Beginner Exercise 95 / Solution

Black kills with 1  

Lonestar+Nando: Now White will be killed.

Black plays at 1  

Lonestar: The play at results in a seki.

unkx80: The result should not be seki, White can do better.

Lonestar: I can only see the way to get a ko for the life and death of the white group. If Black plays at A2 with his first move, which is wrong (as shown above it is possible to kill white with Black playing at with his first move). But is it better to have a ko than a seki? I thought a seki is better or have I only missed the right sequence.

unkx80: Please see below.

Seki??  

One Brow?: Even with the above position, isn't this 2 life, with miai at a and b, and White responds to Black c at a?

No seki  

unkx80: What I meant was, should just capture the black stones immediately...

No seki  

... resulting in this. White lives, there is no seki.

Lonestar: Oh. Now I see. Seems to me I need more practice, because I did not even think about this way. :-) I always guess a possible first move and try to check, if it fulfills the solution or not. Has anybody a hint how to solve problems in a way, that you automatically find the right moves?

lavalyn: If there were a way to automatically find the right moves, we wouldn't be doing Beginner Exercises now, would we? Just remember to think of your opponent's BEST move, not the move that you would expect. In some cases, even in small life and death problems, the best move may be tenuki.