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Joseki Revolution

Overthrowing Conventional Wisdom

by
Shibano Toramaru 9-dan

Kiseido Publishing Company
Chigasaki, Japan

Buy the full book at gobooks.com

Go-playing AI programs have changed the very nature of professional go. In the half-decade since the emergence of AlphaGo in 2016, the conventional wisdom of go has been transformed. Opening patterns previously favored by professionals of all levels have lost popularity and some have disappeared altogether. Large moyos have lost out to the thoroughgoing preference of AI for actual territory and its skill at reducing moyos. Josekis have been transformed, with ‘standard’ moves disappearing and their place being taken by new techniques invented by AI. Even some moves that were previously considered taboo, as being crude or ineffective, have been reassessed by AI and have earned places in the standard repertory.

In Joseki Revolution, Shibano focuses on local exchanges, in contrast to the predominantly whole-board focus on fuseki strategy of his previous book, Fuseki Revolution. Even so, the basic nature of go is such that without whole-board judgement, there is no local judgement. Even when you are evaluating a joseki in a corner, a whole-board viewpoint is always essential. Even if a joseki is the theme, you are, in the end, discussing fuseki strategy with a bird’s-eye view of the whole board.

Of particular interest in Joseki Revolution is his treatment of the taisha, the avalanche, and the magic-sword josekis. Shibano shows how, thanks to AI, these extremely complicated josekis have been ‘swamped in a wave of simplification.’

In Chapter 3 Shibano discusses the merits and demerits of the four corner enclosures based on the 3–4 point. He investigates the reason why the small-knight enclosure has declined in popularity and why the previously shunned two-space enclosure has become so popular.

In an appendix, Shibano examines some unconventional moyo-oriented fuseki strategies and gives some advice on how to handle large-scale moyos. The appendix also contains a section on the revival of the high Chinese Opening and explains why this opening strategy is strategically sound.

Copyright Page

Joseki Revolution
Overthrowing Conventional Wisdom

by Shibano Toramaru 9-dan

Copyright © 2022 Shibano Toramaru

English Translation Copyright © 2022 by John Power and Kiseido Publishing Company

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: 978–4–906574–90–2

Converted for SmartGo Books by John Mifsud.

The cover: The Rise and Fall of the Minamoto and Taira Clans. The center panel of an oban triptych by Shusai Kuniyasu (1886). From the collection of Erwin Gerstorfer. For the complete story and background of this print see Kiseido’s publication Japanese Prints and the World of Go.

Contents

Joseki Revolution
Overthrowing Conventional Wisdom

Copyright Page

Author’s Preface

Translator’s Preface

Publisher’s Note

Glossary of Go Terms

Chapter 1
Changes in basic josekis

Theme 1. A fourth move emerges!

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

Theme 2. The large knight is the fifth move

Theme 3. The reasons for the decline of the diagonal connection

Theme 4. Investigating the disappearing follow-up

Theme 5. The contemporary taisha joseki (1)

Theme 6. The contemporary taisha joseki (2)

Theme 7. The contemporary avalanche joseki

Theme 8. The contemporary magic sword

Theme 9. Proof that the low pincer is good

Theme 10. Why did the sliding move disappear?

Theme 11. The two-space jump should be good, but…

Theme 12. Signs of change in a basic joseki

Chapter 2
The transformation in opening strategies

Theme 13. The disappearing counter-pincer

Theme 14. When extending three spaces from a two-stone wall, play high!

Theme 15. The pincer rather than the pressing move

Theme 16. The disappearing side approach move

Theme 17. The extension is slack

Theme 18. The attach-and-block has perished!

Theme 19. Promoted to ‘good moves’

Theme 20. Knight’s move declines, shifts to one-space jump

Theme 21. Two moves no longer played

Chapter 3
Up-to-date information about corner structures

Theme 22. Up-to-date information about the small-knight enclosure

Theme 23. Up-to-date information about the large-knight enclosure

Theme 24. Up-to-date information about the one-space enclosure

Theme 25. Up-to-date information about the two-space enclosure

Theme 26. Don’t worry about bad aji

Theme 27. Not the proper move!?

Theme 28. How to look on the checking extension

Chapter 4
Looking at the most up-to-date josekis

Theme 29. Innovations to avoid being forced

Theme 30. Resistance to the pressing move

Theme 31. Changes in pincers

Theme 32. Attaching on top — AI’s alarming view

Theme 33. Sliding in reply to the pincer

Theme 34. How to handle the one-space pincer & double approach move (1)

Theme 35. How to handle the one-space pincer & double approach move (2)

Appendix
High-handed openings and the high Chinese Opening

Counters to high-handed openings (1)

Counters to high-handed openings (2)

Reevaluation of the high Chinese Opening

Afterword

About the Author

Buy This Book

Go Books from Kiseido

About SmartGo Books

Author’s Preface

Thanks to the great support that I received from all of you for my previous book, Fuseki Revolution, we are able to publish a follow-up. First of all, I would like to thank my readers.

In the first book, I explained the reasons why fuseki patterns that were formerly very popular, such as the three star-point stones in a row (sanrensei) and the Chinese Opening, were no longer played at all and I also introduced readers to the contemporary transformation in fuseki theory following the advent of go AI in 2016. This book continues the story.

If there is something a little different about this book, it is the tendency to focus on local exchanges, in contrast to the predominantly whole-board focus on fuseki strategy of the previous book. That’s why the title is Joseki Revolution.

Even so, the basic nature of go is such that ‘without whole-board judgement, there’s no local judgement’. Even when you are evaluating a joseki in a corner, a whole-board viewpoint is always essential. Even if a joseki is the theme, you are, in the end, discussing fuseki strategy with a bird’s-eye view of the whole board.

Nowadays, go is evolving day by day, hour by hour. Keeping up with this rapid pace is tiring even for us professionals. I think it must be even tougher for amateurs, but I hope that this book can be of some use to you.

Shibano Toramaru
March 2022

Translator’s preface

Once again, we are presenting an AI-related book by Shibano Toramaru in English very soon after its original publication in Japanese. I may be biased, but I found this book to be even more relevant and helpful to my own games than Fuseki Revolution. By the way, the original of that book has proved very popular with fans in Japan and it is already in its third printing.

However, this preface is even less needed than my previous one. I would just like to point out that the personification of AI is even more conspicuous than before.

John Power
April 2022

Publisher’s note

This book contains the second half of a series called ‘Fuseki Revolution: Solving the Enigma of the Decline of old Patterns’ that appeared in Go Weekly from January 2019 to July 2020. The second part of the book, that is, the Appendix, consists of selections from ‘Shibano Toramaru 7-dan’s ‘Guide to Star Fusekis’, published in three parts in the Monthly Go World supplementary booklets, beginning in June 2019.

Richard Bozulich
April 2022

Glossary

This is a short glossary, covering some terms that feature often in this book.

attach-and-block: tsukeosae (joseki)

attach-and-extend: tsukenobi (joseki)

attach-and-pull-back: tsukehiki (joseki)

checking extension (tsume): a move that stops the opponent from extending in the direction from which it’s played. It’s often but not always an extension from one’s own position.

direct 3–3: invading on the 3–3 point at an early stage in the game; played instead of an approach move

double approach move: a second approach move (ryo-gakari) in the same corner

double-door formation (kannon-biraki): a formation with knight-move extensions on each side from a star-point stone — it remains vulnerable to a 3–3 invasion. See Theme 26. It is likened to double or French doors.

forced — to be forced: to have the opponent play forcing moves against you. This term may not be good English, but it’s very convenient. This is Shibano’s second most frequently voiced criterion in discussing an unsatisfactory result.

guzumi: a move that creates an empty triangle

Heisei era: 1989–2019

kikashi: forcing move

kikasu: to play a forcing move

kikasareru: to have a forcing move played against you

overconcentrated shape: kori-gatachi. This is Shibano’s most frequently voiced criterion in discussing an unsatisfactory result.

Showa era: 1926–89

tenuki: switching elsewhere, especially in a position in which you would usually play another move

Chapter 1
Changes in basic josekis

In the first chapter, I discuss the transformations that have taken place in what formerly were basic josekis.

In the attach-and-pull-back joseki, the answer is already in on whether it’s better to make a solid connection or a diagonal connection after the first player attaches and pulls back. The same is true of how you should play after you make a small-knight approach to a 3–4 stone and the opponent plays a pincer. Before the advent of AI, people would say, ‘This move gives a reasonable game and the other move also gives a reasonable game’, but these days you can no longer get away with equivocating.

I also introduce up-to-date information about the top three most difficult josekis — the taisha, the magic sword, and the large avalanche — that in the old days plagued everyone.

Please note how ‘conventional wisdom’ stops being ‘conventional wisdom’.

Theme 1. A fourth move emerges!

Theme 1

＞＜ ▶︎

White responds to the pincer of 1 with a tenuki, switching, for example, to 2. If Black continues in the bottom right, the previous conventional wisdom offered a choice among the attachment of A, the diagonal attachment of B, and the knight’s move of C.

However, in recent years a fourth move has appeared: Black 3.

First, let’s check the previous moves.

Dia. 1

＞＜ ▶︎

The attachment of 1 is the most natural move and it is not a bad one. If White 2, the continuation to 12 is a joseki. AI also evaluates the result as equal.

That means that there is no need for Black to avoid this variation. However, there has been a tendency recently to dislike giving the opponent profit, and that is presumably why this sequence is avoided.

Note that if White answers 1 with another tenuki, the virtue of 1 is that Black can block at ‘a’. That’s the difference between this variation and the next one.

Dia. 2

＞＜ ▶︎

White’s most effective answer to the diagonal attachment of 1 is a tenuki. The reason is that, if Black plays another move here, the best he has is the hane of 3, but White can force with 4 to 8, making Black overconcentrated. Black is left feeling dissatisfied, so Black 1 is now seen less and less.

The successive moves of Black 1 and 3 are not good enough, whereas Black was satisfied with the successive moves of 3 and 7 (that is, 1 and ‘a’ in Dia. 1).

Dia. 3

＞＜ ▶︎

I think that defending with Black 1 is also not bad, but perhaps the number of people who find it disagreeable to leave White with the option of White 2 and 4 for later has increased.

The result to 14 can be called equal, but this is another variation that gives White profit, something players these days don’t like, so I think that’s why they avoid it.

Going back to Black 3 in the theme diagram: the main objective of this 3–3 move is to secure the corner territory. You could say that this is the most straightforward move for denying White the territory he gets in Dias. 1 and 3.

Dia. 4

＞＜ ▶︎

If White jumps to 1, Black peeps at 2, then takes up position on the right side with 4. If White 5 and 7, the exchange concludes with Black 8. Black has taken profit on the right side, so things have worked out the way he wanted.

Dia. 5

＞＜ ▶︎

Pressing with White 1 is a more ingenious move, but Black secures right-side territory with 2 and 4 and seems to have no reason for dissatisfaction.

In short, Black welcomes it if White sets the marked stone in motion.

If White does not set the stone in motion —

Dia. 6

＞＜ ▶︎

For example, playing a pincer in the bottom left with 1 is feasible, but Black will take control of the marked white stone with 2 and maintain that he is satisfied.

Black is satisfied if White sets the stone in motion and satisfied if he doesn’t, which seems to be why so many people consider the marked black stone the best move. I believe the result is equal, but it’s certainly true that it won’t be bad for Black. Instead of the marked stone —

Dia. 7

＞＜ ▶︎

Descending with Black 1 is dubious. When Black takes control of the white stone with 3, his territory would be bigger if Black 1 were at ‘a’, and that move also gives him superior influence on the right side.