Sunday Problem #27

Published 6 Dec 2020 by antti (last edited 13 Dec 2020)

tags: tsumego, sunday-problem

Finland is celebrating its 103rd Independence Day today, and so, for this week’s problem, I ended up composing a tsumego in Finland’s shape.

There’s a lot of open space, which complicates reading, but as far as I could see there is only one solution.

Black to play.

Solution

Failure
A straightforward defence such as black 1, planning to sacrifice just three stones, is not enough. For example here, after white 6, Black is unable to form two eyes.

Solution
Black has to start with the connection of 1, followed by the sacrifice of seven stones. This gives Black the maximal number of forcing moves, allowing her to claim the key point of 9. In the end, Black lives unconditionally.