Promoting Go in the UK and beyond

British Go Journal No. 64. March 1985. Page 31.

These are the solutions to problems on page 14 and page 21.

Solution 1 (p14)

Black 1 must be played first. If you start at 3 instead, White can play at 1 himself and get a ko.

Solution 2 (p14)

White starts by extending at 1. Now if Black plays 2, there is a snap-back at 3. If White had started by capturing Black's stone, there would be no snap-back.

Solution 3 (p14)

White 1 does the trick. 3 is one line longer than a monkey jump, but it cannot be cut off. If White tries playing at 3 first, then Black plays A, and 1 no longer works, since White runs out of liberties.

Solution (p21)

(Problem (p21))

BGJ did not include the problem diagram on the solution page, it is included here for easy reference.

The centre white group can clearly live or be killed by putting a stone in the middle of its eyespace.

The white group on the left can be killed as shown here.

The black group, which has no eyes, is unconditionally alive - it is a rare animal known as the double headed dragon. (Think how White might put it into atari.)

This position arose in a game in which the white stones were held by Allan Scarff's computer program, Microgo. The program understands false eyes very well, but thought it had killed all Black's stones.