I had a discussion with a friend about the "polite corner" after a 3-4 play by black. I did not believe him as there is no symmetry on the board, but he pointed me to this video by Haylee.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMVSrICVz3k

I was shocked about the view by Haylee on this topic .

I am sure the unpolite way to play is the best answer to the 3-4 stone and ELF agrees with me. I will continue to play this unpolite move for sure

What do you think of the "polite way" to play and is this really the opinion of the pros even after the unsymmetrical 3-4 stone?

After on 3-4, all bets are off and it's free.

What Haylee says is pure twaddle. There are thousands of pro games with a White play in the lower right, starting in Edo times and still very common today. It's necessary to be able to play there otherwise you would be illegally denying White certain arrangements given that Black has broken the symmetry with move 1.

I suspect this view (if it really is widespread) may have derived from two of Shusai's very famous games: his 1926 game with Karigane and his 1938 Retirement Game with Kitani. There Shusai played White 2 at R4 and virtually every one of the many commentaries picked up on that, even using the phrase "Shusai's komoku." It was certainly the move he favoured in his most important games but he did not invent it. It had already been very common throughout Edo times. One other reason interest latched on to it, of course, is that this move was seen as part of a new wave of thinking that led to New Fuseki (its basis was the urge to bypass Shusaku's fuseki).

There was a similar myth about san-san not being allowed by the Honinbo school. Yet both Shuwa and Shusaku played it.

And if it comes to that, while it may be considered polite (nowadays "more photogenic" might be better) to play first in the upper right, it is not at all impolite to play elsewhere - although Kuroda Shunsetsu did famously apologise to Honinbo Shuho in Meiji times, in desperation after losing heavily in match, before playing first move at tengen in their final game. Indeed, this incident may have fuelled the myth about first move in the upper right.

Politenesses about first move did exist, however. There are the early-Edo cases where White (the weaker player) was allowed to play first in games at court with Yasui Sanchi, out of a sense of protocol.

Slightly different, but there is also the case of Kitani who liked to choose his orientation on the board according to how the grain ran. He felt that opponents were psychologically resistant to playing on areas of ugly grain, so he would make his moyo around them.

After the symmetry is broken, of course all bets are off. But in all honesty it really does annoy me if black does not open up in the lower triangle of the top right quadrant. There is no strategic value in playing in a rotationally symmetric point, the only advantage you get is annoying your opponent because now they have to mentally rotate all their opening theory reference for no reason.

Of course some may see this as a way to gain a fair competitive advantage and I cannot really prove them wrong, it probably does give a minute advantage against most players. But then there are many things that give small competitive edges (e.g. never resigning even when 100 points behind), and yet I'm glad that most people in the community still have some sense of etiquette about not abusing that kind of stuff to the limit.

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My name is Gijs, from Utrecht, NL.

When in doubt, play the most aggressive move

I have seen severl professional game records where black has played 3-5 point on the upper triangle of the top right quadrant, possibly keeping ope the possibilty of completing it to a kogeima shimari.