The Direction of Play or Attack and Defense?

[RBerenguel]

Hi everyone!

After a long hiatus (2 years, if I don't count a game a year ago), I'm again playing. Two years ago I rose (for a short while) to KGS 6k, currently I guess I'm in the upper 8 (rank still unsettled in KGS).

I started reading my copy of TDoP a few weeks ago, and find it a little dry. Now I wonder what would be best for my return to playing:

Re-reading A&D (I've read it several times in the past)
Working with TDoP
Re-reading Lessons in the fundamentals (read it many times in the past)

I'm doing tsumego daily, thus a book on the subject is so far not high on my list, but if you have a good recommendation, go on.

Thanks, and see you around here and in KGS

[Sverre]

If you are coming back from a hiatus then rereading Attack and Defense might be a good idea. If you find the Direction of play boring then you certainly shouldn't try to force yourself to read it.

You might also consider studying some professional games, or watching high dan players online. Have you read Invincible yet?

[RBerenguel]

I'm not a big fan of replaying professional (or high dan) games, I've done my share in the past and didn't find it very appealing.

Trondheim! Close: I'm going to Trømso (and Oslo and Bergen) a few days next year

Skål!

[OtakuViking]

I think the direction of play is for about 2-3k players but not sure, haven't read it. I can recommend studying tesuji and tsumego. And re-reading attack and defense is ofc a good idea but maybe also a book on the opening?

[RBerenguel]

I've read In the beginning in the past, a re-read is oc in the near future, but I didn't think about reading it just know...

[daniel_the_smith]

Attack and Defense.

[Joaz Banbeck]

Fundamentals. Always fundamentals, regardless of the game/sport/profession.

[RBerenguel]

Joaz, do you mean I should re-read LitF? Or study fundamentals like Tesuji?

[Dusk Eagle]

Even I feel overwhelmed when reading The Direction of Play. Though I guess even if you don't get anything else out of it it's still worthwhile to get the idea that every move is important and shouldn't be cast on the board carelessly. Good luck with that book.

Doing tsumego daily like you say you're doing is a very good idea, I always improve fastest when I'm doing frequent tsumego instead of just focusing on games.

[EdLee]

do you mean I should re-read LitF? Or study fundamentals like Tesuji?

The latter. At this level, the most important things are our fundamentals/basics:
basic tesuji, basic L&D, basic shapes, basic contact fight, basic capture race, etc.
Re-reading LitF is OK, no problem, but we still need the 10,000 hours of basics.

[cyclops]

LitF, WTF, is that?

[Knotwilg]

The problem with "Lessons in the fundamentals" is that, while being a joy to read, it doesn't address the fundamentals in a very fundamental way.

Therefore, (re)reading the three most fundamental books of the elementary series, "Life & death", "Tesuji" and "Attack and defense" probably does more to one's grasp of the fundamentals.

Otherwise, the best article on fundamentals I have ever read is "Haengma tutorial for beginners" by Minue on Sensei's Library.

Incidentally, I don't think a playing break necessitates rereading books. It mostly requires playing again. A book helps those who are playing often but lack an instrument for improvement.

[Joaz Banbeck]

Joaz, do you mean I should re-read LitF? Or study fundamentals like Tesuji?

I meant it in the most basic sense, that one should continually review the fundamentals of the game. IOW, there is nothing so basic that one should not review it every once in a while. That means practicing reading ladders, getas, etc, regardless of which book you find them in.

[RBerenguel]

@Cyclops: I was being a little cryptic to save some writing: LiTF=Lessons in the fundamentals (of Go), i.e. Kageyama's book.

@Knotwilg: I know the most important is playing, but I have too little at-home time to play (or more precisely: there are more urgent and important moves in these time slots), so most of my go time is only available while on my commute, where reading tsumego/tesuji or some book on game theory suits pretty well.

@Joaz: That's what I thought you were implying. For now I'm training this with Cho's Encyclopedia of LD and I borrowed Li Chang'Ho's Tesuji books, I've had a look at the first ~15 from the first volume, it's almost refreshing after so much killing.

Thanks everyone for your answers! Seems pretty clear my non-playing time should be A&D mixed with tesuji and tsumego. And playing more, I know, but time is scarce for this, unless I play Igowin HD (The Many Faces of Go for iPad) :/

[hyperpape]

There is also Crazy Stone for the iPad. I'm not sure how good IgowinHD is, but Crazy Stone may be stronger/more interesting.