Beginner Exercise 40 / Solution

Not a marked point but it'll do.  

Threatening to capture a pivotal stone demolishes the eye that would have been formed by White playing at a.

Capturing the first stone  

The points a and b are now miai to remove one eye from White's position.

White hopes for the best  

Ignoring the situation doesn't make it go away.

ProtoDeuteric- Would this be gote on white's part?
Mef: Only if white adds another stone and black doesn't respond.
ProtoDeuteric- Maybe I'm just not looking at this problem correctly. To me, black appears to concern itself with the possiblity for white to make eyes around the ponnukied stone. Would a more accurate interpretation be that and are miai, and that thus is, in fact, a response to ?
Mef: Yes, white has 2 places to make an eye, so after white makes an eye with , black destroys the other eye with , so is a local response.

White's strongest resistance  

White's strongest resistance is to set up a ko at and fight it. It's the only correct move for White.

Radvendii:I dont think this is correct. if black ignores and plays at "a " white fills and only has one eye. and even if black doesnt ignore and white wins the Ko she cant take anything of blacks so the only option is to fill. black then plays at "a".

MrTenuki: Suppose that is played at a, and is played at b. Alternatively, suppose that the ko is played out, and White ignores a threat to play b. In either case, White would live.

Failure

Failure  

only destroys the eye on the outside, but makes the eye in the corner. and are miai for living.

Failure  

In this diagram, lives with two eyes.