When false eyes are eyes

    Keywords: Life & Death

When false eyes are eyes ...

This expression may hint to the infamous two-headed dragon or the rules issue moonshine life.

Many people seem to use this expression with the following position in mind:

[Diagram]

"False eye"

The circled points are eyes. The point marked a is a connection rather than an eye. Black can play there without altering his life and death status, which is not true of either of his eyes. (Black would lose a point, in Japanese counting).

It is true that White cannot play at a, ever, which makes this point resemble a single point eye?. It is also true that if Black occupied one of the squared spots, the point a would also be an eye.

Yet, the point a should not be thought of as a false eye or a real eye but as a connection.

HandOfPaper: My own thoughts on this, coupled with something similar having occurred in a game of mine, led me to think of the following live formation:

[Diagram]

weird but alive



iopq: Nothing weird about it. The circled points are eyes. The squared points are the three diagonal points required for a real eye.


[Diagram]

False eye for seki

Black's false eye ([circled point]) is required for seki. If it were filled, Black would be dead; if it were a full eye, the WC stones would be dead.


WME'd to completely rewritten at 24-01-2004. [ext] Previous version --Dieter


This is a copy of the living page "When false eyes are eyes" at Sensei's Library.
(OC) 2005 the Authors, published under the OpenContent License V1.0.
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