Hi everyone

I've been seing this opening an awful lot lately (I think it was played in Gu Li's latest title game too - which he unfortunately lost). Does anyone know where I can read more about this opening? Books or SGF's are both fine.

I've been consulting SmartGo too, but the integrated Database hasn't got any corresponding games. The only ones I found were in a Tygem-Database, so the opening seems to be rather new.

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$Bc Opening
$$ --------------------------------------
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . 4 . . . . . , . . . . . 1 . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . , . . . . . , . . . . . , . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . 2 . . . . . , . . . . . , 3 . . |
$$ | . . . . . 5 . 6 . . . . . . 7 . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ --------------------------------------[/go]

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Iä Iä fhtagn!

This is an attempt by white to avoid mini-Chinese and micro-Chinese openings. is basically saying "Oh, you don't want to play Chinese? Fine, I can play the Orthodox formation, which is also very good." I think white usually plays R14 or R10 next to break up the right side (R14 being the current fashion, R10 being more popular historically). Playing again in the lower left would be slow and wouldn't completely kill .

This is the popular opening white is trying to avoid:

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$Bc White doesn't like this (or 7 at a)
$$ --------------------------------------
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . 4 . . . . . , . . . . . 1 . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . , . . . . . , . . . . . , . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . 6 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . 2 . . . . . , . . . . . , 3 . . |
$$ | . . . . . 5 . . . . 7 a . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ --------------------------------------[/go]

Do you have a recent edition of GoGoD? Both the mini-chinese variants as well as the variation you show are pretty common in recent games.

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KGS 4 kyu - Game Archive - Keyboard Otaku

The GoGoD database has 394 examples of this opening, going back to 1995. It became popular quickly and remained so - there doesn't seem to have been a recent splurge.

By far the commonest continuation for White is to defend with the small knight's move on the left. Fairly common too is the splitting move on the right centre, below the centre start point. Attachment at E3 gets an honourable mention. In all 9 different moves have been tried, none of them zany except perhaps for the shoulder hit at O4. Since these examples were in 1999 and 2000 and by O Rissei and Rui Naiwei, I think we can take it that they were experimenting with Go Seigen's 21st Century go ideas.

Some material on this at Sensei's Library:
http://senseis.xmp.net/?LeiFuseki

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Keep in mind, I am frequently wrong.