About 'Double Hane'

What is Double Hane?

Double Hane is a blog about the board game Go (other names are weiqi or baduk). It will be a place to share my thoughts about the game and discuss all things Go.


Double Hane is not the blog of a high dan player. I'm in the process of becoming single digit kyu right now and Double Hane's purpose is to shed light on the game from a beginners's perspective - mine. I plan to document and discuss my thoughts, errors and improvements and I hope this will be of interest to other players too. Maybe someday it will even help someone to overcome hurdles I now still have to face.


I plan to update the blog at least once per weak.


Why the name 'Double Hane'?

There is a number of reasons why I've chosen the name 'Double Hane' for this blog.


1) The double hane holds a special significance for me. At the very beginning of my 'go career',  one of the very first Josekis I learned was the standard sequence following the 3-3 invasion.

I was fascinated by how coercively and mandatory each successive move appeared and how easily one could predict a 12 move sequence even before starting it. I marveled at the inherent logic to each move and couldn't think of anything else to do, but to follow the pattern. The pattern also helped me a lot to get an (very basic first) idea of what influence actually is.

That was the context I came across the double hane for the first time. The move appeared crazy to me. Six has to go left of 4! Now there is just no way how black could avoid losing a stone. Surely that must spell doom for him - at least locally.

That black actually uses his sacrifice to "wiggle himself" around white's position and retake the corner blew my mind. It made clear to me for the first time that the game is really deeper than I will ever be able to fathom. It's been one of my first epiphany-like "insight moments" into Go. It made me understand something and changed my perspective on the game. Just seeing the pattern made me stronger.

2) I like the double hane, because it demonstrates fighting spirit and can literally turn a game around. I myself often fail miserably when trying to apply it in my games, but I can already sense the willingness to fight behind the move in games I study. 

3) It sounds cool, does it not? ;)

Contact information

If for any reason you would like to contact me, feel free to write me at doublehane.blog@googlemail.com. If you want to play against me on Dragon Go, my nickname is Gegenzeit.