John Fairbairn wrote:
One characteristic of the commonest line in this joseki, which involves a lot of very close contact, is that it offers several ataris that amateurs love to play but pros avoid.
I'm confident that John was talking about this human joseki:
- Click Here To Show Diagram Code
[go]$$W
$$ . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . X . . |
$$ . . . . . 6 5 7 . |
$$ . . . . . O 4 0 . |
$$ . . . . . 3 2 . . |
$$ . . . . . X 1 8 . |
$$ . . . . . . 9 . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . |
$$ ----------------[/go]
- Click Here To Show Diagram Code
[go]$$Wcm11
$$ . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . 4 X 2 . |
$$ . . . . 3 X O O . |
$$ . . . . . O X X . |
$$ . . . . . O X . . |
$$ . . . . 1 X O X . |
$$ . . . . . . O . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . |
$$ ----------------[/go]
I've been having fun with go review partner and I used it to look at Elf's opinion of this sequence in 75 9p vs 9p games containing this patern (method briefly explained in the inroducing grp thread. I know that 9p vs 9p is not an exact 1-1 match to quality games but it seemed a reasonable way to get a good number of games)
It actually surprised me a little to see that Elf wanted to play this patern on at least one ocasion in my analysis. I think if Elf wrote a joseki book then this patern would be listed as a special case. Elf likes it for example in this game:
- Click Here To Show Diagram Code
[go]$$B Lee Sedol vs Pak Cheong-sang
$$ ---------------------------------------
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . X X X O . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . O X . X O . . . . O . . O . . . . . |
$$ | . . O X X . O . . , . . . . . X . . . |
$$ | . . O O X . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . X O X . . . . . . . . . . . X . . |
$$ | . . . O X . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . O . X . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . , . . . . . , . . . . . , . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . O . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . O X O . . . . . . . . O . . O . . |
$$ | . . O , . O . . . , . . X X O O X . . |
$$ | . O X X X O . . . . . . X O X X O O . |
$$ | . X . . X . . . . . . . X O X . X . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ ---------------------------------------[/go]
White ignores the pincer for a long time in this game, according to Elf, white should have played the 3-3 point sooner, but as soon as he does, the following play is exactly as Elf would have played it on both sides.
However in general, Elf likes other sequences..
First of all - the hane after the 3-3 (move 2 above.) Elf really likes that knights move! It prefers the knights move to the hane in around 50 of the 75 board positions in which the 9d's chose the hane (Elf's opinion on the remaining 25ish moves were split - not all for the hane.) It seems to most commonly be around a 4-5% mistake.
There's a little bit of noise at move 4 too. Elf mainly agrees with the popular human move, but on a couple of occasions looks at other moves - for example here:
- Click Here To Show Diagram Code
[go]$$B Elf plays on from Cho Chikun vs Ishida Yoshio
$$ ---------------------------------------
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . c d 9 . b e |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 7 4 1 a . |
$$ | . . . . . X . . . . . . X 6 5 X O 2 . |
$$ | . . . O . . . . . , . . 0 . O O X . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 . . |
$$ | . . O . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . , . . . . . , . . . . . , . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . , . . . . . , . . . . . X . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ ---------------------------------------[/go]
I think Elf plays 1 as black here in order to take sente for the open corner. This patern appears in 'The 21st century dictionary of basic Joseki' on a diagram with the words "foiling the trick move" (1 is the trick move) except that according to the dictionary, black must play a and finish in gote because leaving white the ko is too good. Elf thinks that black can now tenuki and take the final corner and then (after making an outside exchange) white will turn in order to set up the ko for later. (the ko is white c, black d and then throw in at e to set up a 2 stage ko. If white started it now I think black is very happy to take 3 large points while white takes the stones.)