(Referenced by 497)

While occupying White's liberties on the left side of the board, Black should play moves like , and , last, for technical reasons. These moves occupy neutral points only, and do not protect Black's territory. This leads us to another interesting feature of the problem's overall structure.

If White, at any time, had more territory-reducing moves on the left side of the board ( to each destroy one point of Black's territory () in sente, but also lose one liberty of White's group, while is gote (but creating an approach-move liberty), losing one liberty in exchange for destroying another point of Black's territory ()) ...

... as Black on the right side of the board ( to each destroys one point of White's territory in exchange for losing one liberty of his group; gains two points by saving the single black stone in gote, so loses two liberties of his group), White could reduce the margin of her loss in the Capture Variation. However, this is not true with the problem.

Please remember that the fates of White's group on the left edge, and Black's group in the upper right, are strongly connected. To realize her territorial gain (), White must live on the left side, so capture the hanezeki's tail (). In this case, however, Black's group in the upper left also lives, and Black's territorial gain (, ) also matters.

At the top (after to ), destroys one point of White's territory in sente () in exchange for losing another liberty of his group. Thereafter, is gote, destroying one point of White's territory () for losing one liberty of his group.

In total, each side destroyed seven points of opponent's territory in exchange for losing seven liberties of their large groups that are engaged in the Main Semeai.
The relationships of liberties and territory remain untouched, so the Capture Variation will still result in a win by five points for Black.

The Semeai Variation is unaffected as well.
White added seven stones inside (then) Black's territory.
Black added six stones inside (then) White's territory, but Black's connection of saves White one stone for capturing Black's large group in the upper right, so the net effect is also seven stones.

... things are not so clear-cut like it seems at first sight, as Harry found out.

Let us first assume – for the sake of simplicity (Black must not lose an additional liberty first) – that Black answered White's connection at the right by blocking with at the left, preventing two potential white forcing moves.
This move follows the course of Our Solution, so it does not take an additional libery of White's group at the left, and does not affect the swing of liberties discussed below.

If White plays at least three territory-reducing moves at the left in a row (e.g. , and ) – at the cost of three liberties – ...

... Black is able to counter with the connection at (at the cost of two liberties) and the move at (at the cost of one liberty).

"Doing nothing" is no valid option for Black!
He would indeed be able to win the Main Semeai now (i.e. living with his large group in the top right after having captured the hanezeki's tail), but White would choose the Capture Variation before, increasing her best result of Our Solution by one point:
Black + 2.

White's string of -stones cannot get an eye in the lower part of the board any longer, so – in conjunction with the false eye (, ) at the right – the false eye at the top (, ) becomes an approach-move liberty of Black's large group in the top right.

White will have to connect at one of the -points before she can give atari at Black's group in the Semeai Variation, so losing one additional point of territory.

The result of the Capture Variation remains unaffected:
Black + 5.
Both sides destroyed three points of their opponent's territory.

... Black must not take the newly won approach-move liberty () for granted and utilize it for playing another territory reducing move in the upper right (e.g. at ) mistakenly.
is not directly adjacent to Black's large group in the upper right, so it cannot be counted as a liberty that could be considered with regard to the Punishment Semeai.

Once the hanezeki's tail () ...

... has become captured (by ), White does not have any problems at all to approach Black's large group from the left.

Black must be still on his guard to not lose a single liberty in the Main Semeai unnecesarily.

... White will refrain from playing any territory-reducing move at the left side, as Black is not forced to compensate this with a similar move of his own at the right!

In the Capture Variation, where the hanezeki's tail is taken off the board, the --exchange in the lower left destroys one point of Black's territory that he gets in the course or Our Solution ().
The final score will increase by one point in White's favour:
Black + 4.

Please remember that the won liberty will not benefit Black, as he needed another two additional liberties to be able to win the Main Semeai (i.e. living with his large group at the top right after connecting the hanezeki's tail).

In the Semeai Variation, where White's left-side group is taken off the board, White added one stone () to Black's territory.
The final score will increase by one point in Black's favour:
Black + 4.

Conclusion:
Both results that White can choose from are "Black + 4", so she lost one point unnecessarily, compared to her best result in the course of Our Solution (Black + 3 in the Semeai Variation).
If White plays more than one territory-reducing move at the left, Black will get this result by compensating all but one of these moves.