Question: Why doesn't a standard net work? What am I missing?
HolIgor: is forcing, so black escapes.
DaveSigaty: loosely surrounds the two black stones. The
stone is in just the right place to prevent Black from pushing out along the right side.
If , White plays
and squeezes Black.
completes a nice symmetrical shape.
If , the standard reply at
stops Black cold.
This seems the most interesting, but it looks like the combination of
and
prevents Black from getting away. If Black continues at
, White throws in at
and catches Black short of liberties after
.
However . . .
Oops! This idea would work if Black co-operates. However, instead puts White on the spot. Capturing at a and escaping at b are miai to save the stones.
White has to be more careful and connect at against
. Now Black is again short of liberties after
. If next Black at a, White plays b.
If Black cuts at this instead, White plays atari at
. If Black captures, the throw in at
recreates the shortage of liberties. If Black connects at
instead of
, White simply connects at
.
Actually White can also connect at in the previous diagram.
When I composed this problem I wanted to find a position where works but the usual net doesn't. It was designed for low kyu players at the club.
But I was very happy with . This makes it quite a difficult problem to get in your head.
I think I have further work to do on this position because is still good and it should be bad :)
This result is better for White though she doesn't capture two stones.
And no, it's no good to move one line to the right.
unkx80: How about changing the problem to this one? As far as I can see, this problem should work too, although the difficulty is increased a bit.
Lucky: This seems to work too :) And resolves the previous problem. Why do you think this position is more difficult?
unkx80: In this variation, I think is the only move here, which may be a kind of a blind spot.
Lucky: Well, I didn't check this variation :) I agree it might be a blind spot.
Compared to the original problem, must be played here instead, I believe. Playing at a turns it into a ko.
You may think otherwise about the difficulty? I don't know. =)
Lucky: True, I first found the ko and I was ready to conclude this variation doesn't work.
I don't know how problems can be rated. As with all amateurs, I know some positions (which therefore I find easy) and I don't know a lot of others (which I find difficult). I may solve a pro level problem if I have seen it before and go wrong with an amateur 5 kyu problem.