Lesson 112: Eternal Life

By Nam Chi-hyung

In Baduk, if you want to ensure the life of your group of stones, you have to make two separate eyes. All other types of living, including dual-life, can be put in jeopardy according to the situation. The type of living I’m going to introduce in this lesson, however, without separated eyes, is called `eternal life.’

Diagram 1

The white group looks to be in fatal danger after Black 1. Of course, if White takes off Black 1 with A, then the group is killed by Black B, which makes a flower-five shape in the corner.

Diagram 2

What if, however, White comes in with 2? Obviously then there is no choice for Black but to capture the two white stones with 3.

Diagram 3

As you may have noticed already, after Black makes the capture in the last diagram, White can capture the two black stones with 4. Then what? If you’re following this explanation with stones and a board, you should notice that the situation comes back to the one in Dia.1. If Black plays A again, the same sequence from 1 to 4 will recur.

As shown above, the white group in the corner cannot be killed. No matter how hard the opponent tries, the situation will always come back to the starting position. Hence, the corner position can be threatened but never killed. This is why the situation gets the name, ‘eternal life.’

Because capture and recapture are repeated in an eternal life position, some Baduk rules treat the position as a special type of ko. They use the term ‘super ko’ to categorize these kinds of unusual situations in which the normal ko rule -‘you cannot take a ko back right after your opponent takes it, but have to make a ko threat beforehand’- cannot stop the repetition of capture and recapture. Players have to make a ko threat in a super ko situation before coming back to the exact same situation where they start a repeating sequence.

However, in major rules such as the Korean, Japanese, and Chinese, eternal life will result in a game without outcome if neither player wants to end the repetition.

Eternal life appears in real games very rarely, but the following examples may look quite familiar.

Diagram 4

Even though White’s eye shape looks spacious, there is a way for Black to turn it into an eternal life.

Diagram 5

The sequence up to 5 is very simple. You can recognize the resulting shape as being practically the same as the one in Dia.1.

Diagram 6

This one may look very different from the two other situations shown above. However, if you recall the typical shape of eternal life and the special character of the corner edge, it will not be so difficult to solve.

Diagram 7

Perhaps the answer is much simpler than you expected. The sequence up to 8 is compulsory. If White changes any part of the sequence, he will die. Although the resulting shape seems to be a little bit different, its fundamental nature is the same as in the other examples.

The writer is a baduk professor at Myongji University and a professional player of the game.

chihyung@mju.ac.kr