I recently got Naoki Miyamoto's Test Your Go Strength through an inter-library loan (
http://www.worldcat.org/title/test-your ... ef_results). While it is fun, I can't recommend it for accuracy! According to the test, in which I spent less than a minute on each of 50 problems, I am 3 dan in opening stage, 3 kyu in middle, and 9 kyu in ending. Of course the multiple choice selection method and guiding questions for each diagram help immensely, and I didn't so much read as "feel" what seemed the right moves. Still, it may have some value in showing one's relative understanding for different phases of the game. I know that my understanding of good play diminishes as the game advances. Looking at the Game Score Graph for my games with Many Faces of Go 12, I typically hold on to a big lead with my handicap until about moves 30-40, when it gets dicey. With 4-5 stones against a 6 kyu level setting I can just hang on and win better than 75% of the time. But even with 9 stones at 3 kyu I still either get squeezed into the corners or cut up in the middle and lose by a big margin every time. I really am beginning to appreciate discussions concerning connections and splitting! BTW, at what level does Monte Carlo kick in for MFOG 12? It feels like it makes a huge jump in playing strength from 6 to 3 kyu.
On the topic of opening play, I highly recommend Charles Mathew's On Your Side articles (book really) at
http://gobase.org/studying/articles/matthews/fuseki/I finally got a copy of Yilun Yang's Fundamental Principles of Go. I had decided to put this on my short list after reading a sample (
http://www.slateandshell.com/pdf/Fundam ... 0Pages.pdf), and I have to say that I really think this book is perfect for my current level.
I also continue to work through 20-50 problems each day from Cho Chikun's Encyclopedia of Life and Death (
http://tsumego.tasuki.org/). Personally, I like the way that it is organized for a first reading, though I can see how randomizing the problems would probably be better for subsequent reads.
Now if I could just improve my middle game somehow...in addition to playing more, of course!