BQM 183/ Attempts

A4 11-17  

Provided, at 'a' can be handled. ^[1]

Real game 1-2  

The variations continue to be complicated from here, but a and b are miai as far as I can read. If W b, B a connects out with most of the stones. If W a, B b seems to get either a ko to escape, or a ko to live. The ko to escape was what happened in the actual game, as follows (well, except for a couple of bad internal pseudo-sente moves after with which B gave W a chance to kill by playing at , but W answered):

A6 11-19  

Robert Pauli: If White defends against the peep in A6, Black plays 'k' for a second eye by ko. Could Black profit from peeping earlier? Seems no:

Move 139  

The question was if Black's center can be captured? I opted for a and, as it turned out, Alex did just that.

But due to the marked black stones my solution A4 fails ([1]) . So, this seems to be what Black (just 8-kyu ??) should have done.

Anyway, the game went one to this:

Move 158  

Now White took the ko, ignored the threat at a, and connected.

White came in quite a mess after Black continued at 3-3 in the upper left corner and White, unwilling to let go his two stones above a, allowed him to live . . .

Back to above, couldn't White simply have skipped the ko by connecting at b instead? The marked white stone seems to escape -- either connecting with the center, the bottom left, or the bottom right -- and the capturing race in the center shouldn't be a problem either, even after a cut starting with c.