Book suggestions

[tj86430]

I know this topic is very similar to a couple of others, but I still thought I will start a new thread with quite specific questions.

Background: I have read the Elementary Go Series (all volumes) as well as Opening Theory Made Easy and Get Strong at Opening. I'm 8kyu at the moment. I can not really say what my strengths or weaknesses are, I guess I have no strengths worth mentioning but numerous weaknesses.

Now I'm looking for suggestions which books to buy next. I have listed some candidates and categorized them on subject (some may be in the wrong category, so please correct when necessary. I have nothing on L&D or Handicap Go because I feel that I should probably first reread the those volumes of Elementary Go Series and then decide how much more I want to read on those subjects):

1. Fuseki
Dictionary of Basic Fuseki 1-3 by Rin Kaiho
Direction of Play by Takeo Kajiwara
Modern Joseki and Fuseki 1-2 by Eio Sakata
Fuseki (Nihon Kiin Small Encyclopedia)

2. Joseki
Dictionary of Basic Joseki 1-3 by Yoshio Ishida
Get Strong at Joseki 1-3 by Richard Bozulich
All About Joseki by Jiang & Guo
Punishing and Correcting Joseki Mistakes by Mingjiu Jiang

3. Tactics
Counting Liberties and Winning Capturing Races by Richard Hunter
Dictionary of Basic Tesuji 1-4 by Shuko Fujisawa

4. Strategy
Lessons in the Fundamentals of Go by Toshiro Kageyama
Middle Game of Go by Eio Sakata
A Way of Play for 21st Century by Go Seigen
Get Strong at invading by Richard Bozulich
Get Strong at attacking by Richard Bozulich
Reducing Territorial Frameworks by Shuko Fujisawa
Fundamental Principles of Go by Yilun Yang
Come up to Shodan by Rin Kaiho
How not to play go by Yuan Zhou

5. Endgame
Get Strong at the Endgame by Richard Bozulich

6. Styles
Style of Go Seigen by Yuan Zhou
Fighting Styles of Kato Masao & Seo Bong Soo by Yuan Zhou
Style of Lee Changho by Yuan Zhou
Style of Takemiya by Yuan Zhou
Territorial Styles of Kitani Minoru and Cho Chikun by Yuan Zhou

7. Game Collections
Invincible: The games of Shusaku by John Power
Kamakura by John Fairbairn
Final Summit by Fairbairn/Hall

I have left out some books that might be of interest, but which are hard/impossible to get. Any comments on these and suggestions on others are greatly appreciated.

[Solomon]

I would recommend NOT getting 21st Century by Go Seigen. Don't get me wrong, it's a quality book, but the fuseki theories covered in the book assume a matured knowledge of fundamental opening principles that I don't think 8 kyu players have (well, maybe an exception can be made for goddess ).

It's a fascinating and at times very unorthodox of a read, but as far as books that have the greatest potential for improving SDK players go, I don't think this book is such a great pick.

[Phelan]

I have Get Strong at invading by Richard Bozulich, and since I'm around your level, I wouldn't recommend it. It's a book of problems on corner and side invasions(edit: just checked, also "large territories"), going over some of the common patterns (don't know if they are actually joseki) that occur.
However, each problem has only two answer diagrams, one for failure and one for success.
Sometimes you wonder why he doesn't cover a particular move, only to be confronted with it as a problem later.

So, it is neither a problem book that you can take with you and read on breaks/transportation, nor a textbook on invading.

I like the subject matter, but I don't think it is presented in the best manner. I'm trying to slog through the book now, and my mind keeps getting pulled elsewhere. I don't know if I'll finish it.

One positive thing about the book is that as a 15k, I learned that there were a lot of places that could still be invaded to get some profit, even though they looked secure.

[kirkmc]

I'd say get them all.

And definitely add Richard Hunter's Cross-Cut Workshop to the list; it's helped me a lot understand what can be a very complex technique.

[CarlJung]

I have nothing on L&D or Handicap Go because I feel that I should probably first reread the those volumes of Elementary Go Series and then decide how much more I want to read on those subjects):

The books on L&D in the Elementary Go Series would be Tesuji and Life and Death. Reread those. Then get some more L&D books, perhaps Graded go problems for beginners which is more than just L&D. Then reread those. Then get some more. Don't waste your time on strategic thinking when you are still being bullied in L&D, which is the case judging from your rank. It's when you can live and kill stones left and right but still lose that you need to brush up your strategy.

[tj86430]

The books on L&D in the Elementary Go Series would be Tesuji and Life and Death. Reread those. Then get some more L&D books, perhaps Graded go problems for beginners which is more than just L&D. Then reread those. Then get some more. Don't waste your time on strategic thinking when you are still being bullied in L&D, which is the case judging from your rank. It's when you can live and kill stones left and right but still lose that you need to brush up your strategy.

I may be bullied in L&D, but I haven't really noticed that as a problem. I think I'm fairly competent in killing and at least somewhat decent in living, but of course I may be completely wrong.

Of course having an expert assessment of my games would help to determine if I'm completely off in that self-assessment. Anyone is more than welcome to look at my games in KGS, my nick there is same as here.

[dfan]

I would purchase and read all of the following before anything on your list:

8. Problem collections
Graded Go Problems for Beginners vol. 2
Graded Go Problems for Beginners vol. 3
Graded Go Problems for Beginners vol. 4
1001 Life and Death Problems
Get Strong at Tesuji

This will improve your play more than anything you listed.

[judicata]

I would purchase and read all of the following before anything on your list:

8. Problem collections
Graded Go Problems for Beginners vol. 2
Graded Go Problems for Beginners vol. 3
Graded Go Problems for Beginners vol. 4
1001 Life and Death Problems
Get Strong at Tesuji

This will improve your play more than anything you listed.

I'm starting to come to this conclusion as well. I like the subject matter in a lot of these books, and I want to study higher level strategy and concepts. But then I came to realize I'm just not strong enough at L&D and fighting to worry about that other stuff. It is a humbling admission, and I'm not saying the other stuff doesn't help at all, but it is far less helpful if I'm letting live groups die left and right (at least, when I face an opponent that can manage it).

[Ember]

I would purchase and read all of the following before anything on your list:

8. Problem collections
Graded Go Problems for Beginners vol. 2
Graded Go Problems for Beginners vol. 3
Graded Go Problems for Beginners vol. 4
1001 Life and Death Problems
Get Strong at Tesuji

This will improve your play more than anything you listed.

I'm starting to come to this conclusion as well. I like the subject matter in a lot of these books, and I want to study higher level strategy and concepts. But then I came to realize I'm just not strong enough at L&D and fighting to worry about that other stuff. It is a humbling admission, and I'm not saying the other stuff doesn't help at all, but it is far less helpful if I'm letting live groups die left and right (at least, when I face an opponent that can manage it).

I would second this but doing nothing but problems seems quite boring - at least to me ^^;. Of course, in being able to read well lies the foundation for good improvement, but if you get bored by overdoing things in one area (= e.g. doing problems), you won't get far, either.

I'd recommend the Graded Go Problems series and a good read to keep you interested and motivated and which offers some kind of "distraction". Of course that depends on what you like, but "Lessons in the Fundamentals of Go" is always recommended and - having read it myself a few times - it really is a great book!
But I also love Invincible, because you can just replay the games and maybe pick some things up (maybe unconsciously) while having a good time or - maybe at a higher level - work really hard on getting as much out of the book as you can. There are a few introduction texts with historical information on Shusaku, his opponents, the castle games etc., and if you are interested in Edo-time Go, then this book is a wonderful choice.

What seems like overdoing it for me is thinking about buying Fuseki dictionaries as I don't think that they would be a lot of help at our level of strength (being not that much ahead of you) - there are too many mistakes in our range coming after fuseki to be able to keep the advantages of a very good fuseki.

But if you are set on buying a dictionary, maybe this is something for you: What I found very interesting to read (even page by page from the beginning to the end) was Shuko's Tesuji Dictionaries (at least Volume 1 and 2, I don't have the other 2 volumes yet). Shuko arranged the different kinds of tesuji according to their purpose (e.g. first volume is about attacking and presents e.g. tesuji that split enemy groups apart, seal enemy groups in, create weaknesses, spoil the shape of an enemy group, etc.; the second volume is about defending and presents e.g. tesuji that let you connect threatened groups, tesuji that help you escape into the center, let you take sente, etc.). I found this really helpful as you get a lot of practice and can remember the shapes more easily as the structure in which they are presented is very clear. In each chapter, after a short introduction there would come different tesuji-problems to practice with and along with them you not only get the right answers but the wrong ones, too, which is really helpful and instructive in its own way as well.

[judicata]

Thanks for the post, Ember. That is a very good point, and I hadn't thought about it because I just now started dedicating most of my study to problems. But you're right--doing 100% problems might get boring after awhile (and to be bored is not my reason for playing go). I think I'll try an 80%/20% problems/other study for now and see how it goes.

[Ember]

You're welcome, judicata. The 80-20%-part sounds good, have fun! ^^

[SoDesuNe]

If you have enough of problems, I'd recommend to pick books like 'Kage's secret to handicap Go' (I'm not sure, if there are others, though). You're often asked for the next move and now you can try your reading ability a bit and you can base your decision on it. I solved more than half of the multiple-choice-questions wrong, but I liked elaborating on the variations.

Furthermore there are at least three good patterns to memorize in it.

A read I'm going to enjoy the next weeks is '38 basic Josekis'. Well written and really fundamental (at 15k, I thought that was Dan-level-materia : ( ).

[Gresil]

I suggest Graded Go Problems vol. 3, Get Strong at Tesuji and Attack & Defense.

Final Summit will be difficult to penetrate below strong SDK level.

[Dante31]

I think at 8k you want to stick with life and death books like: 1001 Life and Death Problems. I doubt that you will really want to look at Dictionary of Basic Fuseki or styles of pro players at this time. I could be wrong.

[Bill Spight]

I would recommend NOT getting 21st Century by Go Seigen. Don't get me wrong, it's a quality book, but the fuseki theories covered in the book assume a matured knowledge of fundamental opening principles that I don't think 8 kyu players have (well, maybe an exception can be made for goddess ).

It's a fascinating and at times very unorthodox of a read, but as far as books that have the greatest potential for improving SDK players go, I don't think this book is such a great pick.

When I first read this note, I thought you were saying that fewer than 8 kyu players in the world have such a mature knowledge of opening principles.

It's a wonderful book, but not for most kyu players, I think.