Wednesday, September 21, 2005

A Matter of Life and Death I


I thought it would be interesting to post a Life or Death problem from one of my games into my blog. From the looks of things, White is in bad shape, starting off with a 6-stone handicap. Don't you worry. This White is much stronger than me... and has ME! as an opponent. In the meantime, I played a tenuki and ignored White's move toward my upper left group, just so that I could get into this situation, and find a way out. This game is taking place of the Dragon Go Server. For those not familiar with Dragon, it is not real-time, and each player has about a 3-month time limit. That's right folks: 3 months. [plus sleep and vacation time!]
I have decided to let White have the top while I try to secure the other corners and sides, and hope that I can read Go books fast enough to be able to fight him by the time it gets ugly.
This is probably easy for a lower kyu, but for us 30k's, these positions end up dead. So here is the problem: How can you save the marked Black stones. I don't just mean save them and then get even more stones killed down the sideline. Save!
It's best if you can show move numbers for both Black and White, and keep in mind that White gets to make good moves too.
The problem is posted below in JPG form for viewing, or you can download the SGF file by [RIGHT CLICK] [SAVE TARGET AS] on the SGF <--- I left in the moves so those who would like to see how the situation developed may do so. To go to the problem, skip to the last move. Please email the responses to me, either as a JPG with move numbers, or as an SGF file, and in about a week (once I receive enough responses), I will add the move I chose, how it ended up and the choices other people made.
This one is easy, but has many moves. I will start looking in future games for more suitable Life and Death problems.
-ed note- I have already chosen my move. Don't think I am cheating! :)
-email to
Bodhiwater@aol.com




1 Comments:

At 3:52 AM, Blogger ChiyoDad said...

This is just my 2-cents. I think B14 would save them with minimum losses; possibly none.

White may be happy to let your stones live. By forcing you to defend, he builds a right-facing wall which helps him settle a base on the top of the board. He may then do a similar play to the right-upper corner to create a left-facing wall. He then can claim the center since he has the stone at K17. It would become difficult for you to invade.

You, of course, get to claim part of the left side.

 

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