Aha, now that we are on the same page, I think we're in agreement.

I think that it is highly ironic that this is posting #21, starting a new page.

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A good system naturally covers all corner cases without further effort.

When i read the article immediately came to my mind Kageyama's book on fundamentals. In the intro to second chapter he talks about this move made by Kano 9-dan, that caught his attention:

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$c This is a label for the diagram.
$$ ---------------------------------------
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . X . O X |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . O X O X X . |
$$ | . . . O . O . . . . O O . O X . X O X |
$$ | . . O , . . . . . , O X . X . X . O . |
$$ | . . O X . . O . O . O . X O . X O . . |
$$ | . . X X . . . . . . . X . O . X O . . |
$$ | . . . . . . O . X . X . . O X O . . . |
$$ | . . X . . O . X O O . . . O . O O O . |
$$ | . . . . X O . X . . X . . . . O X X . |
$$ | . . X , X O . . . , . . . . . X . . X |
$$ | . . . . . O X . . . . . . . . X X . X |
$$ | . . O . O . O X . . . . . . . . . X . |
$$ | . . . . . . X . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . O . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . X X X . X . . a . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . O , . . X O O , . . . . . X X . . |
$$ | . . . O . O O . . . X . . X . 1 O . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . O X . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ ---------------------------------------[/go]

He even quotes the newspaper writer: "...and Black 1 firmly captured the white stone. Had it been us, we would have wanted to expand around 'a' and swallow up the stone on a larger scale"

The commentator of the match (Sugiuchi 9-dan) said: "(...) This makes the game close. It's probably correct. If he were behind, he would try a larger move . Black 'a', for instance."

So, sure, Kano 9-dan could have gone for bigger things; or could've read if that white stone in the corner had any danger (he probably did); but he didn't try any "fancy lets maximize" my move. He played solid. Enough advantage to win, absolutely confident.
Sugiuchi doesn't say 'a' is bad... it's correct if he is losing.


Kageyama later adds: "Any strong player, even an amateur, has the right to doubt, and wonder why proffesional do not make more ambitious moves. One might even go sor far as to wonder if professionals, too, are not subject to attacks of nerves. In the end, however, it all comes down to the professional's faithfulness to fundamentals."

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