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© 2018 Yuan Zhou

Playing AlphaGo’s Early 3–3 Invasion

Yuan Zhou

Buy the full book at gobooks.com

Yuan Zhou analyses the early 3–3 point invasion that has become very popular among pro players. After reviewing the various ways in which the invasion can be handled, he reviews a substantial number of pro games in which the invasion is played. His aim, as always, is to help you understand this tactic so that you can use it effectively in your own games.

About the Author

Yuan Zhou (American Go Association 7 dan) was born in Tianjin, China. Tianjin is a major city in the northern part of China, near Beijing. His father taught him to play go at the age of six, and a year later he won the Tanggu District Junior Go Championship. After this auspicious beginning, Zhou began professional go training while he was still seven years old. He was twice invited to represent Tianjin in the All China Prodigy Cup.

In 1989 Zhou immigrated to the USA, becoming a US citizen and joining the American Go Association (AGA). Zhou was the president of the University of Maryland Go Club, from which he earned a BS in Electrical Engineering, and became increasingly involved in AGA events, winning many go tournaments. Zhou was also elected to the AGA board of directors in 2005.

Zhou is one of the top competitors on the American go scene, winning the Eastern US Open, one of the biggest US tournaments in 1992. He also won the New Jersey Open, one of the biggest US tournaments, four times. Twice he has won the Maryland Open, another major tournament that attracts strong players. Zhou has placed in the top ten in the US Open many times, as well as in the North American Ing Masters Cup and the North American Fujitsu Qualifying Tournament. These tournaments involve the strongest North American go players and include pros. In Zhou’s go career, he has defeated pros many times, including four times in even tournament games: Hak Soo Kim 6p in the 1996 Fujitsu, Xuefen Lin 1p in the 2001 Eastern Oza, Huiren Yang 1p in the 2009 North American Ing Masters, and Feng Yun 9p in the 2011 SAMG World Team Go US Team Qualifier. Zhou also won the US Pair Go Championship four times. Zhou represented the USA in international tournaments many times (WAGC, Korea Prime Minister Cup, World Pair Go Championship, etc).

In 2009, Zhou represented USA in the 4th Korea Prime Minister Cup World Go Championship in Jeonju, Korea and finished in 5th place.

In addition to his competitive successes, Zhou has become a popular teacher and lecturer, frequently giving lectures and teaching lessons at various go clubs in the Eastern US region. He has also published many go books with Slate & Shell (www.slateandshell.com) and SmartGo Books (gobooks.com). Zhou resides in Germantown, Maryland, USA. His website is at www.zhouyuan.com.

Copyright Page

(c) 2018 Yuan Zhou

All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part is prohibited.

Slate & Shell
www.slateandshell.com

Edited by William Cobb

Conversion to SmartGo Books by William Cobb

Table of Contents

Playing AlphaGo’s Early 3–3 Invasion

About the Author

Copyright Page

Analysis of the 3–3 Invasion

Example Pro Games

Games 1–10

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

Games 11–20

Games 21–30

Games 31–40

Games 41–46

Buy This Book

About SmartGo Books

Analysis of the Early 3–3 Invasion

Invading very early in the game on a 3–3 point behind a 4–4 point stone has become quite popular among pros recently. This invasion often occurs within the first ten moves of a game nowadays and has even been seen as the second move in a game. Older, more traditional players, such as Nie Weiping and Takemiya Masaki, are still likely to condemn this as reckless and too early. Nevertheless, people are winning games after doing this and top players like Park Junghwan 9p of Korea, currently number one in the world, and Ke Jie 9p of China, recently ranked number one in the world, do play it. In fact, Ke Jie seems to play it more often than any other pro. This revolution in go play was, of course, started by AlphaGo, which made this early 3–3 invasion often in its games.

Moves 1–13

This is the well-known traditional pattern of a 3–3 invasion, which is recognized as being good for Black in the early opening. No one would disagree about this. White has only a small territory and Black has marvelous thickness. No one should play this at the beginning of the game.

I will begin with a survey of the results so far of pro study of AlphaGo’s use of an early 3–3 invasion. Note that, in practice, many players find it useful to leave a joseki unfinished early in the game because of the size of moves elsewhere. We will see that this leads to certain preferences in their choices of how to play with and against this invasion.

Move 10

What AlphaGo did was to not play the hane at A with White 10, but instead play on the side in front of Black’s string of stones. Moreover, AlphaGo often played White 10 high rather than low. This is because of the aji of the cutting point in Black’s shape. See the next diagram.

AlphaGo’s Innovation

AlphaGo plays high on the right side because it is looking next to peep at White 1 and after Black connects with 2, White can connect up effectively with White 3. If White’s initial play on the right side was on the third line, the three stones would have a weak connection. This is the basic revolution AlphaGo created in this situation. White takes the corner and then can attack Black. This is radically different from taking the corner and allowing Black to get outside thickness.

It is important to note that, at least at this point in current study, we can say that this is a way for White to play, but we cannot say that it is bad for Black to play this way. White does seem to be faster in the opening, but it doesn’t mean that Black is now losing the game. However, since Black cannot kill the corner and Black does not have a useful outside thickness, other ideas have begun to develop about how Black should play after this early 3–3 invasion.

Moves 1–7

For example the double hane with Black 7. This in fact is a well-known traditional variation.

Moves 8–13

White plays atari with 8. Black connects with 9, and White captures a stone with 10 while Black takes the corner with 11 and 13. This position in the opening has still been considered a good result for White. Black has captured two stones and taken the corner, but White has sente and a powerful ponnuki. So Black rarely plays this way.

Moves 8–11

Another important point about this second pattern is that after the double hane by Black, White can also hane at 8, instead of the cut at A. After Black blocks with 9, White can cut with 10, forcing Black to prevent a double atari by connecting at 11.

Moves 12–15

White can then get a ponnuki on this side by capturing with 12 and 14. The key here is that, although Black gets the corner either way, White can pick the direction White prefers for the ponnuki. This, of course, is an advantage for White. As a result we can see why Black does not play this double hane pattern very often.

Moves 1–5

Since both of these latter patterns are considered better for White, nowadays players with Black have begun trying another way of responding. Instead of the single or double hane, they are playing a slide at Black 5. This move was played before AlphaGo, of course.

Moves 5–9

This slide with Black 5 seems to give White more space in the corner, but Black gets more thickness after 7. This is definitely a better result for Black, who gains more from the outside thickness than White does from the extra point in the corner.

Moves 1–5

However, the slide with Black 5 does not put as much pressure on White so White has some other choices. White can play A, but White can also play B. White can also play elsewhere in some situations since Black cannot clearly kill White in the corner.

Moves 5–9
6: elsewhere

If White plays elsewhere after Black hanes with 5, White cannot live.

Moves 5–12
6: elsewhere

However, if Black slides with 5 and White plays elsewhere, Black must play 7. After that, White can create a ko.

However, early in the game, White will probably not have an adequate ko threat so White is not likely to play this way.

At any rate, even with these innovations, AlphaGo has not found a perfect way to play. AlphaGo is not the Go God.

Moves 1–12

Another possible pattern is this one. Black extends with 5 instead of playing hane at White 6. After Black 11, White will still play 12, but this is not quite as good for White. So this is a little better for Black.

Moves 14–16

Black gets sente and can play elsewhere after White 12, but if White peeps with 14, White’s three stones on the outside are not as well connected because of the elephant’s eye at A. When White’s stones are connected as in the third diagram in this chapter they cannot be as severely attacked as in this situation.

Moves 1–9

Since Black is not entirely satisfied with this result, a new variation is being tried in which Black hanes with 9 instead of extending at A.

Moves 10–12

In this variation, if White wants to get out, White can do so this way. This prevents Black from sealing White in.

Moves 13–17

However, in this position Black can take the corner, which is pretty big, and White is left with an outside position that is not really a thickness. It can be attacked by Black. So normally, White will prevent this by playing as in the next diagram.

Moves 9–10

Normally, White will play this way with 10, keeping the corner.

Moves 9–11

But now Black can double hane with 11. In that case, having the Black 9–White 10 exchange is very important for Black.

Moves 9–12

If Black double hanes with 9 in this situation, instead of playing at A, White can capture the stone.

Moves 13–18

You may think that Black can still get the corner this way. However, there is a critical difference. White has a ponnuki at the top edge now. So White is fully alive and this is now a thickness. Therefore, Black has to hane at 13 first, before playing the double hane in this variation. This sequence also occurs in AlphaGo’s games.

Moves 9–14

This development means that Black can avoid that pattern, the result of which Black did not like. Instead of the extension with Black 13 that allows White to play the potential-canceling move of White 14, Black can double hane with 11.

Moves 9–15

Now, thanks to the Black 9–White 10 exchange, White cannot play this way. Black will cut with 15 and …

Moves 16–17

… Black can capture three stones! The corner is much bigger this way and the result is nice and clean. This result is obviously good for Black.

Moves 9–11

So White has had to make an adjustment in this pattern. White must fix the problem in White’s position at this point.

Moves 12–13

So White plays the forcing atari at 12, but after this White’s corner is not alive.

Moves 14–16

White needs to capture with 14 and 16. This variation is also from AlphaGo’s games.

Now Black has choices.

In the full book, this analysis of joseki variations continues.

So these are the major understandings of the best variations nowadays in the early 3–3 invasion. Pros are continuing to investigate all of these possibilities. So let’s look at a number of examples of pro games where these early 3–3 invasions have appeared to see what has been happening in actual practice.

A major appeal of this early 3–3 invasion is that it is a way of simplifying and shortening the time required for the opening part of the game, getting into middle game fighting very quickly. This has particular impact in games with the faster times required in current pro games. Avoiding the need for complex opening strategies can have a big impact even in games with three hours basic time and even more so in the fast play one hour basic time games that are more and more popular for televised pro games.

Reviewing these games will give you some good ideas about how to use or to respond to an early 3–3 invasion in your own games. You will see that many different ideas are being tried.

Example Pro Games

Game 1

This game was played on March 23, 2018, in the second round of the 12th international Chulan Cup. Xie Ke 5p of China is White, and Tang Weixing 9p of China is Black.

Moves 1–11

After a brief development in the top two corners, Black invades on the lower right 3–3 point with 9. Note that the old principle about which side to block on after a 3–3 invasion is followed here: block on the side on which you have the most potential. So White correctly blocks at 10 and Black makes a normal extension with 11. Now White has options. White has to think about the whole board situation.

Moves 12–14

White makes the slide we were just discussing with 12, offering complications as we noted, but Black keeps things simple with 13. This is a very common choice nowadays for both players.

Moves 15–17

White takes sente to play at 16 after Black 15 to be sure Black does not get to play there. Since Black has three corner positions already, White must not let Black destroy White’s potential here by playing at White 16. Black then also plays elsewhere with 17. If White had played the pattern that allowed Black to divide up the bottom, it would have become a difficult game for White. See the next diagram.

Variation

If White had played 16 at White 1, and then allowed Black to play this 4, White would be in trouble. Black would have three corners and a lot of territory. Getting the large framework at the bottom was essential for White and more important than preventing more gains for Black on the right side.

White manages to make enough territory in the large framework at the bottom to win this game by resignation. This is a good example of a pro deciding that in terms of the whole board a move elsewhere is more important than completing a joseki sequence, even though that will probably mean a local loss. Leaving this joseki unfinished has become very popular in pro play.

Moves 18–224
ko: 96, 99, 102, 105, 108, 111, 114, 119, 122; 180: connects; ko: 185, 188, 191, 196, 199, 202, 205

Here’s the rest of the game.