Hi.

Often I think it can be helpful to compare and contrast related tsumego (at websites like gochild or goproblems).
Does anyone have particular suggestions for interesting combinations of related tsumego that might be useful to
compare interactively?

For instance, I find this combination insightful to figure out when you have to attack the white group at B10
with a move at A10 as opposed to when you have to attack that white group with a move at B11.

http://i.imgur.com/0gmW7.jpg

Though these are fairly basic tsumego (in the 20k to 25k range), I find it somewhat tricky to recognize it.

Due to gochild not having any theory (unlike a website like 321go.org for instance that has both theory
as well as interactive tsumego), one is more or less forced to simply memorize the patterns in the tsumego, in order
to gradually figure out the underlying principles. Once you understand these underlying principles, it's no
longer necessary to remember particular tsumego that illustrate a certain principle, because one has hopefully
learned to recognize any particular variation of a tsumego that shares the same underlying principle.

I just read the things out each time and over time the number of tsumego I can solve on sight increases. No need to force yourself to memorise them. Just do lots and lots of problems and your memory/instincts will take care of themselves.

I guess I approach learning go similar to how one might approach learning a foreign language.
First you memorize lots of words in the foreign language and their associated translation and then
after a while you hope that you have acquired a kind of basic vocabulary that will allow you to engage
in basic conversations or explore websites or newspapers in that foreign language and having a general
impression of their content.

What I'm concerned with in particular with go is the question how to practice tsumego in the most
efficient fashion. Being able to select problems that you find tough and being able to shuffle them
every time you go through them (similar how one might learn words in a foreign language by means of
flashcards) helps a lot, just like the random orientation at gochild is extremely helpful.

You can certainly argue that it's ineffective to memorize them and it would be more effective
(though more cumbersome) to explore variations of likely or possible moves that might ensue from
a given situation, every time you encounter a tsumego you find hard to solve or tricky to see
the proper move. But in that respect it can also be helpful to consider that tsumego in the context
of related tsumego.

I guess it's similar to the difference between regular go games where you might try to read out
possible sequences in your mind in certain situations and blitz games where you have no time for
that and you're forced to rely on intuition.

A tsumego generator would be best I guess, so you encounter tsumego in unlimited variations and you're
forced to learn to pay attention to the essential aspects while ignoring irrelevant aspects.
With traditional tsumego I often find myself recognizing the problem from previous encounters and
knowing the proper move by virtue of that, but it feels like I wouldn't be able to solve that tsumego
if it looked different while constituting a variation for which the same solution is applicable.

I like this. And it reminds me … wasn’t one Asian name for Go “hand talk” or “hands talking” or the like?

_________________
“The only difference between me and a madman is that I’m not mad.” — Salvador Dali ★ Play a slooooow correspondence game with me on OGS?

Go seems a bit like a universal language that people can grasp regardless of their cultural background to
some degree (similar to music or math).