I've just started going through these books, and would like to second pwaldron's suggestion. Just to give you a bit more info, each of the two volumes contains 30 sets of problems, all taken from professional games, and each set includes 4 Close Combat problems (tesuji) 4 opening problems, 4 Life and Death problems, 4 joseki problems, 2 whole board problems taken from professional games and one 13x13 whole board endgame problem. This last one involves determining the best sequence of moves and counting the score. So all in all that's 1140 problems which span pretty much all aspects of the game. The two books also come with one separate answer book.

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Patience, grasshopper.

I'm interested in buying these books (EDIT: Encyclopedia of Tesuji - Go Seigen 3 vol series.), too, but I have two major questions:

• How much work would be required to begin reading them? I don't read Chinese symbols at all but I'd be prepared to learn.
• How do you get them shipped to London? Yutopian are quoting about 45 USD for International airmail which is absurd.

No need to know Chinese. I only know "black" "white" "correct" "wrong" and it's quite enough. As for shipping, I got the slowest, cheapest shipping available from them. They are nicely bound hardcover books, so the Yutopian price + shipping is still pretty reasonable for what you get. At least, this is what I think, I love these books.

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Geek of all trades, master of none: the motto for my blog mostlymaths.net

I presume you mean that "International Surface" was the shipping method you chose - it is the cheapest that they offer, now. How long did it take for the books to be delivered? I don't mind waiting but I am moving in a few weeks and don't want to have stuff delivered to this old address after I depart.

Is it considered safe to give Credit Card details to Yutopian?

Is it just me or is it cheaper for an English resident to import books from Japan than buy English ones? Lot's of these seem really good but Japanese ones are much cheaper and the postage is similar/cheaper if you buy in bulk. (or it was last time I checked) Also major retailers stock them so it's actually much easier to find what you want.

That said, the train like a pro series sounds very tempting so I'll look in to it. I'm currently trying to build up a collection of books that will allow me to work on all aspects of my go, so a series designed to provide exactly that sounds perfect for getting the ball rolling. How ordered do the problems feel? Does it feel like later problems build upon earlier ones or is it just a collection of individual problems?

I don't remember exactly, but it took 4-6/7 weeks I think. It wasn't a lot, but I had kind of forgotten about them already (a fun thing about purchasing with long delivery times: it's like a surprise gift to yourself). I do remember though that I had made also a (supposedly faster) purchase at Yesasia.com and Yutopian's arrived before Yesasia's.

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Geek of all trades, master of none: the motto for my blog mostlymaths.net

Yes, Japanese books are cheaper than their English counterparts...

It doesn't seem to me as if the problems build on each other - with the possible exception of the joseki section, in which the set of problems often contrasts options from one starting point. If you are interested in a book that does build on earlier problems, 200 Tesuji Problems by Shirae Haruhiko 7d does that - though some of those problems might be on the easy side for you.

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Patience, grasshopper.