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ConnectingWithKeima

 

parallel ladders
  Difficulty: Beginner   Keywords: Tesuji, Tactics

[Diagram]
Diag.: Choosing a good ladder

Here White has a choice of parallel ladders. Because the marked black stone breaks just one of them, White must be careful. White 3 and 5 are the correct way.[2] Now Black's stones can't escape.


[Diagram]
Diag.: Mistake

White 3 here is a mistake, from the point of view of capturing Black.


[Diagram]
Diag.: The ladder fails

Later on in the ladder Black 2 makes it impossible for White to continue.



Bearing driving in mind

[Diagram]
Diag.: Choosing a good ladder

Moving the marked black stone closer along the diagonal does change things, White might then want to play 1, 3 and 5 here instead: a driving tesuji.[2] It all depends on the direction of play whether capturing Black on the left, or blighting[1] Black's stone on the right, is bigger.

Charles Matthews



[1] Watcha Mean By That ?

Bill: Charles has a mission, it seems, to enrich English go vocabulary.

[2]

[Diagram]
Diag.: Choosing a good net

Calling either ladder correct is questionable, when the net at W 3 snags the Black stones, too. If Black tries to escape, say with B 4, W can play atari. Note that the net works even if there is a Black stone on the circled point. -- Bill


[Diagram]
Diag.: Netbuster

Charles OK then, perhaps the final version of the lesson needs an extra stone, such as the square-marked one.


[Diagram]
Diag.: Check the knight's move net

It is painfully easy to miss a knight's move net like White 3 in a real game (White 3 at a fails much more obviously). Up to Black 10 Black looks to be well set to escape.


[Diagram]
Diag.: Check the knight's move net (continuation)

Urgh - the paper is too small to contain the rest of the sequence ... Black at a is about to be strong.

A better version of the original diagram would therefore deprive the marked white stone of further liberties.



This is a copy of the living page "parallel ladders" at Sensei's Library.
(OC) 2003 the Authors, published under the OpenContent License V1.0.