PeterPeter wrote:I think I get it. White is alive, but in seki.
There is no 'but'. In the context of being alive, white is alive
and in seki. Both parts are right, but the latter gives more information than the former.
My book is asking for the status of various groups. 3 puzzles previously, it said the status was "White is alive in seki". Here, it just says "White is alive". I took that to mean that white is alive, black is dead, and white gets the points. I guess "Seki" would have been a better description of the status?
The standard distinction is between being alive (via two eyes
or seki
or I suppose some of the wacky things allowed by some rulesets) or being dead. Perhaps the book was simply giving some extra information in the previous problem? Regardless, in a problem like 'white to live', seki is a perfectly good answer unless perhaps there's a better one available.
So no, conventionally seki would not be a 'better' description of the status but simply a more specific one. 'Alive' is fully correct under normal usage.
Of course in the end this is all semantics. Some books/problems tend to always be more specific and specify seki as a goal, whilst others just say alive/dead. On the other hand, 'alive' rarely if ever means that seki is not acceptable - it's a type of life.
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