Roadmap to Shodan

[zac]

Hi all, just wondering if anyone has bought/read or seen these books, aside from vol. 2 which I have seen reviewed here. In particular I'd like to know how they compare to the elementary series, as far as contents, structure, level, accessibility etc.

[DinoKino]

I received the newest book (A Survey of the Basic Tesujis) two days ago. It's my first book of this series and I was wondering if the other books were like this too. I really dislike the layout, which reminds me of math class like assignments. They present a couple of diagrams and below will be the questions, where you have to find the right question for the diagrams in question. After six or so problems, there will be the answers on the following couple pages. There is no way, you can grind these problems really fast (as suggested), because you have first to figure out what you have to do and where to find the right diagram for the right question/task. Also, I already found 3 typos, being on page 6 and I'm not even a native English speaker.

One good thing: the Solutions are somewhat detailed and explain different variations.

edit: I expected a problem book like 'Get strong at Tesuji' or '1001 L&D' which I both own - those are really great books.

[zac]

Thanks DinoKino,
I've got a heap of questions, if you don't mind!

Do you have or have you seen the Davies Tesuji book? If so, how does it compare, in structure, coverage of different tesuji, difficulty of problems.

Are the tesuji grouped by types? How much explanatory text is there?

Maybe you could type out the table of contents for us? How many pages is the book?

[DinoKino]

Hi zac,

I don't mind at all, I think there should be far more Information about Go books out there

I am currently at work, so I can't type out all of the 38 chapters eventhough I have the book with me. Those chapters are named after tesuji like 'crawling','turning', 'atari', 'pushing' and so on. So yes, they are grouped together by type and I guess we can trust the cover description, that there are 182 problems for 45 different tesujis covered. Some have more and some less problems. The introduction to each tesuji is explained by an example on usually less than one page.

The book has 212 pages and should sizewise be about identical with the 'Mastering the Basics' series. So there is somewhat more tesuji 'in there', as in the book by Davies. But I just checked the Davies book out at senseis and it says, it contains 264 problems. It is far too early for me to review or even criticize the books, but from a first impression I would say, that both books are very similar and they just wanted to produce a new book for the massess, that is really not needed. The new book is bigger and therefore easier to hold and the explanations in the new book seem a bit longer (I would have to re-check the Davies book for that) but due to the bad layout, the usage of space feels a bit wasteful. If you own an iPad or a MAC, I would suggest getting the gobooks-app and buy the Davies book. If you want the real thing, it is hard so say (for me). I really liked 'Get Strong at Tesuji' and that is why I feel a bit disappointed with 'A Survey of the Basic Tesujis'.

Did anybody read the 'Basics of Life and Death'? Is it also a remake of the EGS-book?

[SoDesuNe]

This reads a bit like a "Dictionary of Basic Tesuji" kind of book. Which is similary not really fit for grinding the problems but for looking-up Tesuji for various situations.

[DinoKino]

This reads a bit like a "Dictionary of Basic Tesuji" kind of book. Which is similary not really fit for grinding the problems but for looking-up Tesuji for various situations.

Yes, I was thinking the same. Unfortunately the book cover tells us to go through 'A Survey of the Basic Tesujis' quick twice (while checking the answers without pondering too long) and then go through it again in more detail and confirm the results. This is supposed to improve your intuition or pattern recognition skills. Get Strong at Tesuji is far better suited for this I would say.

[CnP]

the table of contents is available on this website http://www.variantes.com/livres-jeu-go-tactique-problemes-tsumego/44850-a-survey-of-the-basic-tesujis-road-map-to-shodan-vol4-9784906574858.html

[zac]

Thank you all.

It would appear that the Roadmap to Shodan and the Elementary series books on tesuji are quite similar. It makes me wonder wether it would be worth owning both. And if indeed they are so similar, presumably aimed at the same market, what Kiseido hopes to achieve. Surely so many potential customers would already own the Davies book, or prefer to buy that as it already has such a good reputation.

From looking at the Roadmap book on Life and Death's TOC, it would appear again that it is similar to the Elementary book, or perhaps the Get Strong At book.

I wish I could have a chance to look at the books myself. The opening/middle game one still sounds somewhat interesting. I'm not too sure what I could learn from a book about handicap go and the san-ren-sei, and wonder again if it wouldn't be covering the same or very similar ground the the Elementary book on handicap go (not that I own that particular one).

I am interested to see what they do with the future volumes. I'm not so excited about books about specific openings, but the books on attacking weak groups, and on sabaki/settling groups/making good shape could be interesting. I hope for something more than covering the same things that Attack and Defense already has. I wonder also if their book about the endgame will have the same effect as the Davies/Ogawa one had on me, with my eyes just glazing over...

[RobertJasiek]

It would appear that the Roadmap to Shodan and the Elementary series books on tesuji are quite similar. It makes me wonder wether it would be worth owning both.

There are thousands of tesujis / tesuji-related shape moves. So reading several books on tesujis is good. The question rather is: does a beginner (or slightly above beginner level player) need two tesuji books? Maybe not (he would rather also need books on other topics). For 5k+ though, reading more is useful for sure. (Unfortunately, I have not seen the Roadmap tesuji book, and cannot say anything specific about it.)

I hope for something more than covering the same things that Attack and Defense already has.

Stop hoping and start reading: Fighting Fundamentals.

[Dante31]

Can someone give a rank estimate that this book is aimed at? I think the title is very misleading. I highly doubt there is a book from 30k to 1d on tesuji, tsumego, or any of the other topics out there.

[SoDesuNe]

This review (http://www.bengozen.com/book-review-roa ... -volume-2/) concerning the second book of the series, "The Basic Prin­ci­ples of the Open­ing and the Mid­dle Game", estimates that players around 10k would get the most out of it.

[wineandgolover]

Stop hoping and start reading: Fighting Fundamentals.

Please stop selling your books in threads about other books. It is very rude. Thank you.

[SoDesuNe]

Stop hoping and start reading: Fighting Fundamentals.

Please stop selling your books in threads about other books. It is very rude. Thank you.

Technically he was just answering an implied question for a book which has a similar theme to Attack and Defense. And there aren't very many out there, so his reference to Fighting Fundamentals seems a valid response to me.

[wineandgolover]

Technically he was just answering an implied question for a book which has a similar theme to Attack and Defense. And there aren't very many out there, so his reference to Fighting Fundamentals seems a valid response to me.

Dude has a history of pimping his books throughout L19, and imho, should no longer get "technical" benefit of the doubt. I believe he's been warned about it before, and should know better.

That said, I don't care enough to report the spam post or to get in an extended argument. I guess by that reasoning, I shouldn't have cared enough to call him out in the first place...

[RobertJasiek]

Please stop selling your books in threads about other books.

Recommending a book is not "selling" a book. The mentioned book is an essential recommendation. I do make essential recommendations. I do not participate in hiding relevant books.