We haven't seen Artem playing on KGS for a while. These days he rarely plays here, I wonder why. It's always a pleasure to watch his games, as his style is very gentle, solid without showiness. His opponent is KlausP 9d?. In previous article some of our readers mentioned that his rank graph is really weird. It shows as if he's 13d. According to EGF, Klaus Petri is a strong German player, 4d EGF which equals I believe to 5d on KGS.  

In this game KlausP started the Taisha joseki (litteraly means "great slant"). It's a famous 3-5 point pattern known as the "joseki of hundreds of variations" and is commonly regarded as one of the most difficult joseki. It is the source of numerous hamete (trick moves) that's why most people try to stay away of the Taisha joseki. And that is for a reason. 

In the game KlausP played hamete (White move 20) and Artem apparently didn't know the correct punishment. KlausP said that Artem played it wrongly. The correct move might be R6 suggested by MilanMilan 9d. I believe the result was in white's favor but still it didn't help him to win the game. Artem is stronger and he proved it.

A new move or hamete might be a secret weapon during the game. At Go Seigen's time, new patterns and moves in joseki were kept secret and then used during an important tournament games. I remember the game where Japanese pro first played Magic Sword joseki against Go Seigen. He didn't know how to respond and decided to play tenuki. It's a good lesson how to play against unknown moves and not to get frustrated, not to fall into opponent's trap.

P.S. I'd like to wish all our readers a Happy New Year!