Geoff Kaniuk's referee exercises

[yebellz]

@Vsotvep

Additionally, bent four is dead under any ruleset. It’s not a rule, but a consequence of a rule.

There are some interesting exceptions to this. In fact, it is possible for two bent fours to be alive in seki under Japanese rules. The status under area scoring rules depends on the existence and size of unremovable ko threats.

Life and Death under Chinese Rules

Consider the following board position under Chinese rules with a 5.5 point komi [game1] Which stones are alive or dead? Who will win this game and by how much? What is the best line of play? The purpose of this example is to explore how life and death is handled under Chinese rules. Pause here to consider the above questions if you wish to treat this example as a problem, before reading on into the rest of the discussion. Discussion Note that white’s group in the top-left forms a “bent fo…