Lesson 105: Patterned Sacrifice (2)
By Nam Chi-hyung
Sacrifice is a useful tactic when your opponent’s group of stones is stronger than yours. You can make your group or shape stronger by sacrificing some stones, while keeping your opponent satisfied by capturing what you sacrifice.
Diagram 1
The corner was occupied by Black with knight’s enclosure. It is pretty hard for White to disturb the corner territory if Black wants to keep it, as you can see in his intention expressed in Black 4 and 6. In this case, it can be an alternative for White to let Black get the corner and save the outside influence for himself instead.
Diagram 2
White’s goal is to make the best use of what he sacrificed and to make a strong shape outside. Giving atari with 1 and 3 is a method to enlarge the sacrifice. By doing that, White can force Black to capture White 1 through the inefficient sequence from 8 to 14. To play a loose netting move with 9 is a tesuji to make the opponent’s shape heavy.
Diagram 3
Black 2 is one of the more often-played replies against the one-space approach of White 1. If White bends at B, the corner territory usually goes to Black. On the contrary, White means getting the corner when he attaches at 3. In this case, to save the two black stones on the lower side with A is a foolish choice. It would be really difficult to save the stones and would also expose the weakness at B. What Black should do is to help strengthen the other stones by giving up the two.
Diagram 4
Black 1 is a good move because it asks White whether to capture the two stones or to connect the cutting point at 3. If White chooses to capture, Black will cut at 3 forcing White to take the two stones off with 4, and will throw in at A. Black’s throw-in is a useful tactic to make the opponent’s shape heavy before defending the weakness at B. In order to make Black connect at B, White has to capture Black and also answer to Black’s atari at C by connecting at A, which will make White’s shape really heavy and inefficient. Because it is not easy for White to stand that much inefficiency, Black’s shape on the left side can be said to be pretty strong.
Diagram 5
If White chooses to connect at 2, Black will wrap up the lower side by giving ataris with 3 and 5 in sente. The result left to Black 7 is satisfactory for Black since he gets both sides. If White bends at A, then Black will give up Black 1 again by counter-bending at B.
Diagram 6
Before Black does something, White should add a move to protect the hole in his shape. However, often White omits the defense, especially in handicap games, because usually Black naively pushes at 1 and becomes blocked by White’s sacrifice with 4. Even if Black jumps with a knight’s move at 3, the result is exactly the same owing to White’s cut across the knight’s move.
Diagram 7
It is usually bad to make a jump when the opponent is already peeping as here. However, if you let your stone cut on purpose, that can be a smart way to do something with the cost of the sacrificed stone. I bet that it would not be so easy to find the move at 1, but as this is played, the sequence up to 7 is easy and clear.
The writer is a Baduk professor at Myongji University and a professional player of the game.