Beginner Exercise 233 / Solution

Black lives.  

catches three white stones in a connect-and-die. (If White tries to connect, Black will capture five White stones and live with an eye around and an eye at .) So White catches two black stones in a snapback with , and captures the three White stones.

Black lives, cont'd.  

Now after , makes two eyes.

Black failure.  

Note that , trying to save the two black stones from snapback, is a failure. In fact, it is a good example of dying in gote. It is not even seki since White can eventually capture the four black stones on the left; if Black connects at a then White connects at b and almost fill with a bulky five and Black is still dead.