Lesson 129: Opening Evolution (5)
By Nam Chi-hyung
As mentioned before, the main reason behind Black playing the Mini Chinese Opening is not to enclose the lower right corner himself, but to make White approach toward it. Even if it turns out that the bait failed to attract White, as already shown in the previous lesson, Black cannot take the bait himself.
Diagram 1
Therefore, from now on, Black's main object is to make his territory in the lower right corner as big as possible without enclosing with A. Black 1 here shows this intention pretty clearly.
Diagram 2
In the 1990s, White 1 was the usual answer for this situation. However, because Black 4 is a good move, the resulting position up to Black 6 is unfavorable to White. White's defending move 5 is almost inevitable. If White avoids it, Black will intrude at A, which makes White unable to answer.
Diagram 3
White's first innovation is the low knight's move with 1, which was especially favored by Japanese professionals during the mid-90s. Because there is a potential for White to peep with A, forcing Black to connect at B, and then break in with C, the result up to 7 is not as bad as the one in Dia.2.
Diagram 4
Therefore, Black also tried a slight change. Before blocking from above as Black 2 in Dia.3, here Black pushes at 2. If White obediently answers with 3, Black will play the other sequence the same as in Dia.3. Owing to the exchange of Black 2 and White 3, this result where Black's influence toward the center is much bigger than before is favorable to Black.
Diagram 5
To push with 3 before extending at 5 is an improvement for White when compared to the sequence in the last diagram. Although the result doesn't look very different from the others where Black has a powerful wall toward the center, it satisfies White better. Now, the lower right corner is not perfectly Black's as before because White can jump in with A, and White can also occupy the upper side with 7. One more tip; there is a variation of this sequence.
If the △-marked black stone is located at B, it's better for White to jump at C instead of expanding the upper side with 7. You may feel that this is a loss for White since he cannot get the upper side, but the center is as important as the side in this situation. Furthermore, Black's position in the upper right corner becomes weaker than before, as the distance between the corner and the stone at B is farther.
As you've seen through five lessons so far, the moves that organize an opening continue to change and improve according to the shift in the theories and logic, and the players' opinions and attitudes. I cannot this emphasize enough; in Baduk, no one sequence can be memorized blindly, nor can any move be played automatically.
The writer is a baduk professor at Myongji University and a professional player of the game.