Oh B--- !!

British Go Journal No. 40. February 1978. Page 18.

Part 1 The Small Nadari

Mark Hall

Mark Hall helps you to handle some hazardous joseki.

Diagram 1

Dia 1 shows the 'standard' line of the Nadare (Small Avalanche) Joseki.

Diagram 2

Dia 2 shows the same joseki where White has realised that his stone in the upper left breaks the ladder and has played 10 instead of the the hanging connection (at 16 - Ed). Black might as well resign.

Diagram 3

What else can Black play? Dia 3 shows a different position in which Black has simply connected at 6. With Black's positions top right and bottom left I feel that White has no particularly good way to play and he will concede Black a lot of good secure territory while not making himself much himself. Ishida recommends A as the next move but with Black's influence already in place, White will not make much and Black still has a move just below 5 to force White while increasing the size of his corner. I hope that these simple thoughts make you pause for a moment the next time you start to play a complicated joseki automatically.

Finally, to cheer you up, I played the moves in Dia 4 in a recent tournament game and played White 12 instead of the hanging connection, and I hadn't even checked to see if the ladder worked. It's all to easy to make mistakes in difficult joseki - and no one is immune.

Diagram 4

Part 2 of this series is on page 19 of BGJ 41.