is tesuji. It is the effective use of the belly attachment suji. It deals with two problems simultaneously, namely White's cut at a and White's watari at b.
may be unexpected resistance.
makes miai of a and b.
After , the circled points show Black's liberties (four). Even if White effectively captures the stones, Black connects at a and White has three liberties : two inside the eye, and one internal, which Black cannot count. (See Richard Hunter's theory on Counting Liberties.)
White can't connect at a because of shortage of liberties.
KarlKnechtel: But what if at
, giving this diagram?
Now Black can't cut at a, and White has time to connect there later - and there doesn't appear to be room for a second eye for Black anywhere.
unkx80: You are right. has to be played at
instead, giving the following diagram.
Black should play at in this diagram, and White has no good resistance. Also after Black 2, White is caught in a shortage of liberties, so White cannot play at a.
The following diagrams are just to prove the statement of the reference diagram, i.e. that defends against two threats.
Caution! Black is not alive in sente! He has to answer. If not:
White's belly attachment makes ko. Black cannot answer with at
, because
at
will then reduce him to one eye.
In the above diagrams, notice that Black answered White's attacks twice at the same point. White's strongest resistance is to play at that point herself (cf. the main line).
Now for some failures.
The vulgar (crude) move at provokes a forcing magari at
, giving White the time to play atari with
.
If Black hane at ,
threatens to make two eyes, and
makes it ko.
If Black turns at , White plays atari from the other side (again threatening to make two eyes) and then captures two stones with
. Black can neither play at a nor at b, because of shortage of liberties.
Problem34
Back to KanazawaTesujiSeries