Monotonous

[Perception]

My first move with black is always the same but after that my openings vary depending on how I feel like playing and how my opponent plays. I don't just try to play the same fuseki every time.

[tapir]

My guess is that people who play, say, parallel 4-5 points have found that they can win often because their opponents are not used to such an opening and don't know what to do. I also think that people who always play openings like that care more about winning than enjoying the game, or about learning.

Seriously? You think an opponent plays moves that are likely to quickly to go outside of joseki because they care little about learning? That's the _point_ of playing unorthodoxly surely, taking things into the realm where thought and understanding are of greater value than learning joseki sequence by wrote.

I play 4-5, 3-5, 6-4, more often than 3-3 and probably as often as 3-4 simply because I do enjoy the game, and I'd rather play from principles and ideas than 50 moves of theory out of a book

I played a game yesterday against a 3k where he started with dual semi-diagonal 7-5 points. It was one of the most interesting games I can remember: http://files.gokgs.com/games/2010/10/16 ... culmer.sgf

I made quite a hash of the lower right, twice, but the whole game was about trying to efficiently use what was on the board, not learning rehearsed josekis, and it was really refreshing

It was not about playing weird fuseki in particular, but playing invariably one special prepared fuseki (often weird sometimes not) over years. More often than not a trap is involved and the player is speculating on his opponent messing up along the way. Doing this once in a while looks like fun, playing like that (not varying as you do, but always the same opening) exclusively for years probably hurts your own growth more than anything else. And I know plenty of players who play like this. we even call some fuseki by player names in the local club, as in Peter fuseki because Peter invariably plays it.

[FlameBlade]

I tend to play more conventional fuseki that I am more comfortable with for tournament games, because I prefer to get to the middle game if I can. However, when I'm not taking games seriously, my fuseki depends greatly on my mood. Shall I go for Apollo fuseki (6-4,6-4,10-4)? Or shall I go for weird slant (a variant on Apollo fuseki, but using tengen)? (disclosure: I was disgusted with my two losses in one tournament, so I decided to open differently and play with that, and won next two games.)

[tapir]

Shouldn't it be the Siberian fuseki?

[Dusk Eagle]

I have a few openings that I am currently sticking to as black right now. My most commonly used opening is the Mini-Chinese with dual komoku, followed by the Orthodox fuseki with dual komoku. Both of these openings feel rather flexible. Or, if I happen to know that the player is a very aggressive territory-oriented player, I occasionally go san-ren-sei in the hopes that his greed for pure territory will give me overwhelming influence.

[hyperpape]

Sometimes these polls confuse me.

I play:
Orthodox: 50%
Enclosure: 25%
Mini Chinese 15%
Kobayashi, Nirensei, and strange things the rest of the time.

I think that's actually pretty monotonous, and sometimes I'd think I should mix it up, but it doesn't match the terms of the poll.