wow SMH can’t believe I overlooked the 5-4 opening rather than the 4-4 opening haha, thanks for the correction 
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Not the first time I’ve seen an off-by-one error 
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When teaching sdk range players like @Kaiserderpreusen, I usually like to be more encouraging. And I want to remind some basics.
New players usually heard higher concepts like influence, aji, or tactics like cosmic style quite early, only have a very rough idea about them. For example, fesuki stones can be “aiming” for influence or territory from the start, but they don’t just become “influence”. Every step of the way “build” toward certain types of goals. There is no magic move half-way that defines it to be “influence style”. This sounds like no-brainers, but I met lots of new players who believe too much in the “divine moves” or magic tesuji. In reality, the mundane and basic moves matter the most for sdk players (what I meant when I told my students to play solidly)
Second is that most works are done before a game even begins. When I said to be flexible, it doesn’t mean for players to change their starting plans every so often and come up with new plans on the fly. Most of the time, it’s better to have a rough plan and tactics already thought out from the start in fuseki. The higher strength players usually have their “backup plans” due to experiences or studies that allow them to be flexible, and know how to transition or swap to a new tactic. If you don’t have that kind of “strength”, just stick to what you know in that game. Review and study your games afterward, and think about what could be done differently.
And finally, Go is a compromise between opposing sides. You have to give something in order to get something. If you keep pushing, they will push back. Whether or not you can enforce your goal, is not just up to you. Influence has more to do with trade-off, then just saying it’s a wall, or its facing direction. If your opponent want something and spend a lot of moves to achieve that, let them (it’s what over-concentrate means). It is generally not possible to always play from “the top” (or you will be just “chasing” them to “higher ground”), you need to know how to play territory well, in order to learn how to play influence well. Learn what your opponent would want to play for you to have a better reading. The better you can predict your opponent’s intention, the better you can work toward your goals.
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Sanrensei and chinese fuseki are the most famous fuseki oriented toward influence.
They are like the ultimate step after having gone from 9 stones handicap to even.
standard handicap stones placement are biaised toward learning to use influence.
What are the advantages to these kind of games?
First a limited choice of josekis avoiding too many knowledge to store from books or other resources. Knowledge that you may have already partially acquired and practiced with your handicap games.
Second and most important an understanding on how the game should proceed through the fuseki and a major part of the middle game. In short, with the right choices, your influence will grow large and quicker so white has to counteract. You get the chance to build even more influence by using the one you built first and attacking white, and will use this newly created influence to “destroy” white in a second time, after he took away under pressure some of your prospective points. Short and rough resume.
Now with that in the mind you can start to analyse if you succeed or not. If you put enough pressure, build good new influence, if your direction is ok, if you destroyed enough after that… So the main advantage is that you don’t have to cope with complex opening mixing directions, and a large variety of josekis and choices. In short you can see more easely the evolution of the game and judge by yourself where you fail and succeed.
So I like to recommend them for middle range sdk. There is a time where building a game is more important as anything else and priority can be given to simplify and master the use of influence.
Now time changes and AI told us these fuseki are no more valid in themself. Already before that, even with the enthusiasm of great influence pro players like Takeymiya (ofc) these fuseki were not the easiest way to win. They are indeed quite difficult to assume, leading many times to some tremendous fights, chasing dragons… But they are very instructive and a good way to organize better your games.
I understand that AI changed substantially the consideration toward these old pattern but the fact is then that sdk are now missing these guidelines if they keep strictly to the AI novelties. How harder it becomes to practice opening and the transition into the middle game for the new generation of go players.
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Soory stupid question. What is sdk?
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Single Digit Kyu, so 9k through 1k.
DDK (Double Digit Kyu) is generally anything 10k and below, but some on the forums, me included, like to draw a distinction between DDK: 19k through 10k, and TPK (Twenty Plus Kyu): 20k and below.
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Ok thanks
The center big white group was never really in any danger, you had no chance of killing it. The game was pretty much lost in the first corner fight. Way too many mistakes made there.
So this is more of influence than boxing right now?
That’s an ongoing game, so people can’t tell you anything about it.
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Lol I’d consider that a fight
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I dont think sayinf its infuence style or not will help me in this game.
I am not asking for moves
No comments at all are permitted on active games. Please only ask for feedback on completed games.
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Influence-style is great! Don’t be afraid to try it. I just bought to copies of “Cosmic go” by Takemiya Masaki last week.
It is true that if you want to become really strong, at some point you’ll have to learn to master different styles, so you don’t want to limit yourself to play only influence.
But that’s a concern for much later. Right now, if you enjoy influence, then keep playing influence.
When I play influence, I keep two things strongly in mind:
- Make good shape;
- Make sure all your stones are working together.
Apart from that, I allow myself all the fun I want to have. I do a lot of sacrifice, I tenuki very often; I avoid playing on the second line; and when my opponent plays on the second line, I almost always tenuki.
I’ve looked at one of your games: Freundschaftsspiel
The idea of playing influence is great in this game, but there are three things that stop your influence from achieving its potential:
- you’re not always making good shape
- you’re playing too close to your opponent’s stones
- you’re letting your opponent cut through your stones
Let’s look at a few moves. You are Black in this game.
Figure 1: Moves 1-8.
Move 5 is not very good. It’s too close to white stone 4. In fact, it’s in the position we sometimes call the “armpit” of white stone 4. White naturally blocks at 6, and now your two stones 5-7 are stuck against a strong white wall, and have very few liberties. In addition, white is “ahead” of you with the white stone at 8 which is higher than the black stone at 7. So, those two stones 5-7 will be very weak during the whole game, and very hard to use for influence. This is bad shape.
Consider instead:
Figure 2: Variation.
The variation of Figure 2 tries to achieve the same thing as your moves 5-7 in the game; however, now the two black stones 5-7 are much stronger, they have more liberties, and they are slightly further away from the white stones, which makes them more easy to use as part of a whole-board influence strategy. This is much better shape.
Figure 3: Moves 9-15.
Moves 9-13 are good. But then you play 15, which is the right idea and the right direction, but leaves a gaping hole in front of white stone 14. Now white can easily cut through and wreak your influence:
Figure 4: Variation.
You need to avoid being cut like that. The one-space jump between black stone 2 and black stone 15 is called a “tobi”. In general, it is almost always bad to play a tobi directly in front of an enemy stone.
In fact, if you already had a tobi and the opponent placed a stone directly in front of it, called a “peep”, your first instinct would probably to add a move to connect the tobi:
Figure 5: Answering a peep by connecting the tobi.
So, in general, it is almost always bad to offer a cutting point to your opponent by playing a tobi in front of an enemy stone:
Figure 6: Bad shape. Do not play a wide-open tobi in front of an enemy stone!
So, what to do instead of the tobi? Since there is a white stone so close to your black stone, you should play nobi, a solid connected shape:
Figure 7: Variation.
Happily, your opponent didn’t immediately exploit the opportunity to cut through your shape. This gives you a chance to mend your weakness and add a move to connect more solidly.
Figure 8: Moves 16-23.
Your moves 17 to 21 are good. But then note how you know have two jumps close to each-other: the tobi (one-space jump) and the keima (knight’s move) which I both marked with a triangle sign. Those are two weaknesses close to each-other. That makes it even weaker and easier to cut through! After White has played 22, it is your turn, you have the initiative, so now it is very important for you to add a move to protect these two weaknesses. Here are two different possibilities to strengthen your shape and build a solid wall for influence:
Figure 9: Two possible variations to strengthen your wall.
But instead, in the game, you played move 23 on the second line, under the white stones. This is not consistent with your influence-oriented strategy! Avoid the second-line. Note that the second-line is a very bad line to play on early in the game, no matter your playing style. But if you are playing an influence-oriented strategy, then it is even worse. Do not play on the second line. If you want to attack the white group, attack it from above. Play moves on the fifth or sixth line that try to surround the white stones, not moves on the second line that will just reinforce the white stones and help them flee towards the center.
Figure 10: Moves 24-33.
In the game, white was pretty submissive and played moves 24, 28 and 30 on the second line, allowing you to build a wall on the fourth line with 29, 31 and 33. This is very good for you. But if white had been less submissive, then it wouldn’t have worked at all:
Figure 11: Variation. White chooses the fourth line at move 28.
Consider the variation of figure 11. Here White plays move 28 on the fourth line rather than the second line. Now White is moving towards the center, Black is forced to play many moves on the second line, and the two black stones that I marked with triangles are feeling pretty isolated. Suddenly, it is White who is attacking Black, instead of Black attacking White.
This all started when you played move 23 on the second line. Do not play on the second line !!
Now, I’ve already said that move 23 should have been used to protect the weaknesses in the southwest corner, as showed in Figure 9. But assuming that you hadn’t noticed those weaknesses, here is another way that you could have played, which would have been much more consistent with your influence-oriented strategy than playing on the second line:
Figure 12: Variation. Instead of approaching the white stones from below, Black approaches the white stones from above.
Now this is influence. Notice how move 23 is played on the fourth line, directly above a white stone, rather than on the second line, directly below a white stone. In fact, all the black stones in this sequence are above the white stones. White is completely surrounded and Black is building a huge wall towards the center.
Now let us go back to the game. Look at your move 33 in Figure 10. The idea of this move is very good. However, there is one detail that you missed.
Figure 13: A gaping opening in the black wall, directly in front of a white stone.
The two triangle-marked black stones in Figure 13 are leaving a wide-open gap directly in front of the white stones. You should close that gap as soon as possible, before White cuts through your stones and tears your stones apart!
In fact, protecting would not have lost the initiative, because it would have put the three white stones in atari. This is a very urgent move that you should have played immediately.
Figure 14: Variation. Protecting the weaknesses in the black wall.
Note how move 33 in Figure 14 is sente, and forces White to answer with 34 on the first line. The first line is even worse than the second line. It makes no territory at all! Black is super happy to connect all his stones on the fourth line while White is playing on the first line. Then after the exchance 33-34, Black can come back to the move which you wanted to play; or even better, black can capture the white stone. Capturing the white stone is a good way to remove all the uncertainty and make sure that the white stone never annoys you in the future. It makes a very strong shape which is hard to cut and which already has an eye.
Figure 15: Moves 34-41.
With moves 34 and 36, White finally exploits your weaknesses and cuts through your wall. But White is not too severe. The result is okay for Black. White missed an opportunity to be much more violent and tear your wall apart.
But then you play move 41 on the first line.
Now, moves on the point 1-2 in the corner like this are very often “free” endgame moves that are worth a lot of points and do not lose the initiative, because they threaten the life of the white group. So, in another situation, this would have been a good move. If it threatened the life of the white group.
But here the white group has a relatively large eyeshape that extends from the corner to the side with almost 15 points of territory. So, your move 41 is not threatening at all. It is a move on the first line in the beginning of the game, which loses the initiative. It’s completely off-topic. Now White has the opportunity to completely ignore your move 41, and play a huge move on the side, completely ruining your influence:
Figure 16: Variation. Black lost the initiative and White plays a huge move on the side, ruining Black’s influence.
This is bad. Do not play first-line-moves in the beginning of the game. Instead, you could have continued with your influence-oriented strategy:
Figure 17: Variation. Black uses the initiative to develop influence over the whole board.
I will say this again: avoid the first and second lines during the opening of the game. Instead, use the initiative to develop your influence into a large area, while surrounding the white stones from above.
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Happily, in the game, White answered your first-line move with another first-line move, so you kept the initiative and you were able to play towards the center first, at move 45:
Figure 18: Moves 42-55.
Then white approaches your corner at move 46, and you successfully press down on the white stones to surround them in the corner, with moves 47-53. This is good and consistent with your influence-oriented strategy: well done!
Move 55 is a good idea, but I think it would have been better to add one more move to protect your shape locally and make sure that white stays surrounded in the corner:
Figure 19: Black adds a move to keep White surrounded in the corner.
White is probably going to answer, because the local shape of the white group is not terribly awesome if White tenukies. Then Black can take the initiative and play elsewhere. Even if White didn’t have to answer, I would still play move 55 there. This is a very important move to make sure White cannot turn around and break into your side and give you bad shape:
Figure 20: Variation. Because of Black’s tenuki, White is able to hit “at the head of two stones” at move 56, and break into the side.
Note how move 56 is played “at the head” of the two black stones. This is bad shape for black. And now Black’s influence is a lot less impressive than before, and White is no longer surrounded in the corner, but instead is advancing towards the west side and the center.
Figure 21: Moves 56-73.
With moves 57 to 69 you’ve successfully surrounded white in the southeast corner. That is very good. I won’t comment on the particular sequence, both players made mistakes, but in the end the result is extremely good for you. Well done.
Then you play 71 and 73. The idea and direct of these two moves is great. However, with move 73 you are playing two wide-open tobi right in front of the enemy stone! I marked the two gaps with triangles. This is bad shape and White is going to tear these tobi apart. Remember how at the beginning of the game I said that the two black stones from moves 3 and 5 had very few liberties and were very weak? With these two wide-open tobi you’re making them even weaker, and your shape here is about to explode.
A good way to make a more solid jump when you’re close to an enemy wall is to use a keima, also called a knight’s move, instead of a tobi. Consider:
Figure 22: Variation. Black jumps with a knight’s move to take some distance from the white stones.
This would be a much better shape. The knight’s move is often used to take some distance from the enemy stones. Also, when white tries to cut, the knight’s move will leave only one cutting point, whereas a one-space jump will leave two cutting points:
Figure 23. A tobi on the left, a keima on the right. When white tries to cut, the tobi gets two cutting-points at A and B, whereas the keima only gets one cutting-point at C.
As you can see from Figure 23, a tobi directly in front of a white stone is pretty weak, with two cutting-points. For this reason, a keima is a very good way to take some distance from the white stone and have only one cutting point, making it more solid and harder to cut.
Figure 24: Moves 74-77.
At move 75, you play again at the “armpit” of an enemy stone. This is bad. Don’t hit your head into your opponent’s armpit. If white plays move 78 on the marked intersection, this will be the same shape as in the beginning of the game, with two black stones who have very few liberties and are very close to a solid white wall, with white ahead of black towards the center. Do not play at the armpit! This shape smells bad.
Figure 25: Moves 78-88.
And now things start to fall apart. Move 81 is probably your biggest mistake so far. It is a second line move which is far from your other stones, inviting white to cut you and attack all your groups simultaneously. Note how all the white stones are connected into one group, whereas Black has three groups in the area. This fight is going to end up horribly for Black. You’ve already lost all of your influence, and you’re probably going to die.
As I said, the first and main mistake is move 81. After Black 81, you could still salvage the situation if you were willing to sacrifice stone 81, and play solid connected moves on the fourth line while white is busy capturing the stone. But with moves 85 and 87 you are refusing to sacrifice the stone; now you have to play from both sides, 83 on one side and 85-87 on the other side, while White is tearing you apart by playing between your two groups.
So the problem is that your moves 81, 85 and 87 are not connected to your group, and are played from below instead of from above.
A simple alternative would have been to play connected moves from above:
Figure 26: Variation. Black plays from above.
Here Black plays move from above, which are consistent with the influence-oriented strategy; and Black builds a wall towards the center, while White is busy playing moves on the second line.
I am going to end my commentary here. These are the main lessons you should remember:
- Play from above, not from below;
- Make sure your stones are working well together;
- Don’t leave wide-open gaps directly in front of enemy stones;
- Do not play on the second line!
- Do not ever ever play on the first line!!!
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I’ll restore the deleted comments when the game is finished 
Edit. Sorry my mistake I just saw you found a different game to comment on.
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thanks for the lesson. I apriciate it-
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A better winning strategy is to take 4 corners and the center.
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