fuseki of the month?

[Mark356]

For a little while, I've had the idea that I'd like to try out certain fuseki. I usually lose games with sanrensei as either black or white; I have no idea how to work the Korean or Mini-Chinese; and there's almost no way I can get to practice with more unusual fuseki like the Great Wall or the Shusaku. I usually lose the first couple of games I play with any given fuseki.

On the flip side of it, I feel like I get overly used to some of my favorite fuseki: there's some that I've gotten so used to that letting me play with, say, the Kobayashi 2 or the high sub-orthadox is like giving me two stones, because I've just played them so much and have gotten so used to how they can develop.

How cool would it be, though, if I could just play ten or twelve games with, for instance, sanrensei? Even if I lose the first eight of them, probably by the end of it I'd have a much better idea of how sanrensei games work and wouldn't worry about them anymore. Of course to do that, I'd need a lot of people who would be willing to either play sanrensei or let me play it.

So why not make "fuseki of the month" a part of the League? Of course it would never be mandatory-- that would take all the fun out of it. But it would be so cool if, every month, there were a page on the suggested fuseki of the month, with a guide to the moves, perhaps a couple of variations (you would probably do the high Chinese and the low Chinese the same month, for instance, or the Korean and the Mini-Chinese), maybe suggestions of joseki that are commonly used or common continuations, and perhaps one or two sample pro games that use that fuseki? I think I'd get a lot more out of the League that way, even if I played only a quarter of my League games like this. I'd probably be able to use suggestions from higher-ranked players in my next League games right away, if the advice is specific to the way I used the fuseki. You could argue that it would make the League more monotonous, just playing the same game over and over again, but I'd say the opposite: it gives you a chance to go deeper and deeper into the same game and be less likely to make the same mistakes over and over again.

Thoughts?

[topazg]

Hmmm, I really like the idea of this

If we could have more than 1% or 2% of games actually do it, it could be really valuable. I wonder how to publicise it enough to make people interested - would they do it anyway?

PS For what it is worth, I always make up my own fuseki anyway

[stalkor]

maybe we can ask clossius to do one of the vids he does each month to be about opening?

I think its fine if you use the league to try out fuseki but we cant force it on ppl if you mean that

[topazg]

I think you misunderstand stalkor. The idea is we have a publicly linked to "fuseki of the month". If people don't want to try it, that's fine, but it becomes a theme for those that do, as opposed to "play anything you like".

It's got some interesting study potential.

[Marcus]

I like this idea. It would be even cooler if the opening could be read from the SGF and a list of games that onth with the opening was automatically populated ... that would take a bit more scripting, though.

[stalkor]

we've found someone who will do the fuseki of the month for march and april. Hermanhiddema, dutch 4 dan, will do it for these months.
We're looking for players who would like to contribute for the following months.
Please contact me or an ASR admin if you would like to do so:)

[AlGebr]

As I understand, this project will help us with finding 'theory' materials about one of most popular fuseki in this month by
showing all league games where it was played, right?

Even if I misread, I really want to join HermanHiddema, as a player with the same style as Black, and quite flexible as White

[stalkor]

no its about giving a fuseki to show players they can deviate from their standard opening and encourage them to try it out. This way they can develop their fuseki skills or study this fuseki and make it their own.

It's going to be interesting if players will follow the exact fuseki or come up with a variation or counter of their own.

Looking for league games with that fuseki in the script is not going to be integrated.