I ran into this comment on BQM 194 on Sensei’s Library.
In 2004, Bill Spight gave this fuseki diagram
and made the observation
In this fuseki Go Seigen, in 21st Century Go, says that he likes (6) - (8), but does not claim that other plays are not good.
to which Charles Matthews responded
This (6) was in fashion with the pros in the early 2000s. It looks a bit as if White is reckoning that komi is large.
Here are the full line’s professional / semi-professional appearances in Waltheri.
Black
White
Date
Result
Yoda Norimoto
Qian Yuping
1994-07
W+3.5
Pang Yan
Lin Feng
1996-07
W+R
Yang Jaeho
Yamada Kimio
1998-06
W+R
Shao Weigang
Zhang Xuan
1998-12
W+R
Kobayashi Koichi
Hane Naoki
1999-01
B+R
Mok Jinseok
Lee Changho
1999-01
W+R
Cho Sonjin
Ryu Shikun
1999-03
W+1.5
Yu Ping
Lin Chaohua
1999-04
B+1.5
Yu Ping
Ma Xiachun
2000-01
W+R
Yo Kaei
Sekiyama Toshimichi
2000-01
W+R
Alexander Dinerchtein (A)
Michael Redmond
2001-06
W+R
Sekiyama Toshimichi
Hane Naoki
2002-02
W+R
Zou Junjie
Shao Weigang
2002-03
B+5.5
Cho Hyeyeon
Yun Yeongseon
2002-09
B+4.5
Yamada Kimio
Kobayashi Izumi
2003-06
B+R
Yu Ping
Chang Hao
2003-09
B+R
Takao Shinji
Yamada Kimio
2003-10
W+R
Yamada Kimio
So Yukoku
2003-11
B+R
Cho Sonjin
Yoda Norimoto
2004-02
W+1.5
Kobayashi Koichi
Yoda Norimoto
2004-04
W+6.5
Qiu Jun
Chen Xiaonan
2006-07
B+R
Takao Shinji
Yoda Norimoto
2007-06
B+R
Nakaonoda Tomomi
Yoda Norimoto
2008-12
B+2.5
This “Yoda–Qian line” or “Go Seigen variation” was played professionally for twelve years 1994–2008, with a core six-year period 1998–2004.
So what happened? I noticed that White lost the last three games, so did it become unplayable at a high level? Or did professionals simply grow bored of it?
I think this opening declined because, after Black 1, White wants to respond at 2 (old theory), but the relationship between 2 and A is awkward. Move A wants to be one or two points to the left to make an ideal formation, and White has no clear move to patch the overextension.
@gennan this thread is about Go Seigen recommending the one space low outside approach, rather than the more common two space low/high you show (which themselves were less common than outside approaching the 4-4 of the Chinese opening before AI made the whole thing fall out of favour).
Personally, I’ve never much liked the one space outside approach as the group ends up pretty obviously too close to the thickness of Black’s shimari. And these AI days I dislike it even more as it’s even more obvious that the exchange of outside approach for shimari is good for black, as corners and shimaris are more important than side moves.
I wonder what merits Go Seigen saw in it, I’ll check that book later. I suppose it makes Black’s group under more pressure if white does somehow end up taking the lower right corner, and the inside peep is more forcing and harder to resist as the closeness of the one space approach makes pushing and cutting more severe.
The English book from Go Seigen ‘A Way of play for the 21st century’ has no details on this move, it just says “white can play this way”, maybe the Japanese books or the TV programmes on which they were based had more details.
But this usage of it from Lee Changho seems to illustrate the point I made about the inside peep being more forcing and if white lives inside the black group being under pressure, as seen by black’s somewhat docile 33 ensuring he keeps the corner eyes and allowing white to save the invasion stone of 32 and get nice kosumi endgame in sente from both sides. Lee always makes it look so easy to beat people when they obey like this! but he of course backed this up with excellent position judgement, game control and the reading to still get a good result if they resisted the peaceful lines.
