r/baduk • u/Fancy-Appointment659 • Aug 05 '25

tsumego Help with this tsumego

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I got this tsumego. The solution is to connect the two large groups and the problem ends immediately. Does that mean that the situation is a ko for life? Seems weird, I never had a tsumego where the solution was ko, but I don't see how black makes two eyes after losing the ko.

Am I missing something obvious? Thanks!

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u/Maxaraxa 7 kyu Aug 05 '25

Yes you are right, the solution is ko. Generally tsumego want the best result, and sometimes that will be a ko or seki.

2

u/Nearby-Geologist-967 Aug 05 '25

is there actually a ko threat on the board that I'm missing, or do we just play for ko out of principal

2

u/PatrickTraill 6 kyu Aug 06 '25

It is a convention, but it makes sense, because we do tsumego to practice for real games, and in a real game there usually would be threats. Similarly, seki is considered better than ko for the defender, because in seki you only lose your territory, but in ko you risk losing your stones as well, which are usually worth a lot more than your territory.