Beginner Exercise 128 / Attempts

White first to kill.  

demetria: Erm... If White starts a ko at then Black has to eat into Black's own territory to respond. If Black responds at a then White takes the ko. If Black responds at b, I'm pretty sure the shortage of liberties would prevent Black from actually capturing the stone. I'm not sure it is allowed, but if Black tries to capture White with c, then White sets up the ko again, right?

unkx80: The solution is not a ko.

demetria: Okay, so I don't know the terms, but can it work as a threat? It would be a dead four (bent four?) in the corner, right?

White first to kill.  

Karl Knechtel: I believe is correct. at b is answered by at c, and b cannot capture three to make an eye - it's a matter of white's liberties rather than black's lack of them, however.

demetria: Neat, I think that's the only solution I'v gotten right on the first try. Now if I just knew what I was doing...

White connects out, Black fails to make eyes (variation)  

at .

White is persistent  

With black cutting/trying to capture at c, as shown, white applies the same technique on the other side. Now there is a shortage of liberties situation which prevents black from cutting on this side.

White is persistent (continued)  

White gets to connect whatever black tries, and the best black can do is get a couple of simple kos on top, but these are not life.

White is persistent (variant)  

Of course the throw-in of does no good either. Now the a points are miai to kill, producing results from the previous diagrams.