Please Share Your Top 5 English Go Books for Improvement

logan · #1

Hi,

I thought that it could be helpful for some new players and those looking for improvement if people would share an ordered list of their top five, English books for improvement. Although there are many other threads aimed at helping people to improve, I thought that these lists might offer a different way of looking at things. And maybe after enough input is added we can make a nice tally of everyone's votes.

Look forward to seeing your lists : )

Sincerely,
logan

Quote:

Example list:

1. Level Up! Essential Life & Death
2. Speed Baduk for Beginners
3. Opening Theory Made Easy
4. The Life, Games and Commentaries of Honinbo Shuei
5. Invincible: The Games of Shusaku

Boidhre · #2

For breaking through to sdk:

1. Graded Go Problems - Absolutely Essential Reading.
2. Get Strong at Tesuji - I haven't found any online problem set to cover what this covers for this level.
3. 1001 Life and Death Problems - Your reading is what's holding you back almost certainly, so throw in more tsumego!
4. Speed Baduk - Honestly, I don't rate the fuseki sections but the middle game sections on connecting, protecting cuts etc are invaluable. It's very Korean, work on your hangema and life and death, leave the fuseki theory until you're quite a bit stronger. It's hard to disagree with this approach I think for strong ddks/weak sdks but if you're like me and find fuseki theory/problems interesting it's a bit of a let down.
5. Opening Theory Made Easy - If you only read one theory book at this level, this is the one. It's a lot more subtle than it appears, it'll still be relevant to you as a weak sdk.

I've pretty much just listed problem books. I don't think theory helps much when you're a ddk. I think reading theory is fine, I did it and continue to do it but the real progress will come from working on your reading and learning some of the basic shape moves.

SoDesuNe · #3

1. Graded Go Problems For Beginners Series
2. Opening Theory Made Easy
3. Get Strong at Tesuji
4. Tesuji (Elementary Go Series)
5. The Life, Games and Commentaries of Hoinbo Shuei

crux · #4

logan wrote:

Hi,

I thought that it could be helpful for some new players and those looking for improvement if people would share an ordered list of their top five, English books for improvement. Although there are many other threads aimed at helping people to improve, I thought that these lists might offer a different way of looking at things. And maybe after enough input is added we can make a nice tally of everyone's votes.

These are the ones that probably helped me the most:
1. Attack & Defense
2. Graded Go Problems for Beginners (mostly Vol 3 & 4)
3. Whole Board Thinking in Joseki
4. Beyond Forcing Moves
5. Get Strong at the Endgame

Honorary mentions to Richard Hunter's Counting Liberties and Redmond's The ABCs of Attack and Defense (I probably would have gotten more out of the latter if I'd read it earlier).

I could also make a list of books of the kind "this contains a huge amount of material, I wish I could make better use of it".

ez4u · #5

1. GoGoD - Not a book but for £20, €25 or $30 the best single 'text' on Go available, bar none. Just consider the "Quick Links"...

2. Dictionary of Basic Joseki (Ishida, in my case) - I am way to lazy to study joseki. I read Ishida like a book (it was being published volume by volume when I began to play Go in the '70's) - an adventure in good play versus bad shape if you will. It is thousands of examples of proper play with brief but often understandable explanations even for kyu players, which I was at the time. Thirty-five years later it still is the one work that always sits at shoulder height on my bookcase, just to the left of my keyboard.

3. Go World - Absolutely tons of material. Go forth and acquire either paper or electronic copies of as many of the back copies as you can find!

4. 1971 Honinbo Tournament - Still the one and only tournament book in English. It was the story and pictures that sucked me into Go one day when I mistook it for a chess book in a San Francisco book store. The quintessential story of the young hero who challenges the master (himself still young, but let's not spoil the story :rambo:

) one on one and triumphs. It stirs the blood, which is much more important than exercising you techniques. Needless to say, I found most of the commentary incomprehensible as a beginner but there were still some things I could make out even then. Every time that I have pulled it out in the intervening decades, it has yielded new treasures to ponder.

Honorable Mentions (In place of a fifth choice):
Hikaru no Go (There are dozens of books you can study until you fall asleep but there is only one HNG!),
First Kyu (read it and think about it - what does 'study' really mean in the context of a competitive game like Go?),
The Go Consultants (the best analysis ever, IMHO - even if there is only one game in the book),
The Breakthrough to Shodan (The 'study' book that I enjoyed the most as a kyu player. Lightweight fluff? Probably, but it is lots of fun! Grab it if you see a copy. :blackeye:

)

Edit: Just to clarify, I believe that enthusiasim and persistence are the biggest factors for improvement. I own a couple hundred of, mainly Japanese, Go books. I've never been able to finish the vast majority of 'single theme' books. The resources that I have gone back to time after time are those that have variety, depth, and back story to hold and rekindle my interest. Of course I have my favorite problem books. But I have honestly never met anyone who liked exactly the same ones I did so why recommend those!

cdybeijing · #6

Some interesting responses so far, some emerging points of consensus, and some surprising omissions. I've had to think about this quite a bit. There are a few books I have benefited a lot from and a few that I maybe read at the wrong time. Given the topic title, my general list which doesn't necessarily reflect personal experience:

1. Attack and Defense
2. Opening Theory Made Easy
3. Tesuji / Get Strong at Tesuji (read them concurrently)
4. Invincible
5. Lessons in the Fundamentals of Go

Suggestions 1-3 are the absolute best books I know to take someone quickly to the strong kyu ranks. After that, it's just hard work to make dan.

Books 4 and 5 are the English go books with the best re-reading value that I know of.

jts · #7

Not that this needs to be more than a fun exercise, but what exactly do we mean by "top five English books for improvement (for new players)"? If we mean "the first five books a new player should read to improve quickly", I might suggest five problem books. But if we mean "the only five books you will ever need" or "the books that will make the highest impact at some point in your infatuation with go", I would give a different list.

logan · #8

Wow, thanks for all the interesting replies so far. I think a few books are already starting to stick out.

jts wrote:

Not that this needs to be more than a fun exercise, but what exactly do we mean by "top five English books for improvement (for new players)"? If we mean "the first five books a new player should read to improve quickly", I might suggest five problem books. But if we mean "the only five books you will ever need" or "the books that will make the highest impact at some point in your infatuation with go", I would give a different list.

Hi jts,

You can use your best judgement when deciding what constitutes improvement for your list. I understand that it may be difficult to make just one list, but if you try your best I'm sure you can pull something together : )

These may help to clarify some ideas:

Audience: new players and/or those looking for improvement
Content: top English books for improvement
#items in list: 5
Possible, helpful questions to ask yourself: "Does this book provide long-term benefits?", "Is this book too narrow?", "Are the concepts in this book more fundamental or important than those in another book I'm considering?" "Is the book an efficient use of time?", etc.

Also, if anyone has any other clarification questions for me, please feel free to PM. Hopefully we can keep the thread clean and straightforward.

Sincerely,
logan

Boidhre · #9

Define new player. Most of the books I see above I wouldn't recommend to what I'd consider a new player. Every one though I've seen recommended at some level below 1 dan for some purpose and the ones that I own I have found very interesting/helpful.

Honestly if new player = ddk and we're to recommend books relevant right now to them I don't think it'll be particularly interesting other than seeing which problem books people favour and what mix of problem to theory they think is best. If it's books that'll be relevant at some point to them and they should put on their wishlist then I think it'll be far more interesting and varied.

tchan001 · **#10**

for absolute beginners to progress upwards
1. Learn to Play Go series from Janice Kim
2. Graded Go Problems for Beginners (Kiseido)
3. Second Book of Go (Kiseido)
4. The Fundamental Principles of Go by Yilun Yang
5. First Fundamentals (RJ)

zac · **#11**

For me so far it's been;

1. Opening Theory Made Easy
2. Graded Go Problems for Beginners
3. Get Strong at Tesuji
4. 1001 Life and Death Problems
5. Fundamental Principles of Go

Wasiqi · **#12**

My top 5 books:
Opening Theory Made Easy - Instant level up in opening
Tesuji - in my opinion the best intro/learning aid on tesuji. A true mind opening experience
Graded Go Problems for Beginners - lots of tsumego
The Endgame - a very important book for an undervalued subject
Kamakura/9 Dan Showdown/Final Summit - Amazing commentary of one of the most influential players of our time.

bofinken · **#13**

Like ez4uI think motivation is a key factor for improvement. There is enormous amount of good books and other online material out there to grab but it boils down to how you handle your time and energy.

But still, good books:

* First kyu
* So you want to play go (series, choose one according to your level)
* Attack and defense
* Graded go problems (all of them, but I can pick Graded Go Problems for Dan Players tesuji, for tesuji is funnier than life and death for me (right now at least))
* Attacking and defending moyos

But most value for the time I think, like many others, is to dig into Weiqi 1000, Cho Chikun's life and death and tesuji books or other of that kind...

Kirby · **#14**

* Train like a Pro (2 books)
* Top 1% (3 books)

I kind of like anything by Yilun Yang, too.

walleye · **#15**

"Contact fights" and "Sector fights".

oren · **#16**

Kirby wrote:

* Top 1% (3 books)

Isn't Top 1% cheating the question? No English release unfortunately. One of these days I'll have to see those books of yours because it somehow got to 14 books in the Japanese edition.

Kirby · **#17**

oren wrote:

Kirby wrote:

* Top 1% (3 books)

Isn't Top 1% cheating the question? No English release unfortunately. One of these days I'll have to see those books of yours because it somehow got to 14 books in the Japanese edition.

Sorry, I didn't notice that it indicated "English" go books. In that case, I'll say that I simply like Yilun Yang's (English) books.

snorri · **#18**

Kirby wrote:

oren wrote:

Kirby wrote:

* Top 1% (3 books)

Isn't Top 1% cheating the question? No English release unfortunately. One of these days I'll have to see those books of yours because it somehow got to 14 books in the Japanese edition.

Sorry, I didn't notice that it indicated "English" go books. In that case, I'll say that I simply like Yilun Yang's (English) books.

What is Top 1%?

golem7 · **#19**

my top five books that contributed most to my improvement (ordered chronologically)

1. opening theory made easy (when you don't know where to play on that huge empty board)
2. tesuji (teaches you how to read)
3. attack and defense (instant +2 stones as sdk, finally began to understand what's it all about)
4. strategic principles of go (finally understood the concept of aji, essential for dan level)
5. joseki dictionary (ishida, later takao: full of examples of good shape and equal exchanges)

honorable mentions: making good shape, tesuji and anti-suji of go (should have read them earlier)

add tsumego for reading and pro games for instinct and inspiration

foeZ · **#20**

Boidhre wrote:

5. Opening Theory Made Easy - If you only read one theory book at this level, this is the one. It's a lot more subtle than it appears, it'll still be relevant to you as a weak sdk.

It's still relevant for strong SDK and low dan players. A lot of things are common sense for them but most of it is still worth revisiting every few years.

Please Share Your Top 5 English Go Books for Improvement

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