That keima

[John Fairbairn]

Bill has mentioned a couple of times recently that the short keima, as opposed to the long ogeima, is a relatively recent response to an approach against a star stone.

Indeed, GoGoD's first example is from 1934. Since it was a serious game - the Oteai - I thought I would look up the commentary.

As was the practice then, both players provided post-mortem thoughts. Black was Fukuda Masayoshi. The relevant move was 9, and I've inserted his comment in the sgf file. Nothing earth-shattering. Not even any sense of trying something new. On the other hand, it was clear a fuseki-inspired response and not a joseki-inspired response - a pro's a pro!

The continuation was unusual - again nothing joseki-like. This keima wasn't tried again for a couple of years, Perhaps strangely, it wasn't discussed in Shin Fuseki-ho. But the first example of the now famous joseki where A answers B' keima with a keima slide into the corner, B defends at the 3-3 point and A extends two spaces along the side was due to Kitani in a game against Go Seigen, in 1942, but it wasn't really taken up until the 1950s, and even then only patchily.

[Bill Spight]

Thanks, John.

Interesting play in the bottom left corner. Especially to those who think that is a new idea.