Loose connection

There are many different types of loose connections, two of which are described below.

Type I

The pieces on this board can be connected by a bridge by placing a red piece at either of the cells marked "*". These are the same places where Blue can play to try to prevent the connection.

Type II

This connection is a bit weaker than Type I.

Red threatens to connect the pieces by playing at one of the cells marked "*", which form two bridges between the original pieces.

The obvious way for the Blue to stop this connection is to play in one of the cells marked "+", which is where Red's threats overlap:

This is a reasonable defense because either of the two moves "+" will block potential bridge connections. Here is an example: