Joseki Study

Minue reminded me of something I should know, but not always live by. 'When you study a joseki sequence with baduk books, don't follow its sequence just mindlessly by rote memory. Instead, try to get which miai each move in sequence aims to play. One way to define "a good move in baduk" is "every move which has a effective miai to play , so that no matter how opponent plays, one can take the other good move"'

Such a simple concept, and yet so beautiful. When I see a pro game, it is usually very clear how they keep miai in mind. When I review my own games, I often get too caught up in local crap, and forget to look at the bigger picture of finding good moves, seeing miai followup. Something to work on.

Let's look at a simple joseki to illustrate the concept.



White sees miai of A and B. If black plays the standard move at A, white extends around B.



But if black plays around B to try to attack the three stones, not taking care of his corner, this punishing sequence will follow automatically:



Black's corner gets hurt by playing the non-joseki move at K3. It makes perfect sense.

Today I will be studying joseki, keeping miai in mind. Go is so simple ^^
Only fourteen days till the Oza!