Fuseki Study Continued

If you have any questions leave them in the comments and I'll try to get back to you. Also if some dan player wanders through here remember that I'm no expert but I like to think that I'm good enough that I can present some insightful commentary. Anyway, this is a continuation of the game we were looking at last time with Park Jieun 9p as black and Suzuki Ayumi 5p as white. This is from the 8th International Female Cup. We left off with white's attachment at 14 and now we'll see how black settles her stones on the bottom.

The hane at 15 is the only response. Also note that the attachment at 14 is only possible with a favorable ladder for white in the upper left, without that ladder black will hane underneath 14 and gain the advantage but in that case white would never attach at 14 to begin with. 16 is pretty much forced as well. Now black has some options, she could play at 18 to seize corner territory in exchange for white influence or press immediately at 19 but in the current situation white could then hane at 17 and the situation for black becomes complicated. The descent at 17 separates the white stones on the bottom from those in the corner and looks forward to attacking on the bottom. White takes corner territory with 18 and then black pressures the bottom group with 19 and 21. 

With 23 and 24 both sides stabilize their weak groups and I want to bring particular attention to white 24. This is the type of simple move that all players should understand, it approaches the black enclosure in the lower left and, most importantly, establishes a base for white's group on the bottom. The two point extension on the third line is almost never bad. Simple, solid moves like this are the foundation of strength and though they might seem slow they allow you to attack strongly in the middle game which will bring its own rewards.

Now we can evaluate the position, black has reduced the corner and broken out to the center. Moreover her wall negates the influence from white's one point jump and side extension. With this influence an invasion in the white formation becomes very appealing. On the other hand white has laid claim to the corner and gotten to develop on both sides which is always appealing. It may seem that black hasn't gotten quite as much as white out of this exchange but it is important to see that black took sente which is very valuable in the beginning of the game.

After white's extension to 24 black can take a deep breath and look around the board. Having settled a group in the lower right the single black stone in the upper left becomes the focus of the game.  Black decides to dive into the corner and the move at 25 guarantees this stone life along the side.  Next time we'll see how the upper left plays out and go through the remainder of the fuseki (opening) in this game.