What is so painful for Black is that is practically a sente move during the endgame phase. After
, then White can tenuki, so White has reduced Black's territory in sente.
is considered a failure in this problem. After
, if White saves the two stones at a, then it is gote. Nothing more than an itch for Black.
connects at
.
is almost as large, about 8.4 (8.5 points when White is komaster). So White will often be able to play here with sente.
Later -
is sente, and even later
-
is sente.
The count in this end position is -1 for the captured stone.
White at would forestall 2 points and then create a ko to capture first in sente. So
is a 2 1/3 sente.
White at
would forestall 3 points (and no more if Black is komaster), so
is a 3 point sente