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© 1990, 1996, 2022 Yilun Yang

Yang Yilun’s Ingenious Life and Death Puzzles

Volume 1

by Yilun Yang, 7 dan

translated by James Dee

Buy the full book at gobooks.com

Yilun Yang 7 dan was born in Shanghai, China. He became a professional Go player at the age of 14, and has won a number of major tournaments, including the 1973 National Weiqi Tournament, and the 1985 Yunzu Title Match. Representing his hometown, Yang’s Weiqi team was five-time champion in the Chinese Professional Team Tournament. In 1978, he began his coaching career by training the Shanghai professional Weiqi Team. He was responsible for the nurturing of many well-known players, including Cao Dayuan 9 dan, Rui Naiwei 9 dan, Chang Hao 7 dan, and Hua Xuamen 7 dan.

Since 1986, Mr. Yang has been teaching Go in the United States. He is the chief instructor of the American Go Institute in Los Angeles, California. Via the internet and by regular correspondences, he is the teacher (Sensei) of hundreds of Go students in the U.S., Canada, England, Denmark, Germany, Hong Kong, France, Poland, Singapore, and Taiwan. He is known as "yly” and “rabcat” on the Internet Go Server (IGS).

This volume contains the first 110 of a collection of some 200 life-and-death problems designed and developed by Sensei Yang. By studying these wonderful and intriguing puzzles one can greatly improve one’s reading and fighting abilities, and also develop an appreciation for the beauty of the game. Moreover, one gets the opportunity to learn from one of the greatest and most well-respected masters in the Go world.

Copyright Page

© 1990, 1996, 2022 Yilun Yang

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without prior written permission of the publisher, except for brief quotations used as part of a critical review.

Published by
Smart Go Inc. in cooperation with Yilun Yang

Previously published by Yutopian Enterprises
ISBN: 1–889554–06–5

Originally published in Chinese by the People’s Sports Press, Beijing, China, under the title 死活题新作

Cover: the legendary ‘Hell Judge of Life and Death’, Zhong Kui

Conversion to SmartGo Books by John Mifsud

Editing, layout, and diagrams by the translator. Translator’s notes given in [ ] brackets.

Table of Contents

Yang Yilun’s Ingenious Life and Death Puzzles

Copyright Page

Translator’s Preface

Author’s Foreword

The Elementary Section

Puzzle 1

The chapters in gray are included only in the full book.

Puzzle 10

Puzzle 20

Puzzle 30

Puzzle 40

Puzzle 50

Puzzle 60

The Junior Section

Puzzle 67

Puzzle 70

Puzzle 80

Puzzle 90

Puzzle 100

Puzzle 110

Glossary

Buy This Book

About SmartGo Books

Translator’s Preface

Sensei Yang (also known as rabcat or yly in the Internet Go Community) is a well-known and well-respected Go teacher by Go players around the world. In my mind, he is one of the greatest (if not the greatest) Go teachers of all time. He has students all over the world: among them are many strong professional Go players. Thus, when Sid Yuan of Yutopian Enterprises told me that Yutopian has a book written by Sensei Yang, I immediately called Mr. Yang and obtained his permission for us to translate his book into English. I feel very honored and very grateful to have the opportunity to do this work.

The original book contains 200 puzzles which were organized into four sections: Elementary, Junior, Senior and Advanced. We have decided to split them into two volumes. Volume 1 contains the Elementary and Junior sections. The Senior and Advanced sections can be found in Volume 2.

I hope each of you who read this book will get as much enjoyment as I have, and I hope this book will increase your strength in Go to an even higher level. In translating this work I have tried my best to keep it as accurate as possible, however, should you find any error in this book, please bring it to our attention in the event that we should publish a corrected edition at a later date.

Special thanks go to Dr. Roy Schmidt, for his excellent technical instructions, I wouldn’t have been able to do this work without his kind help. I would also like to thank Debbie Wimer, Bob Felice and Mr. Yang himself for their thorough proofreading of the manuscript. Their many suggestions greatly improved the quality of the final product.

James Dee
Fremont, California, USA. October 1996.

Author’s Foreword

In recent years, due to several factors, I have gradually moved away from competing in tournaments. As a result, I have more time and energy available to me, and I have often thought about what I could do for the World-Wide Go Community.

I have heard that there’s a very famous Go player in Japan. Throughout his long career, he forced himself to create one Life-and-Death puzzle each day. I was very moved by his dedication to the game of Go, and I began to follow in his footsteps and started to create my own puzzles.

In the beginning, even though it has cost me almost all my free time, my progress was very slow. Sometimes, even after I had put in a lot of effort, and several days had passed, I had failed to create anything of value. Moreover, sometimes my thoughts went in the completely wrong direction, and all those efforts were wasted. However, this hard work has also brought me tremendous happiness. For each time I successfully created a new life-and-death puzzle, I felt as if I had won an important match and I immersed myself completely in that wonderful feeling.

Now I have selected 200 of my puzzles and their solutions for this book, and for the enjoyment of my readers.

Based on the level of difficulty, I put the puzzles into four sections: Elementary, Junior, Senior and Advanced. Readers can base their studies on their own Go strength, and read the sections comparable to that strength or they can start with the Elementary section. Generally speaking, the Elementary and Junior sections are good for 1 to 5 kyu players, while the Senior and Advanced sections contain puzzles that might even be difficult for dan players to solve.

There are so many puzzles in this book, it is hard to avoid some inaccuracies here and there. Your critiques and corrections are sincerely appreciated.

Special thanks go to comrade Mr. Guo-Liang Lui for proofreading.

Yilun Yang
September 1990.

The Elementary Section
(1–66)

Puzzle 1
Push Your Way

White to play

＞＜ ▶︎

The White stones are under severe attack. Simple-minded defense will not work; you will need to employ a special technique to save White’s life.

Solution 1

Ko for Life

＞＜ ▶︎

White pushes with 1. It looks like too ordinary a move, but it is the way to go for this situation. Black is forced to play atari at 2, and White is able to start a Ko for the life of the white group. If Black 2 cuts at 4, then White plays 5, with the same result.

Diagram 1.1: Failure

＞＜ ▶︎

White 1 appears to be the answer, but after Black connects back at 2, White has no way to live. White 3 tries its best to make room for eyes, but Black has 4 and 10 creating a Bent Four which kills the corner.

Puzzle 2
Double-sided Attack

Black to play

＞＜ ▶︎

Your attack is more likely to succeed if you could coordinate your attack from both inside and outside. This puzzle is a typical example of this.

Solution 2

Ko to Kill

＞＜ ▶︎

Black 1 is the key move. White must connect at 2, then Black kicks with 3 and creates a Ko with 5 and 7. If White plays 4 at 6, then Black can hane at 4, and White still won’t be able to live unconditionally.

Diagram 2.1: Failure

＞＜ ▶︎

Black 1 is too ordinary. White blocks it with 2. When Black tries to eliminate an eye with 3, White connects at 4 and lives. If Black plays 5 at a, White can play at 5 and White lives just as well.

If Black plays 1 at 6, then White still plays at 2, and Black won’t be able to kill White.

Puzzle 3
Be Careful

White to play

＞＜ ▶︎

The two Black stones have a lot of flexibility. White must be careful.

Solution 3

Live in Seki

＞＜ ▶︎

White 1 is the key move for this shape to live. When Black 2 eliminates a liberty, White must be careful and must play 3 which allows White to live by Seki. If White carelessly ataris with a, then Black b will be fatal for White.

Diagram 3.1: Failure

＞＜ ▶︎

White 1 is a mistake. After Black plays 2, White won’t be able to play a, and it results in a Ko for White’s life.

If White plays 1 at a, Black will play 2 to start the Ko immediately.

Puzzle 4
Sever the Joint

Black to play

＞＜ ▶︎

If the first move can sever the joint, White’s entire body will collapse.

Solution 4

A Clean Kill

＞＜ ▶︎

Black 1 severs, and White has to play 2, then Black 3 is a common way to spoil eye shape. White dies.

If White plays 4 at 5, then Black plays 5 at a.

Diagram 4.1: Failure

＞＜ ▶︎

Black 1 is too loose, it gives White the chance to start a Ko for life.

Puzzle 5
Seize the Moment

Black to play

＞＜ ▶︎

White just played the marked stone, trying to gain a small bit of profit. This is an opportunity which Black must seize.

Solution 5

Ko to Kill

＞＜ ▶︎

Black 1 is a good move. White has to start a Ko with 2 for survival.

If White plays 2 at a, the Black will connect at 2. Although White captures the five Black stones with b, Black will throw in at 2, which kills White unconditionally.

Diagram 5.1: Failure

＞＜ ▶︎

If Black plays 1 instead, White can simply play 2 and 4 to live. Black cannot save his stones, which are caught in a Snap Back.

If Black plays 1 at 3, the result is the same.