Filed under: Go Journal, Go Lessons, Joseki | Tags: Guo Juan, Opening Theory
I’ve decided to try Guo Juan’s Internet Go School. I read about the group lesson’s on Terri Schurter’s blog. So, I decided to take a look. The winter session of the group lessons was already underway. So, I decided to check out the audio lessons, which are actually more than audio as they are full-fledged screencasts showing board positions for all of the exercises.
Guo Juan, 5 Dan Pro and Internet Go School Proprietor
I was a bit surprised to read in the study guide section that Guo recommends that all kyu level players begin with the 30-20 kyu lectures. I thought that I was surely past this level of instruction. However, after dutifully watching the first lesson on opening theory, I believe she is correct (Good of me to agree with the 5 dan pro, eh?)
Even in this first lesson titled Opening Training A1, I was able to put guidelines to what had for me become educated intuition, meaning that I made a number of the right moves in teh ecercises, but I would have struggled to tell you exactly why I made them.
For example, this first opening theory lesson, which runs a bit more than 45 minutes for about $1.60 (1 euro), focused on ensuring that extensions maximized territory without sacrificing security. I always wondered when to use two, three, four, and even five space extensions. This is the focus of this first lesson.
Because this is my go journal, I’m now going to summarize what I’ve taken away from this lesson. So be warned that there may be spoilers here for those wishing to view Guo’s lectures with any hints.
Opening Training A1
Never more than 5 spaces: By limiting extensions to five spaces, your opponent is denied adequate space to make a two space extension after an invasion. This also limits your opponent’s own safer extension from his stones and maximized territoy for you.
Enclosure shape: When considering corner enclosures, a deeper shape is worth more than a flatter shape. Extend appropriately based on this knowledge.
Jump out: After an extension, if your opponent does take the small extension from his own stones, jump out toward the middle from your extending stone and being to build your moyo.
Extend two from a single stone: Don’t overextend from a single stone and leave an easy invasion for your opponent. Use longer extensions when building off of a corner enclosure.
Empty moves: Try to avoid empty moves. These are moves that do not make territory. This is good to consider when choosing between potential moves.
Finally, here is a nice invasion joseki that came up in this lesson that I wanted to preserve for later study.
Invasion Joseki
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