Lucky's Problem / Discussion

standard net fails  

HolIgor: is forcing, so black escapes.

White to play and capture two stones.  

DaveSigaty: loosely surrounds the two black stones. The stone is in just the right place to prevent Black from pushing out along the right side.

Black tries to escape 1 (7 at 2)  

If , White plays and squeezes Black. completes a nice symmetrical shape.

Black tries to escape 2  

If , the standard reply at stops Black cold.

Black tries to escape 3  

This seems the most interesting, but it looks like the combination of and prevents Black from getting away. If Black continues at , White throws in at and catches Black short of liberties after .

However . . .

Black tries to escape 3  

Oops! This idea would work if Black co-operates. However, instead puts White on the spot. Capturing at a and escaping at b are miai to save the stones.

Black tries to escape 3  

White has to be more careful and connect at against . Now Black is again short of liberties after . If next Black at a, White plays b.

Black tries to escape 3  

If Black cuts at this instead, White plays atari at . If Black captures, the throw in at recreates the shortage of liberties. If Black connects at instead of , White simply connects at .

White can also connect  

Actually White can also connect at in the previous diagram.

First theme  

When I composed this problem I wanted to find a position where works but the usual net doesn't. It was designed for low kyu players at the club.

Great move  

But I was very happy with . This makes it quite a difficult problem to get in your head.

Hmmm...  

I think I have further work to do on this position because is still good and it should be bad :)

Hmmm... 2  

This result is better for White though she doesn't capture two stones.

No good  

And no, it's no good to move one line to the right.

White begins with the eye stealing tesuji  

What are the consequences of this if black plays at A, B, or C? If A, black will definitely fail. As for B or C I am not so sure... it may be a matter of Black leveraging the lost stones to make some gains towards the center... Can black escape with the marked stones by playing at b?

Black is out  

Charles Matthews Why do you say this is a failure for Black? Black at b escapes also.

Suggestion  

unkx80: How about changing the problem to this one? As far as I can see, this problem should work too, although the difficulty is increased a bit.

Lucky: This seems to work too :) And resolves the previous problem. Why do you think this position is more difficult?

Variation  

unkx80: In this variation, I think is the only move here, which may be a kind of a blind spot.

Lucky: Well, I didn't check this variation :) I agree it might be a blind spot.

Variation  

Compared to the original problem, must be played here instead, I believe. Playing at a turns it into a ko.

You may think otherwise about the difficulty? I don't know. =)

Lucky: True, I first found the ko and I was ready to conclude this variation doesn't work.

I don't know how problems can be rated. As with all amateurs, I know some positions (which therefore I find easy) and I don't know a lot of others (which I find difficult). I may solve a pro level problem if I have seen it before and go wrong with an amateur 5 kyu problem.