Yamaguchi opening rule


Yamaguchi opening rule is a renju opening rule. It was developed by Japanese player Yusui Yamaguchi.

Rule details

The sequence of moves implied by the rule follows.
  • The first player puts one of the 26 openings and declares how many 5th moves will be offered in that game.
  • The next player has a right to swap.
  • The white player puts the 4th move anywhere on the board.
  • The black player puts as many 5th moves on the board as it was declared before.
  • The white player chooses one 5th from these offerings and plays the 6th move.

Brief description

This rule is very close to an old RIF opening rule and therefore favorited. It gives an average variety of new playable variants in a good number of openings, but some of them don't become playable. More, this opening rule doesn't protect players from a 11D-draw variants.

Tournaments played by this rule

This opening rule was official opening rule for Renju World Championships and Renju Team World Championships from 2009 to 2015.