Hi all,
Please see my reviews of the other books in the series here;
Tesuji; viewtopic.php?f=17&t=15712
Capturing Races; viewtopic.php?f=57&t=15740
The following is a review of the Life and Death books from that series.
The three books in the series;
ISBN's (in order of difficulty)
9787564412630
9787564412647
9787564412708
The books are again separated in to levels; 5k, 1k, 1D. Each book is divided in to sections, containing problems linked by a theme. Each section begins with a number of worked examples, that may include diagrams for an incorrect answer. There are 50 of these examples in both the 1st and 2nd books, and 55 in the 3rd. These could also be treated as extra problems, but are not included in the problem counts below. All the books in this series have 6 problems per page (except for the examples, which is 2 per page) with a single correct answer diagram in the back of the book.
Book 1
contains 288 problems.
The indicated rating of 5k seems quite soft. I am around that rank, and can solve many problems on sight, or have the correct first move immediately apparent with simple, straight forward reading to confirm. I would say that it is about the level of Graded Go Problems for Beginners volume 2. There are several sections that remind me very much of Jump Level Up 1 (making false eyes to kill, using shortage of liberties etc.). Probably more suitable for around 10k upwards, but I enjoyed it as a quick review of different techniques.
Sections (very rough translations).
1. Living (1)
2. Killing (1)
3. Living (2)
4. Killing (2)
5. Seki
6. Ko (to live)
7. Ko (to kill)
8. Not entirely sure. Seems to be "real life" i.e. positions from real games?
Example problems;
Problem 1, Black to play and live;
Harder problems later on, problem 256, from the ko to kill section. Black to play;
Book 2
also contain 288 problems. Indicated rank is 1k, but likely all these books have soft ratings. I think 1k might mean "As a 1k, you should know all of this". Seems to be around the level of Lee Changho L&D 2.
Sections are the same as book 1, just at a higher difficulty.
Example problems;
Problem 1, black to play and live;
Problem 221, Black to play and make a ko to live;
Book 3
contains 264 sections. Indicated rank is 1D. No comment on difficulty from me, they certainly seem to be above my level, but I haven't spent any real time trying to solve them.
Sections
1. Living (1)
2. Killing (1)
3. Same as the last two books last sections "real life" (1)
4. Living (2)
5. Killing (2)
6. Seki
7. Ko to live
8. Ko to kill
9. Living (3)
10. Killing (3)
11. "Real life" (2)
Example problems;
Problem 1, black to play and live;
Problem 242, from the last section. Black to play and kill
Some general thoughts
Printing is quite good. Problems seem to be of a high quality, with many realistic shapes from games. I like that the ko and seki problems receive sections of their own, rather than being mixed in. It probably does make them easier, but I feel it's useful to improve recognition of the shapes where these are possible. Certainly a pretty good deal, with each book having a RRP of 18 yuan. I think I paid about 120 yuan for all 12 books + shipping. Little to no knowledge of Chinese needed, as the examples at the beginning of the chapters shows what techniques will be used in the following problems. Well worth buying, in my opinion, for SDK looking for more L&D problems to solve.
@ 
E1 empty triangle didn't work. 
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