Shusaku!

So excited!! I just got a new board, new stones, nice bowls and the complete recorded games of Shusaku! The game commentary is in Chinese but I can at least read the game diagrams.

The games of Shusaku are great study material for kyu players. While the joseki are a bit out of date, because there was no komi black had a large advantage and often played conservatively in the opening, the middle game fighting tends to be spectacular and the endgame sequences are modern pro level. To that end I just bit the bullet and picked up what I think is the most complete collection of his games and I thought we could go over some of the interesting points of a game here. This is a game from 1839 when Shusaku, still known by his childhood name Torajiro, was only nine or ten years old when this game was played. Shusaku is black and this is before the invention of komi so playing black is an advantage. His opponent is a 2 dan player.

First of all you'll notice the old fuseki style. All corner openings start at the 3-4 point and there are a number of other quirks like the order of 5 and 7 as well as playing 1 and 3 in the same corner. Black's move at 7 would almost certainly be played at the 4-4 which would prepare for an extension on both the bottom and the left but the 4-4 was not played at the time. As it stands 8 is a well timed approach. Black 13 is an often overlooked variation on the joseki that prepares to extend up the left side and puts more pressure on the three White stones than a one point jump on the 3rd line which is by far the most common variation of this joseki.

White's decision to tenuki and enclose the lower right corner is a little suspect. It makes an invasion of the bottom look attractive. I would have thought about this variation for white 12 to create a more balanced formation across the bottom:

This way there are no obvious entry points into the bottom for black. If we go back to the sequence played in the game the lower side looks very inviting for black.

As a matter of fact Shusaku wastes no time at all and strikes at 15, robbing the three white stones of a base and breaking into the bottom. Next time we'll go into how the situation plays out.

Fuseki Study Concluded

So I thought I would simply start out by going over a few basic principles for getting through the fuseki even if you don't competely know what you're doing. First of all either enclose corners or prevent your opponent from doing so. Secondly, and this often gets overlooked, settle your stones. It is almost always better to take gote to make sure a group is safe because every weak group will cost you dearly in the middle game fighting. Often higher kyu players will litter the board with weak, floating stones and both will blithely ignore the opportunity to attack while bickering over endgame moves at the edge of the board. Secure your groups, identify weak points in your opponents formation and build up your own position. Finally pay attention to areas of the board that are wide open, simply putting a stone on the 3rd or 4th line around a star point on an empty area of the board may be the biggest point and will never hurt you.

Now that we've got that covered lets get back to our game. If you are just joining us this is Park Jieun 9p as black and Suzuki Ayumi 5p as white and the game is from Round 3 of the 8th International Female Cup in China, you can start at the beginning of the game if you want to get up to speed. When we were last with our plucky heroes they had just settled the situation in the lower right and black, taking sente, turned to rescue his stone in the top left. This is very important as another white move in this area will make it difficult for black to settle his stone. Diving into the corner with 25 is a simple and neat way to resolve the situation.

Once black jumps to 25 white presses at 26 and 28 to link his stones, connection is important, and build influence. Black secures the corner with 29 and white uses his wall to extend to 30. If white were to block to the right or 29 then black would be happy to take this point which would give her a good base to combat the influence from the white wall in the upper left. This extension doesn't give much territory yet as white's formation is still open at the bottom because of black 29, a jump underneath will erase a lot of territory and may be large enough to play in the early middle game depending on the situation.

Now we have two extensions, a black one down the right at 31 and the white two space extension at 32. Can you see how black's extension is much larger than the white? Not just because it is a three space extension but because of the formation made with the two black stones in the upper right. Because of the orientation of the two black stones they project power down the right side. Nevertheless white's extension is very large. Appreciating the power of these simple moves will greatly improve your game. Flashy moves and killing techniques might win you some games but at higher levels of play when your opponents will be experts at defense you will have to rely on your board judgement to gain small advantages.

Black takes time to secure territory on the bottom left with 33 and white decides to use 34 to build a moyo on the top. I think white was looking at this situation and felt like she was falling behind in the territorial balance. White has almost no sure territory, the formation on the right is open to invasion and the group on the bottom is only assured of getting four or five points. Black has secured three corners and the lower left and upper right are both large enclosures. White's only real asset in this game is her thickness in the upper left and the influence it projects.

Black jumps out to 35 to reinforce the corner formation and white jumps out to 36 in an attempt to reinforce the formation in the lower right. This brings us to the end of the fuseki and in order to see if we've learned anything let us analyze the position once again. As I just stated black has taken more and more solid territory without surrendering too much influence. The four black stones in the upper right project influence, the black group on the bottom right is nicely wedged between two thin white positions and the lower left is large and fairly secure. White is looking to use her strong outside position on the upper left to enclose a large center to make up for the territory but this is less than ideal. Typically it is better to use thickness to attack rather than surround territory but with the corners already settled and no weak black stones are on the board she doesn't have a lot of options.

The overall feeling is that the game at this point is favorable to black but where did white slip up? Next time I'll go over the whole game up to this point and we'll see if we can figure out where white mis stepped.

Do You Fear Ko?

Other than the very beginning of the game no other facet of the game of Go inspires confusion like Ko. Studying Ko is a key element of becoming a decent player and a subject that I really want to dig into here. We'll keep studying fuseki but here is a quick problem. Remember: lay it out on your own board and wait until you read out the whole thing before you answer.

The 1-2 exchange is bad for black and by playing tenuki at 3 black is asking for trouble. White to attack the corner, good luck.

This is a classic problem that is good to practice your reading on. I'll give it a few days and then post the solution. Bonus points for anyone who wants to explain exactly why the 1-2 exchange is bad for black.

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.

Fuseki Study

One thing that many beginning players say is that the opening is truly bewildering and they often feel like they end the beginning of the game at a disadvantage. So here we'll be looking at the fuseki (opening) of a pro game. This is Park Jieun as black and Suzuki Ayumi as white and the komi is 6.5. This particular game comes from Round 3 of the 8th Female Cup International and was played in China.

The first interesting exchange here is the 7-8 exchange. These moves are because of white 6, the famous Shusaku diagonal. This move is not terribly common anymore and is considered to be just a little slow for white.  This may be why black chose to tenuki and enclose the corner at 7. While white plays at 8 and makes the sole black stone in the upper left feels a little uncomfortable there are still many ways to handle this stone. Black could move out diagonally towards 8 on the fourth line to separate 8 from 2 and 6 if the outside became important or he could dive into the corner to establish a base. Meanwhile by playing at 1 and 7 black has laid strong claim to the corner territory and projects influence down the right side. It might help to think of 5 as, in a broad sense, a reducing move. Compare black's stones at 1, 7, and 5 with white's stones at 2, 6 and 8 and see how black's corner is much more solid. This is not to say that white's position is bad, it has more possibilities and projects power on two sides so she is not necessarily dissatisfied. I'm just trying to show the logic of this exchange.

Being satisfied with the aji of the stone at 5 black now turns to consolidate the lower left corner. The move at 9 makes a 3-3 invasion uncomfortable for white and the low position, on the third line, makes the left side uninteresting to play on. This is due to the low position of white 8 as well. If white 9 were one line higher then it would be an invitation for white to approach two points above nine and threaten to slide underneath black's stones.

Because the left is not as interesting anymore white turns to the right and plays 10. Why play here instead of below the star point on the bottom? It has to do with the amount of influence projected by the two different black enclosures. The enclosure on the bottom left has a lot of influence over the corner but because these stones still lack a base and the open nature of the 4-4 point these stones do not project their influence as directly as the enclosure in the upper right.

After black approaches at 11 white jumps to 12 which coordinates well with his previous extension up the side. We've all seen black 13, jumping into the corner but now white pulls out a move that isn't too common though it is the favorite of a few pros (Rin Kaiho comes to mind). Next post we'll cover the continuation of white's attachment in detail and continue watching the opening unfold.