fuseki of the month?
Posted: Tue Feb 01, 2011 5:30 am
For a little while, I've had the idea that I'd like to try out certain fuseki. I usually lose games with sanrensei as either black or white; I have no idea how to work the Korean or Mini-Chinese; and there's almost no way I can get to practice with more unusual fuseki like the Great Wall or the Shusaku. I usually lose the first couple of games I play with any given fuseki.
On the flip side of it, I feel like I get overly used to some of my favorite fuseki: there's some that I've gotten so used to that letting me play with, say, the Kobayashi 2 or the high sub-orthadox is like giving me two stones, because I've just played them so much and have gotten so used to how they can develop.
How cool would it be, though, if I could just play ten or twelve games with, for instance, sanrensei? Even if I lose the first eight of them, probably by the end of it I'd have a much better idea of how sanrensei games work and wouldn't worry about them anymore. Of course to do that, I'd need a lot of people who would be willing to either play sanrensei or let me play it.
So why not make "fuseki of the month" a part of the League? Of course it would never be mandatory-- that would take all the fun out of it. But it would be so cool if, every month, there were a page on the suggested fuseki of the month, with a guide to the moves, perhaps a couple of variations (you would probably do the high Chinese and the low Chinese the same month, for instance, or the Korean and the Mini-Chinese), maybe suggestions of joseki that are commonly used or common continuations, and perhaps one or two sample pro games that use that fuseki? I think I'd get a lot more out of the League that way, even if I played only a quarter of my League games like this. I'd probably be able to use suggestions from higher-ranked players in my next League games right away, if the advice is specific to the way I used the fuseki. You could argue that it would make the League more monotonous, just playing the same game over and over again, but I'd say the opposite: it gives you a chance to go deeper and deeper into the same game and be less likely to make the same mistakes over and over again.
Thoughts?
On the flip side of it, I feel like I get overly used to some of my favorite fuseki: there's some that I've gotten so used to that letting me play with, say, the Kobayashi 2 or the high sub-orthadox is like giving me two stones, because I've just played them so much and have gotten so used to how they can develop.
How cool would it be, though, if I could just play ten or twelve games with, for instance, sanrensei? Even if I lose the first eight of them, probably by the end of it I'd have a much better idea of how sanrensei games work and wouldn't worry about them anymore. Of course to do that, I'd need a lot of people who would be willing to either play sanrensei or let me play it.
So why not make "fuseki of the month" a part of the League? Of course it would never be mandatory-- that would take all the fun out of it. But it would be so cool if, every month, there were a page on the suggested fuseki of the month, with a guide to the moves, perhaps a couple of variations (you would probably do the high Chinese and the low Chinese the same month, for instance, or the Korean and the Mini-Chinese), maybe suggestions of joseki that are commonly used or common continuations, and perhaps one or two sample pro games that use that fuseki? I think I'd get a lot more out of the League that way, even if I played only a quarter of my League games like this. I'd probably be able to use suggestions from higher-ranked players in my next League games right away, if the advice is specific to the way I used the fuseki. You could argue that it would make the League more monotonous, just playing the same game over and over again, but I'd say the opposite: it gives you a chance to go deeper and deeper into the same game and be less likely to make the same mistakes over and over again.
Thoughts?
