How do I learn to play in the opening?

[tonybe]

Greetings! In my first few years of learning Go, trying to understand the Opening was one of the most difficult parts, because I often found that I kept doing things that gave my opponent an early lead, and I didn’t understand the reasons.

I’m reading a lot of excellent suggestions and advice in this thread, but I am concerned that - for players between 17-25kyu - until you understand

• how to play a balanced opening (global strategy)
• the purpose of joseki in the opening (local strategy)
• the function that both of those serve in the overall stages of the game (opening > midgame > endgame)

you will have a very difficult time making sense of this advice, or being able to apply it to your own live games.

I’ve been working on a 19X19 FOR BEGINNERS series that tries to fill in those blanks, and I would recommend reading these two articles, as they will help you make sense of the underlying dynamics, and allow you to put the (excellent) advice in this thread into context:

19x19 FOR BEGINNERS SERIES: Part 3: Playing a Balanced Opening

19x19 FOR BEGINNERS SERIES THINGS I WISH I KNEW WHEN I WAS 25 KYU PART 3: PLAYING A BALANCED OPENING [A quick disclaimer for any readers who are SDK and up: this series was written by a DDK for TPKs, with the goal of making the process of “losing their first 100 games quickly” less confusing and more productive. I say this because you may become concerned at all the crucial elements of the opening I’m about to leave out of the story. All through this article, I am going to encourage TPKs to a…

19x19 FOR BEGINNERS SERIES: Part 4: Joseki basics

19x19 FOR BEGINNERS SERIES THINGS I WISH I KNEW WHEN I WAS 25 KYU PART 4: JOSEKI BASICS [A quick disclaimer for any readers who are SDK and up: this series was written by a DDK for TPKs, with the goal of making the process of “losing their first 100 games quickly” less confusing and more productive. I say this because I know this article will barely scratch the surface of the complex, tangled world of joseki. My goal here is to provide beginners with some focussed, functional tips rather than…

Lastly, I would strongly encourage you to let go of the idea that there is always going to be a single correct answer to every question about where one should play next.

When it comes to completing a given joseki - then yes - there is a sequence to be followed because it has been determined as the “most efficient sequence” - so one could say that deviating from that would be wrong and following it would be correct. Here’s the joseki you mentioned in your example above:

The Kick

However, there are many other joseki that have branching trees of responses, and Go players can debate as to which branch is better than another based on what they’re trying to do and what that sequence can accomplish. Example:

Flying Knife

Rather thank looking for the RIGHT or WRONG move, I think it’s much more useful to approach Go as a game where you can choose various options depending on your SKILL LEVEL and the AMOUNT OF RISK you want to create.

So - for instance - playing a pincer move early in the Opening might be a great strategy for an intermediate/advanced player

The Pincer

However, IMHO - if you are a beginning player (17-25kyu) a pincer might get you into a whole lot of trouble because you do not yet have a good grasp of

• opening priorities
• direction of play
• understanding what makes a living group
• understand how to balance local contact fights with global issues of territory/influence

As such, rather than looking for the one correct answer, try to understand the local and global factors at play in your current situation, and pick a response that works for your skill level.

Good luck!