The Chinese Opening: The Sure-Win Strategy, Kato Masao

The Chinese Opening is the newest of the standard fuseki patterns, yet within two brief decades it has established itself as one of the most popular openings, rivalling the sanren-sei in its appeal for amateurs and professionals alike. The reasons for its popularity are that within the one pattern it combines the virtues of both the influence-oriented and the territory-oriented patterns; at the same time, it emphasizes rapid development.

The Chinese opening is similar to the sanren-sei in that the third move is an extension along the side, but the difference is that the one 3-4 stone gives it strong teritorial potential to complement the influence secured by the star-point stone. This flexibility makes it a dynamic opening which is well suited to a variety of playing styles.

The Chinese opening has enjoyed great success in tournament go, being the favorite pattern of such great players as Kato Masao and Fujisawa Shuko when they were at th’e the peak of the go world. In fact, statistics show that the high variation (that is, the third move played on the fourth line) of this opening has the best winning percentage in professional play of all the opening patterns.

The flexibility of the Chinese opening, with its equal potential for building influence and taking territory, makes it an ideal opening for players of all levels. If you add it to your opening repertoire, your own winning percentage is bound to rise.

Comments & Reviews

A little out of date - Written by gowan

This is a useful book but it does not reflect the way the Chinese opening is played by pros now.

Excellent Book! - Written by ciatsd

Lots of things gained from this book from a reiteration of general fuseki and joseki knowledge to the applications of a very strong opening. Would probably be beneficial to anyone from 10k to 5k or anyone who would just like a deeper knowledge behind this style of opening.

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