I was wondering what kinds of fusekis people like to play. What fuseki do you currently use? What was the first fuseki you played consistently? Is there any fuseki that you really dislike?

Most people I know prefer a particular opening. At my go club, for example, one of the players always plays a 5-4 on his first move as white. Another only plays hoshi stones (usually sanrensei). I feel that what a person uses most often in their opening says a lot about how they like to play. For example, the takamoku player likes building frameworks and commanding the center so it makes sense for him to start with a 5-4 stone.

Obviously I try to mix up my play from time to time so I can learn more about the game than just one opening, but, for me, there is one fuseki I definitely enjoy most: the Low Chinese. The first time I saw it was in "Go! More than a Game" by Peter Shotwell - my first go book - and I fell in love with it. The Chinese fuseki offers such glorious balance and potential and, frankly, it looks really cool. Whether playing as black or white I will usually try to make this formation. I also enjoy the Korean fuseki, but, oddly, I don't care for the small Chinese... Also, I like to modify the Korean by playing the 7th move high instead of low.

Years ago, I used to play Fujisawa Hosai's fuseki (3-3 and 3-4 with enclosure facing toward the other side of the board) because I favored a territorial approach to the game in my early go days. I had no idea that I was playing Hosai's fuseki at the time. It was only later that I found out that was what it was called. But that was the first kind of opening I ever used consistently as black. Apparently this fuseki is considered "unsound" nowadays, but I wouldn't mind pulling it out in a KGS game sometime.

However, while I have tried almost every standard fuseki, there is one I will no longer play: the sanrensei. I do not like it at all. I never like the results of any approach moves when against it and, when playing it myself, I never feel like there is a good way to build from it, even though it is an opening that should be capable of making frameworks. I think the only fuseki that might challenge my passionate distaste for sanrensei is a diagonal fuseki...

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"You have to walk before you can run. Black 1 was a walking move.
I blushed inwardly to recall the ignorant thoughts that had gone through
my mind before, when I had not realized the true worth of Black 1."
-Kageyama Toshiro on proper moves

What is the Korean fuseki? I have never heard of this...

I was wondering the exact same thing.

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Sincerely, Chad R. Sobodash

I assumed it was banging two stones down in the corners and then fighting.

There is a page on sensei's, though:
http://senseis.xmp.net/?KoreanFuseki

The Korean is basically the same as the Small Chinese, but in a different order. A lot of Korean players use it when they play black (hence the name). The fuseki is sometimes only played up to move 5. Here are some examples:

http://www.go4go.net/go/games/sgfview/33678 - Standard Korean fuseki
http://www.go4go.net/go/games/sgfview/29064 - Move 7 high, like I usually play it
http://www.go4go.net/go/games/sgfview/29832 - Basic Korean up to move 5, then black deviates

Recently, players have been countering the fuseki by playing move 4 as a komoku, so it isn't as common that it actually occurs in games as it was a few months ago. Usually black will approach the stone low and/or transform his opening into the orthodox. Here's an example of that:

http://www.go4go.net/go/games/sgfview/34492

I noticed this fuseki when I used to spend a lot of time looking at professional game records. I saw that the Korean players almost always played this way and decided to try it out.

_________________
"You have to walk before you can run. Black 1 was a walking move.
I blushed inwardly to recall the ignorant thoughts that had gone through
my mind before, when I had not realized the true worth of Black 1."
-Kageyama Toshiro on proper moves

I think Korean == Mini-Chinese. I don't think too many people view it differently.

Order really matters in the opening and the order is the reason the Korean is so different.

If your opponent wants to avoid the Mini-Chinese then, when you open on the 3-4, your opponent simply opens on a 3-4 or opens on the side the 3-4 is facing. Now the mini can't happen.

The Korean gives more options because it opens on the 4-4, which is not biased to the top or the right. If your opponent rejects it by playing an non-hoshi in the opposite corner then it can easily become the Orthodox.

I suppose it can be thought of as Mini-Chinese 2.0, but I feel that the order of the Korean is much better.

_________________
"You have to walk before you can run. Black 1 was a walking move.
I blushed inwardly to recall the ignorant thoughts that had gone through
my mind before, when I had not realized the true worth of Black 1."
-Kageyama Toshiro on proper moves

I usually read a lot of Japanese sources, so I'm probably biased. Later I'll check "Dictionary of Modern Fuseki" and see what it says.

Wikipedia has this
http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%B8%83%E7%9F%B3

http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%9F% ... D%E6%B5%81

It shows the mini-Chinese (ミニ中国流) with the exact same order as the 'Korean Fuseki' on sensei's. That order is also how I was taught the mini-Chinese a while ago, so I don't really understand where 'Korean fuseki' came from except for that sensei's link.

Yeah, everyone and every source I've ever heard from as called the pattern that results after the Mini-Chinese Opening regardless of move order to reach there. The board has no memory of previous moves, so once a position is reached it seems odd for it to have two different names.

_________________
We don't know who we are; we don't know where we are.
Each of us woke up one moment and here we were in the darkness.
We're nameless things with no memory; no knowledge of what went before,
No understanding of what is now, no knowledge of what will be.

Worth noting that the sub-title of that book is "The Korean Style", and indeed the order of moves given for the mini chinese is on 4-4.

I didn't vote. I didn't see an option that catered for the random placing of stones, coupled with hope and optimism.

None of the above.

Flawed poll.

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- Brady
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