Beginner Exercise 37 / Solution

Nice sac  

! is a nice sacrifice often overlooked in practice. captures one stone, but leaves White dead. The points a and b are miai, meaning that the eye is false.

short of liberties  

If connects here, ! kills. Shortage of liberties prevents White from playing at . Thus White is left with a false eye. Note that touches the marked Black stone, reducing the liberties.

Failure 1  

Black must play and in the order described in the solution diagram.

Failure 2  

here is too slow. After , a and b are miai for the second eye.

Failure 3  

is a thank you move that allows White to connect at and live.

Failure 4: Ko  

is part of the solution, but if is played as shown in this diagram, we end up with a ko instead of an unconditional kill.