Beginner Exercise 60 / Solution

Solution  

The clamp at is a tesuji for expanding eye space. at is captured with at .

may be postponed in practice - White has another option of playing at .

can be at a.

Inferior ( at )  

cut is an unnecessary sacrifice. To save the three stones White has to play at . Subsequently and are a tesuji combination, and Black lives with . Now hane at a is gote. Caution: Do not play at : White can connect at and Black cannot make the eye on the top.

(For advanced readers: at is still better for White. Black captures at , White recaptures - see the diagram below)

Inferior  

Black lives with a and b miai. Now White's first line is better protected on both sides than the Solution diagram above. The combined benefit for White is larger than Black's gain on the third line.

Failure  

does not expand his eye space enough.