Life and Death under Chinese Rules

[yebellz]

@yebellz

It should also be noted that under the modern Japanese rules, it is not automatic that bent four in the corner is always dead either. Here is an example where two interacting bent fours in the corner produces a seki: http://warp.povusers.org/go/UndeadBentFours/

Unfortunately, the website linked above seems to be offline. However, I found that the original position (although without the detailed analysis) can be found via Sensei’s library here: Strange Sekis at Sensei's Library

Here is the pattern, which is seki under all rulesets:

This is seki in a manner analogous to hanezeki, in the sense that whoever plays another move in the local position will surprisingly start a capturing race that they lose. In other words, you can only win the capturing race if your opponent plays first (and hence no one should want to start it).