BeginnersEndgameExercise5/Attempts

danbek?:

[Diagram]

White 8, black 7

Attempt 1 - but reply to attempt 2 below shows that black has better options than 4.

[Diagram]

White 9, Black 8

Attempt 2 - the reply shows that black can do better than 6, so this is no good.

[Diagram]

White 9, Black 8

Attempt 3 - black must respond to 1

[Diagram]

Jigo

Attempt 4


Bill: Reply to danbek.

[Diagram]

Jigo



Return.


danbek?:

So Bill's reply shows that the above attempts don't work for white. But this white 3 doesn't seem to work either:

[Diagram]

Jigo



Does this mean white 1 is wrong?


LukeNine45: After playing through a bunch of variations in JaGo, I think the idea is *not* to play W1 in the above diagrams, rather keeping the threat to kill black's group.

Bill: Yes, indeed. W1 is aji keshi.

Here is my proposal for best play in this situation:

[Diagram]

White 8, black 6



Bill: Well done, LukeNine45! This is indeed canonical play. :-)

Black doesn't play at B4 at W5 in the above diagram because of this:

[Diagram]

White 6, black 4 (White 11 at a)


Black must make two eyes.

Another variation:

[Diagram]

Black can not play at a because b would then kill him


B2 at b makes the group alive, but doesn't make enough points. This problem definitely wasn't "easy"-- at least not for this 10kyu. There's no way I would have seen this in a game....

Bill:

[Diagram]

White kills

If B7, W8 kills.

So Black plays B7 at B10. Now White plays the W9 - B8 sente and then plays W7 to win by 1 point.

As for seeing it in a game, it is obvious that the White sente in the bottom right secures two eyes for Black. It is also obvious that if White takes away Black's potential eye in the center instead, Black will have to reply to White on the right side sooner or later. That makes White's plays there more valuable.

You do not have to read it all out. Just keep aji keshi in mind. :-)

LukeNine45: I hadn't been thinking of it as aji keshi, but now that you point it out, it makes a lot of sense! Thanks!


This is a copy of the living page "BeginnersEndgameExercise5/Attempts" at Sensei's Library.
(OC) 2009 the Authors, published under the OpenContent License V1.0.
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