A Fine Line between Anti-Seki vs Both Players Lose?
This anti-seki position discussed earlier also begs the question: why shouldn’t both players lose?
After all, if there are no ko threats, then it seems that this would be an unsettled position, with whoever getting to play first upon resumption gaining the possible decisive advantage. Hence, neither may want to resume to resolve it. However, since this position is ruled as an anti-seki, it would seem that the players could be saved by calling both the black stones and white stones dead (while not removing them and not counting any territory for white), which would limit black’s loss from making this blunder to only 3 points, which might or might not cost black the game, but still provide a clear result with one of the players winning. EDITED: The original wording of this paragraph was wrong, since I had though that the anti-seki situation could override the “both players lose” rule. However, something can be both anti-seki and both players lose.
On the other hand, if there are big enough ko threats such that black would win the ko fight, then black should ask for a resumption (which lets white play first), win the ko fight, and eventually play at A to gain those three points (especially if they change the outcome).
It would seem that purpose of this special rule is to compel black to play at A (even if black is ko master) before ending the game, preventing black from arguing for one more point (i.e., for 3 points of territory plus 1 capture).
However, from the official commentary, whether or not ko threats exist elsewhere on the board does not seem to be required for this position to be considered anti-seki. It would appear that the key feature that distinguishes this position is that there are both black and white stones that can be captured by whoever moves first.
If we accept this logic, would the following positions also be anti-seki (if both players pass and leave them unsettled)?
Or would that result in both players losing (if their status affects the outcome of the game)?
EDIT: The below positions are indeed anti-seki, however they can also result in both players losing if the game close enough that the outcome swings on their unresolved status.
