Showing posts tagged: sunday-problem


Sunday Problem #41

This is an original tsumego by me. The solution sequence for this is not particularly outstanding, but as a tsumego this has value in that this position can easily result from a particular 3-3 invasion jōseki.

Black to play.

Solution
Solution
Black’s straightforward attack with 1–5 is correct, and the result is a two-step kō.
Black can also start by attaching at
a, after which white b and 1–5 follow; the result is practically the same.

Sunday Problem #40

This is a problem from Chō Chikun’s Yose no Tesuji (), or Endgame Tesuji.

Black to play.

Solution
Solution
Black’s attachment of 1 is the key move. If White tries to resist with 2, then he gets captured by 3–5.
Instead of 2, White has no choice but to play 3 himself and sacrifice the two stones to the right.

Sunday Problem #39

Last week we had an extremely difficult problem, so I picked an easier one for this time. This problem is so classic that it is hard to say where it is originally from; my guess would be one of the classic tsumego collections.

Black to play.

Solution
Solution
Black 1 and 3 are an exquisite move order. White has no resistance available and, up to 7, White is captured.
7 at 5
Failure
Black 1 here is wrong. This time, Black can only manage a kō for the white group’s life.

Sunday Problem #38

This is an original problem by me, inspired by a shape that occurred in an ngd league game. This is one of the few cases I’ve seen where a real-game position leads to a difficult and interesting life-and-death problem.

This problem included a small competition, where the first person to post the correct answer would get one month of Kifu …

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Sunday Problem #37

This is a classic problem from Gokyō Shumyō. There are in fact two solutions, but they lead to the same final shape.

Black to play.

Solution
Solution (1)
Black can start with 1 or 5 – in either case, White responds with 2. Instead of 3, too, Black can first throw in at 5 without changing the outcome.
After 3, …

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Sunday Problem #36

Continuing with famous classic problems, this is problem 15 from Chō’s tsumego encyclopedia, advanced section.

Black to play.

Solution
Solution
Black’s 1–3 combination is the only order of moves that works. The main challenge in this problem is finding black 3, which becomes a kind of blind spot due to its bad shape.

Sunday Problem #35

Like last week’s problem, this is also from Guanzi Pu – and, in fact, also from Xuanxuan Qijing, where its title is (sui-raku-seki-shutsu). Literally this means a river’s water receding and the riverbed’s rocks’ becoming visible, but the figurative meaning is that of truth becoming revealed.

Black to play.

Solution
Solution
This diagram shows White’s strongest resistance. …

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Sunday Problem #34

This is a slightly modified problem from Guanzi Pu. Although most of Guanzi Pu’s content is endgame (it’s even in the collection’s name, or Endgame diagrams), this is clearly a life-and-death problem.

Black to play.

Solution
Solution (1)
Black has no choice but to start by driving White down to the first line with 1–6. After this, however, …

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Sunday Problem #33

Here is an easier problem a ridiculously difficult endgame problem that somehow found its way to a life-and-death problem collection.

This is from the Nihon Ki-In’s 150, or 150 Graded Life-and-Death Problems for 3-Dan Players.

Black to play.

Solution
Gote seki
The book mistakenly says that the bump of black 1 is correct, followed by white …

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Sunday Problem #32

This is an original problem I thought up two days ago. The shape is closely linked to Sunday Problem #31, but this problem highlights an aspect of the base problem that people more rarely think about.

Black to play.

Solution
Solution (1)
Black 1 is the correct starting move – even though at first glance it appears to make …

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