Saving stones



Saving a stone in atari 1
The Black stone above has only one breathing space. It's in atari.
If White plays a move (on the intersection marked in red), the Black stone will be captured, but therefs a way to save it. Please look at the diagram below.

If you touch the stones with your mouse, the breathing spaces will appear.
Black has added another stone vertically below his stone in atari.
What difference does this make?
Before Black had only one breathing space, but now he has three, so he's no longer in atari.





Please check for yourself once again.
The stones in the diagram above have only one breathing space. They are in atari.
What should Black do to save these stones? Please refer to the diagram below.

If you touch the stones with your mouse, the breathing spaces will appear.
Black has added a stone below the stones in atari.
The number of breathing spaces has increased from one to three, so Black has saved his stones.





Connecting diagonally
If you touch the stones with your mouse, the breathing spaces will appear.
Black has added a stone diagonally to the stones in atari.
Does this rescue the two Black stones? Please have a good look at the breathing spaces in the above diagram.
The two stones on the vertical line are completely linked to each other, but they are not linked up to the single stone on the line below.
That means that the two Black stones still have only one breathing space, so they are still in atari.


             
If White occupies that last breathing space, Black can't save the two stones: they will be captured.