “Hanging Connection” or sometimes also called the “Tiger Mouth”. You try to imagine for yourself why it is called the Tiger Mouth. This connection is good because it is flexible and has eye shape potential.

Diagram 12.

Now look at Diagram 12 above. Instead of playing Black 12 as in Diagram 11, Black played as in Diagram 12. The formation of Black 12, Black 2 and the marked Black stone is an empty triangle. I am sure you can recognize it right? Now compare Diagram 11 and Diagram 12 and you will notice that the hanging connection in Diagram 11 is a lot more better, because it has better eye shape potential and it is more efficient as it extends one line more towards the right side. The black group in Diagram 12 looks like a lump of thing.

We will come to more examples in our lessons later when we discuss each Joseki in detail.

So in today’s lesson, we have covered three more fundamentals. We will cover three more in the next lesson and after that we will move on to discuss another area. The three fundamentals that we will be covering in the next lesson is Thickness, Fighting and Tenuki. That will be our last lesson on the Fundamentals of Joseki, making a total of 12 Fundamentals.

Till then, have a nice day!

Lesson 7b – Joseki Fundamentals (2)

Hello Everyone! How are you doing? I think by now, you may have realized that when we talk about the Fundamentals of Joseki, we are really talking about the fundamentals of Go which can be applied in other areas in Go, not only in Joseki. What we are facing here is actually a perception problem, built up over many years, that there are distinct parts in Go, the Opening, Joseki, Middle Game, End game etc. but this is just a convenient way to try to segment the game for the sake of studying and discussion but the reality is that the game is a whole game. Most of the time, we are not sure when is the end of the opening and when is the beginning of the middle game, especially in modern Go. There should not be strict partitioning, but we look at the game as a whole.

Today we are going to talk about two more fundamentals of Joseki, the fifth and the sixth fundamental.

The Fifth Fundamental of Joseki is Connect to strengthen own group of stones, Cut to Weaken Opponent’s Stones.

Again, this fundamental is applicable throughout the whole game of Go. Cutting and connecting is the most important fundamental in Go. Joseki can be looked upon as a fight because both Black and White stones come into contact and each want to jostle for advantage. In a fighting situation, cutting and connecting is paramount. You must always check to see if your stones are connected and also you must always check if you have a chance to cut your opponent’s stones and split them apart. If there is nothing else you think in Go, just think about this one alone.

Diagram 1.

Let’s look again at Diagram 1 above, which is the same diagram as Diagram 4 in the previous lesson. Instead of White 5 above, White wants to cut the Black stones apart as in Diagram 2 below.

Diagram 2.

Of course we all want to cut and split opponent’s stones apart but before doing that, we need to see if our own stones are strong enough to do that or not. We cannot just cut because we feel like it. We need to check the strength and status of our own stones too. Look at Diagram 2 above for a while and try to read out. Do you think this cut by White 5 works?

Diagram 3.

Black will probably counter with move 6 to move 12 to threaten the White’s corner stones which is still not yet alive. In the process of doing so, Black makes its own stones strong and after Black 12, the White corner is still not yet alive! Can you verify this yourself? Do you think that the White corner is alive as it stands? Let’s treat this as your Life and Death problem today.

After Black 12, the White cutting stone of 5 looks quite lonely while White is now completely sealed in and still not yet alive. Compare this result with the result in Diagram 1, do you think that White should still cut at 5? No. It should play as in Diagram 1 above to keep its stones connected, get a base and wait for a chance.

The Sixth Fundamental of Joseki is not to get sealed in.

You see, although we say that the sequence in Diagram 1 above is Joseki, actually the timing to play that is very crucial. You don’t want to play that so early because of the fact that the White stones get sealed in and is now isolated from the rest of the game. White has to find a good timing to play it, else he won’t be happy, and if he is not happy, it is no longer joseki.

Not getting sealed in is very important because stones that are sealed in is like history. Its relevance to the game is greatly diminished because of its limited participation. Sometimes, your opponent will give you a very nice treat, let you have a big corner but at the same time, seal you into the corner. There is one trick move that is quite popular where one player gave a big corner of almost twenty points to his opponent but at the cost of him getting completely sealed into the corner. This demonstrates the importance of not getting sealed inside and vice-versa, i.e. if you have a chance, try to seal your opponent up into a corner.

Diagram 4.

Let’s look at Diagram 4 above. This is a common Joseki with White approaching the Black corner with 1. Black pincers at 2 so that this move forms a relationship with the Black stones on the left side. Next White 3 is very important so move out. If White make a mistake here and play the sequence in reverse, i.e. if White plays at 5 first instead of at 3 (probably he thinks it is important to get a base), then Black will play as in Diagram 5 below.

Diagram 5.

If White played move 3 and move 5 in reverse order in Diagram 4, then Black will counter with Diagram 5 instead and effectively seal White into the corner while building a very nice framework that works well with Black’s other stones on the left side.

Therefore, White 3 in Diagram 4 is very important, to avoid being sealed in.

I remember this very well because in one of the games during the World Mind Sports Games in 2008 in Beijing, I played this move in reverse order and Black sealed me inside. Later, I find I had to risk an invasion, else Black’s territory will be too much and at the end, my invasion was a failure and my stones were captured. If I had played as in Diagram 4, moving out first instead of sliding into the corner to find a base, then I do not have to make that risky invasion.

Well, like I said just now, getting sealed in is not completely bad and there are joseki too but the timing of doing so is extremely important. Generally speaking, if you have a choice, your first choice is to get out.

Well, in today’s lesson, we have covered two more Joseki fundamentals. I will continue with this fundamental lessons and thereafter, I will talk about approaching the corner as the first move a Joseki start, and how to approach the corner, whether approach high or approach low, approach near or approach far. Then I will talk about the pincer of the approach move, whether to pincer high or pincer low, to pincer near or pincer far and before we move into the details of each corner joseki, I will talk about the whole board thinking in Joseki, how to find a Joseki that works in a whole board point of view, not just a corner. This is important because you may be happy in the corner result but this result may be bad if you look in the whole board perspective.

I am very excited to write about this and I hope you are excited too. Till then, please solve ten Life and Death problems today.

Lesson 7a – Joseki Fundamentals (1)

Hello Everyone. Good morning! Today is a wonderful day. It marks the beginning of the next part of our lessons. The study of Joseki. Before I embark on showing you tens or hundreds of Joseki patterns, which is pretty much useless at this point, I want to talk about the fundamentals of Joseki. You must not memorize Joseki sequences but you must understand why the moves or sequences is considered good and the fundamentals of Joseki that I am about to write in this and the next few lessons will give you a framework to think and study about Joseki. Look at this as teaching you how to fish instead of giving you the fish.

You know, very often I hear people say that there is no need to study Joseki, or it is a waste of time, or you will get weaker if you study Joseki. For some time, I believed that but I no longer believe it now. So many of my games are lost because of a lack of knowledge about Joseki fundamentals. And the more I study it, the more I find that in the study of Joseki, we actually study a lot of important concepts in Go. In short, by studying the fundamentals of Joseki, we study the fundamentals of Go too, and this is invaluable.

Another thing that I want to say about Joseki is how people define Joseki, at least in the English language. I hear most often that Joseki is defined as a standard sequence of moves where the outcome is equal for both players locally. Correct me if I am wrong but a Joseki sequence is most often NOT equal. The reason is because the first army that arrives at the battlefield first will surely have some advantage (so to quote Sun Tzu). Similarly, let’s say White approaches Black’s corner stone and they both start and conclude a Joseki sequence, the fact that Black is already there at the first place surely must give Black some advantage. If the result is truly equal, then it is not fair for Black to be there first. Perhaps we can rephrase the definition by saying that Joseki is a standard sequence of moves where both players are happy with the outcome locally.

That means to say, the study of the fundamentals of Joseki is to understand and know what the players can be happy about, because by definition, happiness is derived from “something” and the study of Joseki fundamentals is to know what this “something” is or are.

Ok then, let’s start with the First Fundamental of Joseki. The First Fundamental of Joseki is that both players wants stability for their stones, or if either player cannot find stability for their stones, their opponent’s stones must also not be stable.

By stability, I mean that the stones at least have a base or living shape. This is one of the first things you must think about when you start a Joseki sequence. If your opponent choose a sequence that denies you stability, you must ensure that your opponent’s stones are also not stable. Else, by the definition of Joseki, how can both players be happy with the outcome?

Let’s look at some examples.

Diagram 1.

Diagram 1 above is a very common Joseki. White 1 approaches Black’s 4-4 stone and the Joseki to 5 follows. White 3 wants to get a base for White and Black 4 answered and in turn got a base for Black. Next White extended to 5 to form a rather secure base and both sides can be happy about this outcome. Both sides have a base. Both sides have some control of some territories. But then again, you may wonder why Black can be happy about this since he is there first and not only White got a base, the side territory that White control is also not small. The answer is because Black has sente.

Sente is another very important idea and it is our Second Fundamentals of Joseki and it means that the player who has Sente will have the freedom to choose where to play next on the board. Although you may think that White already has a base and the territory it controls is not small, the fact that Black has Sente gives Black an advantage for being there first and Black is now free to choose anywhere else on the board that he thinks is important. This freedom to choose is powerful.

Our Third Fundamental of Joseki is what we call Miai in Japanese. Miai can be translated to mean equivalent options, i.e. a player may choose to play at point A or point B and the player can be happy if he can get either point. That means to say Miai is a very powerful thing! It is powerful because in the game of Go, each player plays one move at a time in alternate turns and if a player has Miai, he is bound to get either point A or point B. He will surely get one of those points, right?

Let’s look at our example above again.

Diagram 2.

When White approaches the Black 4-4 stone in Diagram 2 above, it has many options to play depending on how Black responded but for the purpose of our example, we can say that the extension of White towards the “b” direction and entering into Black’s corner by playing at “a” is miai. They are equivalent options for White.

Diagram 3.

Assuming that Black did not play as in Diagram 1 but pincer the White approach move as in Diagram 3 above, White can go into the corner and live in Black’s corner, taking over the corner from Black. Depending on the whole board situation, White can be happy about this locally.

You can think of Miai as having a plan B for your moves. In every move we make, whether it is a Joseki or other moves, always think of the possibility of Miai, and this is especially so when we undertake some dangerous operations such as invasion of opponent’s territory. In dangerous operations such as invasions, having a plan B always help.

Continuing from the Third Fundamental above, let’s talk about our Fourth Fundamental of Joseki.

The Fourth Fundamental of Joseki is Territory vs Influence. Let’s look at this example.

Diagram 4.

In the Joseki above, White invaded the Black’s corner by playing at the 3-3 point. You will remember that this is one weakness of the 4-4 point of Black, i.e. White can go into Black’s corner and take the corner away by playing at the 3-3 point. When I started as a beginner, this is like a revelation for me and I feel all powerful, invading my opponent’s corner and feeling happy about it. But this is just a beginner feeling. Although White did get into Black’s corner, lived inside and get some territory too, in return, Black gets a wall of stones facing the center, it’s Influence extending out and shining out all over the board while White is now locked inside the corner, shunned from the rest of the board and has little participation in the unfolding of the game thereafter.

Therefore, as a fundamental, it is important to know when you want Territory and when you want Influence, or when you allow your opponent to have territory or when you allow him to have influence. This is a strategic choice.

Therefore, now you have it, the first four Fundamentals of Joseki. I will continue on more fundamentals of the Joseki in our next lesson. I urge you to try to understand this a little as I will use this Fundamental Framework to explain the moves when I come to the lessons on the Joseki for each corner pattern in our future lessons. I want you to understand Joseki, not memorize Joseki.

Till then, have fun!