Life In 19x19

Useful cheap books to help improve DDK? I would like suggestions for L&D and problem books, maybe some Joseki and Fuseki to help improve!

Hi SumaW, have you read The Second Book of Go by Richard Bozulich ? You may enjoy it.

EdLee wrote:Hi SumaW, have you read The Second Book of Go by Richard Bozulich ? You may enjoy it.

I have not, but I'll check it out.

I hear good things about the Graded Go Problems for Beginners series also. Volume 1 is really the 20-30k book, but volumes 2 and then 3 should be good for a while. I understand that volume 4 is pretty solidly SDK territory.

I have never actually read any of these apart from volume 1, however.

I also like Graded Go Problems for Beginners, volumes 1 and 2.

If you like school workbook style, I like the Level Up series from baduktopia. I feel it was very helpful when I started at around 18k. A nice progression, and was fun as well. It introduces lots of techniques, joseki, fuseki, and more. I'm on the second series now, jump level up, and am on the verge of breaking into SDK.

If you want to improve, then do not look for cheap books, but look for good books. However, there are cheaper options (files) of some good books.

An advice needs to be split for absolute beginners versus DDK in the range 20k - 10k. I do not know the books for absolute beginners too well, so I do not make a recommendation for particular ones. Concerning books (also) for 20k - 10k, don't miss the following:

- First Fundamentals
- Graded Go Problems 2
- Lessons in the Fundamentals // EGF 13k+
- Life and Death Problems 1 - Basics
- Second Book of Go // you can postpone the semeai chapter
- Tesuji (Davies)
- Treasure Chest Enigma // entertainment only

There are others, but they are not necessarily DDK first considerations.

If you really want to spend as little money as possible, read the PDF of First Fundamentals and find some easy, free problems in the internet.

Graded Go Problems for Beginners is also another really popular study tool for DDKs

Graded Go Problems for Beginners vol II is one of my favorite go books and a wonderful book for DDK's with a really nice variety of problems: tesuji, life and death, seki, ko, opening, endgame. Have been through this book a few times and will probably read it a couple more because the quality of problems make it a pleasure to work through. Only did a few pages of vol III where I discovered the problems were a little bit difficult for me and decided to work on other books before continuing but you can read a nice review of it (and many other go books) here: http://www.bengozen.com/book-review-graded-go-problems-for-beginners-vol-3

SumaW wrote:Useful cheap books to help improve DDK? I would like suggestions for L&D and problem books, maybe some Joseki and Fuseki to help improve!

Many other players can give you suggestions for books. I just want to point out you might then request inter-library loans to review before deciding which books to purchase. Try searching different ways: author, title, subject. See: http://www.worldcat.org/ and some (few) digital books at https://openlibrary.org/ (the latter also has some participation agreement with the state of Indiana; probably other states, too, but a banner for Indiana automatically loads for me)

happysocks wrote:Graded Go Problems for Beginners vol II is one of my favorite go books and a wonderful book for DDK's

Yup.

I have a few books aimed at the DDK level kicking around that are explanatory, with diagrams and maybe some annotated examples. They have all been helpful (in particular, Bozulich's The Second Book of Go), but last week I started on GGPFB 2 and wished I'd found it months ago.

Some of its answers are annotated - in particular, there is often a 'wrong answer' with a short discussion of why it's wrong - but mostly it's just problem after problem after problem, drilling the same idea in a slightly trickier way each time. I can feel my reading getting better page by page.

It is awesome. I'm only halfway through and I think it's my favourite Go book already. When I'm done I'm going to order volume 3, and while I'm waiting for it to arrive I'm going to run through it again upside down.