I am working my way through Kageyama's "Lessons in the Fundamentals of Go" (really excellent book). Currently I'm on Chapter 9, Proper and Improper Moves.
My understanding is that the proper move is the one suggested by the stones themselves. It's the move that is needed for the other stones to fully realize their usefulness.
Most the examples were things like, capture a cutting stone cleanly (often at the end of a joseki), connect solidly against a peep, etc. But there's this one probe question that bugs me:
Which is the proper move in the position? Kageyama says 'a'. I can see that 'b' is neither a solid move nor an extension, so that's out of the question for me. But I don't see why as Black you would want to let White tenuki twice in responding to this probe. If
says you want the outside, then wouldn't you extend to develop that influence? If we look at what Black gets after 'a', Black got 2 outside stones facing the top side,
and he resolved some aji in the corner.
is very dead I think. White had sente, so okay, he is entitled to one tenuki. But 
then is a free move. Isn't this move likely worth a lot more than a second line stone at 'a'?It could also be that I'm overthinking this, and
tenuki is also fine, it's just the question is purely a local question about the top side. Can anyone shed some light on this?
at A if white tenukis (which he often should to come back to it later) is that A is the move which is most true to the original aim, helping the outside, while removing the aji of white's building the tripod group. If you need to make a move at C or D to lay a stake to the top side, then the original response of 
with 
. When Black then continues elsewhere, so does White. However...
