| This is a strategy for the board game Go and is the 2nd part of the series Go: The Ladder. You may want to read that first in order to get the most out of this writeup.
The Ladder is an almost foolproof way of attacking a group of enemy stones. However with a little foresight and/or luck the hunted can quickly become the hunter.
Here is a fairly typical sample of play.
.............
....xx.......
...xo*.......
....x........
.............
Looks bad for "o", playing at the asterisk will only begin a ladder that will ultimately end in failure. Of course this is no ordinary newbie this player has planned ahead (or gotten lucky) and sees a friendly stone on the horizon in the path of the ladder.
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....xx.........
...xo*.........
....x..........
...............
........o......
...............
Lets follow the progression of the ladder up to contact with the previously placed friendly stone.
...............
....xx.........
...xoox........
....xoox.......
....!xoox......
......x*o......
...............
O is about to play at the asterisk and X is in some serious trouble. Now X can not continue to threaten atari with a move of its own each round, it can not capture the white group following the ladder srategy. It is also in a precarious defensive position, in order to use the ladder X had to spread out its forces, notice that no Xs are touching each other on the horizontal or vertical but are touching the Os (for the basics of capturing and why X is in a bad position check out Go). If X were a good player he would begin reinforcing his groups with a play at ! but he can not save them all as we shall see.
...............
....xx.........
...xoox........
....xoox*......
....xxoox......
......xoo......
...............
O's move at "*" forces the X player into a lose lose situation, two of his pieces are threatened and he can save only one.
...............
....xx.........
...xooxx.......
....xooxo......
....xxoo$o.....
......xoo......
...............
O then captures the stone that was at $ by surrounding it, giving him a point and adding more free spaces for the larger white group. What could have been a total loss has turned into a small point gain with the capture and a very defensible positoin while X will have to work hard to connect its groups into a defensible formation.
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