Stomach eye

    Keywords: Life & Death

Yet another of Tamsin's terms, this time describing the method of capture found in the following sample problem from the Korean Baduk Academy (see [ext] http://www.gobase.org):

[Diagram]

Basic situation

[Diagram]

Black hits White right in the stomach



Black's first move, which seems like a punch in the stomach, ironically gives White an eye, but it also leaves White helpless after Black plays magari with B3. Black can capture the White stones with a live shape.

Deebster: I'm confused as to why/when this move would be used. The shape appears to be almost dead, and B1 doesn't kill it. Furthermore, White could play tenuki and leave the group until the endgame, or as a small ko threat. Even if this were a semeai it wouldn't help.
Why not just play B3 straight off?

[Diagram]

Bulky five

Niklaus: Because White whould then play W2 to form the bulky five shape, which would kill black. The point is to make black live, not just to capture the white stones.


This is a copy of the living page "Stomach eye" at Sensei's Library.
(OC) 2014 the Authors, published under the OpenContent License V1.0.
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