Interactive Life And Death

This is problem 16 in the intermediate level problems of Liping Huang's Problem Series Volume 1, the thin orange softcover book published by Slate and Shell.

Please click on board where you'd like to play .

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You killed the eye at . W starts to divide the remaining area up into two eyes with .

Now where do you play ?

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[2]

Black has shrunk white's eyespace with . White blocks resolutely with . Please click where you continue.

KEEP TRYING, - or -

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[3]

Black kills one of white's eyes with . White makes two eyes in the corner.

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[4]

Black reduces White to one corner eye by playing . White makes an eye with . What do you do now ?

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[5]

Black has cut with and put himself into atari. White will eventually be in atari, which can only be relieved by capturing with Wd

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[6]

When white captures 4 stones with , black atari's back at to remove white's second eye with the under the stones tesuji. THIS IS THE ANSWER ! Congratulations.

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[7]

Black played to prevent white playing there and completing two eyes. White blocks at since if Black plays there, White only has one eye.

Is there any hope for Black now ? Which point do you want to try ?

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[8]

Black connects at , and eventually all the White stones will be in atari, and white will be forced to capture at . The resulting 4-space is sufficient for two eyes. Black has failed.
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[9]

Black is tries playing in the corner with . White will eventually be in atari and have to capture Black's stones with , and has two eyes, so Black has failed.

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[10]

Black has tried a placement at . White blacks at . An interesting attempt by Black is , but it doesn't quite work. White can answer at Wf. Notice that instead of Wf, Wa would be a mistake because then Bb would make a seki.

(Someone remarked recently that the reason you don't see many sekis in professional games is that seki usually results from someone having made a mistake!)

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[11]

In response to , white maximizes the corner eye space with . Now White can either make a second eye with Wa, or make sufficient room for two eyes in the corner with Wf.

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[12]

Black attempts to something by playing in the corner. White calmly maximizes the eye space with , after which if Black takes away white's outside eye with Ba, White can divide the corner into two eyes by playing Wb.
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[13]

Black has tried the inside placement of . White maximizes the corner eye space with after which if Black takes away White's outside eye at a, White can live by throwing in at b .

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[14]

Black tries the corner but White easily lives by capturing.

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[15]

Black plays the placement of but White lives by capturing at .

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[16]

Black attempts to push into White's corner with but completes two eyes in the corner.
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[17]

Black ataris on the inside with and White makes two eyes in the corner by capturing.

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[18]

Black tries the corner but White easily lives by capturing.

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[1000] Other problem-solving interfaces :

• www.goproblems.com, problem 722