Tsumego books

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AaronBC
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Tsumego books

Post by AaronBC »

I'm looking for some good tsumego books.

I used to have Lee Changho's tsumego books, but someone threw them away. They were good. Does anybody know where I can get them from? They're hard to find.

Also, do you have any suggestions for other single digit kyu tsumego books that I can purchase, and from where?

Thank you.
kvasir
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Re: Tsumego books

Post by kvasir »

I am surprised that you didn't get any responses yet. I know there are many book lovers in this forum.

I remember I thought "Magic on the first line" was fun but I don't know if it is available. "Graded Go Problems for Dan Players" is a pretty good series and I think available.

Where to buy depends somewhat on where you are located.
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CDavis7M
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Re: Tsumego books

Post by CDavis7M »

You're comfortable doing Tsumego in another language then...

There's the revised 2-book version of the "classic" 3-book Maeda Tsumego: 改訂版 前田詰碁 上 (first volume) and 改訂版 前田詰碁 下 (2nd volume). Available on Amazon Japan for ¥1,980 each (used to be around $19.80 but now only $15). I've been working my way through one of the volumes but I got distracted.
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Cho Chikun's Tsumego (not the same one you see mentioned on the English Internet) seems to have the most and best reviews on Amazon Japan. ひと目の詰碁―やさしい問題を反復練習. ¥ 1,100)
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Probably easier than you are looking for but I enjoyed Cho U's 4x4 Go Puzzle.
囲碁パズル 4路盤 問題集 105 張 栩からの挑戦状
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Cho U released 2 Tsumego books recently focusing on sacrificing stones. I haven't read it myself (will I ever finish Maeda's?) but there is a nice review by John Fairbairn on this forum. 張栩の捨て石詰碁 上 and 張栩の捨て石詰碁 下.
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Now for a book translated into English: "Today We Have a Splendid Feast" which is a translation of Yoshin Teiki by Inoue Inseki Meijin. This is available from SmartGo/GoBooks. It includes nakade (dead shape) and seki problems. The neat part I thought is that the nakades get increasingly bigger and bigger and bigger. You've heard of the rabbity-six (flower six)? How about the 8-point nakade? 11 point nakade? I think it ends with a 16 pointer.

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jeromie
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Re: Tsumego books

Post by jeromie »

In addition to those mentioned, Kiseido has quite a few problem books that are suitable for SDK players. The Graded Go Problem books are excellent. The last two entries in the "for beginners" series are suitable for SDK players, depending on your exact level. One Thousand and One Life-and-Death problems is a good collection for refreshing your life and death skills. Get Strong at Tesuji is also very good, with a different style of problems. I'm sure there are others in the series that those two books come in that are also good, but those are the ones I've used.

You can find many of these books from other vendors, but I've had great luck ordering directly from Kiseido. Their web site is not modernized, but I've found the process to be reliable. Third parties sometimes have artificially raised prices, so at least check their site before you pay a lot for a book. You can also get electronic versions from https://gobooks.com if you like that format.

Edit to add: The gobooks site is also a good place to check out a preview of the book if you're not sure if the level or content is right for you.
Last edited by jeromie on Tue Apr 12, 2022 12:05 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Tsumego books

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Re: Tsumego books

Post by gowan »

The Nihon Ki-in book Kihon Shikatsu Jiten by Cho U (ISBN978-4-8182-0597-0) is a thorough compilation of fundamental shapes occurring in life-and-death situations, available from amazon.co.jp . It isn't a collection of puzzles to solve but you could use it that way if you cover up the "solutions". Because of its "dictionary" format you can use it as a reference for how to handle life-and-death situations in your own games. The book is in Japanese but the commentar is very simple with diagrams so you can learn a lot from it without knowing any Japanese.
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Re: Tsumego books

Post by AaronBC »

Thanks for the suggestions, everyone.
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