Threatening to capture a pivotal stone demolishes the eye that would have been formed by White playing at a.
The points a and b are now miai to remove one eye from White's position.
Ignoring the situation doesn't make it go away.
ProtoDeuteric- Would this be gote on white's part?
Mef: Only if white adds another stone and black doesn't respond.
ProtoDeuteric- Maybe I'm just not looking at this problem correctly. To me, black appears to concern itself with the possiblity for white to make eyes around the ponnukied stone. Would a more accurate interpretation be that and
are miai, and that thus
is, in fact, a response to
?
Mef: Yes, white has 2 places to make an eye, so after white makes an eye with , black destroys the other eye with
, so
is a local response.
White's strongest resistance is to set up a ko at and fight it. It's the only correct move for White.
only destroys the eye on the outside, but
makes the eye in the corner.
and
are miai for living.
In this diagram, lives with two eyes.