Home > Steve > Go > Problem of the month
This is from a game against Edward Blockley at the Cheshire tournament last month.
What can Black do? What can White manage?
Background information: I was white - and resigned shortly after losing the entire corner!
I have not researched this as thoroughly as perhaps I should however...
I hope these two diagrams show that white can live.
If white connects at the 3-6 point, Black can take the corner, but White still has a solid 2 by 4 space to live with. There may perhaps be some sneaky way for black to reduce this to a seki, but white will still live.
If white blocks the corner at the 2-3 point, which I feel to be better, then white appears to live with territory. Dia 3 shows a refutration of one black attack, but this isn't very rigorous I'm afraid.
In the actual game, I either didn't have sente or didn't take sente, so black got to play here first. The situation is made more awkward by the large number of stones on the right which prevent a casual sacrifice of one part of the group.
If black attacks through the 3-6 point gap, and white attempts to save the entire group, he dies. Black has fairly easy counters to anything white may do. Dia 4 shows one such variation.
I have not run this thorugh "GoTools" life and death analyser, so I may be wrong here. However Dia 5 seems a reasonable attack by black which fails (just) if white gives up the 9 stones on the right. A significant loss.
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Problem of the month
British Go Association
Last updated 2004-08-10
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