"Mukai Komoku" (double 3-4) Fuseki

[Nikolas73]

Yesterday I finally got around to fixing Java on my machine and started playing Go online again after a year-long break. I'm falling back in love very quickly but also finding myself stumped on where to play quite often, as was the case in this opening, as White:

$$Bcm1
$$ ---------------------------------------
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . 1 , . . . . . , . . . . a , 3 . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
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$$ | . . . 2 . . . . . , . . . . . 4 . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . 5 . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ ---------------------------------------

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$Bcm1
$$ ---------------------------------------
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . 1 , . . . . . , . . . . a , 3 . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
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$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . , . . . . . , . . . . . , . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . 2 . . . . . , . . . . . 4 . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . 5 . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ ---------------------------------------[/go]

What are your thoughts on how to respond to this? Should be somewhere else? I thought about approaching the stone on the bottom but didn't want black to make such an easy enclosure, so I played at a and promptly lost due to having forgotten everything I know about joseki.

Any ideas?

[hyperpape]

is fine as far as I can tell, and I share the gut feeling to approach one of Black's stones. I wouldn't venture a guess about which approach is best, or even if approaching really is best.

[gowan]

At this point the position is symmetrical left to right. There is no reason to choose blocking on the bottom, Black can extend towards which other corner he is not blocked. White might want to approach one of the corners on the top. There is an idea that which side (Black or White) plays in the top corners has an advantage. By the symmetry it is the same for White to approach either corner. Actually, it might have been better for Black to enclose one of the upper corners with B5. The would allow White to play a san-ren-sei on the lower side but then Black could extend on the side from his enclosed corner, developing and simultaneously erasing the influence of White's san-ren-sei.

[snorri]

The top is obviously the most open area and the usual idea with is that you should wait before approaching it until you know which direction is best. So I think your move at 'a' is proper. Depending on how the top develops you can then decide what to do at the bottom.

[Nikolas73]

Thanks for your comments, glad my intuition wasn't too off! In the future I think I will play in the same corner as (which is a slightly bigger move than the lower left corner) until my joseki knowledge returns.

[ez4u]

In my database the position after appears in 1,838 games since it first appeared in 1927. White plays in the lower right corner 96% of the time. The most common play by far is the 4-4 point (60%). Alternatively White approaches the upper right corner (diagonally opposite ) 3% of the time and the upper left corner 1% of the time. In the 1,106 games where White plays on the lower right 4-4, Black responds with the splitting move at 6 times. This compares to over 500 games where Black encloses one of the upper corners and 400 games where Black makes a normal small-knight approach down one of the sides. In all six games where Black split the bottom with above, White approached one of the upper corners next.