A friend of mine was working his way through Mr Fairbairn's ebook, Gateway to All Marvels, problem 10 (Xuanxuan Qijing Problem 111), and thinks he found a way for black to prevent white from killing, by forcing either a ko or seki.

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$W White to play
$$ . . . . . , . . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . O O O |
$$ . . . . . . O X . |
$$ . . . . . O X . X |
$$ . . . . . O X . . |
$$ . . . . . O . . . |
$$ . . . . . O X X . |
$$ . . . . . O . X . |
$$ ------------------[/go]

traditional solution...


My friend's possible solution(s)...

(can I not do nested hide tags?)



Is the traditional solution wrong? Or are we overlooking something?

I think your friend is correct. Looks like ko or seki to me.

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be immersed

This is a known error in the original problem. Go Seigen's Japanese book on the Guanzi Pu lists your friend's alternative as the correct way to play, resulting in ko (volume 1 problem 118 there) . Well spotted!

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Dave Sigaty
"Short-lived are both the praiser and the praised, and rememberer and the remembered..."
- Marcus Aurelius; Meditations, VIII 21

The correct solution being ko is also found in the newest English version of XXQJ being "Baduk Classic - The Profound and Mysterious Vol. 2" from BadukTV translated and revised by Cho Hye-yeon and published in 2014 (Problem 110 in this book).

Obviously the traditional solution was the intended solution of the original author who had titled the problem as "Battered rain hat".

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