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Snow White In The Dark Woods
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  Difficulty: Beginner   Keywords: Problem

This problem was presented to the International Baduk Congress 2001, and reported to the Belgian community by JanRamon. --Dieter

[Diagram]
Snow White to escape

Snow White is the lone white stone in the middle. The black stones constitute the dark woods. Snow White can make two steps each time (White makes two moves per turn) while one extra tree grows each time (Black makes one move per turn). No trees can grow outside the woods. Snow White must try to escape (White to make a chain reaching one of the points outside the square formed by the black stones).

At first sight it seems impossible, until one thinks of miai.



The exercise was presented as an alternative to AtariGo as teaching method. What do you think of AtariGoAsATeachingMethod ?


This may be a stupid question, but can it actually be solved ? I though I had the solution, using miai, until I tried putting trees in the intersections of lanes. This way, you can use one tree to block two paths at once, ultimately killing White. -- uXs

''I thought so too but found out it doesn't work either for Black. If you want, make a page with your refutation and I'll try to refute it --Dieter)

If you are worried by trees growing in the intersections of lanes just remember the proverb: "The opponent's vital point is my vital point" -- SiriusBlack

Some more: actually, I'm not entirely clear on the rules: is it possible to put a tree on the fourtth line ? If it's not, then there's no problem. -- uXs

Arno: no, you're not allowed to put a tree (black stone) on the fourth line (No trees can grow outside the woods). Indeed, once you know enough to play miai, the problem is easily solved.

Why? I think if White starts, White can escape even if trees on the fourth line are allowed.


Another question: who starts? Black or White? -- uXs

Does not matter: see SnowWhiteInTheDarkWoods - Solution


[Diagram]
Snow White to escape, alternate diagram

Since Black is (allegedly) prohibited from playing on the fourth line, we could just as easily use this diagram for the problem ...

The white stone in the center must connect to one of the marked white stones to win.

This diagram makes the actual solution jibe with weiqi intuition a bit better.



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This is a copy of the living page "Snow White In The Dark Woods" at Sensei's Library.
(OC) 2004 the Authors, published under the OpenContent License V1.0.