Toge wrote:
I have trouble understanding tenuki with move 23. Move 24 white then cuts and gets into center, making previous black moves look meaningless.
This is similar to the joseki where White makes a one space high approach to Black's 3-4 point stone, then Black attaches underneath, White hanes on the outside, and Black pulls back. Now White can, and often should, tenuki, leaving the cut behind. In that joseki a solid connection by White is sente against the corner. Here the connection is gote.
The idea of preventing, with sente, your opponent from doing something is important, but the only place in the go literature that I have seen it explicitly taught is by Takagawa. Yet it marks the beginning of modern fuseki thought, a few centuries ago. At that time games often began with Black playing on a 3-4 point, White making an approach, Black playing a pincer, and then White tenukiing. White could be satisfied with preventing a Black enclosure with sente.
In this case Black may regard

and

as kikashi, and treat them lightly. If White cuts, Black has the option of extending on the third line to threaten a ladder, and when White prevents the ladder, Black can make a base. Or Black can tenuki again.
