Life In 19x19

And now for something not very well known, I present to you an ancient endgame problem from Huang Longshi's book Yi Kuo (弈括). Remember that this is an ENDGAME problem so it's about encroachment rather than life and death. Enjoy.

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$Bc
$$ | . . . . . . . .
$$ | . O O O O . . .
$$ | . O X X O . . .
$$ | . X . X X O . .
$$ | . . . . . O . .
$$ | . . . . X . O .
$$ | . . X . X . . .
$$ | . X O X . O . .
$$ | . X O X O . . .
$$ | . O O , O . . .
$$ | . . . O . . . .
$$ | . O . . . . . .
$$ | . . . . . . . .
$$ +-----------------[/go]

White to move

Hint to the above problem.
In the model answer, it ends with Black living with only 2 points in gote.

Must be very demoralizing for black; that enclosed region looks like ten or twelve points of territory easily.

Ok, another problem from the book Yi Kuo by Huang Longshi

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$Bc
$$ ----------------+
$$ . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . O O |
$$ . . . . O O X . |
$$ . . . . O X X . |
$$ . O . O X . . . |
$$ . . . O X . . . |
$$ . . . . O X . . |
$$ . . . . O X . . |
$$ . . . O X . . . |
$$ . . . O X X X X |
$$ . . . O O O O O |
$$ . . . . . . . . |[/go]

White to move and to aim for the best result. Enjoy.

The book Yi Miao contains almost 20 games by Huang Longshi, 4 of which are taken from the Games of Blood and Tears played against his student Xu Xingyou. I have translated it into English under the title Games of Wonder. You may find more details about the book in this thread:
viewtopic.php?f=17&t=10127

There is no commentary though. I added an alphabetical list of players, their short biographies (if known), and a foreword. You may preview on Amazon to see if it is useful for you.