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© 1990, 1997, 2022 Yilun Yang

Yang Yilun’s Ingenious Life and Death Puzzles

Volume 2

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 last 90 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, 1997, 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: 1–889554–07–3

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 Senior Section

Puzzle 111

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

Puzzle 120

Puzzle 130

Puzzle 140

Puzzle 150

The Advanced Section

Puzzle 157

Puzzle 160

Puzzle 170

Puzzle 180

Puzzle 190

Puzzle 200

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 2 contains the Senior and Advanced sections. The Elementary and Junior sections can be found in Volume 1.

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 Dr. Thomas Hsiang, Bob Felice, Kyle Grieser, James Acre, and especially 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 Senior Section
(111–156)

Puzzle 111
The Net

Black to play

＞＜ ▶︎

You must kill the white group unconditionally in order to earn the credit for solving this puzzle. However, it is not too hard to discover the solution as long as you play the first move correctly.

Solution 111

White Dies

＞＜ ▶︎

Black 1 is the critical move. If White plays 2, then Black simply connects at 3 and the white group cannot live.

Diagram 111.1: Variation

＞＜ ▶︎

If White plays 2 here to cut off Black 1, then Black has the strong move of 3. White has the atari at 4, but Black 5 kills the white group. If White plays 4 at 5, then Black 5 connects at 4, White still cannot live.

Diagram 111.2: Failure

＞＜ ▶︎

Black 1 is too ordinary. After White 2, Black 3 is no longer effective. White can get a ko for life by playing at 4.

Diagram 111.3: Failure

＞＜ ▶︎

Black 1 is too early. You cannot succeed without adequate preparations. White’s group is safe after making an eye by playing at 6. If Black tries to reduce the other eye by playing at a, White can play at b to live.

Puzzle 112
After the Ko

Black to play

＞＜ ▶︎

One might think that there is probably a mistake in the above diagram. Because if it is Black’s turn, White’s group appears to be defenseless. The reason that we arrived at this formation is that Black has played a ko threat here, and White has ignored the threat. Now, without a doubt, Black must make White pay for his tenuki against the ko threat.

Solution 112

White Dies

＞＜ ▶︎

The diagonal play of Black 1 is a strong move. If White responds with 2 and 4, Black can connect to the outside by playing 5 and 7. The white group will die naturally.

Diagram 112.1: Variation

＞＜ ▶︎

If White blocks at 2, then Black 3 easily captures the four white stones at the bottom. Needless to say, the rest of the white stones cannot live either.

Diagram 112.2: Failure

＞＜ ▶︎

Black 1 here is too conservative. After the exchange of 2 and 3, White has a nice clamping move of 4. White 6 then makes a connection and reaches safety. If Black plays 3 at 4, then White can still live by playing 4 at 3.

Diagram 112.3: Failure

＞＜ ▶︎

It looks like Black 1 could work, but White has 2, 4, and 6 to make life in the corner. Black has miscalculated.

Puzzle 113
The Immediate Task

Black to play

＞＜ ▶︎

In order for Black to succeed, he needs to have very sharp eyes to read it out. What will be the final result after Black has played the key move?

Solution 113

Ko to Kill
5 at 1

＞＜ ▶︎

Black 1 looks stupid but actually it’s a nice sacrifice. If White 2 takes the bait, Black has the atari of 3, and then the throw-in of Black 5 at 1. White can only play 6 to look for a ko for life. If White 6 captures Black 5, then Black will play at 6. After that, if White plays a to make an eye, Black can play at b to kill.

Diagram 113.1: Variation

＞＜ ▶︎

If White plays 2, then Black connects at 3. Black 1 is a nice move because it eliminates White’s eye there.

Diagram 113.2: Failure

＞＜ ▶︎

Black 1 is too ordinary. White 2 atari assures an eye on the top in sente. So White lives.

Diagram 113.3: Failure

＞＜ ▶︎

Black 1 is aggressive, but it is not the correct order. White 2 calmly captures a stone and White will get the other eye either on the top or at the bottom. If White 2 at a or b, Black will play at 2 to kill the white group by a ko.

Puzzle 114
Head to Head

Black to play

＞＜ ▶︎

White’s shape has weakness. If your first move can hit at the vital point, it means that you know tesuji very well.

Solution 114

Ko to Kill

＞＜ ▶︎

If you have sharp eyes, perhaps you discovered Black 1 immediately. Of course you need to read it out carefully as well. White 2 is the best response for this situation, and the end result is a ko. If Black plays 3 at 4, then White a, Black 3, and the result is still a ko.

Diagram 114.1: Variation
11 at 1; 12 at 3

＞＜ ▶︎

If White plays 2 here, then Black has a strong move of 3. When White plays 10, Black 11 throws in at 1, and White 12 captures 11 at 3. White’s group dies after Black 13. If White plays 4 at 10, Black still plays at 5. If White 6 plays at a to capture two stones, then Black can throw in at the marked location. If White plays 2 at 4, Black still plays at 3.

Diagram 114.2: Failure
7: throws in

＞＜ ▶︎

Black 1 is too direct and ordinary. White 2 makes good shape for eyes and Black fails.

Diagram 114.3: Failure

＞＜ ▶︎

Black 1 and 3 are wrong, too. White 4 is a plain but good move and there is nothing left for Black to do.

Puzzle 115
Notch

Black to play

＞＜ ▶︎

There is a notch in White’s shape. Obviously we should try to break through there. The question is, what are the correct moves?

Solution 115

Ko to Kill
9 at 1

＞＜ ▶︎

Black 1 and 3 are beautiful tesuji moves. After White 8, Black plays 9 at 1 to start a ko fight. If Black 9 connects 3 and 5, then White has an atari to make an eye at the bottom side.

Diagram 115.1: Variation
11 at 1; 12 at 3; 14: connects

＞＜ ▶︎

If White plays 2 here, then Black sacrifices one more stone at 3 before playing 5. After 10, Black throws in 11 at 1, White 12 captures at 3, then White 14 connects at 1, and Black 15 kills the whole group. If Black plays 3 at 5, then White can cut at 6 and live.

Diagram 115.2: Variation

＞＜ ▶︎

If White plays 2 here, then Black has 3 and White cannot live.

Diagram 115.3: Failure

＞＜ ▶︎

Black 1 is not played at the correct place. White 2 takes the key point and lives.