# The Game of Go (annotated)/Chapter VIII

In the original published version most of the problems and solutions were not illustrated. This version adds the missing illustrations.
VIII
PROBLEMS
After the student has become familiar with the rules and the methods of play, and perhaps has played a few games either with another beginner or with a Japanese master, the impression left on the mind is likely to be that the game is too vague, and that there is too wide a latitude of choice of positions where stones may be placed. This impression might be corrected by the study of illustrative games, or of “Joseki” and end positions, but such a course is rather dry and uninteresting, and, in the opinion of the author, by far the best way of attaining a correct idea of the game is by means of problems.
Many of us are familiar with Chess problems, and I think Chess players will agree that they benefit the student of Chess very little, because the assumed positions are not such as arise frequently in actual play. The opposite is the case in regard to Go problems. These are for the most part taken from actual games, and the typical problem is a situation that is quite likely to arise in actual play, and some of them are positions that occur again and again.
If the student of the game will set up these positions from the text and attempt to solve them, preferably with the aid and encouragement of some friend, he will find that the task is an interesting one, and he will be impressed by the great accuracy which is necessary in attacking and defending difficult positions.
With the knowledge obtained in this way, he will be ​able to judge with far greater skill what to do when a position is threatened in actual play. He will be able to distinguish whether the danger is real, and whether it is, therefore, necessary to reply to his adversary's attack, or whether he can afford to ignore it and assume the "Sente" in some other part of the board. He will also be able to perceive when an adversary's group is vulnerable so that it will be profitable to attack it.
The collection of problems which I have given in this book are rearranged from Korschelt's work, and they were in turn taken by him from a Japanese treatise called "Go Kiyo Shiyu Miyo." Necessarily the collection here given is a very small one, but if any reader of this book becomes so much interested in the game that he desires to study other examples, he will doubtless find some Japanese acquaintance who can supply him with further material, as the Japanese literature of the game contains large collections.
The most important kind of problems are those in which the question is how to kill an adversary's group, or how to save one's own group when threatened. It is also often very important to know how a connection between two groups can be forced.
For greater clearness these problems are arranged under seven heads; to wit,
1. Saving Threatened Groups.
2. Killing Groups.
3. Playing for "Ko."
    The advantage gained by this operation is not apparent in the group itself, but depends upon which player has the larger threatened group elsewhere.
4. Reciprocal Attacks or "Semeai."
    This is a combination of the first two kinds of problems, and it only differs from them in that both players have comparatively strong groups which are so intertwined that both cannot live, and the question is, which can kill the other first.
5. Connecting Groups.
    The problem here is to force a connection between a small group having insufficient "Me" and some larger group.
6. "Oi otoshi."
    This really means a "robber's attack." It arises where a group is apparently engulfed by the opponent, and when, by adding further stones to it which the opponent must take, the threatened player can force his opponent to abandon a part of his surrounding chain in order not to sustain greater losses. The attack is so sudden and unexpected that the Japanese compare it to the methods of a highwayman. It is an example of the finest play in the game.
7. Cutting.
    This is another method of escape, and the problem is to cut off and kill part of the adversary's surrounding chain.
In the following examples the side having the first move is given in italics.
I. Saving Threatened Groups
* Saving problem 5
* Saving problem 6
* Saving problem 7
* Saving problem 8
* Saving problem 9
* Saving problem 10
* Saving problem 11
* Saving problem 12
* Saving problem 13
* Saving problem 14
* Saving problem 15
* Saving problem 16
* Saving problem 17
* Saving problem 18
* Saving problem 19
* Saving problem 20
Plate 40
* Saving problem 21
* Saving problem 22
* Saving problem 23
* Saving problem 24
II. Killing Groups
* Killing problem 5
* Killing problem 6
* Killing problem 7
* Killing problem 8
* Killing problem 9
* Killing problem 10
* Killing problem 11
* Killing problem 12
* Killing problem 13
Plate 41
* Killing problem 14
* Killing problem 15
* Killing problem 16
* Killing problem 17
* Killing problem 18
* Killing problem 19
III. Playing for "Ko"
* Ko problem 5
* Ko problem 6
* Ko problem 7
* Ko problem 8
* Ko problem 9
* Ko problem 10
Plate 42
* Ko problem 11
* Ko problem 12
* Ko problem 13
* Ko problem 14
* Ko problem 15
* Ko problem 16
IV. Reciprocal Attacks (“Semeai”)
* Semeai problem 5
* Semeai problem 6
* Semeai problem 7
* Semeai problem 8
* Semeai problem 9
* Semeai problem 10
* Semeai problem 11
Plate 43
V. Connecting Groups
VI. "Oi otoshi"
* Connecting groups problem 5
* Connecting groups problem 6
* Connecting groups problem 7
* Connecting groups problem 8
* Connecting groups problem 9
* Connecting groups problem 10
* Connecting groups problem 11
* Connecting groups problem 12
Plate 44
Plate 45
* Oi otoshi problem 5
* Oi otoshi problem 6
* Oi otoshi problem 7
* Oi otoshi problem 8
* Oi otoshi problem 9
* Oi otoshi problem 10
* Oi otoshi problem 11
* Oi otoshi problem 12
VII. Cutting
Plate 46
SOLUTIONS TO PROBLEMS
I. Saving Threatened Groups
* Saving answer 1
* Saving answer 2
* Saving answer 3
* Saving answer 4
* Saving answer 5 first
* Saving answer 5 second
* Saving answer 6
* Saving answer 7 first
* Saving answer 7 second
* Saving answer 8
* Saving answer 9
* Saving answer 10
* Saving answer 11 first
* Saving answer 11 second
* Saving answer 12
* Saving answer 13
* Saving answer 14
* Saving answer 15 first
* Saving answer 15 second
* Saving answer 16 first
* Saving answer 16 second
* Saving answer 17
* Saving answer 18 first
* Saving answer 18 second
* Saving answer 19
* Saving answer 20
* Saving answer 21
* Saving answer 22
* Saving answer 23
* Saving answer 24
II. Killing Groups
III. Playing for “Ko”
* Killing answer 1
* Killing answer 2 first
* Killing answer 2 second
* Killing answer 3
* Killing answer 4
* Killing answer 5
* Killing answer 6 first
* Killing answer 6 second
* Killing answer 6 third
* Killing answer 7
* Killing answer 8
* Killing answer 9 first
* Killing answer 9 second
* Killing answer 10 first
* Killing answer 10 second
* Killing answer 1a
* Killing answer 12 first
* Killing answer 12 second
* Killing answer 13
* Killing answer 14 first
* Killing answer 14 second
* Killing answer 15
* Killing answer 16
* Killing answer 17
* Killing answer 18
* Killing answer 19
* Ko answer 1
* Ko answer 2 first
* Ko answer 2 second
* Ko answer 2 third
* Ko answer 3
* Ko answer 4
* Ko answer 5
* Ko answer 6
* Ko answer 7
* Ko answer 8
* Ko answer 9
* Ko answer 10
* Ko answer 11 first
* Ko answer 11 second
* Ko answer 11 third
* Ko answer 12
* Ko answer 13
* Ko answer 14
* Ko answer 15
* Ko answer 16
IV. Reciprocal Attacks (“Semeai”)
V. Connecting Groups
* Semeai answer 1
* Semeai answer 2
* Semeai answer 3
* Semeai answer 4
* Semeai answer 5
* Semeai answer 6
* Semeai answer 7
* Semeai answer 8
* Semeai answer 9
* Semeai answer 10
* Semeai answer 11
* Semeai answer 12
* Connecting answer 1 first
* Connecting answer 1 second
* Connecting answer 2
* Connecting answer 3
* Connecting answer 4
* Connecting answer 5
* Connecting answer 6
* Connecting answer 7
* Connecting answer 8
* Connecting answer 9
* Connecting answer 10
* Connecting answer 11
* Connecting answer 12 first
* Connecting answer 12 second
VI. "Oi otoshi"
VII. Cutting
* Oi otoshi answer 1
* Oi otoshi answer 2
* Oi otoshi answer 3
* Oi otoshi answer 4
* Oi otoshi answer 5
* Oi otoshi answer 6
* Oi otoshi answer 7
* Oi otoshi answer 8
* Oi otoshi answer 9
* Oi otoshi answer 10
* Oi otoshi answer 11
* Oi otoshi answer 12
* Cutting answer 1
* Cutting answer 2
* Cutting answer 3
* Cutting answer 4