Teaching eyes to beginners discussion

Dieter: The objective of this page has been superseded by the generally accepted page Recognizing an eye). If the authors of this page agree, we can delete it.

Scartol: Look, my goal is to make Go as easy to understand for beginners as possible (especially since so much of it was so puzzling for me as I was coming up). So I think this way of presenting the idea of real vs. false eyes makes the most sense:

Real eyes  

In general: If black can surround a point with a circle of at least seven stones, he has an eye. (In the middle; fewer stones are needed for the sides and corners.) However..

False eyes  

If white fills two of the corner spots in the circle, black's eye becomes false. Note that there are exceptions to this rule; once in a while, a shape can survive that appears to contain false eyes (include above examples).

Skelley: I see what you mean and your effort is very much appreciated. I usually use corner problems to illustrate false eyes to beginners. It seems to me that it is easier for them to understand that way.

False eye  

Something like this.

x is the vital point.

If any of the stones surrounding the eye can be captured then the eye is false.

False eye  

And then this.

x is the vital point.

Bill: I think these are half eyes, not false eyes.

See also:

• Two corners kills the eye