I am puzzled by exercise 050

Teaching
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I am puzzled by this exercise: Exercise 050.

After reading the solution , it seems one should end up with something like: https://boardgamegeek.com/image/6748287/slimy-asparagus.

However I don’t see how it benefits Black to have fought this battle. Although I can follow the logic of the first few moves, it seems to me the White stones are now live, and Black made sacrifices for no gain.

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It’s a ko fight. If black wins the ko, the corner survives with points. If white wins the ko, the corner dies

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More precisely, after the move on the picture, the game may continue like this:

  • Black plays a ko threat elsewhere
  • White responds to the ko threat
  • Black plays S19
  • White plays a ko threat
  • Black ignores the ko threat and kills the corner.
  • White plays elsewhere.
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I would imagine Black’s threat elsewhere has to be pretty damn strong.

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Yes, this works if Black has big ko threat(s) elsewhere, for instance a move that threatens to kill a big group.

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or bring an otherwise dead group back to life.

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Thanks everyone. I get it now.

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Not really, black doesn’t have much to lose, so also a small ko threat that white ignores can be a slight gain for black.

Note: Black doesn’t lose any points by playing inside white’s territory, if white has to answer with moves on the inside too.

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