Life In 19x19

When I am watching games of other players I often notice that they play EXACTLY the same opening as black again and again and again.

I have three openings I'd like to play as Black. As White I have two - actually one, except my opponent plays double Komoku.

If I've got Black and my opponent lets me play a diagonal fuseki, I'll take it, figuring that people are less likely to be well-versed in the diagonal fuseki as they are in the Chinese.

Not that I'm well-versed in any of them....

I play very differently most games I play these days.

At first I always played sanrensei as black, then I switched to tengen + approaching everything that wasn't a hoshi or sansan right off, and now I'm doing the orthodox because I'm sick of having no corners by middlegame.

I change my opening as black every few months... Currently I am playing Low-Chinese.... I figured it would be good to know since it is so popular...

I repeat some new themes (3-5 points, low approaches to 3-4 points) often enough to learn something about them. But I am really astonished about people playing the same opening regardless of what their opponents are doing. Especially when they play some weird openings as parallel 4-5 points.

tapir wrote:I repeat some new themes (3-5 points, low approaches to 3-4 points) often enough to learn something about them. But I am really astonished about people playing the same opening regardless of what their opponents are doing. Especially when they play some weird openings as parallel 4-5 points.

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.

kirkmc wrote:

tapir wrote:I repeat some new themes (3-5 points, low approaches to 3-4 points) often enough to learn something about them. But I am really astonished about people playing the same opening regardless of what their opponents are doing. Especially when they play some weird openings as parallel 4-5 points.

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.

When my opponent plays a weird opening like that (though more commonly dual 4-6, I find, if people want to be weird), I usually copy it. I like to think this unnerves them in return, and it generally leads to enjoyable games

kirkmc wrote: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

I could say somewhat sort of yea, seeing as I play the 3-5 mokuhazushi alot but then with Black my first move is always the 3-5 and thats the same for White. But then after my opponent moves this changes how my next move comes about, depending on what star-point wether it is on or to what side of the star-point they play factors in my next opening move.

Sanrensei with Black and Nirensei with White.

However, it's not something I intend to do forever. I just prefer to stick with one opening as a newbie. I definitely hope to experiment once/if I start getting to high (low) SDK.

I am the same as Monadology (it's always nirensei for me, with both colours). I intend to start experimenting with different openings when (perhaps "if" would be more appropriate) I get stronger - say if I get to 5k or better - but I don't see any need to start doing wildly different things at this stage. It's not as if every game I play ends up being the same, or even particularly similar. Usually by move 10 or 15 I'm in a totally new situation for me (but then I am a relative newbie).

I use 3-3, 4-4, 3-4, and an occasional 3-5 as opening moves in any combination.
I do have a few josekis I like, but I'm definetly not playing the same opening over and over.

usually my opponents won't let me play the same opening every time anyway

I play the same "types" of openings all the time (switching every few months), but I don't see the point of playing the same openings without taking my opponent's moves into account.

I also make small changes randomly to try new things, like a 3-5 or 4-5 (which I haven't tried out much to date), approach move or shimari at , cross fuseki, etc.

I wouldn't call my openings "monotonous", but I play certain formations more consistently than not, like chinese variants and Classic Kobayashi openings.