A Beginner's Introduction to GOA Beginner's Introduction to GO
The players must now look for ways to increase their own territory and
reduce their opponent's. White plays 38 which threatens to take a bite out
of Black's territory. If White could play 39, it would be a double atari
and Black could not save everything. So Black plays 39 first to prevent
White from playing there. White plays 40 to stop Black from playing there
and creeping into the corner. Black then plays 41 to try to make a little
more territory and take some away from White. Now the white stones are in
danger of dying, and White plays 42 to make two eyes. If Black could get
a stone at 42, then there would be no way for the white group to make two
eyes, and they would be dead. But now Black sees another way to try to kill
the white stones, and plays 43 to make one of White's eyes a false eye.
This starts a ko fight in the corner. If Black can win this ko fight, all
of the white stones in this corner will die because they will not have two
eyes.
White can capture 43 immediately with 44, since that does not cause a
repetition of a previous position (there has never been a stone in the corner
before). Now Black would like to capture 44 right away, but this is a ko
fight, and Black must look for a ko threat to play. Unfortunately, Black
hasn't got any good threats. Black plays 45 which threatens to reduce White's
territory a bit, but the life-and-death struggle in the top corner is far
more important.
White ends the ko fight right away, not by filling it in, but by capturing
another black stone with 46. Black creeps a little further with 47, but
48 puts the two black stones into atari, and 49 saves them. Now White tries
to sneak into Black's territory with 50, and 51 plugs the leak. White plays
52 to try to get as much territory as possible on the bottom edge, and also
says "atari". But the black stones can be rescued. What move can
Black play to save them?
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