Question about joseki

yebellz · January 17, 2020, 7:42pm

The question about when (at which rank) it is appropriate to learn joseki also came up recently in another thread.

In regards to this question, I would like to offer this excerpt from Immanuel deVillers’ book 81 Little Lions:

“But learning joseki is bad! Do not do it until you are <insert random rank here>.”

That is one of the standard sentences that any Go player has heard at least once in his lifetime. Some players preach it like a mantra, some will throw it at your face without even understanding what it means. If you ask any of them why they speak that sentence, most will tell you that they heard it from someone else—or go with “I do not want to play moves that I do not understand.” But I feel that this common approach is wrong.

There is a consensus that memorizing joseki is wrong if you do not understand the reason behind it. However, joseki moves are also considered the best in certain localized situations. Most of us are amateur players, and of course we will not understand everything about a joseki, but by totally neglecting them until we hit a predefined rank we are only hindering ourselves.

When I was a beginner (~19k), I was often obliterated in the corner on a 19x19 board. A 3-3 corner invasion would totally kill my stones. One player then recommended me to study and learn the corresponding joseki, which I did for a week. Obviously, I could not understand those moves at my rank back then, but afterward, knowing the best moves and having spent time with them, I was never tricked again when playing people of my own rank—and I climbed a few ranks quickly.

So, instead of completely ignoring joseki and then telling other people what to do, try a different approach:

Pick up three of your favorite openings and study one or two joseki for each of them.

Play out the moves on a board and think about every move for at least a minute.

Try to understand why each move is the best move.

Try to think about responses that differ from the joseki. How would you react to them and why?

Write down any uncertainties and review them after some time to see if you have found clarity.

A lot of questions will arise: Write them down and show them to a stronger player.

Note: the above excerpt is from a book that is copyright by Immanuel deVillers and released under a Creative Commons License: CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.