Which Korean Problem Books to get?

[Ember]

Hello everyone,

I hope you can help me with this little problem. A friend of my sister's is staying in Seoul right now and I plan to ask her, if she might bring back some Korean problem books for me. Problem is, I have no idea what to get and I can't send her off with some vage information as she has no idea about it, she is not a Go player. So here I hope you can bring some insights. What I'm looking for are books on Life & Death and tesuji for around EGF 6k-1d (a little bit weaker, say, like 10k is also ok). Do you have any recommendations? Vage prices would be much appreciated as well, as I have no idea what (Go) books cost in Korea. ISBN would be splendid, but if you are able to post the original title, that alone would be fine, too.

Thanks a lot in advance! Best wishes

Ember

[lovelove]

Life and death, tesuji, I'll call these both two as "tsumego", or "go problems".

In Korea there are three kinds of tsumego books (for non-beginners stronger than 5kyu).

1. Classic tsumego (gokyo shumyo, xuanxuan qijing, ...)
2. Problem books with re-arranged classic tsumego (various classic problems mixed together, I do not recommend)
3. Creative tsumego (for 5d+ players, originally composed for training inseis in go schools)

If you really have to buy some tsumego books in Korea for "around EGF 6k-1d", I think that number 1, classic tsumego books, is your only choice. However, you can easily find the classic problems in sgf forms with google, so buying them in books might be a waste of money. But if you still like to solve problems with paper books, here is what you want. 89-88847-24-5 This ISBN is for one of the books in that classic tsumego series. Those books are availablie with online purchase. I'm not sure whether they are also found in offline bookstores.

[gowan]

Some years ago I bought a Korean life-and-death encyclopedia (in Hanja 現代 死活 事典). I don't know any Korean. The book was published in 2000 as number 16 in some series, ISBN 89-7186-582-2. I find it wonderful to study because I can't even tell from reading it which color moves first. The problems all become "status" problems. This is good because that's how we have to deal with life-and-death in actual games. Also the book presents problems in series, starting with a certain position then making a small modification such as adding or removing one stone to change the position, and continuing in this way. Again very useful in understanding the original position.

[HermanHiddema]

Perhaps http://senseis.xmp.net/?KoreanProblemAcademy (I have no personal experience with these books).

Part of the contents of these books are available online, it seems (at gobase and perhaps other places), but what is available online is just the first 150 or 200 problems from each book, and the books themselves have more.

According to Ectospheno at SL, each books has over 700 problems.

Volume 3 seems to be the right strength range, but 2 and 4 may also be interesting. (And then of course get volume 1 for completeness )

The page has ISBN numbers and links to a Korean publisher's page. Perhaps someone with more grasp of the language can find images of the covers for you, which might help for finding them in a shop.

[gowan]

*deleted* Repeated Herman's recommendation.

[lovelove]

Perhaps http://senseis.xmp.net/?KoreanProblemAcademy (I have no personal experience with these books).

Part of the contents of these books are available online, it seems (at gobase and perhaps other places), but what is available online is just the first 150 or 200 problems from each book, and the books themselves have more.

According to Ectospheno at SL, each books has over 700 problems.

Volume 3 seems to be the right strength range, but 2 and 4 may also be interesting. (And then of course get volume 1 for completeness )

The page has ISBN numbers and links to a Korean publisher's page. Perhaps someone with more grasp of the language can find images of the covers for you, which might help for finding them in a shop.

http://www.yangjibook.com/index.php?pgn ... ds&gdno=58
http://www.yangjibook.com/index.php?pgn ... ds&gdno=71
http://www.yangjibook.com/index.php?pgn ... ds&gdno=72
http://www.yangjibook.com/index.php?pgn ... ds&gdno=77

Link for the books in the herman's sensei's page.

There actually more books for that seires. The 4 books above are the life & death collection. Book 1 and 2 is definately too easy for the OP. Book 3 is I think for about 10~5 kyu. Book 4 is just a mixed-up copy of gokyo shumyo.

[Ember]

Thank you everybody for your answers up to now! The links look very interesting, I'll definitely check them out!

@lovelove: Indeed I prefer printed books. Although that might change in the future as I plan to get a Galaxy Tab 2 in the next few days and want to install Go Grinder (among others). But I can't know now, obviously. Your differentiation is quite interesting by the way! Although I miss the kind of books like "Graded Go Problems for Beginners" or 1001 Life and Death Problems" and the like. Surely books like these do exist in Korea as well? Anyways, the link you postet looks really interesting and the prices are shockingly brilliant.

@gowan and HermanHidemma: Thanks, I'll put the books on my list! (although maybo only the first three of them because of the reasons lovelove mentioned)

Still collecting candidates! By the way: The Lee Changho L&D / tesuji books are in Chinese, right..? Is there a Korean version? If there is one, is it still available ?

[tchan001]

I'd recommend the Creative Life and Death series by Cho Hye-Yeon.
http://senseis.xmp.net/?CreativeLifeAndDeath
There are actually 5 volumes. Two published by Oromedia and 3 by Creative Life & Death Publishing House.
Although aimed mostly at mid to high dans, the problems are explained in great detail in ENGLISH and Korean.
Quite worthwhile just to understand how one should think about such problems.

[Ember]

Thanks for the suggestion, tchan001! I'll add the books to my list although I might not put them in a "Hot spot" as I can get the first two volumes in Germany as well. I'm rather looking out for books that otherwise are pretty much out of reach for me. Still, I'll definitely look at them the next time I can lay my hands on them during a tournament sale.