Book suggestions

Deadeye · #1

Right, now I have Go for Beginners by Kaoru Iwamoto, and it has been very helpful, at teaching me the basics. But now, I'm thinking of buying Lessons in the Fundamentals of Go by Toshiro Kageyama, 38 Basic Joseki by Kosugi Kiyoshi, Life and Death and Tesuji by James Davies.

Does anyone have opinions on these books, or suggestions for other books?

SoDesuNe · #2

I don't know your rank but it seems you just get started, I would therefore don't suggest any of the books you listed ^^ They will be all too diffucult.
On top of that, "38 Basic Joseki" is no substitute for a real Joseki dictionary and "Life-and-Death" is in my opinion pretty useless before advancing into higher ranks (>SDK) because it's too technical. I would favour real Tsumego books, which will help your reading and visualizing by practice and not by reading lengthly about various aspects of certain shapes.

I can recommend these books:

Quote:

Beginner-Kyu (30k-15k (KGS))

Opening Theory Made Easy

Although I said that the holy grail of my beginning Go career was In the Beginning, this book is in my opinion much better and covers all the same.
You get a really good idea about the strategic concepts of the first douzen moves like Fuseki fundamentals (e.g. extensions, pincers, Moyo), good shape (e.g. how not to harm your own stones, empty triangle) and general strategy (e.g. attacking, reducing, sacrificing).
Furthermore the book won't start to overburden you with too much detail. It is very simple, therefore easy to understand and to apply. The latter profits from the usage of a lot of diagrammes.

Graded Go Problems For Beginners Volume 1 and 2

Go is all about reading and being able to visualize sequences, so it's best to start early practising this skill.
I like the [ext] Graded Go Problems For Beginners series, because they offer a lot of different Tsumegos and Tesujis. But they don't stop there, they also have quite a few problems involving making a Ko or a Seki, or winning a capturing race. Furthermore they also offer problems regarding the opening, the middlegame and the endgame.
So, you really can train all aspects of a Go game. I don't know any other book which would offer all this.

Intermediate-Kyu (14k-7k (KGS))

Attack and Defense

This is the one and only middlegame book you'll need for a long time. It teaches you everything about how to attack and what attacking moves actually are; and it shows the opposite side: How to defend.
Furthermore it has chapters about invasions, reductions and how to build up a framework for yourself.
What might be even more important (but hard to grasp at this level) is the illustration on how to play if you are ahead in territory or ahead in terms of power.
You won't immediately understand everything in this book and you surely will read it more than three times over your Go career, but all this book offers is utmost essential and is a must need to know!

Tesuji

One hell of an important book!
Here you will learn every Tesuji you need to master to become a Dan player. But [ext] Tesuji does not just offer an overview of the different Tesujis, it wonderfully explains every single one and rounds that up with a lot of examples to practice. The book really is a jewel!
If you might not be convinced yet: The book also has a very useful (and highly regarded) explanation on how to read out a position, it covers a whole chapter.
This book, too, can be a bit difficult at the beginning, because it requires that you read out quite a few longish sequences. But don't be discouraged, the important point with this book is to learn to recognize the shapes in which the different Tesujis occur.

One Thousand and One Life-and-Death Problems

There is not much to say about this one. If it comes down to practice life-and-death, this book is one of the best choices for intermediate players. Solely because of its vast number of situations and its increasing difficulty, you will build up confidence in reading out sequences.
The one downside there might be: The problems are all very artificial, but then again, vital points are always the same and by solving all the problems in this book, you will surely use every important life-and-death tactic and Tesuji, which will benefit your play.

Get Strong at Tesuji

What One Thousand and One Life-and-Death Problems is for Tsumegos, Get Strong at Tesuji is for Tesujis. It might be one of the most powerful problem books for intermediate players in Go and together with [ext] Tesuji by James Davies easily one of the most powerful Tesuji books in English at all.
Also offering problems with different difficulties, this book invites you to resolve it several times and always learn something knew. I, for once, solved it five times already and I can say with confidence: This book alone made me at least one rank stronger.
As a remark: The problems in this book feel a lot different to life-and-death problems. You are not always asked to kill something or to make live but to gain a local advantage or put your opponent in bad shape. That's a different thinking and that's why many moves might be completely new to you. But that alone shows how much you can learn from this book.

Graded Go Problems For Beginners Volume 3

See above.

Advanced-Kyu (6k-3k (KGS))

Graded Go Problems For Beginners Volume 4

See above.

Making Good Shape

I find it hard to explain this book, because shape is a very abstract matter.
You will often hear or read about good shape or bad shape, but the theory behind it is very hard to grasp. To phrase it simply: Bad shape often invites a Tesuji, which will put the player with the bad shape in a even worse situation. So bad shape invites attacking, while good shape secures your stones. This is what this book tries to teach you with its problems.
At first you might get almost every problem wrong or you are totally clueless what or where to play (I experienced both), but that's okay. Take your time to think of an answer and than just check the solution and when you have been wrong, just try to understand what the correct move achieves and why the solution is better than what you would have played. You'll get a lot of new ideas and you will start to see more moves during your play after solving this book two or three times.

Rescue and Capture

The title tells about two central aspects of Go. Capturing enemy stones and rescueing one's own stones.
The reason why I include this book: It offers 80 really nice problems, which I find highly educational, because you have to find some not obvious looking moves (no standard vital point spotting). Furthermore, I feel that the focus in this book lies in reading further ahead, compared to books with problems for a similiar strength.
A very good book to practice one's skill!

Life and Death - Intermediate Level Problems

There is no way around, you need to practice reading, reading, reading and again reading ^^ But there are a lot of books out there with which you can practice. I think this book is one of the best to still have fun while doing Tsumegos.
The book structures the problems in circles of ten. 1 being the easiest problem (said to be around 7 Kyu, but in my opinion some problems are far more difficult) and 10 the most difficult (said to be around 2 Dan, but this is exaggerated, I think). In my opinion the problems are on average around 3 Kyu KGS.
Becauses of the structure you will have some easy and some hard problems, so it's not always troublesome to come up with a solution. But on the other hand you will slowly have to read deeper to find the right move and this is a nice challenge.
Furthermore this book has a really nice size: It fits in every pocket, so you can carry it around to always have some nice Tsumegos to solve ; )

Expert-Kyu (2k+ (KGS))

Yi Ch'ang-Ho Selected Tesuji Problems Volume 1 - 3

Yes, it still comes down to more reading practice ; ) Volume one and two will be very easy for players with this rank but nonetheless they are a good repetition.
Volume three increases the difficulty enormous, I think, and needs a lot more careful reading and even spotting the first move. You will have to verify your sequence against a lot of possible counter moves, which will sharpen your structur in reading to not forget any Tesujis White (it's always Black to play) might have. Furthermore a lot of problems feature Semeais, so you will get used to counting liberties during your own fights, which will make you a stronger fighter and thus strengthen your play in the important middlegame.

RBerenguel · #3

SoDesuNe, I'm currently following Yi Ch'ang-Hot's tesuji-1 (being about 7-8k maybe), and I don't find it that difficult (I'm about in the middle of it). I've probably got right 80-90%, although I missed strong answers in around 10% of them (i.e. 2-5 problems). It's a damn fun book, by the way. If you've gone through Tesuji, it's awesome to "read".

"Sadly" I'm getting a killer spin in my last games (which is not that bad, but I don't want to be bloodthirsty

)

SoDesuNe · #4

The reason why I listed Yi Chang'ho's Selected Tesuji Problems at 2k+ is because I just found those books at this level and they were/are really great (I'm solving the fifth volume at the moment) and a very good repetition (I really like the Semeai-problems in volume 1).
Of course they have a lot of easy problems which can easily fit into the category 14-7k and 6-3k. Especially volume 1,2 and 4 have many "no-brainers" for my level.

Maybe I will change my list accordingly in the new future.

RBerenguel · #5

Do it! this is an AWESOME book so far. It's challenging enough to keep me entertained, but easy enough to keep me running. The best problem book I've seen (I also like the format of problem+3 variations)

Deadeye · #6

SoDesuNe wrote:

I don't know your rank but it seems you just get started, I would therefore don't suggest any of the books you listed ^^ They will be all too diffucult.
On top of that, "38 Basic Joseki" is no substitute for a real Joseki dictionary and "Life-and-Death" is in my opinion pretty useless before advancing into higher ranks (>SDK) because it's too technical. I would favour real Tsumego books, which will help your reading and visualizing by practice and not by reading lengthly about various aspects of certain shapes.

I can recommend these books: ...

Thanks for the advice, I was probably getting little ahead of myself :razz:

.
I'm definitely getting Opening Theory Made Easy ; It sounds exactly like what I was looking for.

gowan · #7

Nothing wrong with buying books you aren't ready for yet as long as you don't expect to understand everything in them

Actually you will understand some things even in pro game commentaries. Personally I'd recommend Fundamental Principles of Go by Yilun Yang. Another one that might be useful is The second Book of Go by Bozulich.

RobertJasiek · #8

Deadeye wrote:

Right, now I have Go for Beginners by Kaoru Iwamoto, and it has been very helpful, at teaching me the basics. But now, I'm thinking of buying Lessons in the Fundamentals of Go by Toshiro Kageyama, 38 Basic Joseki by Kosugi Kiyoshi, Life and Death and Tesuji by James Davies.

Does anyone have opinions on these books, or suggestions for other books?

Guessing your rank from your wishlist, 38 Basic Joseki is still a bit above your head. Lessons in the Fundamentals is essential (not because it would teach you fundamentals but because it teaches you the importance to learn fundamentals from other sources). Life and Death and Tesuji are, too, but might still be a bit tough for you. Read Joseki 1 Fundamentals;
http://home.snafu.de/jasiek/Joseki.html
it is easy enough for you and teaches you lots of the necessary fundamentals.

Tengen · #9

To the OP, I'd recommend the "Graded Go Problems for Beginners" series and/or "1001 Life and Death Problems". Once you have a more thorough understanding of life and death/tesuji concepts by solving problems, everything else will make more sense.

Best of all, you can buy these books on Kiseido before their sale expires at the end of the month

Your original suggestions are okay, except 38 Basic Joseki, which is considered way out of date.

karaklis · **#10**

RobertJasiek wrote:

Read Joseki 1 Fundamentals;
http://home.snafu.de/jasiek/Joseki.html
it is easy enough for you and teaches you lots of the necessary fundamentals.

I doubt that this book is appropriate for DDKs. I found that reading through it is very wearysome, even for mid-SDKs like me, and I could not see that it taught me much. Probably because my memory was not able to absorb its contents. It is possible of course that this is only my problem, but according to my experience I would not suggest that books to beginners.

I'd assent very much to SoDesuNe's list with one objection: The books "Opening Theory Made Easy" and "In the Beginning" both deal with the opening, but I think that both books have their unique parts, and there are surprisingly few overlaps. While OTME explains a lot of basic shapes, ITB has more about the transition from opening to the middlegame. That's why I would suggest to read both books independently.

RobertJasiek · **#11**

karaklis wrote:

I doubt that this book is appropriate for DDKs. I found that reading through it is very wearysome, even for mid-SDKs like me, and I could not see that it taught me much. Probably because my memory was not able to absorb its contents. It is possible of course that this is only my problem, but according to my experience I would not suggest that books to beginners.

I also do not suggest my book to beginners (say weaker than 18 kyu). For DDKs from 18k to 10k, about 90% of those readers having informed me or the public (I can't know about the others) about their reading experience thought that the book is suitable (and often a comment like "very good" was added) for them and - to my surprise - that even weaker players would benefit. There appear to be a few players though (DDK or SDK) for whom my books (Vol. 2 is similar in this respect) are too much because they can't follow well the density of contents and the related shortness of presentation per topic. Do you think that you could get more from the book by reading it more slowly or would you rather read a couple of other, "softer" books?

karaklis · **#12**

Robert, there is probably a couple of reasons that urged me to put the book aside after I had reached chapter 9, enerved that nothing wanted to find its way into my memory.

- A large-scale structure seems to be missing that interlinks the topics, in spite of the super-detailed subcategorization of chapters. I could not make any wholistic image of the content, and generally I need that first in order to be able to delve into the depths of the books

- Although there are a few examples, the content mainly appeared as dry theory and I couldn't see how I could turn this into practical knowledge. Probably I need more examples to get a grasp of the whole area where a given theory can be applied to in practice

- It could be a matter of different learning types. I belong to the rare learning type that likes to internalize facts from flat lists. E.g. the countermeasures against the monkey jump that Daniel-the-Smith and Magicwand have posted in another thread: It showed a diagram with all possible points to answer to the monkey jump. That immediately burnt in into my long-term memory though I have only had a short glance at it. The deep-structured subcategorization which is used in the book does not match to this learning pattern.

- I read that book when I was in a phase where I had generally problems to absorb go related matters. As my mind is open again, I should probably reread the book and check whether this time I can get more out of it. But since you said that the second volume has a similar style, I'd rather prefer to study that first, and actually I have already started that but cannot make any statement yet how much I can internalize of the presented topics.

RobertJasiek · **#13**

karaklis wrote:

after I had reached chapter 9, enerved that nothing wanted to find its way into my memory.

I guess that your learning style prefers books with a greater examples per topic ratio. The most extreme I have seen in that respect was, e.g., a (Japanese) book with nothing but thick extension examples in it. It is impossible though to find such books on all topics of my book because I have invented some terms such as indirect connection. Traditional books (unless they show diagrams only) teach Examples 2 + 5 on p. 120f as one tesuji shape and (if it is in the same book at all) Example 6 as a different kind of tesuji. Presumably you would learn either shape as a specific tesuji but have difficulties to notice other shapes serving as an indirect connection. Until I (I think as a 5 dan) developed that generalising concept, I as a player in my games was having that difficulty.

The book contains about all joseki-related fundamentals a solid 3 dan would know. So, as a kyu player, you have the chance to acquire 3 dan knowledge prematurely if you can bite through, learn and apply all the contents. If you can't (because there are too few examples for your learning style and you do not want to study other resources for finding more examples), then you can use the book for acquiring a partial knowledge and read it again when you will have become stronger.

Well, that would be my hope. You say though that, eh, nothing of the contents stays in your memory. Really? I can't quite believe... Look at p. 179. Have you already forgotton again that a move can have the meaning of threatening a cut?

Quote:

- A large-scale structure seems to be missing that interlinks the topics,

You mean something like an interlink between the chapters Corner Enclosures and Approach Move to a Corner Stone? The interlink is the same as in chapter 9: Different stones or moves can have different meanings. You do not see that much of an interlink because emphasis lies on the differences! It is possible though that a stone or move can have more than one meaning. E.g., an extension could also be (i.e. establish) a connection.

Where move meanings are related, the book informs about relation. See e.g. chapter 9.9.

Quote:

I could not make any wholistic image of the content

What about reading only the top-level headings or - more fundamentally - the book's subtitle?:) All the subchapters have aspects of fundamentals. To get them, the reader is expected to become aware of all the existing move types and related principles. Fundamentals are not learned by complaining that there are many but by actually learning each fundamental.

Quote:

and generally I need that first in order to be able to delve into the depths of the books

Consider the book as your source of the (joseki-related) fundamentals you will have to know (among other things) to be 3 dan some time.

Quote:

- Although there are a few examples, the content mainly appeared as dry theory and I couldn't see how I could turn this into practical knowledge.

For example, the book's theory tells you that there are indirect connections. In your games when making your next move, ask yourself: Should I continue to play locally? If yes, are there string connections worth considering? Are there direct connections worth considering? Are there indirect connections worth considering? Among all those, which connections, if any, are worth considering? Together with Local Move Selection, chances increase that you won't overlook the best possible local follow-up move.

Quote:

- It could be a matter of different learning types.

For sure.

Quote:

I belong to the rare learning type that likes to internalize facts from flat lists.

But not those flat lists of principles in my books? Are they already too advanced for your taste?

RobertJasiek · **#14**

I am wondering whether maybe you miss some overall motivation for the joseki books.

Vol. 1 explains the local scale, the Vol. 2 chapters Strategic Lines and Group Meanings study the intermediate scale and Strategic Planning is the global scale. Strategic Concepts, Strategic Choices and Analysis Methods are used to identify connections between the different scales. To find a good next move, it must be good on the local, the intermediate and the global scales. So Vol. 1 is meant to enable you to find good moves on the local scale. To find a good move, one must be sure not to overlook it. Not overlooking possible good moves presumes and requires the knowledge of all the possible kinds of moves. Therefore Vol. 1 goes into all the details of major move types and their subtypes.

Suppose you would know only the major move types (this is typical for many kyu players) such as extension or block. Maybe 90% (or 95%) of all moves belong to those move types. On average every 10th (or 20th) move you would not know a relevant move type, therefore not consider it and thus overlook the best possible local move. In other words, every 10th or 20th of your moves would necessarily be a mistake because you lack the knowledge for avoiding it by choosing a scarce kind of move, which happens to be the best.

I think I counted 68 move types (maybe a few more, if I did not count the very basic ones like "first move in a corner"). That is actually not much! With the traditional teaching method of learning different example shapes, you might have to learn 10,000 or 100,000 different kinds. 68 types are not leant in an hour but at least you do have a chance to learn them all! So although the book's teaching style does not fit your favourite one, why not use this chance of relatively fast access to an almost complete knowledge base for the local scale? Ok, maybe you need to go through a few hundred pro games to see, say, 1,000 examples instead of the (I guess) ca. only 300 in the book - still your learning could be much faster than mine. I had no such book and had to read thousands of pro games and hundreds of books to search for those move types I did not know yet. The traditional books (and the joseki dictionaries' texts) gave me only a partial knowledge. As said before, I had to invent things like indirect connection. If you want to practice the same torture, read those thousands of pro games, hundreds of traditional, example-heavy books and a couple of joseki dictionaries. Then go back to Vol. 1 and notice those move types you are still missing. Despite your incompatible learning style, I'd recommend the shortcut of learning from my book nevertheless. Maybe you can read one chapter at a time, then study some pro games (or your own) and look when related moves occur or should have occurred.

karaklis · **#15**

RobertJasiek wrote:

I guess that your learning style prefers books with a greater examples per topic ratio. The most extreme I have seen in that respect was, e.g., a (Japanese) book with nothing but thick extension examples in it.

Of course you can also exaggerate. There is no limit in exaggeration. The number of examples varies with the subject that is to be presented. In some cases a single example suffices. In other cases a dozen examples possibly are not enough to outline a complex correlation. I am not sure whether I am the only one who often needs more examples to get a better grasp of some complex subjects. E.g. the book "Attack and Defense" which is actually very good as regards the topic, but it severely lacks in giving more examples. I would also say that the number of examples to be given should depend on the target audience. A strong kyu player has already gathered enough knowledge about a certain matter so that one or two examples suffice for him to classify it and to connect the newly acquired knowledge to what he had already learned. For a DDK however it would be ridiculous to assume the same. He sees the example, accepts it, but since he cannot assign it to previously acquired knowledge, he cannot make much use of it. As more examples are given, the chance increases that the reader can make a link between new and present knowledge. That's why I would say that difficult to unreasonable to make a book such a wide range of playing strength as that which you claim for your books. So even if there is a very high density of knowledge in such a book - and I don't doubt that there is - the reader can only absorb small amounts of that.

RobertJasiek wrote:

You say though that, eh, nothing of the contents stays in your memory. Really? I can't quite believe... Look at p. 179. Have you already forgotton again that a move can have the meaning of threatening a cut?

Well, I would assume that this knowledge is trivial for every SDK. So let me rather put it this way: I wasn't able to add knowledge from the book to my existing knowledge. In some cases it even contradicts to what I have learned in practice (example below, ad 2)

RobertJasiek wrote:

Consider the book as your source of the (joseki-related) fundamentals you will have to know (among other things) to be 3 dan some time.

Well as I plan to achieve more than shodan in the long run, I'll pin you down on that, hehehe, just kidding.

RobertJasiek wrote:

But not those flat lists of principles in my books? Are they already too advanced for your taste?

I wouldn't say too advanced, but somehow they appear to me like bones without flesh. This randomly chosen example should clarify what I mean:

Joseki Fundamentals Vol. 1, page 95 wrote:

A pincer is played near if
1) it is supported by friendly stones
2) the opposing stone shall be attacked severely
3) shapes shall be settled quickly
4) a reply shall be provoked with a high probability

ad 1) What does it mean to "support"? An own stone nearby somewhere? How far away? What if there are own stones and opponent's stones?

ad 2) Huh? The most common pincer joseki, the one-space-low-pincer often leads to the pincer stone itself being attacked after having expanded the corner.

ad 3) Does a DDK know what it means to "settle a shape"? Even I as mid-SDK only vaguely know what it means

ad 4) What consequences does a high response probability have? Can a DDK assess that? I would assume that is has to do with keeping sente, but actually, I am not sure.

RobertJasiek wrote:

I am wondering whether maybe you miss some overall motivation for the joseki books.

Yes and no. On the one hand I actually don't like (or feel motivated) to learn joseki and prefer to rely on my intuition and reading rather than playing a move that I don't understand - even though I still goof up a corner every now and then when my opponent plays an uncommon joseki. On the other hand due to that way of thinking I was very motivated to learn about joseki from your books, as they are approaching that matter from a different perspective, and that's why I have actually purchased them. I cannot say yet whether I am disappointed, since it may still be possible that I can gain knowledge from them. But from my experience I would not recommend the books wholeheartedly to DDKs as they probably get even less from the book than myself. For good kyu players it may be a good source of knowledge though.

RobertJasiek wrote:

Suppose you would know only the major move types (this is typical for many kyu players) such as extension or block. Maybe 90% (or 95%) of all moves belong to those move types. On average every 10th (or 20th) move you would not know a relevant move type, therefore not consider it and thus overlook the best possible local move. In other words, every 10th or 20th of your moves would necessarily be a mistake because you lack the knowledge for avoiding it by choosing a scarce kind of move, which happens to be the best.

Agreed, this corresponds to my experience: It's indeed about the ratio of 5-10% of the move that I don't understand (or don't understand completely) when watching high dan players or replaying games of professionals. It's just difficult for me to identify my gaps (because I don't know what topic the gap is related to) and then to find the place (in your books) where I can find the knowledge to close the gap.

RobertJasiek · **#16**

karaklis wrote:

I'll pin you down on that, hehehe, just kidding.

I am not worried:) Acquiring the remainder of those fundamentals was my major effort from 3d to 4d. The reason may have been that I improved so quickly to 3d that I had lacked time until then to notice those fundamentals. Therefore I guess that players reaching 3d more slowly would already have those fundamentals as a 3d.

Quote:

1) it is supported by friendly stones
ad 1) What does it mean to "support"? An own stone nearby somewhere? How far away? What if there are own stones and opponent's stones?

You have a right to ask like that but OTOH my books' texts do not assume my rules definitions' precision. So indeed the reader is assumed to develop a reasonable understanding of "supported". The principle does not prescribe a particular distance. IOW, there can be varying degrees of support. Nearby (not overconcentrated) stones support better than a single stone in an adjacent corner. The latter does provide some support already though. Since you mention the general case with possibly also opposing stones, let me point to Vol.2 and its formal influence model, with which one could work out whether friendly stones do support or opposing stones hurt more.

Quote:

2) the opposing stone shall be attacked severely
ad 2) Huh? The most common pincer joseki, the one-space-low-pincer often leads to the pincer stone itself being attacked after having expanded the corner.

(2) is an option. The four options are joined by the conjunction "or". Therefore it is not necessary that (2) has to apply to your follow-up example development of "the pincer stone itself being attacked". If that is the pincer's intention, then the options (3) or (4) can be the initial aims of a near pincer.

Quote:

3) shapes shall be settled quickly
ad 3) Does a DDK know what it means to "settle a shape"? Even I as mid-SDK only vaguely know what it means

Maybe not. Maybe this phrase becomes familiar if one reads lots of books that use it frequently. - I do not expect a DDK to understand everything at once. I am happy if he understands 50%.

Quote:

4) a reply shall be provoked with a high probability
ad 4) What consequences does a high response probability have? Can a DDK assess that? I would assume that is has to do with keeping sente, but actually, I am not sure.

I agree that possible consequences could have been worked out in detail and I am getting your point that each bit of theory in the book (such as a principle) could have been studied on a next lower, finer detail level. Like Capturing Races 1 goes a full detail level deeper than Counting Liberties and Winning Capturing Races;) Thank you for suggesting me a possible later book series The Fundamentals' Fundamentals:(

***

Thank you for your other comments!

RobertJasiek · **#17**

karaklis wrote:

difficult to unreasonable to make a book such a wide range of playing strength as that which you claim for your books.

As a 15k has just told me, he likes and is confident to learn a lot from both my Joseki books. Previously I had similar statements in the DDK range only from 10k to 13k readers, from SDK players of course and in the dan range up to a strong 4d. Difficult to write? For me it is more a matter of time during which I do necessary research (Joseki 2 or Capturing Races 1 each about 6 - 8 weeks) and the writing. (I would guess though that research experience or alternatively particularly good go study experience is a requirement.) Unreasonable? In view of the received comments, I rather say: reasonable!

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