Useful books to become stronger

[Andreas]

Im another Kageyama fan, Id recommend that book to any mid-kyu player.

The books that gave me most at single digit kyu level (maybe in your 10-5k category but if you get a real grasp on them youre probably almost 1d):

General concept books:
Kageyama
Attack and Defense

Technique books:
Tesuji
Life&Death

"Endgame" and "Opening" werent things I learned from books, although Kageyama covers basic endgame concepts well.

For dan level players, the dictionary series is quite good (Ishida joseki, Rin Kaiho Fuseki, Fujisawa or (AND!) Go Seigen Tesuji, Cho Chikun Life and Death)

What Im currently lacking is books about new openings and joseki, the materials from Rin Kaiho and Ishida are often more than 30 years old... for example, in recent Korean games, ive seen several variations of the starpoint two space high pincer which definitely arent in the Ishida but seem to be quite common nowadays. (BC Card Cup final game 1 move 6-15)

[Actorios]

I really like this topic.

My two cents:

The more I think about it the more I believe that:
* The Elementary Go Serie (in the following sequence : Tesuji, Life & Death, Attack & Defense... and then maybe In the Beginning, 38 Joseki, The Endgame)
* Graded Go Problems for Beginners 1 to 4
have almost all you need to learn for a long time

That being said, the Elementary Go Serie is something that I'm studying right now... I'm not sure you need to get into those within your first year of Go.

Easy books to start with:
* Janice Kim's Learn to Play Go is a must : it's really an excellent kicker because it's not overwhelming: graphs are simple to read, no need for a goban aside from the book. Very nice.
* Opening Theory Made Easy : the easiest way I've found to get into good fuseki principles
* 1001 Life & Death problems is also very good and simple to review (maybe at the same time as the Elementary Go Serie)

I've got far more books (mostly unread) but my main goal for this year is to read all 6 books of the Elementary Go Serie.
I'm sure I could read them and read them again and still get something out of them for quite some time.
Aside from those, easy books on tsumegos are really what I'm aiming at: just improve my ability to read and reckognize patterns (easier said than done).

[dfan]

I really like this topic.

My two cents:

The more I think about it the more I believe that:
* The Elementary Go Series (in the following sequence : Tesuji, Life & Death, Attack & Defense... and then maybe In the Beginning, 38 Joseki, The Endgame)
* Graded Go Problems for Beginners 1 to 4
have almost all you need to learn for a long time

I agree. I got to 10k super fast (probably under 20 games) just by reading through most of the Elementary Go Series and GGPB 2, again and again.

However, I would not read Life & Death that early. In fact, I think one of the main things retarding my development for a long time was the fact that I wasn't good at life & death, the book wasn't helping me, and I thought that the fault lay with me so I didn't bother getting a different book. Life & Death has a lot of really advanced stuff in it, and despite appearances (it starts with simple situations) it is not a gentle introduction at all. It wasn't until I started browsing through Cho's All About Life and Death and doing lots of L&D problems in GGPB 3 and 4 (and later the 1001 book) that I got any good at life and death.

[Saurus]

Since the question about books is asked regularly, I have put a list of books on my SL homepage. The list is intended for beginners to low SDKs.

I'm surprised at your placement of "Kage's Secret Chronicles Of Handicap Go." As a single digit kyu player, I found the book helped me tremendously (possibly more than any other book at this level.) I must add, however, that I studied the book, and memorized the first 70 or so moves of every game. (Easy, because he clearly explains the reason behind every move, so the logic is easy to follow.)

Jumped three stones from a single read.

I would place it in the single digit kyu upwards category.

[Shentar]

I have never read any go books that created any huge leap in rank. And I think the book that helped me the most was actually a tsumego book. Weiqi Rapid Drill 800 Problems (围棋快速练习800题). The thing that made this book great was that it was the first tsumego book I have read that seemed to perfectly match my skill level (I was a KGS 8kyu at the time, though I'm not sure if my tsumego skills had been lagging behind at that point or not).

I averaged 5 out of 6 problems correct, many of which were very quick, around 5-10 second problems. Not having any description of the problem, just knowing that it was black to play, was also useful. Especially not having any hint whether you're aiming to unconditionally live/kill, or if seki, or ko, is the best result. I'm sure a lot of books are like that, of course, but that combined with the quick nature of the problems made this book very useful for me.

Of course, it's hard to recommend a specific tsumego book to a group of people... but this was the book that convinced me of how useful finding a tsumego book at just the right difficulty can be.

[karaklis]

I'm surprised at your placement of "Kage's Secret Chronicles Of Handicap Go." As a single digit kyu player, I found the book helped me tremendously (possibly more than any other book at this level.) I must add, however, that I studied the book, and memorized the first 70 or so moves of every game. (Easy, because he clearly explains the reason behind every move, so the logic is easy to follow.)

Interesting to know. I will give it a try again with your study method.

[Stable]

I really like The Direction Of Play. I think it crystallised a lot of things which I was unsure of. Also, if you have a good sense of direction fuseki and attack/defense suddenly start to make a lot more sense.

[Saurus]

I've heard that "Direction of Play" is specifically aimed at dan players. How did you find the level? In your opinion, at what kyu level would it become useful?

[Stable]

I think I got it at about 5k. I found it really clear and easy to understand, especially the fuseki bits. I know a lot of people don't like it, but I think the "move 2 lost the game" section is a beautiful bit of pedagogy. The section on midgame direction is tougher to put into practice, but still good to have in the back of your mind, especially while reviewing your own games.

[Jonas]

I can recommend the book "Vital Points And Skillful Finesse For Sabaki" (http://senseis.xmp.net/?VitalPointsAndS ... eForSabaki) for players around 3k - 3d. Sadly the binding of the book has no good quality but the covered topics are really great. The moves that Yoda Norimoto is showing are feeling like magic to me.
Definitly a "should-read" for all people who like to invade deep and die struggling (like me )

[azazil]

In response to SoDesuNe's original post, a couple thoughts.

- The James Davies series is significantly under represented. A&D is of course the most important single book for a kyu player to read, but his books on Life and Death and The Endgame are also extremely important. Neither seems quite as exciting as A&D, but they are both are foundational works and should be in your intermediate section.

- Tesuij & Anti-suji by Sakata is a book which is going out of print (if not already there), but it's the best tesuji book I've seen. At first I was going to say intermediate, but really 1-5k is probably more accurate.

- Invincible is a good book, but should definitely not be in the kyu section. It is full of really advanced analysis.

- Reducing Territorial Frameworks by Fujisawa belongs in the 1-5k category, and can be seen as a (partial) follow up to A&D. I consider this essential reading.

- Keishi & Uchikomi by Iwamoto is a dan-level follow up to Reducing Territorial Frameworks, though it could go in the optional category.

- Go Seigen's A way of play for the 21st century is a very good dan level fuseki book

- I'd knock Attack and Kill off the list, it just had specific examples which I didn't find helpful.

- Az

[dfan]

I love Tesuji and Anti-Suji of Go. A real shame it's out of print. I particularly like the fact that a lot of the tesuji are about making good shape, not about killing or separating.

[jdl]

I've heard that "Direction of Play" is specifically aimed at dan players. How did you find the level? In your opinion, at what kyu level would it become useful?

I just read it last weekend, but did not work through any of the variations on a board. At 8k, I found the first few sections on fuseki and how the stones radiate power to be mostly understandable. It seems like a book that is all over the place in terms of required strength. The author goes off for several pages at a time on variations that I'm not sure are useful to me at my level.

I enjoyed it the first time through, and expect to read it again when I have time to go through it with a board.

[topazg]

I've heard that "Direction of Play" is specifically aimed at dan players. How did you find the level? In your opinion, at what kyu level would it become useful?

I just read it last weekend, but did not work through any of the variations on a board. At 8k, I found the first few sections on fuseki and how the stones radiate power to be mostly understandable. It seems like a book that is all over the place in terms of required strength. The author goes off for several pages at a time on variations that I'm not sure are useful to me at my level.

I enjoyed it the first time through, and expect to read it again when I have time to go through it with a board.

I found the opening sections of the book to be stuff I already knew and understood reasonably well, though some of the variations were insightful. Much of the book is the sort of stuff that "makes sense" to me intuitively, but is deep and clever in ways I would fail to find myself in games. I would say it's 5k - 3d+

[MadsS]

BUT WHERE IS KAGEYAMA ??????? It's also a book worth reading once when you're weak, and constantly reread

And this is my top book for everyone

I think people go to Kageyama thinking "lots of rave reviews, this'll teach me how to play Go!" and get disappointed. The book doesn't teach you how to play, nor does it teach you the right moves. What it does do is teach you how to think when you play, and how to develop methods to find good moves for yourself - it takes a lot more to get out of it than just "absorb information", but I think the reward is well worth it.

That sounds awesome! I need to get that one. Just to be sure, it's Lessons in the Fundamentals of Go, right?