American Go Association Problem of the Week

2009-02-02

Problem diagram.
White plays.

Source:
Qi Jing Zhong Miao #466 , an ancient collection of mostly kyu level life and death problems, although this problem is tougher than most.

Side variation analysis:
Myron Souris

Solution follows (or click here to download SGF)

Correct.
White 1 is a standard tesuji, but how can White connect?! Black 2 seems to be able to easily block White from connecting. But White has another not so common tesuji at 3! White throws in another tesuji at 11 to stay connected.

See the SGF for even more variations than those shown here.

Black variation.
Black can try to cut here with 6. Black 8 tries to keep White separated, but White 9 saves the day. Black's right edge group can capture 3 stones, but cannot make 2 eyes. Black takes a big loss.

Earlier Black variation.
Black 2 is another try that seems to easily keep White from connecting. But through 11, White stays connected by the skin of his teeth!

Failure.
White 1 is bad timing. After Black 2, White's 3 stones lose a valuable freedom over the correct line. Now the tesuji of White 3 no longer works. Through Black 8, White cannot connect due a shortage of liberties.

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