In the bottom left, black can’t play. It’s either illegal(A1) or catastrophically self-atari(C1&A3). However white can play A1 followed by either of C1,A3 to compel black to take. White then plays inside to create a ko. As white may do this at his leisure(after removing all ko threats), the bent-four shape is typically ruled dead under Japanese rules.
You say black could live there if using Chinese rules, but I don’t see how. Unless you are talking about a white player who doesn’t see the sequence and never makes the necessary plays, it seems to me that black is dead in the lower left no matter what rules set… It seems to me, in Chinese rules, the end game would look like this.
Is there something about the upper right that I’m not getting?
