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© 1995 by Kiseido Publishing Company and James Davies

Elementary Go Series, Volume 1

In the Beginning

The Opening in the Game of Go

by Ikuro Ishigure

Buy the full book at gobooks.com

The world’s foremost intellectual board game begins with virtually unlimited possibilities on an empty board. Here a 9-dan professional go player explains how the game takes shape, bringing correct modern opening technique within the reach of all players. Elementary in its approach, In The Beginning illuminates depths of go strategy that few amateurs understand well.

Required for all go players.

About the Author

Ikuro Ishigure was born in 1942 in Gifu, Japan. In 1955 he entered the go school of Minoru Kitani, 9-dan, and lived there for the next five years, becoming a professional shodan at the age of seventeen. His promotion record is:

Shodan 1960

2-dan 1960

3-dan 1962

4-dan 1963

5-dan 1964

6-dan 1966

7-dan 1970

8-dan 1974

In 1968 he gained a place in the 24th Honinbo League, and in 1974 he won the upper division of the Nihon Kiin Oteai (ranking) tournament.

His hobbies include skiing, table-tennis, and sports in general. At present he lives with his wife, who is also a professional go player, in Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo.

Copyright Page

Elementary Go Series, Volume 1

In the Beginning
The Opening in the Game of Go

by Ikuro Ishigure

Kiseido Publishing Company
Tokyo, Los Angeles, Amsterdam

Published by
Kiseido Publishing Company
Kagawa 4–48–32, Chigasaki-shi,
Kanagawa-ken
Japan 253–0082

Copyright © 1995 by Kiseido Publishing Company and James Davies

All rights reserved according to international law. No part of this book may be reproduced by any mechanical, photographic or electronic process, nor may it be stored in a retrieval system, transmitted or otherwise copied for public or private use without the written permission of the publisher.

ISBN of the printed version: 4–906574–10–6

Converted for SmartGo Books by John Mifsud.

Contents

In the Beginning

About the Author

Copyright Page

Introduction

Chapter 1

(1) The First Moves of the Game

(2) The 3–4 Point

(3) The 3–3 Point

The chapters in gray are included only in the full book.

(4) The 4–4 Point

(5) The 3–5 Point

(6) The 4–5 Point

(7) Example Opening

(8) Extending Along the Side

(9) Pincer Attacks

(10) Invasions

(11) Extending into the Center

(12) Pushing and Crawling

Chapter 2 Nine Concepts

(1) Make Your Stones Work Together

(2) Efficiency

(3) Play Away from Strength

(4) Thickness and Walls

(5) Open at the Bottom

(6) The Third Line and the Fourth

(7) Reverse Strategy

(8) Light and Heavy

(9) Attack and Defense

Chapter 3 Ten Problems

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Introduction

The opening is theoretically the hardest part of the game of go. To professional players, it is the hardest part in practice, as well; in championship games that last two days, for instance, the first day is usually spent playing about the first fifty moves, and the second day is spent finishing all the rest. Such is the consistency of professional play in the middle game and endgame that if a player comes out of the opening with a bad position, it is almost impossible for him to catch up. Amateurs sometimes rush through their initial moves, saving their powers for the fighting later, but this is more an indication that they do not understand the opening than a sign of talent.

The number of possibilities in any opening position is so vast that a player must rely on his feeling for the game, rather than on rigorous analysis, for guidance. Here he has the greatest chance to use his imagination, play creatively, and develop a personal style. This is the one phase of go that has shown any significant evolution during the past few centuries, and it still defies absolute comprehension.

No book can develop a person’s imagination or personal style, and this one does not make the attempt. In a sense, therefore, it is very incomplete: the reader will not find a prescription for every situation, and in actual play he will have to make his own choices most of the time. What we have tried to give him is a basis to start from: some sound moves, some useful ideas, some good examples. If we have succeeded, the following pages will help him to increase both his skill at and enjoyment of the game.

Chapter 1

(1) The First Moves of the Game

When Black puts his first stone onto the empty go board, he has three-hundred sixty-one points among which to choose. Even if symmetry is taken into account, there are fifty-five different possible opening moves. A little experience will show that the first line (the edge of the board), is practically worthless in the very beginning of the game, but that still leaves forty-five possibilities for Black to consider.

If he knows something about chess, checkers, shogi, or other such games, Black may be tempted to put his first stone down on the center point. In those games the pieces attack, pursue, and try to capture each other, making the center, where they have the greatest mobility, the best area of the board. In go, however, the stones do not move, and the situation is just the opposite.

The object in a game of go is to build territory, rather than to capture pieces. Just as a house is built from the ground up, in go it makes sense to start building around the edges of the board, where there is something solid to build against. The corners of the board are the best places for making territory; it is as if the floor and one wall were already in place. The center is the least valuable part of the board.

Dia. 1

Diagram 1 should make this fact more visible. Each pair of black stones shows a formation that might naturally be made during the course of the game.

The two stones in the upper right corner give Black a grip on at least ten points of territory, and his domain can be rapidly enlarged by an extension down the side of the board.

The two stones on the lower side also enclose some definite territory, although not nearly as much as the two in the corner.

The two stones in the center, however, are like lost souls stranded in the desert. They have almost no territory-making effect. As this diagram strongly suggests, the natural flow in the opening of the game is first to go after the corners, and then to stake out side territory. The center serves mainly as a place to escape into for stones that cannot make enough room to live at the edge of the board.

This applies only to the beginning of the game. Later on, after some fighting has taken place and some walls of stones have appeared on the board, it may be possible to make much more territory along the sides than in the corners, and sometimes even a large area in the center can be surrounded.

But the focus rests first on the corners, and many games start with the first four stones being arranged in the four corners of the board. There are hundreds of such arrangements possible, and since which of them are good and which are bad is still an open question, you can choose as you like.

Dia. 2

Experience has shown that the first stone in an open corner should go on one of the points marked ✕ in Dia. 2. These points all lie on the third and fourth lines, which are of primary importance in the opening. It is unnecessary and inefficient to play closer to the edge of the board than the third line, because even when a stone is out on the third line, there is not enough room for the opponent to play advantageously between it and the edge.

Opening plays farther from the corner than those in Dia. 2 are not so very bad. There is at present one professional five-dan who likes to start at the 4–6 points (a in Dia. 2), and the great Minoru Kitani once began a game by planting his first two stones squarely on two of the 5–5 points.

From such distant posts, however, it is hard to lay hold of the corner territory, which is, after all, the object of playing in the corner in the first place. Most professional go players, the author included, stick with the plays in Dia. 2, and of these the ones closest to the corner, on the 3–3, 3–4, and 4–4 points, are currently by far the most popular.

Each of the plays in Dia. 2 has its special peculiarities and characteristic following moves, which tend to occupy the early stages of the game, and these are described next.

(2) The 3–4 Point

Dia. 1

The black stone in Dia. 1 has been played on the 3–4 point, where it strikes a good balance between protection of the corner and development toward the rest of the board.

In its asymmetrical position, however, it invites another play, by either Black or White, in the same corner. Such a follow-up play is just as valuable as the original play in the corner, and is one of the key issues in an opening involving any stones on the 3–4 points.

If Black makes the follow-up move, his standard choices are those illustrated in Dias. 2 to 4. They, and the formations they create, are called shimari, or corner enclosures.

A shimari takes possession, at least for the time being, of the corner territory, and forms a stable base for further development, especially, in Dias. 2 to 4, for an extension to the left, along the upper side. Much of the play in the opening is typically spent creating such bases of operations.

Dia. 2

To point out the differences among Dias. 2 to 4, the shimari in Dia. 2 is the safest.

Dia. 3

The shimari in Dia. 3 makes a better wall from which to extend across the upper side, but if White plays a, the door is then open for him to step into the corner. Black 1 in Dia. 2 is in the right position to defend against White a, but has less influence over the upper side, which illustrates the basic difference between playing on the third and fourth lines.

Dia. 4

The shimari in Dia. 4 is a little larger than the other two, but a little looser, so that if White has any stones close by, he may be able to invade the corner.

Dia. 5

Why make a shimari at all? Why not extend farther and try for a larger territory? Long-distance extensions, like Black 1 in Dia. 5, are playable, but they leave the corner open to attack, and sometimes turn out to be in the wrong place after the corner situation has been settled.

Dia. 6

If White makes the follow-up move after Dia. 1, then he should approach Black’s stone at 1, a, b, or c in Dia. 6.

These plays, which are known as kakari, are just as valuable as the shimari they prevent, but they are not as simple.

Dia. 7

Any of them is a challenge to the opponent to engage in closer combat; Dia. 7 gives one example of the kind of fight that may develop. Black strikes under White’s kakari at 2, and ends up in firm possession of the corner, while White gets a base on the side, making a fair exchange.

Sequences like the one in Dia. 7 play an important part in the openings of many games, and thousands of them have been worked out over the eons of go playing.

They are called joseki; the Chinese characters for this word, 定石, mean something like ‘established stones’. A thorough knowledge of them is neither necessary nor sufficient to get through the opening, and we do not intend to get involved in them, but the reader, if he has advanced past about the nine-kyu level, would profit from looking at a book on joseki, both to learn some good moves and to get a feeling for what constitutes a fair exchange. Otherwise, he will have to copy from other players' games, or improvise on his own.

(3) The 3–3 Point

The purpose of a play on the 3–3 point is to defend the corner territory, and this it does with one move, although at some expense in the way of scale.

Dia. 1

The black stone in Dia. 1 makes a small but finished fortress, and there is not the rush to play a shimari or kakari that there is with a stone on the 3–4 point.

Dia. 2

Instead, White can bide his time, and Black usually develops, if at all, with a long extension, like 1 in Dia. 2.

Dia. 3

A shimari, such as 1 or a in Dia. 3, is actually still a good move, but it is not urgent. Black can afford to extend widely first, and make a shimari later, if he gets the chance, the reason being that White does not have such good kakari moves as he had before.

The next two diagrams show the basic ways of making a kakari against a stone on the 3–3 point.

Dia. 4

White can press with 1 in Dia. 4, which usually leads to the joseki shown. This takes advantage of the low position of Black’s original stone and holds down his territory, but it does not make much territory for White. This kakari is best saved for use as a tool of destruction after Black has started to build up a large area around his stone.

Dia. 5

If White wants to try for territory of his own, he will make a kakari like 1 in Dia. 5 from the appropriate direction, but here again, considered in isolation, the result seems good for Black. Therefore, after a play on the 3–3 point, both players usually stay away from the corner until developments elsewhere make a kakari or shimari appropriate.