Y puzzle solutions

Standard Y puzzles

Puzzle 1

Puzzle 2

Puzzle 3

If Blue plays e2 too early on move 3, it is losing due to Red 4. c3. If Blue 5. b2, then Red 6. d2. If Blue 5. d2, then Red 6. b3.

If Red plays 2. c3 instead, Blue's unique winning reply is 3. b2!

Puzzle 4

Red's initial stones resemble Edge template IV2d, but in Y it's not an edge template since there are multiple edges to worry about. With 1. b3, Blue connects to either the top or the bottom-left edge (but Red may decide which one). After Red 2. c4, Blue 3. b4! is the only winning move. The carrier of Blue's win is shaded below; Blue can play a pairing strategy where if Red plays in a cell with a letter, Blue plays the other cell with the same letter.

Puzzle 5

If Blue plays 2. b2, then Red c1! is the unique winning reply, as shown below. If Blue 2. d1 instead, then c3 is the unique winning reply.

Puzzle 6

Blue's only winning move is 1. c4:

It's instructive to see why other first moves fail. If Blue 1. c3, then Red d3! connects to the top-right corner with a two-stone corner template (d2 and d3):

Here, Red 2. c1 doesn't work since Blue's d4 stone will connect to the bottom-left edge:

If Blue 1. b4, then Red 2. c4! is the unique winning reply. This is similar to Puzzle 4, where the intrusion into the pattern resembling Edge template IV2d is the only winning move.

If Blue 1. e2, then Red c4 is the unique winning reply:

Other Red replies to Blue e2 don't work. If Red 2. d3, then Blue c4 still wins:

If Red 2. b5, then Blue 3. c3! wins due to this tricky line:

Bent-27 Y puzzle

The winning move is (a). The strongest reply is (b), after which Blue has to play (c) or (d). With correct play, all the nodes will become occupied.

Back to the game of Y: Y