[quote="daal" when reading, what's important is that we know how many liberties each group has and whether it leaves behind cutting points etc. [/quote]

This is where I have trouble.
I can focus on one group and know how many liberties it has. But when there are multiples I have to reread the sequence multiple times and focus on each group to recount the amount of liberties/cutting points etc.

And when it comes to corner problems.... Sacrifice. I did not misread I merely added more stones to sacrifice so I could get outside moves.

yeah, I totally have problems visualizing as I try to read.

my biggest problems are shortage of liberties, snapbacks and throw-ins. Put all those together and I really have trouble.

For example, this problem should be easy, but I just can't see it (I see it now that I've looked at the answer, but months later, I'll forget again)

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

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

In a purile sense, shortage of liberties is the entirety of go¹, so yeah, that's a problem.

(Also, me too. In your example problem, I see the main line pretty much instantly, but verifying that nothing else works runs into some illusions. )

[1] For those who don't immediately catch why I say that...

This problem points to another essential difficulty of reading: every stone played affects the liberties of each group it touches, so you need to simultaneously keep track of several changing statuses. Looking at the problem on the computer, I found it too difficult to read out. After laying the problem out on a board, and placing my first idea, I realized (what I think to be) the answer at once.

_________________
Patience, grasshopper.

Here's one I once had very big problems visualizing. It contains the same pattern as xed_over's tsumego (not the throw-in part, though).

Even knowing the solution it's still hard to visualize, imho.

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

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

Yeah, I couldn't do it without putting it on a board and trying out a few different variations.



cool problem (assuming I even got it right)

edit: found 2nd solution