cut to gain a liberty

   
[Diagram]

Cutting gains a liberty

Alex: There is a capturing race between the Black group in the corner and the marked White stones, playing a cut at B1 gains an effective (fighting) liberty for Black in sente. White obviously must respond at W2, but will now have to add another move at a before being able to play at the circled point to fill a real external liberty.

Of course, White could not normally play at the marked point without playing at W1, so it may appear that the cut changes nothing. However, since this is a capturing race, it is important to realise that if White plays out all the necessary moves in the corner first, then she will eventually be able to play at that point as an atari and Black will not have time to cut anymore. It is therefore important for Black to remember to cut at some point earlier, although the exact timing is generally not very important.

[Diagram]

Cutting gains a liberty

In this variation, Black waited too long to play the marked point. If Black tries to give atari to the three white stones, White ends the capturing race by capturing the seven black stones.


This is a copy of the living page "cut to gain a liberty" at Sensei's Library.
(OC) 2016 the Authors, published under the OpenContent License V1.0.
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