Episode #23 The raccoon dog's belly
Hello guys. I'm a raccoon dog.
Today we're going to talk about my favourite move in the game of go.
Thanks raccoon dog. Well, to come to your favourite move, let's start with this position.
This is a tsumego. And the question is: how to kill white's stones?
So black has a small group of 4 stones in the centre and those stones have 3 liberties. So black needs to make sure that white doesn't get more than 3 liberties.
Right. So let's have a look at some of the most basic ideas.
This doesn't work for black.
White has 3 liberties just like black, so he wins the race.
Another idea would be to play from the other side, but then you get this. Also doesn't work.
And again white wins.
In the same position black can try the other tesuji, but then white connects and it's again 3 against 3 liberties, so white wins again.
And then for the beautiful tesuji: this is called [petting the raccoon dog's belly].
Which is, I think what the raccoon dog really likes.
And let's see. If white plays here he dies easily.
If white plays here it's a bit more complicated. Now black needs another tesuji. And this is the petting of the belly, I would say.
Which is beautiful. And here again black is ahead by 1 and he wins the race.
I think it's really beautiful. So let's go to another position from a trick-play where this can also occur.
The trick-play we would like to show you is from our favourite book [A Compendium of Trickplays].
When white plays this submarine attack, then a usual way to answer is like this for black.
He could also consider to play here, that's the more easy variation.
But let's see what happens when he plays here.
This sets up the trick-play. This is not a usual move but a trick-play.
If black just simply defends, then he is getting tricked.
As he is getting confined to the corner.
So this is a very nice result for white. Yes, I agree.
Black could also consider to go out here instead. But still the result would be very nice for white.
So he gets this hane in sente and he has a very comfortable position.
So if we go back, playing this move was not good for black.
So let's see what happens if he plays on the other side instead.
So the result of this move is that black gets influence on the outside and white gets a small corner.
I wouldn't feel very good as black here. Because the thickness, you are not really sure if you can really use it, it depends on the board position. And white gets quite a big corner. So I think I would prefer this for white.
Yes. Me too.
So to go back to this move, the right way for black to answer is to play this hane at the top.
This is a very powerful move.
Now, when white wedges, we come to this position. At this point it is not good for white to play atari from this side, because black gets a very strong position.
Yea, this looks like great shape.
So instead white atari's from the other side.
The result is a position that leads to the raccoon belly tesuji.
When white plays here, then black can block here. But this is not such a good move.
The position will become very complicated. But this cut is very nice for white.
It looks like black is falling apart.
Yes. And black can try to fight here, but the result will not be very clear.
So black has a much better move in this position. He can play the raccoon belly tesuji.
Beautiful.
So if white tries to resist, then we get the full raccoon belly tesuji. This is the petting on the belly.
Yeah!
So now white is captured. If he tries something like this, he's captured.
Well guys, that was really nice. Thank you for petting my belly.
I'm tired now, so I think I'm going to sleep. Bye!