Complex efficiency

Black has three framework stones and two framework links to maintain. After white 1, how should Black play to ensure an efficient connection? Unlike previous examples, you will need to consider more than one factor to determine the best play.

Failure to connect

If you chose F were you tempted by the capture of the single white stone? If so you must learn to think on a larger scale! Or were you minded to make really certain of the right-hand framework link? If so you were guilty of overconnecting! However, what is worse is that the other framework connection has been neglected. After black 2, white 3 is atari, plus it threatens to capture a second line stone by following up with atari via a stone at A. Black can resist as shown in the diagram, but after white 9, Black does not have a sufficiently large ko threat in order to retake. Thus Black fails to prevent the severance of the framework link.

Underestimating the danger

If you chose option D, you probably understood the possibility of disconnection of the lower framework link. However, you did not appreciate the fragility of the other link. In the diagram white 3 threatens to capture the stone to the left. Black 4 is the best defence. White 5 forces the black 6 reply. Due to key stone, white 5, white 7 is now atari and, due to that and the strength of the surrounding white stones, the top black framework stone is now cut off.

Defending with efficiency

If you chose option A you can congratulate yourself on seeing how to secure both framework connections. But did you appreciate that options B and C also repaired the weakness? And did you consider that the three options differ in their effect on the final boundary? The diagram shows how Black would like to respond to the local incursion, white 3. Now, all you need to do is imagine which black 2 supports black 4 the best. Can you see that A is the worst and C the best?

If you originally chose
C give yourself a pat on the back! This is the intuitive choice of a strong player.

Kikashi first!

If you are a beginner and you chose option E, before you congratulate yourself on finding the maximum play, first consider if you made this choice for the right reason. Did you see the atari at B? If white 3 were played there, would you have wrongly replied at D?

White 3 in the diagram is played in order to prevent a devastating attack on the white stones. After white 3 at
B, even though temporarily sacrificing one third line stone, Black can actually connect by killing the white stones. The black 2, white 3 forcing exchange is here favourable to Black, so gets top marks. But the follow-up black 4 is still the key move to safeguard the framework connections.