Malcolm

The solution (from "get strong like a pro") gives black killing white

I was stuck for a long time on finding the correct answer to .

is a mistake.

unkx80: I think Black should play and . See joseki-related life-and-death example 9.

Malcolm: Thanks, the same day you gave me the solution I ended up using Thomas Wolff’s GoTools tsumego program to get the answer. I had a blind spot, overlooking the double atari at 'b'.

If all the stones in this tsumego are moved one space to the left you get a Gokyo Shumyo tsumego where the problem is about living, not killing.

White can’t connect with 6 because Black can make a double snap-back (see next diagram). So Black puts 4 stones in atari in sente.

3: A nice tsumego

A nice tsumego I saw in TrainLikeAPro volume 2

It took me ages to find this solution. I think I had a blind spot due to the following erroneous reasoning: "after 6 white has two eyes and is therefore alive. There is no need to look any further". Lesson to be learned: two eyes are sometimes not enough! Or: beware of damezumari!

An alternative. Black 7 at 5, White 8 at 3. After 9 a and b are miai.

This problem is old: it figures in Xuanxuan Qijing where in the version I have it’s problem number 4 (of 347 problems...).

The correct solution starts at "b" :

at . Result is a direct ko with the first threat to be found by the defender.

at .

Dead.

Ko.

I do not know how black deals with . Looks to me like white lives. so, what am I missing?

unkx80: The first answer that comes to my mind is . No, this is not a typo.

I did consider . But if in this diagram, what else is there but ? Then, white lives with .

unkx80: This means that I made a reading typo when suggesting in the previous diagram. Right now I see no solution to your .

Malcolm: OK. I’ve updated TrainLikeAPro with this analysis. It does seem like an error in the book. Hope you don’t mind me using your name. Thanks for the help.

This position comes from a 9 stone handicap game I played recently. In the game, the marked black stones were under attack. But 1 is a nice tesuji to escape. Credit goes to Motoki for pointing it out. 07-04-18

If White plays 4, he lets Black live and loses points on the side: very bad.

unkx80: I thought, there might be multiple solutions to this problem. If at , then and , which reverts to one of your earlier diagrams.

Malcolm: Yes, you’re right. Thanks for the comment.

8: Classical tsumego

The following classical problem is in the Xuanxuan Qijing collection.

I have seen a solution which goes as follows:

After 7 White has to live, and then Black has a tesuji at a which captures the marked stone and makes an eye.

However there seems to be a variation leading to Ko if White plays 4 differently:

I wonder if Black can do any better...

Suggestion by flon (no sensei page, sorry): It seems that Black is dead against white 2, setting up an ishi no shita:

Flon: I can’t find any solution for Black. I checked the Xuanxuan Qijing, but didn’t find this problem ;-).
Malcolm, 071212: Thanks Flon. You’re right, there isn’t any solution for Black. I made a mistake copying the problem diagram from Xuanxuan Qijing Problem78. There, White has one less liberty which makes all the difference.

9: Classical tsumego seen in Hikaru No Go

This is also from the Xuanxuan Qijing collection (number 5). And it’s in the Gokyo Shumyo: see Gokyo Shumyo, Section 1, Problem 75 / Solution.

After 7, a-d. 5 is a tesuji that features in one of the Hikaru No Go stories. I got this solution from the sgf file compiled by Jean-Pierre Vesinet (see u-go.net).

However, in the following variation Black seems to get a ko.

After 9, a through to d seem to give a ko. Am I missing something?
2007-12-14: I’ve found more detail on this variation here.
2008-02-09: Finally reached a conclusion on this problem. More details here. Credit where credit’s due: I did get some help from Ang LI 3p...

10: A Fan Hui 5D problem

(2007-08-01). I got this problem from the mailing list of problems by Fan Hui, organised by the FFG (Fédération Française de Go). It’s supposed to be around 5D level.

After weeks of looking at the problem every now and then and not getting anywhere, I finally found the solution. I haven’t looked at Fan’s solution. As there are several variations I jotted them down as follows in my handy little Go notebook:

   d ( e g! ( f a | a f c b )
     | a f ( g e | e g c b )
     | b c ( ( e | f ) g | a f ) )

"|" means "or". "!" means "tesuji".

It’s not easy to read, but it seems to me to be a concise way of writing a non-trivial set of variations.

2007-10-12: This notation now has its own page.

11: Blog about Xuanxuan Qijing

(2007-09-27). I printed out the entire colection from the pdf file at tsumego.tasuki.org, and I’ve been going through the problems. I now have a new goal: work through all the problems and understand each one. Maybe I’m optimistic, but I reckon it should be do-able (within a couple of years). So far I’ve looked at about 75% of the first hundred odd problems. There are some real gems. There is a solution file, but it doesn’t give many variations. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, as it means one has to figure things out for oneself. I would recommended it heartily for dan-level players.

At least one of the problems has "Black plays tenuki" as the the correct answer. The solution diagram explains why Black can’t do anything locally. It’s an unusual type of problem (Black to play, White lives)...

2007-12-28 : The problem I was talking about with tenuki as the solution: (Xuanxuan Qijing Problem 3).

12: Some of my SL pages

(2007-12-14:) Here are a few pages I started on SL, in no particular order: Lim Yoo Jong, Superpower Go, L'âme du Go or Four basic shapes, Audouard Coordinates, Pierre Audouard, Center Oriented Players, Concise Problem Notation, History Of Go In France 1965-2007.

(2008-10-04): Xuanxuan Qijing Problem 17 solution The Value Of Two Moves In A Row

(2010-04-22): An alternative method for diagrams and handwritten Go records

Oct 2017: Toroidal-Go

13: Coming soon: more on the elephant's jump

(2007-12-28:)I would like to compile some examples of the elephant's jump on SL, from real play. I have in mind a recent game of Lee Sedol’s. Also there’s a position from the opening of one of my games I’d like to look at too. I hope to get that done in january.

14: Lim on a Sedol fuseki

Well, none of the above things got done unfortunately. Now I’d like to record some of Maître Lim’s ideas :/Lim on a Sedol fuseki

Links

• My Go blog, partly in English and partly in French.

• Here are some things unrelated to Go I have on the internet. Take a look at the proverbs (FR, EN), I think they’re funny. As for the music part, it’s only work in progress and I’m not very happy with the recordings I’ve put on it...

• Also you can find me on facebook.