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About Reading Things Out
  Difficulty: Advanced   Keywords: MiddleGame, Life & Death, Problem

In a recent game on IGS between MyMaster and kobe (B) an interesting position arose which deserves a bit of attention and is a wonderful source of reading problems.


[Diagram]
The position diagram

The moves to W3 are a direct attack on Black's group and are worth a bit of study. W1 is on the vital point of the black group's eye shape while W3 is a fancy tesuji for preventing Black from connecting to the right.



[Diagram]
The importance of playing on the vital point

If White plays here first, then Black has no problem living with B2. This is still a good result for White; but if White is able to kill the black group then this diagram is a failure. So White must sit back and start reading before deciding on whether to attack the group, or to take the small profit by taking just three black stones.



[Diagram]
The above is NOT a good result for white. It is infact a flower ko for black

white must play the Ko, or lose his entire group. Black risks nothing...

David



[Diagram]
The continuation...

Black pulls out a tesuji of his own and if you haven't read it all out you might find yourself lost for a continuation. What to play and what not to play next will be the source of the material for this page....

Goran

edit: Goran had the first move, I added 2. this doesn't work

David



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