The Twenty Most Popular Current (2019) Joseki

Strategy and Tactics
1

How about a Meta Snapshot for Go? :metal:
The images link to the position in the Joseki Explorer.

#1 A Basic 3-3 Invasion (Occurs once every 3 games)

3-3%20Invasion%20%231

#2 Another 3-3 Invasion (Occurs once every 4 games)

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#3 Yet Another 3-3 Invasion (Occurs once every 10 games)

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#4 Yet Another 3-3 Invasion (Occurs once every 11 games)

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#5 A 4-4 Joseki (Occurs once every 13 games)

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#6 Shusaku’s Kosumi (Occurs once every 17 games)

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#7 Double Approaching a 4-4 (Occurs once every 17 games)

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#8 Kicking and Attacking an Approach Stone After a Tenuki (Occurs once every 17 games)

Kicking%20and%20Attacking%20an%20Approach%20Stone%20after%20a%20Tenuki

#9 The Flying Knife Joseki (and the final 3-3 invasion on this list) (Occurs once every 19 games)

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#10 Shusaku’s Kosumi with follow-up (Occurs once every 22 games)

Shusaku's%20Kosumi%20with%20follow-up

#11 Short and Sweet 3-4 Joseki (Occurs once every 24 games)

Shot%20and%20Sweet%203-4%20Joseki

#12 A High Approach Joseki (Occurs once every 28 games)

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#13 3-4 Kick Joseki (Occurs once every 30 games)

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#14 Pressing Joseki (Occurs once every 31 games)

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#15 Double Approaching a 4-4 (Occurs once every 33 games)

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#16 Shoulder Hitting a 4-4 Enclosure (Occurs once every 35 games)

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#17 Large Knight Enclosure Joseki (Occurs once every 37 games)

Large%20Knight%20Enclosure%20Joseki

#18 Approaching the ‘AlphaGo’ Enclosure (Occurs once every 40 games)

Approaching%20the%20AlphaGo%20Enclosure

#19 Kicking from a 4-4 Stone (Occurs once every 46 games)

Kicking%20from%20a%204-4%20Stone

#20 Pincering an Approach Stone After a Tenuki (Occurs once every 49 games)

Pincering%20an%20Approach%20Stone%20After%20a%20Tenuki

edit: Had an oversight and skipped #8 from the list, I was indeed puzzled as to why I thought I had twenty initially

23 Likes
2

Is this list and the statistics based on popularity on OGS? From recent pro games? Or elsewhere?

6 Likes
3

Good question.

1 Like
4

Oh good question, I intended to make the first reply contain that information but I forgot. It is from professional games from the beginning of 2019 until 11-21-2019. However, even within that dataset, it is not 100% accurate (it is still very accurate imo) because of sequence transpositions and the same joseki occurring twice in one game.

What I mean by inaccuracy due to transpositions is #8 might begin with White approaching a corner enclosure instead of from a tenuki (like this) or #20 in the same way.

12 Likes
5

It’s surprising to me that #6 (the “Shusaku kosumi”) is more popular than #11 (the keima retreat). People are always telling me that the keima is the popular one.

6

That used to be the case but AI tend to prefer kosumi and so it’s returning to favour

3 Likes
7

How have I never seen this?!

8

AFAIK it’s mainly a move that’s played when White has the ladder (which derives from bP17 P18 - Q18 R18 - O17 Q19 - N17). Otherwise said sequence by Black can be painful.

Of course, regardless of this ladder, Black can play bP17 P18 - O18 N18 which transposes into a double hane sequence, so White shouldn’t regard O17 as a territorial move.

1 Like
9

As bugcat mentioned, it depends on ladder. It is probably more common than 1 in 10 games in 2020.

This is the most popular fuseki recently.

4 Likes