Enlarging the eye space with is the key move, and probably not too hard to come up with. After Black blocks with
, White's descent with
is tesuji. Whatever Black tries hereafter, he can't reduce White to one eye anymore.
If White forgets about the descent tesuji, and connects with ,
destroys the eye space and the hane at
reduces to one eye. The order of
and
can be inverted.
at
also kills.
White's follow-up at here is also a mistake.
makes miai of a and b to kill White.
at c is answered by Black d, creating shortage of liberties.
(Note:
should not be at b: White blocks at c and has a ko to live.)
Mike Terry: Depending on what is further up the board, White may be able to continue from the previous diagram, resisting stubornly as shown here. After , White will either live in the corner or break out up the left hand side.
Black can prevent all this by playing
at a, leading to a ko, but in any case this option is clearly inferior for White, compared to living unconditionally as in the proper solution.
If White plays the 1-2 point first, answered by Black taking the other, and then plays the -
-
exchange as in the correct answer,
creates shortage of liberties.
at a means dying in gote.
at b provokes atari at c, White connects at a and dies.
Only at d deserves further attention.
demetria: I've only just started studying Go, so I'm having a hard time imagining this. What happens if black plays at A? Doesn't that stop white from enlarging the eye space?
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