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This problem is from James Davies' "Life and Death", page 35 problem 4.
The reason for using it here is that I don't 100% agree with his answer - I believe that the final part of his sequence can be improved upon from an endgame point of view.
So, solve JD's problem and then improve on it...
The original answer I posted to this problem was shown by Tim Hunt to be wrong. I have redone the answers, keeping the original page structure. It demonstrates that JD was in fact correct. So this month has turned out to be a bit of a non-problem.
 6 at 2. |
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JD's answer ends with black 7 in Dia 2. The continuation of Dia 3 shows that it permits White a gote sequence of 8 thru 10. The end result of this is that, within the red lined corner, Black gets 2 points of territory and White captures one stone, 5, for a net score 'in the endgame' of 1 to Black.
So why doesn't Black play as Dia 4? Connecting at 7 captures 6. We now have Black with 4 points and White with 3. Again a net score of 1 to Black.
Note however that White 10 is a 1 point gote move and almost certainly would really be played elsewhere. Black would then get the push at 10 with a block below it, but that isn't worth losing sente for.
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British Go Association
Last updated 2004-08-10
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