Takemiya Style Overview:
Acknowledgment: Much of what I know about Takemiya’s style is based upon Master Play: The Style of Takemiya (2008) by Yuan Zhou, and I’ll rely heavily on this resource during this game. I highly recommend this book.
Summary of the Style: In the opening, the focus is on quickly occupying key points and on developing a central moyo. Next, the focus shifts to reinforcing the moyo and to repelling the inevitable invasion into the moyo. The game is often decided based on whether the invasion succeeds or fails.
Other characteristics of the style follow from the above. In order to be able to quickly occupy key points and to develop contours of a central moyo, one must keep sente in the opening as much as possible. From this it follows that one should occupy free corners with 4-4 stones. 4-4 stones influence the center well and they are not overly threatened by approach moves (which means one can easily tenuki to take key points elsewhere on the board). The prevalent use of the sanrensei formation in Takemiya style follows directly from this.
Clarification: The central moyo must be constructed naturally through the normal give and take of the game. It must not be forced, as this could lead to unfavorable exchanges which might be hard to compensate for. For example, playing a stone in the center of the board on move 1 is not Takemiya style.
Considerations in Opposition of the Style: The style calls for playing in the center, which does not have well developed set patterns (josekis) from which to draw upon. Thus, it is often difficult to know what moves Takemiya style requires in various positions. Moreover, although one must keep sente in the opening as much as possible, eventually one must switch focus to giving up sente so as to reinforce the moyo. Deciding when to make a reinforcing move can be very difficult.
Furthermore, the style can be very risky and requires strong fighting skills. Firstly, the player must surrender a lot of solid territory to the opponent in the opening--which is an obvious risk. Secondly, the game of Go is stacked in favor of life instead of death--it takes less effort to gain liberties than to take than away (it takes 4 stones to surround 1 stone, 6 stones to surround 2 stones, etc.), so it’s easier to live than to kill. Therefore, even though living inside central moyos might be harder than living inside moyos containing side or corner territories, obtaining a living group inside the moyo might still be possible in many cases. Hence the risk and the requirement of being able to fight well.
Summary of the Style: In the opening, the focus is on quickly occupying key points and on developing a central moyo. Next, the focus shifts to reinforcing the moyo and to repelling the inevitable invasion into the moyo. The game is often decided based on whether the invasion succeeds or fails.
Other characteristics of the style follow from the above. In order to be able to quickly occupy key points and to develop contours of a central moyo, one must keep sente in the opening as much as possible. From this it follows that one should occupy free corners with 4-4 stones. 4-4 stones influence the center well and they are not overly threatened by approach moves (which means one can easily tenuki to take key points elsewhere on the board). The prevalent use of the sanrensei formation in Takemiya style follows directly from this.
$$Bc Sanrensei fuseki
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- Click Here To Show Diagram Code
[go]$$Bc Sanrensei fuseki
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$$ |. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .|[/go]
Clarification: The central moyo must be constructed naturally through the normal give and take of the game. It must not be forced, as this could lead to unfavorable exchanges which might be hard to compensate for. For example, playing a stone in the center of the board on move 1 is not Takemiya style.
$$Bc [u]Not[/u] Takemiya's move
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- Click Here To Show Diagram Code
[go]$$Bc [u]Not[/u] Takemiya's move
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Considerations in Opposition of the Style: The style calls for playing in the center, which does not have well developed set patterns (josekis) from which to draw upon. Thus, it is often difficult to know what moves Takemiya style requires in various positions. Moreover, although one must keep sente in the opening as much as possible, eventually one must switch focus to giving up sente so as to reinforce the moyo. Deciding when to make a reinforcing move can be very difficult.
Furthermore, the style can be very risky and requires strong fighting skills. Firstly, the player must surrender a lot of solid territory to the opponent in the opening--which is an obvious risk. Secondly, the game of Go is stacked in favor of life instead of death--it takes less effort to gain liberties than to take than away (it takes 4 stones to surround 1 stone, 6 stones to surround 2 stones, etc.), so it’s easier to live than to kill. Therefore, even though living inside central moyos might be harder than living inside moyos containing side or corner territories, obtaining a living group inside the moyo might still be possible in many cases. Hence the risk and the requirement of being able to fight well.
Takemiya style calls for utilizing 4-4 stones and the sanrensei formation. With the handicap of 6 stones, Black starts with two sanrensei’s for free! This suggests that Takemiya style is suited perfectly for high handicap games.
That said--and I’m speaking from personal experience--playing handicap games this way is incredibly exciting. As such, the next time you play a high-dan or a pro, use Takemiya style to crush your enemy, see him driven before you, and lamentate the hell out of his womenz.
$$Bc 6H game = two free sanrensei :shock:
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- Click Here To Show Diagram Code
[go]$$Bc 6H game = two free sanrensei :shock:
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That said--and I’m speaking from personal experience--playing handicap games this way is incredibly exciting. As such, the next time you play a high-dan or a pro, use Takemiya style to crush your enemy, see him driven before you, and lamentate the hell out of his womenz.
$$Bc
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- Click Here To Show Diagram Code
[go]$$Bc
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I need to catch up on writing commentaries regarding my moves, so I'll make my next move tomorrow. I'm excited about this game!
is placed on the 4th line instead of at "a." This is because Black has a stone at Q10. Besides, "a" would be inconsistent with regard to building a central moyo.