I mean all of it(elementary through advanced) and how helpful was it? I know lots of people tried it but haven't heard of anyone who worked through all of it.

I worked through part of it, and worked through a lot of the video game for tsumego he he did on nintendo DS, and even though I didn't finish, I could tell it had helped me quite a bit. I say its worth a shot of trying yourself.

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I'm thinking...

I'm about 1/2 way through and it's been really good so far. I definitely feel like my reading has improved.

I'm working on it. and it is helpful

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My personal go blog. Covering tournaments, tsumegos, and interesting games http://unlimitedgo.blogspot.com

for those who went through part of it, do you check your answers with others?
e.g. when the best you can have is a ko, would you doubt that you did not get the correct for both?

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长考出臭棋.

Does it really matter if I get them right? It's not like I remember my answer five minutes after I solved it. I see as reading practice and perhaps a bit of vital point intuition, nothing more.

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Sanity is for the weak.

I actually worked through everything up to the very last of the advanced problems which I'm still chugging through now. If it takes me more than a few minutes to solve a problem I just go back to it 2 or 3 days later when I have the time. The first two parts are really useful if you do them repeatedly so you don't think about the shapes. Marked improvement in my game.

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Nein Mann, ich will noch nicht gehen, ich will noch 'n bisschen tanzen.

I made an attempt - far too difficult...

I'm exactly halfway through it right now: I'm on page 39. It's taken me since August. (Actually, I did get this far the first go-round, but I realized that by the mid-30's, I was solving less than a third of them, so I started again. This time, I figure I'm solving about 60% of them, so it's still worth going through, and I'll catch more on the next go-round.) The problems are hard! Some of them are so easy that I get them in a second, but I usually still have to read them out just to make sure. Most of them I have to chew on for a little while. Plus, it's so frustrating to do all L&D, all corner shapes.

I will say this, though: the problems are organized very well. There are a lot of themed runs: problems that are very similar, except for one thing. Like he'll do the same shape, but with a white stone in the middle in a different place. Or the same shape, but one stone longer. Or the same shape, but with the colors reversed. So sometimes, when you get one problem, you can do the next five or six easily; sometimes, the variations are so different that you can't solve all of them, or they're all hard, and by the time you've at least worked on all of them, you feel like you've taken a class about that one shape. It's very nice that way.

I can't say for sure that it's helped my reading, because I've only gone from 18k to 13k since I started, and who's to say that I wouldn't have gotten that much stronger anyway? But I definitely feel it helped.

Yes, the best thing about the set up is that if you can't solve one problem trying to solve the rest of the page first will usually teach you enough to go back and get it.

I've worked through about 600 problems from first part and after every 10-20 problems read I feel improvement. But sometimes i got confused, because these problems should ALL be solved by unconditional life by black - and many times ko is the only way (I've managed to read). And some single problems are doubled across the set =)

I've just started reading Vol. 1 on my Kindle (about 1/4 through). I'm using the ones from tsumego.tasuki.org, so there are no answers given.



Are you sure that no problems end in ko? I'm certain some ended in ko (after thorough reading) - for example, the first problem on page 11 of Vol 1. On the other hand, there's also one I couldn't get any answer for... (pg. 28, problem row 2, col 1 -- see below).

Be careful DDK players: there are problems with tricks (one easy example is pg. 20, upper-right) where the obvious answer is the wrong answer. Graded Go helps with these.

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$c Vol. 1, pg. 28, row 2, col 1
$$ -----------------------------------------
$$ | . O a O b X . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | X . X c X O . O . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | O X X X O O . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | d O . O O . . . . , . . . . . , . . . |
$$ | . . O . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . O . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . , . . . . . , . . . . . , . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |[/go]

I see 'a' and 'b' as miai. There is no seki because Bb, Wa, then 'c' and 'd' are miai. Perhaps I'm missing something.

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^ are these status problems? In the problem above, black seems to be dead as it stands. Quite unusual for a tsumego!

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My name is Gijs, from Utrecht, NL.

When in doubt, play the most aggressive move

It is seki. This is the sequence:

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$c Vol. 1, pg. 28, row 2, col 1
$$ -----------------------------------------
$$ | . O 2 O 1 X 4 . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | X a X 5 X O . O . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | O X X X O O . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | 3 O . O O . . . . , . . . . . , . . . |
$$ | . . O . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . O . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . , . . . . . , . . . . . , . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |[/go]

If black does not play 3, white plays 4, forcing 5, then connects at 3. Black will have to fill at a, so black is dead.

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"Those who calculate greatly will win; those who calculate only a little will lose, but what of those who don't make any calculations at all!? This is why everything must be calculated, in order to foresee victory and defeat."-The Art of War

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$c Vol. 1, pg. 28, row 2, col 1
$$ -----------------------------------------
$$ | . O 2 O 1 X . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | X a X 4 X O . O . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | O X X X O O . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | 3 O . O O . . . . , . . . . . , . . . |
$$ | . . O . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . O . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . , . . . . . , . . . . . , . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |[/go]

As Malweth said, c and d are miai, right?

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Occupy Babel!