Life In 19x19

Problem 157 and the first opening problems and endgame problems are on 13*13 boards, to the end the book also uses 19*19 boards.

SoDesuNe wrote:Problem 157 and the first opening problems and endgame problems are on 13*13 boards, to the end the book also uses 19*19 boards.

Thank you.

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Amelia wrote:Maybe that's the main point? As a SDK, you already have an instinct for what can/cannot live and some of those problems challenge that instinct

Indeed. I was probably an SDK with weak reading skills who had got by on shape and so on. I probably still am an SDK with weak reading skills. Perhaps your reading skills were very strong for your rank (well, probably, if you started vol. 2 at 18k), but your shape/tesuji/whatever wasn't so strong... or something. I don't know.

I'm not going to claim you'll learn anything new from volume 1 if you've already done volume 2 - but, even at 8k, I hadn't done very many tsumego at all. I knew perfectly well what a snapback was, but I hadn't internalised its shape - if there was a snapback right in front of me, I'd find it, but I couldn't set one up even if it was one move away, because it simply never occurred to me to look for it. Most of my reading was move-by-move and painfully slow. This drilled some basic shapes into me and speeded up the process by a huge factor.

billywoods wrote: Great! Now turn the book upside-down and do them again. Without looking at the answers. The book claims to be 30-25 kyu, but is severely misranked - don't worry about it.

Good suggestion. My previous plan was to come back after forgetting most of it, but this should reduce the interval.

So....this is my final list from which I plan to pick a few until I have spent ~$75

* Graded Go Problems Vols III, IV ($21 each)

* Mastering the Basics Series : 501 Opening Problems [Vol. I], 1001 Life-and-Death Problems [Vol. II], 501 Tesuji Problems [Vol. IV] ($25 each)

* Get Strong at the Opening, Get Strong at Joseki (3 Vols. !), Get Strong at Invading, Get Strong at Tesuji, Get Strong at the Endgame ($21 each)

I'm leaning towards the Get Strong Vols., maybe skipping the Joseki ones.

Perhaps your reading skills were very strong for your rank (well, probably, if you started vol. 2 at 18k), but your shape/tesuji/whatever wasn't so strong... or something. I don't know.

I don't think it was particularly strong. All of my reading skill at the time was taught to me by that book as I was solving it. And vol 2 was quite hard back then for me, but I was a stubborn beginner and thought it would make me stronger to solve harder and harder problems. It would probably make you laugh to know how long I spent glaring at those problems and trying to visualize a third move on the diagramm. It wasn't at all about internalizing shapes for me at the time.
It's only recently that I realized the benefit of solving easier problems over and over again.

* Graded Go Problems Vols III, IV ($21 each)

Vol 4 is hard. It's really, frustratingly hard (for me at 15k). Vol 3 has mostly 1-3 moves problems. Vol 4 starts out with 5 moves problems. If you have like me serious trouble to read several branches five moves ahead, consider leaving that book for later. SoDesuNe advises it for SDK ranks, I think he's right.

* Mastering the Basics Series : 501 Opening Problems [Vol. I], 1001 Life-and-Death Problems [Vol. II], 501 Tesuji Problems [Vol. IV] ($25 each)

I just got 1001 Life and Death. It starts with one move problems, then gets harder and I think that's a good book at DDK. The opening and tesuji problems are said to be harder and not so useful before SDK. But I haven't read them.

* Get Strong at the Opening, Get Strong at Joseki (3 Vols. !), Get Strong at Invading, Get Strong at Tesuji, Get Strong at the Endgame ($21 each)

I have Get strong at Tesuji, I think it's a useful one to have at 15-14k and above. I don't know about the others.

Don't focus too much about getting a complete series, I think it's better to pick what you need at the moment and complete the series as your level goes up.

Mage wrote: * Graded Go Problems Vols III, IV ($21 each)

If you are having problems with I, III will be extremely difficult for you at the moment and IV pretty much impossible. The thing is you will want III at some point as a DDK so it's a reasonable purchase, IV not so much unless you're happy to leave a book unused for ages.

Mage wrote:* Mastering the Basics Series : 501 Opening Problems [Vol. I], 1001 Life-and-Death Problems [Vol. II], 501 Tesuji Problems [Vol. IV] ($25 each)

The early sections of 1001 L&D are very doable early on as a DDK, the latter sections not so much but still a useful book. A good bit harder than GGP Vol I but a book you will want. The other two you can leave for a whole, Opening problems are disputed as being useful for people and 501 Tesuji is SDK material.

Mage wrote:* Get Strong at the Opening, Get Strong at Joseki (3 Vols. !), Get Strong at Invading, Get Strong at Tesuji, Get Strong at the Endgame ($21 each)

Get Strong at Tesuji, you need this book! it is the perfect introduction to the subject, it has everything from weak DDK problems to a couple of dan level problems in it letting you get use out of it for a long time. The other books in the Get Strong at Series are far, far more difficult and not really that accessible as a DDK. It's the same with 1001 L&D above, its difficulty level is vasty different to the other books in the series.


If I had to say three books based on what I found useful, Get Strong at Tesuji definitely, 1001 Life and Death Problems also (though you might have to wait a few stones before being able to get a lot of use out of this book) and maybe GGPfB Vol III in the sense that if you keep at go you'll want it anyway. If you were only to get one book get Get Strong at Tesuji because it'll have problems immediately accessible to you (not *that* many, but some).

would you suggest doing get strong at tesuji before tesuji by davies?

cherryhill wrote:would you suggest doing get strong at tesuji before tesuji by davies?

I did it that way, I started Get Strong at Tesuji around 15/16k and finally did Davies' Tesuji at around 10k. I don't know if this is best or not but I definitely found Tesuji made a lot more sense to me at that strength than when I looked at it around 15/16k (I bought both books in the same order). Your mileage may vary.

I find Get Strong at Tesuji to be much more difficult than 1001 Life and Death Problems. You don't really know what the problem expects from you. Sometimes the benefits of the "correct" answer are rather abstract.

Amelia wrote: Vol 4 is hard. It's really, frustratingly hard (for me at 15k). Vol 3 has mostly 1-3 moves problems. Vol 4 starts out with 5 moves problems. If you have like me serious trouble to read several branches five moves ahead, consider leaving that book for later. SoDesuNe advises it for SDK ranks, I think he's right.

Boidhre wrote: If you are having problems with I, III will be extremely difficult for you at the moment and IV pretty much impossible. The thing is you will want III at some point as a DDK so it's a reasonable purchase, IV not so much unless you're happy to leave a book unused for ages.

Yes, most 3-5 moves deep reading will be D.O.A for me at this stage.

The thing I really liked and found useful in Vol. I was that it was not just L&D, but also had problems on other aspects that helped me reinforce things that I am learning. I got about ~15% problems wrong with an average time per problem of 20-30 secs. Haven't started Vol. II, so not sure what to expect exactly there.

I'm hoping Get Strong at Tesuji + 1001 L&D problems will give a similar well-rounded education.


Aside: Another issue with me has been that- While in Tsumego I will correctly solve a problem very easily, since it would say something like "black to play and live", I have completely missed a similar situation in the few games I've played I'm guessing this is where the drilling is going to help eventually ?....

Mage wrote:since it would say something like "black to play and live",
I have completely missed a similar situation in the few games I've played
I'm guessing this is where the drilling is going to help eventually ?....

Exactly.

EdLee wrote:Exactly.

Black to play.

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Mage wrote:The thing I really liked and found useful in Vol. I was that it was not just L&D, but also had problems on other aspects that helped me reinforce things that I am learning. I got about ~15% problems wrong with an average time per problem of 20-30 secs. Haven't started Vol. II, so not sure what to expect exactly there.

Yes, all 4 volumes are this way. And there are no other books I know that cover so many aspects of the game in problem form.

Get Strong at Invading is one of the more insane Go books I own. I'm SDK (even on IGS, now, woot) and still struggle to distill knowledge from it, even when I am looking up a specific invasion that happened in one of my own games.

"Life and Death" has "Status" problems that are far superior to Live or Kill problems because you actually have to read out the entire position. It gets better: if the position leads to seki or a ko, you're expected to know what sort of seki or ko you're dealing with: sente- or gote-seki, direct-, approach-ko, who "takes" first, how many internal threats...