Problem 10 of Maeda's Life and Death Intermediate Level Problems is the following:
The solution in the book is given in the next three diagrams:
Black is alive in the corner. White must win the ko to survive.
Isn't ko considered a failure in life and death problems?
Alex Weldon: What ko? White captures at a and has two eyes.
SnotNose: But it is Black's move (Alex Weldon: Oh... duhhhh). Anyway, ko is not a failure unless the problem description says "White to live" or "white to live unconditionally." If the problem is "White to do the best she can" (like a one-sided "status" problem) then ko may be the solution. The hard part of problems of this type is you don't know when you've solved them. You find a ko and still wonder if you could have done better. (Actually, the situation I hate is when I find a ko and a seki. I can't decide which is best without knowing the whole board situation, which isn't given.)
dnerra: Minor nitpick: A "status problem" is, in my understanding, a problem where you are asked to decide
I.e., exactly what you have to do all the time in your own games.
Charles I agree with that. But Maeda almost always says just White to play, that is, gives a semi-status problem. The question here comes down therefore to what exactly the book says about the
stones.
Velobici: The book says exactly the text used as the description of the first diagram, that is, White to save the marked stones. I understood that as the marked stones are to live unconditionally. The solution is Maeda is given in two diagrams. The exact text of the solution is: