AlphaGo Teach on the High Chinese

AGT’s preferred variation of the High Chinese. Some pretty zany-looking moves, but overall seems even to me. How do you guys feel about this variation? :slight_smile:

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Zany indeed. What is this move 7?! Playing both near and far pincers is unusual in traditional Go theory.

The end result looks very passive for black, who only defended the right side.

I could not find any similar position where AlphaGo recommends the inside approach (move 6) for white. Maybe that move is a little unsound to make it even?

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I played out this position with KataGo as well. One of those games where the entire second half feels like endgame and much of the board turns into dame: https://online-go.com/review/437850

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Odd that this thread got so little response originally. I myself don’t remember seeing it; perhaps it got bumped down the list too quickly.

For what it’s worth (not much, I expect), I prefer white at the end of the first variation. The second, shorter variation looks more even. But this would be enough to steer me away from High Chinese, if I weren’t already committed to the Enclosure Opening.

For what it’s worth, KataGo won the game with black :slight_smile:

It’s worth noting that, even before the strange (7), the high approach (6) is apparently already very rare.

Waltheri only lists a single hit, Fan–Jiang 2018, which continued with the under-attachment R5.

Of course, declining professional popularity of the high Chinese as a whole is likely to be a factor in the high approach not being seen more.

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