Life In 19x19

Perhaps as the result of having a journalist wife, O Meien seems to make much more effort than the average 9-dan to write stuff that is palatable for amateurs. We at GoGoD found his latest offerings especially tasty - enjoyed discussing them at the last executive lunch, in fact! - and thought we would
share them in our own maverick style on New In Go. Part 1, anyway. Part 2 later.

Best wishes.

Looks like gogod.co.uk is down at the moment

Gogod is down

What? No Nietzsche jokes?

uglyboxer wrote:What? No Nietzsche jokes?

It's because news of GoGod's death has already reached us.

The site is up now with its always enlightening (or at least entertaining) articles.

What a pleasure to read John's singularly British Americanophile take on developments in Japanese go. The article was particularly welcome as it offered some professional wisdom for amateurs presented in palpable portions. I found the cattle analogy so useful that I nailed every move of the test example 1.

In any case, I'd love for him to rejoin the conversations here.

Greetings!

Hi. The article suggests that is not common in professional play. Indeed I get the same 4 hits as T Mark:

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$B Common sequence?
$$ ---------------------------------------
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$$ | . . . 4 . . . . . , . . . . . , . . . |
$$ | . . . . . 6 . . . . . . . . . 3 . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ ---------------------------------------[/go]

But man, I remember seeing so much, but against the low chinese where is at 'a'. If that's the case, then I get 183 matches out of 1772 games that match up to . So is played over 10% of the time in that case, whereas in the high chinese its 4/484 or more like 0.8%.

So why is somehow so much less popular against the high chinese? It there something technically bad about it? I don't think so. One must remember that against the low chinese is a relatively new move itself, emerging around 2004, whereas the high chinese fuseki has been losing popularity. With the high chinese, the fuseki up to has only appeared 23 times since 2004 [cf. GoGoD Winter 2011]. Knowing that, is not the rare move. It's the high chinese itself that's gotten relatively rare.

So 2004-2011, there are 19774 games in the GoGoD Winter 2011 collection. So the pattern above to occurs 23/19774 which is about 0.1% of the time.

Let's compare to, say the period 1975-1985. 7269 games in that period, with 86 of them being high chinese vs. nirensei (moves through above.} More like 1.2%, so relatively, much more popular than in the current era.

So when I see the fuseki above, I do say, "ah, probably amateurs" not because of but because of

But this is a nitpick. It's a wonderful article---I'm a big fan of O Meien---and thanks so much for bringing ideas from Japanese publications to the English speaking go world!

I also look forward to the Kindle book on Shuei! I know so little about that great player.

snorri wrote:

$$B Common sequence?
$$ ---------------------------------------
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
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$$ | . . . 2 . . . . . , . . . . . 1 . . . |
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$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 a . . |
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$$ | . . . 4 . . . . . , . . . . . , . . . |
$$ | . . . . . 6 . . . . . . . . . 3 . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ ---------------------------------------

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$B Common sequence?
$$ ---------------------------------------
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
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$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . , . . . . . , . . . . . , . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 a . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . 4 . . . . . , . . . . . , . . . |
$$ | . . . . . 6 . . . . . . . . . 3 . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ ---------------------------------------[/go]

So why is :w6: somehow so much less popular against the high chinese?

My guess would be that White really likes to counter Black's center influence. Even more when White will invade/reduce Black's side, resulting most likely in a territory for influence trade. With :w6: at the bottom-middle Hoshi a black wall would not come to its fullest potential.

Maybe you can look at some games with the High-Chinese and White's :w6: at the bottom-middle Hoshi. There might be a chance that in the course of the game the intention behind the move becomes clearer.

If I recall the high Chinese is out of favor with the pros lately, as is the san-ren-sei. But I could be wrong This position is uncommon

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$B Common sequence?
$$ ---------------------------------------
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . 2 . . . . . , . . . . . 1 . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
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$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 a . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
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$$ | . . . 4 . . . . . , . . . . . , . . . |
$$ | . . . . . 6 . . . . . . . . . 3 . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ ---------------------------------------[/go]

and apparently not considered good for White but moving W4 and W6 one space to the left yields a position that is good for White. As in this diagram:

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$B Common sequence?
$$ ---------------------------------------
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . 2 . . . . . , . . . . . 1 . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . , . . . . . , . . . . . , . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 a . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . 4 . . . . . . , . . . . . , . . . |
$$ | . . . . 6 . . . . . . . . . . 3 . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ ---------------------------------------[/go]

It's good because White takes territory and W6 limits the potential of Black's influence. In the previous diagram W6 still limits Black's influence but White has a less secure corner.

I haven't databased it, but was thought to be perhaps too good for white, right?

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$B Common sequence?
$$ ---------------------------------------
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . 2 . . . . . , . . . . . 1 . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . , . . . . . , . . . . . , . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 . . . |
$$ | . . . 4 . . . . . 8 . . 6 . . a . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ ---------------------------------------[/go]

(And when black pincers, white's attachment at 'a' is slightly favourable)