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April 1997's Go Answer of the Month

Dia 1 - What is 'A' worth?

I suppose this could be categorised as an endgame question:
How much is a White move at 'A' worth? Is it gote or sente or ...?

Dia 2 & 3 - Related Black and White first moves.

In this (different) situation, first play at 'A' is worth 2 points in gote.

The actual question is a sort of trick question. I played 'A' in Dia 1 in a tournament game without bothering to read out what happened. I lost a large group of stones!

Dia 4 - The situation in the problem.

White 1 is a bad idea. However White 3 is fatal, resulting in the capture of half of the stones.

Dia 5 - Saving the stones on the right.

Playing White 5 of diagram 4 at 1 here leads to the death of the stones on the left instead.

Both diagrams 4 and 5 are unbearable for White. (Dia 5 is three points better for White than Dia 5, but it leaves Black with Sente.)

Dia 6 - Recovery.

If White had realised his error after his first play, he could have recovered by playing 3 of diagram 4 at 1 here.

Dia 7- If Black plays first.

White gets 8 points in the corner, a reverse sente sequence.

Dia 8 - If White plays first.

White gets 11 points (10 unmarked + the left ) in a gote sequence. There remains a 2 point (+/-1) gote follow-on (the two points).

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