Showing posts tagged: tsumego


Sunday Problem #72

This is a common corner shape that all dan players should know by heart.

Black to play.

Solution
Solution
If there is something in the corner, it has to start from Black’s placement of 1. After this, White has two eye-forming bumping moves to choose from; generally, forming the farmer’s hat with white 2 here is best. After 3–6, it …

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Sunday Problem #71

I arranged this problem from a corner shape that can show up if you invade a two-space high enclosure from a star-point stone.

Black to play.

Solution
Original shape
The problem shape comes from the corner invasion sequence of 1–8. White’s descent of 7 is a bit of a new move, and solidly connecting instead used to be common; but …

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Sunday Problem #70

This problem is arranged from a shape that appeared in a recent game between Oscar and Lucas Neirynck 6d. The presence of White’s t14 stone affects the corner considerably, and the correct solution is nothing short of ingenious.

Black to play.

Solution
Failure (1)
The position of white ‘a’ suggests that black 1 should be an efficient move for procuring …

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Sunday Problem #69

I arranged this problem from a shape that appeared in one of my teaching games. The killing technique involved is not too special, but usually appears in the corner rather than on the side like this.

Black to play.

Solution
Failure
Black 1 is often a key point in this kind of a shape, but unfortunately so is white 2. …

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Sunday Problem #68

This is an original problem arranged from a shape that appeared in a recent tournament game by Lukáš.

Black to play.

Solution
Failure
The peep of 1 looks tempting, but is actually a mistake. After white 2, the white corner cannot be captured; black 3 is probably the strongest attempt, but after 4–8, the miai of ‘a’ and ‘b’ …

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Sunday Problem #67

This is a classic tesuji problem that appears for example in Lee Chang-ho’s collection of tesuji problems.

Black to play.

Solution
Failure
Simply connecting at 1 does not cut it for Black. White extends his corner group’s liberties with 2, threatening to live with 3; if Black tries to prevent this with 3, then white 4 first captures Black.
Solution …

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Sunday Problem #66

This is a difficult variant of a classic tsumego that showed up in my recent lesson with Oscar.

Black to play.

Solution
Solution (1)
The hane of 1 is one way for the black group to live. If White descends to 2, Black jumps to 3, making a miai of ‘a’ and ‘b’.
Solution (2)
Things get more complicated if …

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Sunday Problem #65

This is an easier classic problem to counterweight the recent difficult problems. While the solution sequence is straightforward, it is however still quite long and makes for good visualisation training.

Black to play.

Solution
Solution (1)
Pretty much the only thing Black can try in this problem is the 1–3 squeeze. Following . . .
Solution (2)
. . . …

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Sunday Problem #64

This gem of a problem is based on a shape from Guanzi Pu.

Black to play.

Solution
Solution (1)
This problem is difficult to solve if you’re not familiar with the tesuji of black 1. This sets up two ways for Black to get the forcing moves necessary to form life in the corner: 2–11 here is the first of …

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Sunday Problem #63

This is a somewhat more challenging problem featuring a shape that could appear in a real game.

Black to play.

Solution
Failure
Black 1 may look like a promising move, but it lets white live with 2. Following, Black can get 3–8 in sente for a fairly good endgame profit, but this is still a failure because the core white …

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