Watari

British Go Journal No. 9. October 1969. Page 4b.

John Tilley

This short article contains three problems on 'watari', which means 'wading' in Japanese. Watari is used to describe those tesuji which connect groups along the very edge of the board.

Diagram 1

Diagram 2

In Dia 1, Black has to join his two groups of stones together. But how is he to do this? The Go Proverbs state: "Play at the centre in a symmetrical formation".

However, this does not work in this case as can be seen in Dia 2.

Black's only play is at 2, or 4, as you can verify for yourselves easily.

Diagram 3

In Dia 3, Black is faced with an apparently impossible task, how to rescue his threatened three stones from the middle of the White formation.

Diagram 4

Diagram 5

Dia 4 shows his only possible answer at 1. This promises connection to either right or left, as in Dias 4 and 5.

The tesuji of Black 3 in Dia 4 is very important as it occurs quite often in end-game play. Please make sure that no other move than 1 has these two threats and thus will not work.

Diagram 6

Diagram 7

The last problem is that of Dia 6. How can Black save his corner stones as they cannot make two eyes in the corner? Most players could solve this when presented as a problem, but how many could solve it when playing a game?

Dia 7 shows the only correct move, and White cannot stop the connection.

These problems show that it is often possible to link apparently disconnected stones together by using various tesuji on the first line.