Double shortage of liberties

  Difficulty: Beginner   Keywords: Tactics, Go term

Chinese: 金鸡独立 (jin1 ji1 du2 li4)
Japanese:
Korean:

Double shortage of liberties usually refers to the loss of a capturing race because one side requires approach moves on either side of a group.

This is a conventional example from Gokyo Shumyo, Section 1, Problem 38 / Solution. Observe that although both the black+circle and white+circle groups appears to have two liberties each, Black is unable to make approach moves at a or b without putting himself in self-atari. Hence, White has effectively captured the black+circle stones.

[Diagram]

Large-scale double shortage of liberties

In this example (from TFG9 Black Upper Left) White wins the race despite some apparently bad shape. Black will never be able to play safely at a, now. And the white+circle stones must be captured by Black before he can approach from the other direction.


See also:


This is a copy of the living page "Double shortage of liberties" at Sensei's Library.
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