Eye in the belly

  Difficulty: Advanced   Keywords: Life & Death, Go term
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Eye in the belly

A potential eye, such as this one at the marked point, may have a big effect on the almost filling of groups. It doesn't need to be a real eye to make a difference.

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Real eye in the belly

This is a simple capturing race, which Black has already won.

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No seki

In this shape there is no way for White to make seki.

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Status?

In this case, with one more space inside, what happens? Black can kill by making the eye.

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White dies

With B1 Black makes an eye in White's belly and white cannot win the capturing race (an Eye versus No Eye Capturing Race)

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White can live in seki

After W1 White is alive in seki : Black cannot successfully fill White's eyespace.


A famous problem regarding an eye in the belly can be found in the treasure chest enigma


Note on polite English: 'belly' might be considered a little colloquial, or childish, compared with 'stomach', in spoken English. There is a further example (in the centre) at the end of killable eye shapes called 'eye in the stomach'.

Charles Matthews

jsha: However, 'belly' has some appropriate connotations. The belly is traditionally one of the most vulnerable parts of a dragon, and as such is a good place to strike. Also, something is said to 'go belly up' when it dies. iopq: Also, belly sometimes means "middle" as in the expression "right in the belly." I believe it's a better term.


This is a copy of the living page "Eye in the belly" at Sensei's Library.
(OC) 2012 the Authors, published under the OpenContent License V1.0.
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