Eternal Life
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Eternal life is yet another situation where a void game (no result: neither player wins, but neither player loses) can occur, under rulesets which permit such a thing. Several special rules, such as superko and the Ing Ko Rule, forbid the recurring sequence to occur.
However, eternal life is so rare in games that if one occurs, a Chinese Go text says that:
You should buy fish, vegetables, meat and wine And have a good party to celebrate yourself
Of course, it's an exaggeration...
Example
White makes a throw in at to destroy the eye, and the cycle repeats itself when
sacrifices two stones again.
White has the option of making seki:
Q: But suppose White needs to kill Black in order to win, and Black would never let go of his group, then eternal life occurs.
A: Strictly speaking the position after White 1 in the Seki diagram is not seki, but a hyperactive position. However, when it is correct to make the play, it will almost always become seki.
There was some excitement about this thirty years ago when a variation of the kado joseki played in a title game Sakata - Yamabe could have led to chosei.
SL material
- Eternal ko, a variant of eternal life
- Gokyo Shumyo, Section 1, Problem 85
- Xuanxuan Qijing Problem 148
External references
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