Home > Steve > Go > Problem of the month
At a recent tournament I was black and near the end of the game the situation is Dia 1 occurred. Suffering from mental fatigue, and because I was ahead anyway, I chose not to play a large black move elsewhere, but replied to white 1 in the corner to keep it alive.
If White is permitted a second move here, can he kill the corner? This is the sort of situation that occurs practically quite often - it would be good to know the answer without having to analyse it each time.
After the game, I asked a strong dan player this question. He said that I could play Black 2 elsewhere and live in the corner, albeit in a small way. Dia 2 shows his example of living after Black 2 tenukis - the two black stones on the second line are captured, but the bulk survive.
Unfortunately White 3 is the wrong attack.
Go Tools is a very useful program. See my comments on the program. It turns out that the key attack is white 3 and there is nothing Black can do about it. In dia 4, white 13 is 'under the stones' at 3. Dia 5 is a 'bent 4 in the corner'.
Now that is much more awkward question to answer. It is relatively easy to find moves that let Black live. But if Black is going to play here, he wants to get the maximum profit. That may mean he wants to play a move such that any further attack by White is gote. It may mean he wants maximum territory directly. It may mean he wants the ability to push a little at the left edge.
I haven't properly investigated this yet. I hope to do so over the Christmas break.
It is easy to get even this wrong. I have found sekis (as Dia 6) and kos and life (eg Dia 7 for a net 4 points). The best so far has been a 5 point corner - I can't recall how I got it though!
Home >
Steve >
Go >
Problem of the month
British Go Association
Last updated 2004-08-10
This page is part of http://www.stocton.org/
Email: webmaster@stocton.org