Flashcards

[Bill Spight]

A while back there was a discussion about flashcards for go. Well, I made one.

Maybe I will make another one. Maybe other people will make flashcards.



Assuming that the enclosing Black stones are alive, what is the status of the top left corner?

Enjoy!

[RBerenguel]

It's just on the edge of what I can visualise clearly! I'd definitely spend a lot of time each time I got this one. Always neat, hate-able problems

[daal]

Nice problem - but what makes it a flashcard or appropriate for a flashcard?

Every time I read it, white is dead.

[RBerenguel]

Nice problem - but what makes it a flashcard or appropriate for a flashcard?

Every time I read it, white is dead.

Maybe Bill is joking (wouldn't be unheard-of ) but this is the kind of problem (that for me) you can't be totally sure, heuristics-wise and can't really plot a "shape point" to win. So, every time this appears it needs to be re-read until the end, and thus makes a perfect problem in my flashcard style: problems you need to read every time you see them, even if you know the "answer".

[EdLee]

Thanks, Bill.

My reading is W is dead. If it's B's turn, B can tenuki.
If it's W's turn and W starts to kill at A16, then B kills W first.
W has only 2 outside libs.
As soon as the A16 shared lib is filled:
W is down to 5 libs.
But B has 6.

[Akura]

I see big eye vs big eye. Black has 4 inner liberties. White has 2 inner and 2 outer liberties. With the shared liberty this should be Seki, shouldn't it?

[Bill Spight]

Nice problem - but what makes it a flashcard or appropriate for a flashcard?

Every time I read it, white is dead.

You can solve it by counting.

And you don't have to count higher than 5.

Right you are.

The Big Eye gets the shared liberty.

[Bill Spight]

I see big eye vs big eye. Black has 4 inner liberties. White has 2 inner and 2 outer liberties. With the shared liberty this should be Seki, shouldn't it?

The bigger eye gets the shared liberty. White is dead.

[Bill Spight]

This is a big eye vs. bigger eye semeai. At first blush it looks like each player has 4 outside liberties. Black has four inside the eye and White has two inside the eye plus two on the outside. However, Black's bigger eye gets the shared liberty. Therefore White is dead.

Note that if Black starts by playing inside his own eye instead of filling one of White's liberties, the eyes become the same size, and the result is seki.