The Second Book of Go: Question about Capturing Races

Strategy and Tactics
1

It would be nice if someone could help me with this.

So yesterday I partly read ‘Chapter 7 - Counting Liberties’ of Richard Bozulich’s ‘The Second Book of Go’.
And then I came across this position in James Davies - Life and Death (Chapter 3 problem 1):

I first thought that according to ‘The Second Book of Go’ this should be a type 2 fight (two or more inside liberties) and the result should be seki.

The Second Book of Go, Chapter 7:

If Black and White have the same number of outside liberties and there are two or more inside liberties, the result is seki.

→ Black and white both have zero outside liberties and there are three inside liberties.

But in this case white can kill by playing A :open_mouth:

Then I thought actually it should be a type 3 fight (One eye versus no eye) because black has an eye here right?
But that also doesn’t work:

The Second Book of Go, Chapter 7:

In a fight where one side has an eye and the other doesn’t (Type 3 fight), the position can never become seki.

But in this case black can indeed make a seki by playing A, right?
So what am I missing here? Is this maybe an exception because white can make a killing shape?

And do you apply such ‘rules’ in your games/capturing races or do you rather read out each position?

2

I haven’t read the book but hopefully I can make some sense of this.
If you treat this as a capturing race, then technically the white group dies if playing at A and another another inside liberty. It’s true that the resulting shape is dead, but in a capturing race, black still captured the group. Secondly, black’s group only has an eye if we’re assuming it’s not a capturing race between the two inside group.
For an example, if it is a fight between A and B, then black has a big eye.

example.png275×533 136 KB

3

When it’s whites turn: Playing at ‘a’, he creates a bulky five (if black respondes or not) and black is dead. When it’s blacks turn: Black lives with a seki.

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4

Thanks, that lead me in the right direction.

This is not a ‘real’ capturing race in the first place. In a capturing race neither group wants to get captured. But here white wants to get captured (as a killable shape).

If we take away the possibility of almost-filling with a killable shape it works again according to the book:


The Second Book of Go, Chapter 7:

If Black and White have the same number of outside liberties and there are two or more inside liberties, the result is seki.

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