hotcoffee: White gets 3 liberties and can double-atari any of the laddering stones to destroy black. Note that 3 at 4 also fails as white will get 3 liberties.
hotcoffee: Previously I provided a solution to one of unkx80's board positions. So here is that solution.
hotcoffee: With the addition of the marked stone this is the position reached. Black must now play at 'a' or 'b' and the white stones are captured.
I'm a double-digit-kyu, and happily I did manage to read this one out before producing a diagram. How do stronger players read out ladders and other forced situations? Can anyone suggest rules of thumb?
Lynx: I'm not strong, but reading a ladder like this is simple. One stone at a time until it ends. Nothing but patience and will needed.
Bill: A simple trick that often helps is to remember that there are star points diagonal to each other. If the ladder simply runs a diagonal course, you can project the course from one star point to another.
For instance, in this problem the stone is on a star point. Now let's do the projection.
The projection shows us that the ladder does not work.