4-4 novelties - not for the squamous
Posted: Thu Aug 11, 2011 1:12 pm
I was rather taken aback when looking at an article in the latest Gekkan Go World (Aug 2011). It caught my attention in the first place because of the heading which referred to scales falling from someone's eyes. The thing is, while I know what the phrase means (belated but sudden understanding of something) I've always thought of it as an extremely odd locution as I've never heard how dislodgeable scales get on eyes in the first place. I was amazed that such a meaningless phrase turning up in Japanese. I'm pretty it must have entered Japanase via an early translation from English The use of uroko (fish scale) for "scale" rather gives the game away. Even though I don't understand where the English version comes from, I'm pretty sure it's not a piscine origin.
It takes that sort of odd thing for me to get to look at a technical article, but when I did the scales rather fell from my eyes as well!
In the sequence in the diagram below (where, it is my impression, White 7 is becoming increasingly popular), Black 18 is classed a new move. It's not quite (Maeda played it in 1936) but it's very rare and has enjoyed a little flurry in recent times. The standard joseki move is at A, though it's possible to insert the atari at B first. In practice Black will have a stone around C of course. The joseki move at A leaves a huge amount of aji on the side. The key points for White are D then E, and/or F. I therefore took it for granted that Black 18 was a good, natural move and one I would have played. I was aware of the alternative at A, but thought it was just a matter of style. In fact A has all the bragging rights here. So scale #1 fell down. Something fishy here, I thought, so I read on.
[sgf-full](;AB[pd]AP[MultiGo:4.2.1]SZ[19]MULTIGOGM[1]
;W[nc];B[lc];W[qc];B[qd];W[pc];B[od];W[nd];B[oc];W[ob];B[pb];W[qb];B[nb];W[pa];B[ne]
;W[mb];B[md];W[na];B[of]LB[mf:A][mc:B][pj:C][rd:D][qe:E][qg:F])[/sgf-full]
Without explaining the wherefores, I was intrigued to see that the logic of Black 18 has also led to a re-appraisal of Black 16. If Black is going to play 18, there is a good case for omitting 16. One wherefore is that it leaves the possibility of the next diagram.
[sgf-full](;AB[pd][mb][od][nd][nc][me][nf][pj][kc]AW[oc][pc][pb][oa][nb][mc][md][lb]AP[MultiGo:4.2.1]
SZ[19]MULTIGOGM[1]
;B[ke];W[dp];B[kb]LB[ka:A])[/sgf-full]
This example reveals rather nicely I think why the author, Kono Rin 9-dan, has a good claim to be the best writer on joseki anywhere. Apart from the professional skill of identifying the novelties and their relative importance, he has a nice way of structuring his articles, managing to cover a lot of ground in the few pages allotted to him, while scattering valuable details round non-stop. In the present article, the aji details mentioned above are amply covered, for example. But I like also the kind of detail of Black 3 in this diagram - it threatens Black A. It's common to mention a follow-up move in a joseki. You might very occasionally get a follow-up of a follow-up. But a a follow-up of a follow-up of a follow-up? It's this kind of insight (scale #2 dropping) that he shows into the position that makes me all trembly with admiration for Kono's work.
I gave a more extended example of his work in Go Companion (The Fighting Chinese Fuseki), but the ideal would be to read his long series over several years in Gekkan Go World. I haven't looked at every instalment but from those that have inveigled me, I think you will see that he pinpoints the novelties authoritatively and has the knack of discussing the after-life of josekis maybe two stages beyond what you see in joseki dictionaries.
The joseki shown here has appeared in Game 1 of the Judan Final this year, BTW, if you want to look at in the wild (Cho U played it against Iyama).
It takes that sort of odd thing for me to get to look at a technical article, but when I did the scales rather fell from my eyes as well!
In the sequence in the diagram below (where, it is my impression, White 7 is becoming increasingly popular), Black 18 is classed a new move. It's not quite (Maeda played it in 1936) but it's very rare and has enjoyed a little flurry in recent times. The standard joseki move is at A, though it's possible to insert the atari at B first. In practice Black will have a stone around C of course. The joseki move at A leaves a huge amount of aji on the side. The key points for White are D then E, and/or F. I therefore took it for granted that Black 18 was a good, natural move and one I would have played. I was aware of the alternative at A, but thought it was just a matter of style. In fact A has all the bragging rights here. So scale #1 fell down. Something fishy here, I thought, so I read on.
[sgf-full](;AB[pd]AP[MultiGo:4.2.1]SZ[19]MULTIGOGM[1]
;W[nc];B[lc];W[qc];B[qd];W[pc];B[od];W[nd];B[oc];W[ob];B[pb];W[qb];B[nb];W[pa];B[ne]
;W[mb];B[md];W[na];B[of]LB[mf:A][mc:B][pj:C][rd:D][qe:E][qg:F])[/sgf-full]
Without explaining the wherefores, I was intrigued to see that the logic of Black 18 has also led to a re-appraisal of Black 16. If Black is going to play 18, there is a good case for omitting 16. One wherefore is that it leaves the possibility of the next diagram.
[sgf-full](;AB[pd][mb][od][nd][nc][me][nf][pj][kc]AW[oc][pc][pb][oa][nb][mc][md][lb]AP[MultiGo:4.2.1]
SZ[19]MULTIGOGM[1]
;B[ke];W[dp];B[kb]LB[ka:A])[/sgf-full]
This example reveals rather nicely I think why the author, Kono Rin 9-dan, has a good claim to be the best writer on joseki anywhere. Apart from the professional skill of identifying the novelties and their relative importance, he has a nice way of structuring his articles, managing to cover a lot of ground in the few pages allotted to him, while scattering valuable details round non-stop. In the present article, the aji details mentioned above are amply covered, for example. But I like also the kind of detail of Black 3 in this diagram - it threatens Black A. It's common to mention a follow-up move in a joseki. You might very occasionally get a follow-up of a follow-up. But a a follow-up of a follow-up of a follow-up? It's this kind of insight (scale #2 dropping) that he shows into the position that makes me all trembly with admiration for Kono's work.
I gave a more extended example of his work in Go Companion (The Fighting Chinese Fuseki), but the ideal would be to read his long series over several years in Gekkan Go World. I haven't looked at every instalment but from those that have inveigled me, I think you will see that he pinpoints the novelties authoritatively and has the knack of discussing the after-life of josekis maybe two stages beyond what you see in joseki dictionaries.
The joseki shown here has appeared in Game 1 of the Judan Final this year, BTW, if you want to look at in the wild (Cho U played it against Iyama).