Patting the raccoon's belly

Numsgil · #1

I was playing a handicap game against black and this situation arose that looked quite like the archetype for the "patting the raccoon's belly" problem:

Click Here To Show Diagram Code: [go]$$W White to play $$ . . . . . . . . . . | $$ . . . . . . . . . . | $$ . . . . . X . X . . | $$ . . . X . . . . . . | $$ . . . . O O O . . . | $$ , . X X O X O . . . | $$ . . O O X X O . . . | $$ . . O X . . X . . . | $$ . . . . . . . . . . | $$---------------------[/go]

I tried something like this, but I had to let part of the group get away.

Click Here To Show Diagram Code: [go]$$W White to play $$ . . . . . . . . . . | $$ . . . . . . . . . . | $$ . . . . . X . X . . | $$ . . . X . . . . . . | $$ . . . . O O O . . . | $$ , . X X O X O . . . | $$ . . O O X X O 4 . . | $$ . . O X . 2 X . . . | $$ . . . 3 . 1 . . . . | $$---------------------[/go]

Something like this is more aggressive, but I don't see a way to prevent ko, and even without the ko it's far from a clean capture.

Click Here To Show Diagram Code: [go]$$W White to play $$ . . . . . . . . . . | $$ . . . . . . . . . . | $$ . . . . . X . X . . | $$ . . . X . . . . . . | $$ . . . . O O O . . . | $$ , . X X O X O . . . | $$ . . O O X X O . . . | $$ . . O X . 2 X 3 . . | $$ . . 5 7 4 1 6 . . . | $$---------------------[/go]

What's the cleanest way to capture the black stones? If it's different than the "patting the raccoon's belly" trick, why?

Kirby · #2

Why not just this?

Click Here To Show Diagram Code: [go]$$W White to play $$ . . . . . . . . . . | $$ . . . . . . . . . . | $$ . . . . . X . X . . | $$ . . . X . . . . . . | $$ . . . . O O O . . . | $$ , . X X O X O . . . | $$ . . O O X X O . . . | $$ . . O X . . X 1 . . | $$ . . . . . . . . . . | $$---------------------[/go]

Kirby · #3

Also, if you compare this to the racoon-thing that you linked, if you look at the second diagram:

Click Here To Show Diagram Code: [go]$$B <raccoon text> $$ ---------------------- $$ | . . . . . 5 7 . . . . $$ | . . . b 4 a c 6 d . . $$ | . . X . X O O X . . . $$ | . . . , X 1 2 3 X , . $$ | . . . . X O O O X . . $$ | . . . . O B B B O . . $$ | . . . . O . . . O . . $$ | . . . . . . . . . . . $$ | . . . . . . . . . . .[/go]

White plays :w6:

AFTER

. In your case, there are two hanes before you play on the first line.

Either way, probably just good to read in these cases.

Phoenix · #4

You forgot the essence of 'patting the raccoon's belly'.

Click Here To Show Diagram Code: [go]$$W White to play $$ . . . . . . . . . . | $$ . . . . . . . . . . | $$ . . . . . X . X . . | $$ . . . X . . . . . . | $$ . . . . O O O . . . | $$ , . X X O X O . . . | $$ . . O O X X O . . . | $$ . . W X . a X b . . | $$ . . . . c 1 . . . . | $$---------------------[/go]

The idea behind :b1:

here is to make a and b miai. When your opponent played a, you just went on with thoughtlessly with the memorized pattern and played c.

Not only that, but even if your opponent had played b himself, cutting directly at a is still the correct move. Because of the marked stone, Black can't hope to escape anyway.

Don't just play memorized patterns without understanding their essence. ;-)

Edit: There's no problem with playing directly at b here and, if I'm reading this right, it's actually less messy than :w1:

in this particular situation, because of a lack of liberties from the marked stone's group. I did just wake up, but I think this assumption is correct... :scratch:

OtakuViking · #5

To hane is the most clean way. The other tesuji in this kind of shape is to attach underneath to the right of your original move. It is to make ko when the racoon belly doesn't work. But in this case, the simple block works because whites stones to the left can just escape and whites corner has enough liberties to capture black.

Patting the raccoon's belly

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