Monkey Jump!

OK, my apologies for occasionally changing the thrust of these pages to cover my progress in Go. But this is a moment to remember: today I made my first monkey jump (saru-suberi) in game play. I'd only learned about it an hour or so before, and it's probably well above the level I should be studying at. But since one of my major weaknesses appears to be the inability to effectively reduce enemy territory, it seemed appropriate.

In this situation, black's first move of the combination (#1) seems to be risky since it's right behind a large white wall and several steps away from connecting with black's main group. But interestingly, the stone at 1 cannot be cut off. White's attempt to do this is illustrated by the succession of numbered moves. After black 7, white loses the three stones on the top line and may not (in the example at least) even be able to live with the remaining stones.

I saw this opportunity when driving between two white groups in an endgame situation. Neither the group on top nor the one beneath had "descended" into contact with the edge, and when I made the key move, white could only defend one of his groups against the monkey jump. I lost the game, but my attack on white's territory made things a whole lot closer.

Now back to our regularly scheduled programming.