The Shusaku opening, or Shusaku fuseki (秀策流布石), is a famous[1] [2] traditional fuseki for black stones in the game of Go. It was developed to perfection (but not invented) by Honinbo Shusaku[3] and passed down to the Meiji, Taishō, and Shōwa eras.[4]
With its variants, it constituted the basis of the major theories of fuseki for nearly a century, until the 1930s, at which point the introduction of komidashi and major innovations under the shinfuseki opening occurred.[5] However, as a testimony to its effectiveness, this type of opening is still played by professionals when playing without a komi handicap.
The orthodox Shusaku fuseki is as follows:[2] [6]
Move 7 is famous Shusaku's kosumi,[7] which, Shusaku said, would not be a bad move no matter how Go theories develop.[8]
The opening was displayed in a Google doodle on 6 June 2014 – the 185th anniversary of Honinbo Shusaku's birth.