Lesson 111: Brilliant Order of Moves (2)

By Nam Chi-hyung

In Baduk, there are moves whose purpose is to probe or sound out the opponent to see how he would respond. The player’s next move is decided according to his opponent’s answer to the probing move.

Diagram 1

White has to defend the cutting point at A. However, to simply connect at A leaves another cutting point at B, and of course connecting at B lets the two black stones be cut by White A. There is no way for Black to defend both weaknesses in one move, but it’s possible to decide ‘how’ to defend after seeing White’s answer to a certain move.

Diagram 2

Black 1 is a nice move asking White whether to answer with 2 or 4. If White chooses blocking with 2, then Black will guard the cutting point A in Diagram 1 with 3 in sente by forcing White to connect at 4 and go on to defend B with 5.

Diagram 3

If White answers with 2 against Black’s peeping at 1, then Black 3 is a move to protect the cutting point in sente. White has to block the connection between Black 1 and 3 with 4, and Black can play 5.

The usefulness of these kinds of probing moves is not to put the opponent in trouble, but to help the player to play the better move. The one shown above is to help Black defend his weakness more efficiently. Sometimes it is for playing a better haengma, other times for creating more ko threats, etc. I can’t confidently state that there is a neat categorization between brilliant sequential magic and a brilliant probing move. Maybe I can just say that in many cases, sequential magic doesn’t give an option for the opponent to choose, but only forces a certain reply, while a probing move basically depends on how the opponent answers. Let’s compare the next example with the one above.

Diagram 4

This is about finding the best move for an endgame. If White simply pushes at A, Black will answer with B. Then, as you see, White C is not a sente.

Diagram 5

However, White can make that C in Diagram 4 sente by playing 1 here first. Black cannot help but connect at 2 and then White can play out until 5 in sente.

As we’ve seen in the second example, usually the move in sequential magic is a forcing move. In that sense, perhaps the last example in the previous lesson is not an example of sequential magic, but rather of one of sounding out the opponent’s answer. I can’t positively state the best way to distinguish one from the other. Let us just appreciate another example of a brilliant order of moves.

Diagram 6

White 1 is a way to save the two ▲-marked White stones, but not the optimal solution. Here, the black group in the corner is alive since Black can make two eyes by playing B against White A. White can unsettle the black group by exchanging some moves before he saves the two ▲-marked stones.

Diagram 7

White 1 and 3 are very clever moves which force Black to answer with nothing but 2 and 4. The sequence up to 9 is almost the same as the one in Diagram 6, but now the black group in the corner can be killed by White A.

The writer is a baduk professor at Myongji University and a professional player of the game.

chihyung@mju.ac.kr