Dictionary of Modern Fuseki - problem 4

[Joaz Banbeck]

'b' is the wrong direction of play.

Interesting way of phrasing it. In other words, encouraging him to play L5 is the wrong direction? Away from the western wall and on top of the weak 2-space extension?

[Dusk Eagle]

Why are we still hiding things?

'b' is the wrong direction of play.

My problem with this statement is that it's really vague. What do you mean when you say "It's the wrong direction of play"?

[Chew Terr]

Why are we still hiding things?

'b' is the wrong direction of play.

My problem with this statement is that it's really vague. What do you mean when you say "It's the wrong direction of play"?

Snorri can correct me, but I thought something similar (despite being too shy to be outspoken on it). White only has one and a half weak groups. The bottom right is the weak one, the top right is the half. 'B' pushes b on top of W's weakest group, while leaving the top unhelped, either. The top right wall isn't really weak, but if it has to live in the corner or something, it's not serving the purpose W wanted it to.

[jts]

Okay, we'll stop hiding things. Dusk Eagle, you said you pictured a black stone at B and didn't like it. Would you also claim that J7 is the best point for B here? And, counterfactually, if B played L5 before W played J7, can you see either player coming back to play J7 (either immediately, or soon after) because it's such a valuable point?

As far as "direction of play" goes: on the bottom, W's wall, by itself, would have a big arrow pointing towards J6, but the black stones there blunt that and make it weak. W's weak group has an arrow rising to the center, to get out of any possible danger, and slightly to the left, due to the possibility of forcing B towards the wall. B's weak group, meanwhile, has an arrow pointing directly to the right, with the aim of parlaying that group into thickness facing the center.

I'm not saying this is a brilliant analysis, but I don't think the term direction of play is "vague". I would say more "difficult". I couldn't possibly tell you what the "balance of territory" is on this board, and if I tried I'd probably be wildly off and you would make fun of me. But that's not because the balance of territory is vague, is it?

[emeraldemon]

I've never liked opening problems. I'm sure the authors know more than I do, but it always feels so subjective. I stumbled across Step Up to a Higher Level at a used bookstore, it's meant as a test for 7 kyu players. I figured, what the heck, I'll go through it. Here's how I did:

Opening:
18/24
semeai:
30/30
tesuji:
29/30
life & death:
29/30
endgame:
29/30

apparently my opening is my worst area . Fortunately for me, This was still good enough to qualify as "6k+" for the test purposes.

[Dusk Eagle]

I'm in the middle of writing an incredibly stupid report for school and it's annoying me, so I hope I haven't come across as rude anywhere. If I have, I apologize.

I was trying to understand how 'b' is a better direction of play than 'a', which I couldn't really understand. But taking what jts and Chew have said, I can see how you don't really want to force black to cap you at L5 unnecessarily.

If it was black's turn, I would probably split the top at J17. If I didn't feel like splitting the top, I would probably play L5 or P5 to profit from white's weak-looking group on the bottom (I'm not sure which is best TBH).

With white, another reason I chose 'b' is because I was thinking of it as a sort of inducing move into helping my two-space extension while maintaining good flow. Something like this:

$$Wc
$$ ---------------------------------------
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . O . . . . . . . . . . O . . . . |
$$ | . . . , . . . . . a . . . . . , X . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . O X . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . O . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . X . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . X , . . . . . , . . . . . , . . . |
$$ | . . . O . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . X O . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . X O . . . . 1 4 . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . X O . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . X O . . . X . 2 . . 3 . . X . . |
$$ | . . X , . . . . . , . . . . . , . . . |
$$ | . . . . O . . . X . O . . O . X . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ ---------------------------------------

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$Wc
$$ ---------------------------------------
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . O . . . . . . . . . . O . . . . |
$$ | . . . , . . . . . a . . . . . , X . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . O X . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . O . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . X . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . X , . . . . . , . . . . . , . . . |
$$ | . . . O . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . X O . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . X O . . . . 1 4 . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . X O . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . X O . . . X . 2 . . 3 . . X . . |
$$ | . . X , . . . . . , . . . . . , . . . |
$$ | . . . . O . . . X . O . . O . X . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ ---------------------------------------[/go]

(I didn't really read much further than this at the time, though looking at it now I'm losing my taste for it as white.)

But playing inducing moves and trying to have a flow to the game is something I'm rather new at, so I'm probably doing it wrong quite a bit of the time.