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Doug's Go Blog
   

Welcome to my Go blog! Want to comment? Go ahead!

11 Nov: Life and death in first capture go

[Diagram]
White is alive with two eyes

Capture go uses the same rules of play as go, but with a different end condition. Instead of scoring territory after passing, the winner is the first to capture anything. It's sometimes used to teach the capturing rule and give practice in some basic tactics.

I've played the game a bit against a Palm program, which starts with a crosscut in the middle of the board. A lot of tactics are, in fact, the same: cutting, connecting, surrounding, ladders and nets, competing for liberties and free space. Certainly, some tactics are different, obviously: no snapbacks, squeezes, or throw-ins. But until recently, I'd thought life and death remained the same: capturing is capturing, two eyes make life, right?

Life and death is different, because many of the standard tactics for capturing involve sacrifice. A group with only one single point eye can be captured, and false eyes are still false, because the ataried string must be connected. But big eyes cannot be reduced to small eyes, so a 2 point big eye, like in the diagram, in fact counts as two eyes and is alive. A three point big eye can't be killed either, but by playing on the vital point it can be turned into seki. Throw away the Davies book! This has a big impact on what invasions work, and rescuing disconnected stones: all you need is one big eye. Of course, you still have to save every single stone...



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(OC) 2003 the Authors, published under the OpenContent License V1.0.