In the Game

We all know what is a Hane, but what about the double hane?

On the right side we have a sample. A double hane is when you hane twice in a row on the same group. Here you can see how the stone 1 is limits white's growth in this column, so white has to move one line back. Black's 3rd stone pushes back white even more. Depending on the surrounding situation, white can play A, B or C.

A will be played if white is strong nearby and he isn't afraid of leaving cutting points. C will be played if white is very weak in this area and needs to protect the cut at all costs. B is somewhere in between this two positions, it defends the cut, but not as well as C does, and it is less passive than C.

This is a very important technique to apply into your games, but it is a double-edged sword. It can be of great use, pushing white back 2 lines, or even killing him. But it can also lead to a situation with two weak groups floating in the middle of the board because of the cutting points left during the double hane.

On this side we have one clear sample of a good double hane. As you can see, black played 3 making a double hane against the weak white groups.

White now is forced to defend his stones somehow, either A or B are good moves, though defending the cuts directly is not bad either.

If, for some reason, white tried to cut this double hane and black was strong nearby, W would have to face the lost of 1 to 3 stones. Can you read this continuation?

The double hane is best played when if forms a "tiger's mouth", because there is a stone defending both cuts at the same time. Then we don't talk about double hane any more, but about tiger's mouth.

While double hane is so powerful, it is also very dangerous for the one who uses it, so you need to have read all possible continuations and having a counter-plan for them, before doing such a move.

In this situation the double hane is calling for a cut. White will certainly cut at A or B due to his strenght nearby. In fact, even the single hane is a bit of an overplay, because white is able to cut there and black will have left a sacrificed stone which is currently purposeless.

Now let's talk about a specific double hane we see on beginner's games.

Double hane at the border

As we've all been beginners, we've all made this mistake. It is a typical mistake from beginners which we've all learned by being punished after doing it. In fact, I've recently found myself punishing it a few times on my students till they learn not to make the double hane on the border.

If you still don't know what I'm talking about, take a look at the picture on the right. If you think black 3 is a correct move, then you need to read this article. If you think black3 is wrong, you'd probably be able to read the appropriate punishement.

Most beginner's accept this B3 to be a good move, since it blocks white from entering his own territory and makes an atari at the same time. Have I ever talked about how important it is to know when to sacrifice stones? This is a paradigm.

This sequence on the left is the appropiate punishement by white. As you can see, W4 makes an atari, which B defends by killing the stone 2.

White then ataries from black's territory, so if Black just defends that ataried stone, he will lose the 4 stones. Black's only chance is to play at A for making a ko and trying to minimize the damage.

In the end, Black has lost 4 stones + 3 points of territory + whatever white takes from his territory. White's now infiltrated on black's territory and eyespace, so every single stone placed there will mean lots of points lots by black, so W benefits can range from 8 points to killing the whole black group.

Next time black won't make the double hane, and will play at W4, white will play at B5, black will atari and both will defend.

The day after Sabadell's Tournament I had to play the 2nd game in the Rioplatense Tournament. It was a game against a 13k KGS with 5 stones of handicap. The time settings were 10 minutes plus 15 minutes for 25 stones of Canadian byo-yomi. As you can see, the time settings don't allow much time to think in tsumegos or brilliant strategies, so I couldn't solve this tsumego correctly on the actual game but I managed to win anyway.

As you can see, black is not exactly on a bright position. This situation came after black not finishing the monkey jump sequence which started at A17 and ignoring too the settling move at A15. Black started realising he had to answer my moves after white 199... but it was too late... or not.

I guess the title is quite self-explanatory. This was the first game in the 5th Rioplatense Tournament, between me (8k) and Ecchi (7k?) and took place on KGS last Friday.

As I've already told you and you've seen, my style has become more and more aggressive lately. From my point of view, I think it's due to two things:
1. My intuition has increased a lot lately and I'm able to find some good moves (or, at least, they seem so to me) which I couldn't spot some weeks ago. Personally I think this might be the result from viewing pro games with the "guess next move" enabled.
2. My openning sucks. Sincerely, I think this is the next weak part of my game which I'll try to improve.

The game is available on the "continue reading", so as not to load ZGo on the main page and the RSS feeds. I'd be very glad if someone could make some comments on the game.

While preparing for the tournament, I started to play on an unusual time settings: 10 minutes plus 15 minutes of Canadian byoyomi for 25 stones. This means that games are played on a quite fast pace. I decided to give it a try against the first one who accepted my challenge on the KGS room. It was a 9k. At the beginning it seemed we were about the same level, but white ended up with several groups killed...

Several groups killed? Yes, two of them. For some reason, all the games I've been playing lately appear to be incredibly aggressive, both training and the tournament ones. In these games, if I manage to kill my opponent I win, if not, I lose.

This is one situation extracted from the game. As you can see, white has been splitted, but black too. On this situation I tried to capture black on a large scale. Can you think of any possible sequence?

Well, here you can see what happened on the game. I'm not saying this is the correct or the best sequence, but it is certainly a good result for white, though I think he should have escaped after white 32..

As you can see, black has been trapped in the middle of the board. Some players with a higher level might argue that white's net is not very powerful and black can escape. Certainly I don't know, but, for me (and I guess anywhere below 8k), this is a good move for white.

Black got a corner and made himself strong on the lower part of the board, but the game was not finished yet. Black tried to save his group desperately, assuming that losing this group would send him to defeat...

And there he goes, he manages to create one eye, and almost escapes... almost... How can you avoid that black escapes? In this case, I used another "technique" explained here, but it is not "capturing on a large scale".

If you want to see the answer you'll have to click on the "continue reading" section. There is the full game available.