About
Links
Artem Kachanovskyi
Matt Partridge
Ian Polak-Kime
Artem: Matt Partridge 10k and Ian Polak-Kime 8k from our proofreading team continue studying go and making their steps towards 1-dan. This time we studied one of the popular corner approaches.
Dia. 1. Corner approach
Matt: I saw White 1 in some professional games. Do I understand correctly that it creates miai: an invasion in the corner at A or extension on the side at B?
Dia. 2. Alternative
Artem: Yes, that’s right. This move is usually played as an invasion when the variant from Dia. 2 is uncomfortable to play.
Dia. 3. Black chooses the corner
Artem: If Black 1 encloses the corner, White 2 and 4 extend on the upper side. White can also play 2 at 3, but let’s leave this for another time – that’s more complicated.
Dia. 4. Black chooses the corner, Variant II
Artem: Black can also enclose the corner this way.
Dia. 5. Black chooses influence
Artem: Black 1 chooses influence over territory and gives the corner to White.
Ian: Show us some examples, please.
Dia. 6. Example I
Artem: I played White in this game against Lukáš Podpěra 7d in round 2 of the 2019 European Championship in Brussels.
Lukáš played Black 1–5 on the upper side, effectively reducing White’s influence there.
Matt: Wouldn’t this be a good time to play White 2 at A and opt for influence instead of the corner territory?
Artem: Yes, I think in fact the influence was more important here.
Dia. 7. Example II
Artem: In this game, I played Black against Andrii Kravets 1p in the 2018 European Professional Championship in Vatra Dornei, Romania. Black 1–5 invaded the left side.
Ian: Why did you only play a two-space extension with Black 5?
Artem: White’s shape in the lower left is very thick, a three-space extension would be too close to it and dangerous for Black. White could invade between the black stones and attack them.
Dia. 8. Example III
Artem: This example comes from the game between Lee Changho 9p (Black) and Yamashita Keigo 9p in the quarterfinal of the 13th LG Cup in 2008.
Black 1 and 3 invades the left side. White 4 leans on the group in the center, but Black 5–13 completely settles on the left and aims at jumping into the corner at A in the endgame.
Matt: I’m surprised by move 5, an armpit hit on the second line!
Dia. 9. Example IV
Artem: This board position is taken from round 2 of the 28th Samsung Cup in 2023 between Han Wonggyu 8p (Black) and Xie Erhao 9p.
White 1 and 3 invades the right side.
Ian: The invasion seems like it’s also attacking the lone black stone on the right.
Artem: Exactly.
Dia. 10. Example V
Artem: Here, Yun Hyunseok 6p played Black against Seo Bongsoo 9p in the 36th Wangwi in 2002.
Matt: So here, White chose influence over territory in the lower-left corner?
Artem: That’s right. But I’m not sure it was the best decision because Black’s triangled shape in the lower-right corner is very thick.
White 8 aims at the cutting point at A.
Dia. 11. Example VI
Artem: Here is an example from round 1 of the 1st MLILY Cup back in 2013 between Kim Junghyun 4p (Black) and Wang Xi 9p.
White 1 invades the upper side and Black trades the corner for the outer influence. It matches well with his thickness on the left. Black 8 and 10 then expand the moyo.
Ian: For a player at my level, this move on the 2nd line looks automatically bad. Who plays on the second line like that anyway? Those who know what they’re doing. Thanks for the insight and the explanation!
.png){kind=logo}
.png){kind=link}