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Capturing Race Exercise 7 Solution
    Keywords: Problem

[Diagram]
Black first

This isn't interesting I guess...


[Diagram]
White first

W1 is the tesuji to delay Black's approach move at a. After W3, being in shortage of liberties, Black is unable to play at a.


[Diagram]
White first

If Black captures with B4, W5 wins the capturing race by one move.



Bonus question: How many liberties (approach moves) does White have?

If Black plays first, White has one liberty left.

If White plays first, she threatens to capture two stones and live, gaining an infinite number of liberties, so Black must reply. Now White has three liberties.

As a combinatorial game, White's liberties look like this:

     { -1 || -3 | -infinity }

(As with scores, we use negative numbers for White values.)

This is not a number, it is a game. White has a two liberty sente, with a liberty count of -3. Black's reverse sente gains 2 liberties instead of the usual 1.



This is a copy of the living page "Capturing Race Exercise 7 Solution" at Sensei's Library.
(OC) 2004 the Authors, published under the OpenContent License V1.0.