(Referenced by 35; 36; 802)

: ( 39)
We examined a wild bunch of variations, but we will show only two of the simpler, and most straightforward, ones here. may be the most obvious move to connect top with bottom.

Other options for Black might include to .

:
White's simplest option for seems to be to give atari at the point that Black should have taken with his first move.

Black saves his endangered stone with . Other options for Black might include to , but which we will not examine in detail here.

:
is the key move to save White's stones in the lower right.

: (A 59)
finally connects Black's top right group to the bottom one.

prevents the capture of her left-hand group.

Black saves some of the stones on the right with , and White ensures her life with the cut at .

Now Black continues the "usual" sequence on the left with , which will end in sente, and later victory, for White.

@

:
We examined the ensuing endgame with a very positive Black bias, but were unable to reduce White's win to less than approximately five points. We feel that Black can no longer win after White brings her groups in the lower right to life, with moves at both the key points of (= and ).

For more details on the endgame please refer to the section "The Very First Moves" ( 802).