Life and Death Problem 1

Here is the situation and then you can look at the solution and see how this happened and what occurred in the actual game after the jump. Also, I just realized that it would make more sense to just post the problem and solution at the same time and hide the solution by making it visible only after you click on the read more link. That will make it easier to archive the problems because each will only have on post, so after this we'll keep it simpler.

Dia. 1

White has just descended with the marked stone which we decided later was a mistake, instead white might look at playing atari to the left of the marked stone at C18. Alright, its a complicated situation and there may be another way to live, or maybe there is a way for white to kill black but I at least went over this with a dan player and he was convinced that black could live. Think you've got it? Solution after the jump.


Alright, lets see what happened in the actual game and some other ideas for what each player could do.

Dia. 2

There is a proverb that says 'Sacrafice two stones' and we see it action here. By adding another stone at 33 black gets to play 35 and 37 in sente and then hane at 39. When black makes a second eye at 43 white turns at 44. If white wants to play this way it would be better to crawl again at 44 because then white doesn't have the throw in at E19 to create a ko (white at E19, black at F19, white at H19 and black has to win the ko to keep his eye), in the actual game I didn't see the ko and thought I was safe here. The move at 45 seems to have nice balance, playing on the key point for an extension from white's wall at 42 & 44 and reinforcing the corner as well but I actually let a major opportunity slip. After 44 black should push through at G16 and cut white in two.

If you look at the variations ater black 45 at G16 you'll find that there is no way that white can stay connected. With two weak groups this fight heavily favors black and even if neither of the white groups is actually captured black can eventually find the time to go back and guarantee his second eye by playing at F19. Since this cut is so severe white should probably play 44 at 46 directly to prevent it. This allows black to live in sente, if white later plays at 44 black will take gote to play at F19 to ensure life.

If you want to see how this situation came about here is the game diagram:

Dia. 3

 

There are a number of mistakes here, black 9 should be at 27, white 10 should be played simply at 28, also to take the corner. After white's cut at 22 I thought that after the atari at 23 and with the aji left in the corner and the possibility of threatening the six white stones on the left side that I could either save these three stones, live in the corner or break out somehow. I've looked at this situation a lot and it seems that black has just enough to work with to get something out of the his stones on the inside.