Threatening to capture a pivotal stone demolishes the eye that would have been formed by White playing at a.
Ignoring the situation doesn't make it go away.
ProtoDeuteric- Would this be gote on white's part?
Mef: Only if white adds another stone and black doesn't respond.
ProtoDeuteric- Maybe I'm just not looking at this problem correctly. To me, black appears to concern itself with the possiblity for white to make eyes around the ponnukied stone. Would a more accurate interpretation be that and
are miai, and that thus
is, in fact, a response to
?
Mef: Yes, white has 2 places to make an eye, so after white makes an eye with , black destroys the other eye with
, so
is a local response.
White's strongest resistance is to set up a ko at and fight it. It's the only correct move for White.