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The Road Map to Shodan, Volume 4

A Survey of the Basic Tesujis

by Richard Bozulich

Kiseido Publishing Company
Chigasaki, Japan

Buy the full book at gobooks.com

In life-and-death situations and during the sharp skirmishes that arise in the middle game, brute-force analysis is usually required. However, intuition also plays a role in your ability to instantly find the key move that turns the position in your favor. Those key moves are called tesujis. There are about 45 different kinds of tesujis that a dan-ranked go player should be familiar with. If a player has solved many problems that involve a certain kind of tesuji, he or she will immediately recognize — almost unconsciously — positions in their games where that tesuji is applicable. This is called ‘pattern recognition’. Of course, the player must confirm that it is indeed the required tesuji by the brute-force reading out of the continuation after the tesuji is played.

The aim of this book is to make the high kyu-level player aware of the various tesujis that can arise in their games. It presents more than 40 basic tesujis that arise in the game of go. After an example of a tesuji is presented and explained, three to 12 problems follow, showing the various ways that it can be applied. In all, there are 182 problems.

Copyright Page

The Road Map to Shodan, Volume 4
A Survey of the Basic Tesujis

by Richard Bozulich

Copyright © 2015 by Richard Bozulich

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 from Kiseido Publishing Company.

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

ISBN of the printed version: 978–4–906574–85–8

Converted for SmartGo Books by John Mifsud.

Contents

A Survey of the Basic Tesujis
The Road Map to Shodan, Volume 4

Copyright Page

Preface

A Brief Glossary of Go Terms and Concepts

1. The Hane

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

2. The Placement

3. The Throw-in

4. The Attachment

5. The Wedge-in (Warikomi)

6. Wedging in with a Hane (Hanekomi)

7. The Atekomi Tesuji

8. The Cut

9. The Descent

10. The Peep

11. The One-Space Jump

12. The Shoulder Hit

13. The Diagonal Move

14. The Diagonal Attachment

15. Guzumi

16. Atari

17. Capture

18. Blocking

19. Drawing Back

20. Hekomi

21. Bulging Out

22. Solid Extension

23. Pushing

24. The Knight’s Move

25. Narabi

26. The Diagonal Connection

27. The Solid Connection

28. Bumping against the Enemy’s Stone

29. Pressing

30. The Push-in Tesuji

31. The Push-in-and-Cut Tesuji

32. The Two-Step Hane

33. Turning

34. Crawling

35. The Inside Hane

36. Attach and Cut

37. The Side Attachment

38. The Underneath Attachment

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Preface

In life-and-death situations and during the sharp skirmishes that arise in the middle game, brute-force analysis is usually required. However, intuition also plays a role in your ability to instantly find the key move that turns the position in your favor. Those key moves are called tesujis. There are about 45 different kinds of tesujis that a dan-ranked go player should be familiar with. If a player has solved many problems that involve a certain kind of tesuji, he or she will immediately recognize — almost unconsciously — positions in their games where that tesuji is applicable. This is called ‘pattern recognition’. Of course, the player must confirm that it is indeed the required tesuji by the brute-force reading out of the continuation after the tesuji is played.

This book presents more than 40 basic tesujis that arise in the game of go. Although there are only 38 sections, a number of different attachment tesuji are presented in Section 4. After an example of a tesuji is presented and explained, three to 12 problems follow, showing the various ways that it can be applied. In all, there are 182 problems.

If you are a high kyu-level player, your go intuition may not yet be well developed, so it will be hard to spot the correct tesuji, but you should not dwell too long on each problem. It is better to look at them as examples and make a best-guess move, then immediately look at the answer. In this way you can probably do 20 problems in an hour and get through the entire book in about a week. Your mind will no doubt be working full time, even while sleeping, to internalize the new knowledge that is being crammed into your brain. But the good news is that your intuition will be gradually developing.

After finishing the entire book, go through it once more. Your mind will have already absorbed much of the new knowledge and you will recognize many patterns that keep recurring. After going through this book twice at high speed, you can then come back to it and look at the solutions in more detail and confirm the results. By developing your intuition in this way, you will be able to spot similar tesujis in your games.

The aim of this book is to make the high kyu-level player aware of the various tesujis that can arise in their games. Once this awareness is achieved, the reader will want to test this newly acquired ability in a more practical setting. A good follow-up book is

K54: 501 Tesuji Problems

The forty-five basic tesujis in this collection of problems are presented in random order multiple times, so it is similar to coming across them in games.

Once the reader has mastered the problems in these two books, his or her ability at finding the winning tesujis in their games should be at the shodan level.

Richard Bozulich
February 2015

A Glossary of Go Terms Used in this Book

Aji — Aji in Japanese means ‘taste’ in the sense that ‘food tastes good.’ However, what this word really implies when used in a go context is ‘aftertaste’. It refers to the possibilities that remain in a position after a local skirmish has been played.

Atari — When all the intersections except one directly adjacent to a stone or a group of stones are occupied by the opponent, the stone or group is said to be in ‘atari’.

Dan — A ranking scale running from shodan (1-dan) up to 9-dan. Compare kyu.

Gote — A move that your opponent can ignore. A gote move is usually defensive, so it will pose little or no threat to your opponent. Compare sente.

Hane — A hane is a diagonal move that bends (literally ‘springs’) around an opposing stone.

Kyu — An amateur ranking scale running from about 35-kyu (a complete beginner) up to 1-kyu, the highest rank before shodan. Compare dan.

Miai — Points in a position that are of equal value. If one player occupies one of them, the other player takes the other.

Moyo — A large framework of potential territory.

Sabaki — The technique of securing or settling an endangered group.

Seki — Dual life. A situation in which neither of two groups of opposing stones has two eyes, but neither side can attack the other without losing his stones.

Sente — A move that your opponent cannot ignore, otherwise he will suffer an unacceptable loss. Compare gote.

Shodan — 1-dan. The lowest dan ranking. The first level of an expert player. See dan.

Some English Terms

Heavy — A group of stones is said to be heavy if it lacks eye shape and is vulnerable to an attack, while being too big or important to sacrifice. By attacking a heavy group, a player can gain profit while his opponent struggles to escape or make two eyes. Omoi in Japanese.

Light — Stones are called light when they can be sacrificed after having served some purpose. Karui in Japanese.

Proper move — The correct move, although it may sometimes appear to be slow. It leaves no weaknesses or bad aji behind. Honte in Japanese.

Thick — A group that is absolutely alive is called thick. Atsui in Japanese.

Thin — A group that has trouble making two eyes is thin. Usui in Japanese.

1. The Hane

The hane is one of the most common tesujis, mainly because of its effectiveness in killing groups in life-and-death positions. However, it has a wide range of applications and is also used for escaping, linking up stones, making shape, and attacking, to name only a few. So what is a hane?

A hane is a diagonal move from a friendly stones that bends around an opposing stone. Let’s look at an example to get a clearer understanding.

Dia. 1

In Dia. 1, Black has occupied the three star points in the upper right. White invades the corner at the 3–3 point to establish a position within this black sphere of influence. The moves to Black 6 are a joseki. Next —

Dia. 2

White 7 in Dia. 2 is an example of a hane. It is a diagonal move from the marked white stone that bends around the marked black stone. White 5 in Reference Dia. 1 is also a hane, as it is a diagonal move from the stone at 3 that bends around the stone at 4. However, White 7 is a tesuji, whereas White 5 is not. What’s the difference?

The reason 7 is a tesuji is that it enables White to give up the corner in exchange for establishing a position at the top or on the right side. This gives his stones extra flexibility when they are attacked.

Dia. 3

If Black blocks at 8 in Dia. 3, White cuts with 9. White is now threatening to play a double atari at 10, so Black defends by connecting on that point himself. After the moves to 15, Black gets the corner while White establishes a position on the right side.

Dia. 4

Instead of 10 in Dia. 3, Black might atari with 10 in Dia. 4. In that case, White connects with 11. If Black captures with 12, White ataries with 13, then captures with 15. White has not only established a position at the top, he has also secured the territory in the corner. Compared with Dia. 3, this is not a good result for Black.

Dia. 5

After the exchange of Black 10 for White 11, Black could also defend against the double atari with 12. White would answer by extending to 13. If Black answers by extending to ‘a’, White will simply extend along the third line with ‘b’. If Black continues to crawl along the second line, White will stay on top of him by extending along the third line. Eventually, Black will have enough liberties to capture the white stones in the corner, but by that time White’s influence in the center will be overwhelming and Black’s marked stone will have been neutralized. As a general principle, it is bad strategy to crawl along the second line.

Problem 1

Black to play

How can Black settle his group of four stones?

Answer 1

Dia. 1

Black should play the hane of 1 in Dia. 1. When White blocks with 2, Black plays the diagonal move of 3. If White defends the corner with the atari of 4, Black links up with 5. Next —

Dia. 2

If White fights back with 6 in Dia. 2, Black can link up his stones with the moves to 13. White also links up with 14, but Black has settled his stones.

Dia. 3

Instead of 9 in Dia. 2, Black can atari with 9 and 11 in Dia. 3, but White can set up a ko with 12. Black starts the ko by capturing at the marked stone with 13. Black can play this way only if he has enough ko threats.

Dia. 4

White can prevent Black from linking up by bumping against the black stone with 4 in Dia. 4, but Black can live with the moves to 7. White makes shape with 8. White should not play 4 at 7 — Black will play at ‘a’ and White’s three stones are heavy.

Problem 2

Black to play

After exchanging the marked stones, how can Black break into the top?

Answer 2

Dia. 1

If Black plays a hane with 1 in Dia. 1, White should answer with 2. Black has broken into the top, but White is thick in the center. This is a joseki variation.

Dia. 2

If White resists by blocking with 2 in Dia. 2, Black will atari with 3, then go after the two marked stones with 5. White might resist with 6 to 10, but his group on the right can’t escape.

Dia. 3

The exchange of 1 for White 2 in Dia. 3 is bad for Black, as his two stones in the center have become heavy.

Problem 3

Black to play

How can Black settle his five stones?

Answer 3

Dia. 1

Black should play a hane with 1 in Dia. 1, threatening to capture a stone. White exchanges 2 for 3, before defending with 4. Black now plays 5, and White can’t play at ‘a’ or ‘b’. White is forced to defend with 6, so Black gets his stones out into the center by jumping to 7.

Dia. 2

Defending the marked stone with 1 is too slow. Black lives when he capture at ‘a’, but White confines him to the top with 2.

Problem 4

Black to play

How can Black secure the territory in the corner?

Answer 4

Dia. 1

Black should first play a hane with 1 in Dia. 1. If White blocks with 2, Black extends to 3. White still has to defend against the cut at ‘a’ by capturing at ‘b’, so Black ends in sente.

Dia. 2

Answering White 2 in Dia. 2 by connecting with 3 is a mistake. After White defends with 4, Black has to capture with 5, so he ends in gote.

Dia. 3

If Black omits playing at 1 in Dia. 1, White will play 1 and 3 in Dia. 3 and Black’s group is dead. Even if Black plays at ‘a’, White ‘b’–Black ‘c’–White ‘d’ kills him.

Problem 5

Black to play

How can Black link up his stones at the top to their allies on the right?

Answer 5

Dia. 1

Black should play the hane of 1 in Dia. 1. If White tries to cut him off with 2, Black ataries with 3. If White captures with ‘a’, Black recaptures the two marked stones in a snapback by playing on the marked black stone. If White ‘b’ next, Black can link up with ‘c’.

Dia. 2

Answering Black 1 with White 2 fails to cut Black off. Black ataries with 3. If White captures with 4, Black links up with 5. If White plays 4 at 5, Black captures at ‘a’.

Problem 6

Black to play

How can Black link up his stones in the corner to their allies below?

Answer 6

Dia. 1

If Black plays a hane with 1 in Dia. 1, White has no choice by to answer with 2. Black can now link up with 3 and 5.

Dia. 2

Drawing back to Black 1 in Dia. 2 fails. White 2 and 4 capture the black stones in the corner.

Dia. 3

Black can live in the corner by playing 1 and 3 in Dia. 3. However, White becomes thick and the two marked stone below are cut off and in danger.

Dia. 4

Black 1 in Dia. 4 is another mistake. White answers by descending to 2. If White now connects with 3, White 4 captures the black stones in the corner.