Review of the Tesuji books is in this post, as well as a general overview of the series.
Review of the Life and Death books is here; https://lifein19x19.com/viewtopic.php?f=57&t=15717
Two more reviews to come, when I have some time.

Hi all,

I believe the Chinese (thanks Ed!) title is; 围棋基础训练丛书系列
Bought from; https://item.taobao.com/item.htm?id=563 ... .N.ac8430e
Authors name seems to be Zhang Jie. He appears to have written a lot of go problem books, many aimed at children.
There are 12 books in the series, divided in to 4 topics, with each topic having books that appear to be divided by strength- 5k, 1k, 1D.

The topics are;
手筋- - tesuji
死活- life and death
对杀- capturing races (Thanks Ed)
吃子- Not sure how to translate. Seems to be tesuji types and other topics not covered elsewhere. E.g. the first book has netting techniques, techniques to make seki, to make ko etc.


The first volumes of the whole series;


The tesuji books;


The life and death books;


The capturing races books;


The (connections/cutting?) books;


The inside of the first tesuji book;


Layout is the same in all books; 6 problems to a page. Answers are given as a single diagram in the back of the book. There are what appears to be example problems at the beginning of each individual books sections. They have several answer diagrams with explanatory text. These problems are not included in the problem count below, but can easily be treated as extra problems.

Each book contains around 250 problems, one book contains just 192 problems, several contain 288.

Tesuji books, contents and sample problems;

Book 1. 5k rating is an overestimation. Starts very easy (trivial questions for SDK).

Sections;
1. Basic Connection Methods
2. Basic Cutting Methods
3. Connection (1)
4. Cutting (1)
5. Connection (2)
6. Cutting (2)
7. Blockading
8. In the opening

Problem 1
Black to connect;

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$B
$$ +---------------------------+
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . , . . . . . , . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . , . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . O X . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . O . X . O . . . . |
$$ | . . . O . . . O . , . . . |
$$ | . . . . X . O . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . X . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ +---------------------------+[/go]

An early black to cut problem;

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$B
$$ +---------------------------+
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . , . . . . . , . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . X O . , . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . X O . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . X , O X . . . , . . . |
$$ | . . . X O . X . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ +---------------------------+[/go]

Problems get more difficult later in the book;

From the blockading section;

Promblem 242

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$B
$$ +---------------------------+
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . , . . . . . , . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . , . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . X . . . . . . . |
$$ | . O . X . . . . . , . . . |
$$ | . . . X . X . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . O O O X . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ +---------------------------+[/go]

Book 2.
Sections;
1. Connection (1)
2. Cutting
3. Connection (2)
4. Blockading
5. In the opening
6. (I think) Destroying shape
7. Destroying your opponents base
8. Making good shape



First problem, black to connect;

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$B
$$ +---------------------------+
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . , . . . . . , . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . , . . . . . . |
$$ | . . O O O . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . O X X O X X X . . . . . |
$$ | . O X O X O O X . , . . . |
$$ | . . X O . O X . . . . . . |
$$ | . . X . O . X . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ +---------------------------+[/go]

Problem 207. From the destroying your opponents base section.

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$B
$$ +---------------------------------------+
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . , . . . . . , . . . . . , . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . , . . . . . , . . . . . , . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . O . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . O . X . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . O X . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . X . X . . . O . , . . . . . , . . . |
$$ | . . . X . O . O . O . X . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . O X X X O . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ +---------------------------------------+[/go]

Book 3.
Sections;
1. Connection (1)
2. Cutting
3. Connection (2)
4. Advanced blockading
5. Escaping to the centre
6. Destroying shape
7. Attacking in good shape
8. Advanced tactics
9. Taking the upper hand (?) Maybe something more like; how to gain an advantage.
10. I think this is like a final test?

First problem, black to play and connect his two groups;

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$B
$$ +---------------------------+
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . , . . . . . , . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . O . O , . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . O X . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . X O X O O . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . X O X . X . , . . . |
$$ | . X . X O X . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . O . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ +---------------------------+[/go]

Problem 174. Black to play and attack white. (From the attacking in good shape section).

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$B
$$ +---------------------------+
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . , . . . . . , . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . , . . . . . . |
$$ | . O . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . X O . . O . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . X O . O X . O , . . . |
$$ | . . X . O X . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ +---------------------------+[/go]

Overall the tesuji books seem quite nice. The early problems are quite trivial, but the later ones seem like a good challenge. I'm not really qualified to say what level the problems from the 2nd and 3rd books are at. The first book's first two sections are very easy (Maybe 10k+), the latter sections are probably closer to the advertised level, from 5-1k. I'd be interested to hear from stronger players their thoughts about the later books.

Happy to see lots of problem types that haven't had much coverage in english problem books. I never got much out of e.g. James Davies "Tesuji", because of a lack of a large number of suitable problems. Understanding a tesuji intellectually via description and some examples is not enough for me- I need to drill dozens of problems with that type of tesuji before it starts to sink in, so that I can see them in my games.

I've run out of time for today, but will post the contents and sample problems from the life and death books when I get a chance, hopefully tomorrow. Then will work on the final ones later.

These are my first book reviews, so any advice on how to make it clearer etc. would be appreciated. Shouldn't take me as long to do the rest, now that I know how diagrams etc. all work!

圍棋基礎訓練叢書系列CapturingRace

Thanks Ed,

I figured from the contents that is what is was likely to be titled.
On the Chinese/Mandarin thing, I'm not sure I understand? I thought that the most spoken language across China is standard mandarin, either called Mandarin or Chinese interchangeably? Maybe there is a distinction between the two I don't understand, or a distinction between what is written and what is spoken? If this isn't the case I apologise and will make the edit.

The official Chinese language in China is most often called Putonghua nowadays.

As for written Chinese, there is simplified Chinese (used in China) and traditional Chinese (used in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau).

You can refer to books in simplified Chinese or traditional Chinese books as simply "Chinese language books".

_________________
http://tchan001.wordpress.com
A blog on Asian go books, go sightings, and interesting tidbits
Go is such a beautiful game.

Hi zac,No sorry; there's no reason for most people to know the subtleties and nuances.
( Short answers: yes, yes, and yes. )

My set of these 12 books has now arrived, and I'm very satisfied so far. I'm working through the 5k books, and it's almost all problems I (~3k AGA/KGS) expect to get right at a glance; that's fine, I like training my eye on solve-at-a-glance problems. One thing I particularly like about the capturing-race problems is that sometimes you have to make a tricky move and sometimes you just have to straightforwardly reduce liberties. In general many of the problems look like normal situations that would arise during a game and not like artfully-constructed tsumego, which I appreciate. It looks like the 1k problems will be ones that I would hope to be able to solve during a game, and the 1d ones will be challenging, so that's a perfect spread of difficulties.

Layout, paper, accessibility for non-Chinese readers are all good. I have spotted a couple of typos so far (in one case, the entire problem was accidentally moved one line farther away from the edge of the board, making it unsolvable). Highly recommended for SDKs.

This is something I haven't mentioned in my reviews yet; I've noted a couple of mistakes with problems, e.g. one where the first black move was already included on the diagram, making it a more trivial problem (because it didn't include the white response, essentially giving black two moves in a row). Considering there is somewhere upwards of 7000 diagrams across the books, the quality seems pretty good. Of course it would be nice if there were no mistakes, but for the price I certainly can't complain. I'm especially happy seeing problem types that I haven't seen much of in English problem books, e.g. the blockading section from the tesuji books.

Did you also buy the speed baduk books? If so, how are they?

I've only looked briefly, but they look good. Unfortunately, the Intermediate series does not have answers! This is especially unfortunate given that not all of the problems are life-and-death type problems with clear solutions. If they are really exactly the same books as Speed Baduk 10-12 then I can just try to order the answer book to those. (If someone here has those books I'd be happy to send you scans of a few pages to see if they match.) They do come with one DVD per book that my computer can't even load.

The Advanced series does have answers in the back of the books.

Ah, how disappointing.
Once you've had a bit more of a look, could you let me know roughly what level the advanced books start at? Are they the three books before train like a pro?

I took another look at this series, it looks like answers are only provided in the Advanced and the Dan series. At least this is the case for the editions I have which did not come with any DVDs. You'd need to get the English answer books for Speed Baduk. https://www.schaakengo.nl/goshop-keima/ ... /oromedia/

_________________
http://tchan001.wordpress.com
A blog on Asian go books, go sightings, and interesting tidbits
Go is such a beautiful game.

The Speed Baduk 10-12 answer book is listed on Yutopian's website, but I know it's out of print and they frequently list books they do not actually still have in stock, so I sent an email asking if they really had it. I got an answer that they did and that I should go ahead and order it, so I did, to which I got a reply that the book was not available. Next stop, the Netherlands...

I'm now on the second set of four books, and still think they are outstanding. The 5k books were not a waste for me (~3k AGA/KGS); like zac, I think that simple problems are valuable, plus it was educational to discover some weak spots in my skills (particularly in connecting stones). I don't feel that there's a big gap between the end of the 5k books and the start of the 1k books, which so far are interesting but totally doable (the problems are mostly in the category of "I would hope I would find the correct move in an actual game" so far). For variety I'm going through the books in parallel, doing one page of six problems from each one in rotation. Still enthusiastically recommended.

Meanwhile the Speed Baduk 10-12 answer book was in stock at Schaak en Gowinkel het Paard and is now en route from the Netherlands; I'll report back on whether it really does match the Intermediate books of the Quick Success Weiqi Series.

It finally arrived, and some quick spot-checking indicates that it does match exactly, even down to the page numbers.

I finally got my hands on the Chinese version of Speed Baduk 10,11,12. I had ordered the English answer book and received that some time ago.
My DVD's load; they contain all the answers in video form, which seems like a strange way to do it; and they are only separated by sections (i.e. 7 sections for the first book). The first section runs almost half an hour. So it would be difficult to find the answers you want, unless you are actually filling out the book as you go through, then checking your work. Luckily the answer books are still widely and cheaply available in English, and actually having the section titles helps a little bit.
I've only just started on them, but they do seem very good so far, a nice follow on from the Jump Level Up books.

I have finally made it through the second set of four books (they sit on my nightstand and I do a few problems before sleeping). I continue to recommend doing them in parallel, a page at a time, which helped keep me from getting bogged down or bored.

My experience is still very positive. Lots of techniques are exhibited and trained, and the level is good, although quite variable across books. My one complaint is that a fair number of the tesuji problems, especially the ones that are largely based on making a good shape rather than achieving a tactical goal like separating, remain a bit mysterious even after seeing the solution; why is the solution considered a success and my attempt considered a failure? With just a diagram showing the principal variation, it's hard for me at my level to say. I may bring a few of the problems here and see if other members can explicate them.

Still enthusiastically recommended.

Meanwhile, since the Speed Baduk series is also a topic of this thread, I have finished books 10-12 and have started to work on 13. These are also excellent (there's actually some overlap of problems with the above series, not too surprising), and I really like the feeling that I am going through a complete approved syllabus of go techniques. Difficulty varies, with the life and death problems being the hardest, but everything so far is still within AGA 3k range.

Thanks for the update dfan.

I took a bit of a break from go for a couple of months and I've starting back by getting back in to these books. I finished all the 5 and 1k ones last time around, and like you I'm still quite impressed and would recommend them. I have somewhere around 100 go books now, and really very few of them I would recommend to people. These and Jump Level Up are both on my list. I was lucky and my order was messed up and I ended up with 2 copies of each of the 5 and 1k books, so I have some copies to lend out!

I've been meaning to do a review of the other series I have from the same author, it covers a wider range of topics and levels- from around 30k through to 5D (from memory, maybe it's 3D), but it will take quite a bit of time. Some of them I wouldn't recommend to non-Chinese readers (endgame and opening especially), but the L&D and Tesuji ones are definitely worth it for people who want a source of more problems.

I've found that the Speed Baduk books I have vary a bit more in difficulty when compared to the books I reviewed here, or to Jump Level Up which seems gentler in it's progression. I tried to start at Speed Baduk 13 after finishing JLU but it was too hard. 10 seems better, I just haven't gotten to it.

Can this set of books still be bought on taobao?

Been a long time since I visited this site, or played any go...

My quick search didn't show these books as available. But the much bigger set by the same author, I think it has 20 books, is still available. It covers the same topics plus opening, joseki and endgame. All of those are difficult to work out without understanding Chinese. And there are more levels, beginner to 10k, 10k to 5k which is the same starting level as these books, 5k to 1k, and I think 1k to 1d, then 1d to 3d. I would have to check ar home to be sure.

I would recommend them just as much as these books. Maybe even more so, if you need a much larger collection across a wider difficulty. You can just disregard the opening/joseki/endgame ones. I think the whole set for me was about $50usd plus shipping.

Yes, I've already bought that set with a girl and a boy on a cover

Could anyone tell me how they are "safely" purchasing books from China? I'm really interested, but not sure how to do it.