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I came across this in Zagreb where some DFKs were looking through a Cyrillic problem book. The answer is harder to find than you might think.
What needs to be considered? The black group on the left has only three liberties - the same number as the right half of the white group. Black needs to capture the white stones quickly.
9 takes ko at 5.
Many of these moves are forced. White lives and the black stones in the corner live or die, hemmed in, in ko 3-2 and 4-2 points . The central black stones are now a bit weaker, so this is not a good result.
Note that this only worked for white because of the weakness at 8. Black can improve on this result...
5 at 3, 6 at 1.
9 is atari. Disaster for White, hooray! But can White do better?
12 is an external ko threat, 13 a ko answer, 14 retakes ko at
,
15 an external ko threat, 17 at 11.
Dia 5 shows the ko being won by White. If Black wins the ko, he just takes the white stones off.
The best that Black can do appears to be a ko.
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Problem of the month
British Go Association
Last updated 2004-08-10
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