I've never really explored the famous classical Go problem collections. I know that the problem difficulties are all over the place, with some being far far over my head. If I'm doing problems purely to benefit my own study, I'd rather use a curated selection that is intended to be appropriate for my level.

But I've still felt bad about my ignorance, and when John Fairbairn announced the first volume of his Encyclopaedia of Classical Go Problems, I went ahead and bought it. The short version is that it's outstanding, and I bought the second volume the instant that he announced that one too.

Basically, they have everything you might want in such books:

• Historical context of each collection
• Historical context of each problem, including origins of the names, comparison to similar or identical problems in other collections, and variants
• Multiple solutions and tries, often collected from many sources
• A listing of many fundamental life-and-death techniques, along with which apply in which problem

Finally I've found a way in to these collections. Rather than wrack my brain over each problem, I am just going through the collections as historical documents. For each problem, I enjoy the introduction, set it up on the board, spend a few minutes trying to make progress (at least thinking about what the features and likely techniques are), then flip to the solution and discussion. Because the accompanying text is so rich, it feels less like cheating than if I just kept peeking at the back of a tsumego book, and I think I'm getting something out of it (certainly historically, but also just in terms of seeing techniques recur), certainly more so than if I never looked at these collections at all!

As you can tell, I can't praise these books highly enough. I really encourage anyone who thinks they might be interested in them to give them a shot. I own and have enjoyed many of John's books, but these are the cream of the crop.