It's very interesting to me that everyone has a completely different take on this. Shape is a basic topic where I'd expect a fair degree of uniformity. Is this lack of uniformity highlighting a weakness in western go? We haven't been taught it properly?
FWIW I consider some of the replies (or parts of some of them) are still concentrating on the static attributes of the shape (with more than hint of post hoc reasoning
) rather than its dynamic underpinnings. I would certainly regard that as a weakness worth correcting.Having said, that I don't know the proper answer. But I have the benefit of having seen the commentary (which only alludes to this position indirectly) and the game continuation.
The commentary says that if White 18 (the triangled move is at the 3-3 point, Black "it is obvious that Black will jump to F15." I don't think anyone here picked up on that specifically. That was, I assume, also the flaw in my own instinctive, pretty-pretty sake bottle move E14. Of course Black could still jump to F15 in the game but that would strengthen White on the outside and make the White invasion at C9 even nastier, as per the standard domino theory of fuseki.
But a possibly more important point (which I missed too) is that the triangled move is dynamic. That is: a shape is never really finished - it has to keep growing and so the way you make the shape has to allow that growth. The first growth move is at F16 (see the game below). This is standard, but I still missed it. My focus was on the two stones C14-F14 (not sure why?). If I had focused on the hazama shape D16-F14 I would have easily remembered that this is a standard way to set up an L-shape of ikken tobis. But even once White gets F16 in, the shape is still dynamic and needs stones added to it - again see the game. The rather detailed commentary didn't mention any of that, the players obviously feeling it was all too simple, and so I felt a bit
Which is why I brought it up here.Note that White 52 is nice example of growing the shape while being a domino response to a move as far away as Black 51.
at C17, I wouldn't be surprised if AG doesn't play F15; again, curious to see AG's variations. )
Yes, IMX most discussions by Western amateurs about shape -- I don't know about Eastern amateurs -- focus on static forms. I guess I was lucky in that when I first learned about shape it was about shape as a dynamic concept, about efficiency, not about form per se. From 2 kyu to 3 dan I was a shape player. Hardly any of my opponents were. 
appealing. One reason that nobody has mentioned is that 
is two spaces away instead of one. It does not threaten White very much, nor does 
stones is a solid shape. Maybe too solid, which is why White played the two space jump in the game.
