The 3-3 Point, by Cho Chikun. Ishi G44; 1991.

This is a book about various aspects involving the 3-3 point. It talks about corner situations where the first move is at the 3-3 point and the joseki that follow from that, and also about situations where the 3-3 point play is an invasion beneath the star point, possibly following a pincer. It has a chapter on fuseki involving the 3-3 point, and a chapter of problems.

I think that this is a decent book, but nothing special. The chapter that I like the most is the one on joseki: the discussion there gives you more real-game context than the discussions in joseki dictionaries do. So you get to see contexts in which you would play the slightly different variations of the two 3-3 point joseki. Also, that chapter has good discussions of some 4-4 point joseki that involve 3-3 invasions, making it useful for everybody, since even if you don't encounter 3-3 point openings too often in your play, everybody has to deal with star points.

Dan Schmidt (NNGS 5k*) says:

Many of the joseki here are invasions under the 4-4 point, so it's useful if you play (or play against) the sanrensei. I found the book good just as a discussion of general fuseki principles, although I never play (and rarely see) 3-3 openings.

Lukas Biewald (eggroll, 3k* IGS) says:

This book has some good points, but it doesn't actually say very much. It never talks about the 3-3 point in the middle game, and doesn't go in to useful joseki patterns as well as Get Strong at Joseki 3.

Paul Brennan (BGA 5k) says:

While playing in my club over the last couple of months I was playing against someone who always plays at the 5-6 point and 4-6 point and that kind of thing. I was playing the sanren-sei in opposition to this and then I would invade at the 4-4 point underneath his 5-6. He was winning all the games. Then I went to my local games shop, picked up The 3-3 Point. Reading this book made me much more willing to play at the 3-3 point whereas before I would normally play 4-4 (I understood this better). Last week I played two games against this same person and instead of playing the 4-4 under his 5-6, I played the 3-3. I won both game, the first by about 30 points and the second by resignation. I feel that this is due to me reading this book. I don't feel there are many books that I have read that I can say made me win games!!! I went home happy that evening.

cover pic


david carlton <carlton@bactrian.org>

Last modified: Sun Aug 10 20:52:39 PDT 2003