Take Advantage of Your Opponent's Weird Moves

Imagine me sitting down, ready for a nice relaxed game on KGS, a cup of tea in hand, waiting for my opponents move. Pondering the empty board, trying to get my mind in a state of calmness, and taking a deep breath. This move appears.



I see... Very interesting, and a bit puzzling. I wasn't sure what to do. I evaded the issue by taking some other corners first, but eventually had to come back to this corner.

According to my teacher, the triangle stone would have been a good move to take advantage of the weirdness of black's move.



If black approaches at R15...



Kick him and make him look really stupid.



If he approaces at O17, calmly make a shimari and wait for his reply.



Whatever black does, white will be ok.

Of course, I didn't quite play that move in the real game, and this is what happened. I played at R16 and he pincered. Now it is just like a 'normal game' in which the moves were played in this order.



White lost any advantage she could have gotten from black's weird move.

I guess the lesson is, try to take advantage of your opponent's weirdness and do not be content with reverting to normal game moves if you can avoid it.