Life In 19x19

Okay, I found an older file from Alexandre Dinerchstein, who says the following:

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$Wc
$$ . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . X . . |
$$ . . . . . . . 1 X . . . |
$$ . . . . . . . O O X . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . X O O . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . X . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ ----------------------[/go]

This is the right move.

If Black resists:

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$Bc
$$ . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . . 3 . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . 2 1 . X . . |
$$ . . . . . . . W X 5 . . |
$$ . . . . . . . O O X 4 . |
$$ . . . . . . 8 7 X O O . |
$$ . . . . . . 0 9 6 X . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ ----------------------[/go]

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$Bcm11
$$ . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . . X . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . O X . X . . |
$$ . . . . . . . O X X 7 . |
$$ . . . . . . . O O X O 9 |
$$ . . . . . . O X X O O . |
$$ . . . . . . O X . X 2 6 |
$$ . . . . . . 4 5 1 . 3 8 |
$$ ----------------------[/go]

Ko and White takes first, so in the opening stage it is most likely that Black will lose the corner. Note that the Hane at O6 ist very important, otherwise Black could capture White in a net, when he cuts at N4.


The best response by Black is:

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$Bc
$$ . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . 8 . . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . 6 7 . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . 4 5 . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . X . . |
$$ . . . . . . . O X . . . |
$$ . . . . . . . O O X . . |
$$ . . . . . . . 2 X O O . |
$$ . . . . . . . . 3 X 1 . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ ----------------------[/go]

Which is considered slighty favourable for White.

Ah, it's my favorite hamete. I must have played it over 300 times, and I can only remember two occasions where someone countered with Alexander's variation (Nick Krempel being one of the two people when I played in the London Open, he said he saw me play it in a previous round and came up with the variation; clever guy).

I think the simplest, strongest way to handle it is to not make the S16-R15 exchange and play P17 if you have the ladder (Eric Dai's suggestion). Yes, White can do a squeeze variation but it's not good for White. Another possibility is to just tenuki from R14 because compared to Q14 it doesn't put as much pressure on your approach stone (Cho Seokbin's suggestion). And going back to lightvector's post, the second diagram is clearly better and is the motive behind the trick play.

And what do you know, here's a game I played just a few minutes ago where I used the hamete and won the game in under 30 moves because he got a little careless:

Response to E5 in Lee Chang-Ho's book.