Life In 19x19

I guess I'll find out for myself what "A Survey of Basic Tesuji" is like - I just ordered it (along with "Tactical Reading"). Personally I don't think I'll be disappointing with either book though I do hope the problems in the "survey" aren't just recycled from the other Kiseido publications (which I already own). I'll post my review on L19 if I feel I have something useful to contribute.

CnP wrote:I guess I'll find out for myself what "A Survey of Basic Tesuji" is like - I just ordered it (along with "Tactical Reading"). Personally I don't think I'll be disappointing with either book though I do hope the problems in the "survey" aren't just recycled from the other Kiseido publications (which I already own). I'll post my review on L19 if I feel I have something useful to contribute.

Even if you don't end up doing a full review, just posting some impressions and comparison with the EGS books would be nice.
A full review on Tactical Reading would be awesome to see, too. I'm quite curious about RJ's books and enjoy seeing people's opinions on them.

I was going to buy several of the Roadmap books while they had a sale on, but ended up going with a local supplier who also gives me free shipping and picked up several more widely-reviewed books.

Thanks for the kind words zac. I think it'll be harder to summarize Robert's book but I'll have a go

Hm well "A survey of Basic Tesuji" arrived today and I've spent an hour or so reading it so far. It's pretty much as I expected and I'm pleased I got a copy. As DinoKino said in each chapter there's a worked example followed by a number of problems. Unlike DinoKino I'm really liking it, with the exception of when answers start on the same page as the problems (not always the case though). So for me it's a problem book with a worked example and with the hint that the solution involves a hane (or whichever move the chapter talks about). It seems like a good way to practice solving tesuji problems, training the mind to see that particular sort of move (I think it might work better than grouping according to the higher level motive which Elementary Go Series Tesuji does).

With regards 'grinding' these problems, it's not strictly the suggested way of approaching them (as I understand grinding). For the "high kyu" player it is suggested they go through it quickly at first, not spending too long and going with the best guess - but even then only doing around 20 an hour - so spending 3 minutes on each - not 5 seconds then turning straight to the answer. I've been doing around this with a fairly good success rate so far.

Before it arrived I started doing some problems from 501 Tesuji Problems, I was getting a good 7/9 right with 5/9 solved fairly quickly. The problems in A survey of Basic Tesuji (I'll refer to it by its code K85 from now on) seem a similar level to the 5/9 in 501 Tesuji - with the added benefit of the hint of which move to consider (though not always the first move). The author suggests that after completing K85 501 Tesuji is a good follow on - and so far I definitely agree.

Would I recommend buying K85 even if you have Elementary Go Series Tesuji? - I would. Would I recommend buying Elementary Go Series Tesuji if you've already bought K85? - I would also. EGS: Tesuji and K85 have completely different structures. - the only qualifier is that personally I don't think you can have too many problem books (or do too many problems) and there's plenty of problems in each. When I need to learn something I often get hold of several books on the subject at once and two tesuji books with different approaches to teaching tesuji is something I'm very happy to have.

I've not been looking for typos but it seems pretty well edited to me, nothing that was distracting. The physical quality of the book is the same high level as other Kiseido publications. Overall I have a good impression of this volume in the Roadmap to Shodan series and will be buying others in the future.


For the record I have copies of the Slate & Shell Fujisawa Shuko Dictionary of Basic Tesuji (vol1-4) and a Taiwanese copy of the Go Seigen Tesuji Dictionary set but I haven't studied them enough to be able to compare to K85 - however these both span multiple volumes. I suspect they will make a good next stage after K85 and 501 Tesuji Problems.