Life In 19x19

Aidoneus wrote:I am highly tempted to order the Segoe-Go Tesuji Dictionary while copies are still available, though I suspect that I will have trouble even with the C problems for awhile. Is the format similar to Weiqi Life and Death 1000 Problems? I bought that book from Yellow Mountain Imports without realizing that it hadn't been translated into English. (I know that sounds silly, but I tossed it in with my order for a board and stones.) Fortunately, I can read the diagrams as they are given with Hindu-Arabic numerals, but I suspect I am missing out on useful comments in the text. Is there any prospect of an English translation of Segoe-Go Tesuji Dictionary? Or does the dictionary just contain Western-numbered sequences without comments?

Buy it! If you want samples of C level problems let me know and I'll post a few. There are comments, but I get along fine without even checking them. Of course, I discovered an awesome Chinese dictionary (iOS) app that does OCR from pictures... So now I could figure out "something" of what the comments say if needed.

RBerenguel wrote:

Aidoneus wrote:I am highly tempted to order the Segoe-Go Tesuji Dictionary while copies are still available, though I suspect that I will have trouble even with the C problems for awhile. Is the format similar to Weiqi Life and Death 1000 Problems? I bought that book from Yellow Mountain Imports without realizing that it hadn't been translated into English. (I know that sounds silly, but I tossed it in with my order for a board and stones.) Fortunately, I can read the diagrams as they are given with Hindu-Arabic numerals, but I suspect I am missing out on useful comments in the text. Is there any prospect of an English translation of Segoe-Go Tesuji Dictionary? Or does the dictionary just contain Western-numbered sequences without comments?

Buy it! If you want samples of C level problems let me know and I'll post a few. There are comments, but I get along fine without even checking them. Of course, I discovered an awesome Chinese dictionary (iOS) app that does OCR from pictures... So now I could figure out "something" of what the comments say if needed.

Thank you.

So, the stones have Western numbers for moves in the diagrams?

Unfortunately, I don't have an iPhone, or even a smart phone, though I do have a scanner and a basic cell phone with a camera. There doesn't seem to be a simple, cheap OCR program with Kanji/Hanzi for Windows, however. Maybe I will pick up a cheap Android phone and a cheap Android program I found called Hanping.

I've gone ahead and ordered all three volumes of the tesuji dictionary. It turns out I didn't factor in international shipping so it was a lot more expensive than I originally realised (almost double the price ) but I impulsively bought them anyway. XD

Splatted wrote:I've gone ahead and ordered all three volumes of the tesuji dictionary. It turns out I didn't factor in international shipping so it was a lot more expensive than I originally realised (almost double the price ) but I impulsively bought them anyway. XD

Yeah, I decided that I don't need more problems right now (between the 1,000 in my Chinese book and the thousands of sgf files included with my purchases of Many Faces of Go and SmartGo), and that I would be better served by purchasing some instructional texts to follow reading Shape Up! I think that Attack and Defense by Davies should be my next purchase based on reading various threads on L19.

Aidoneus wrote:

Splatted wrote:I've gone ahead and ordered all three volumes of the tesuji dictionary. It turns out I didn't factor in international shipping so it was a lot more expensive than I originally realised (almost double the price ) but I impulsively bought them anyway. XD

Yeah, I decided that I don't need more problems right now (between the 1,000 in my Chinese book and the thousands of sgf files included with my purchases of Many Faces of Go and SmartGo), and that I would be better served by purchasing some instructional texts to follow reading Shape Up! I think that Attack and Defense by Davies should be my next purchase based on reading various threads on L19.

At least keep them in a "future purchase list." I also have 1000 tsumego, and SmartGo (the iPad version,) and the problems in SS-Tesuji are in a whole other league. I don't have the book right here with me, so the only problem (C level) I can show you is this one. White to play, from the "cutting-connecting" (roughly) section.

pwaldron wrote: I was also impressed with the Train Like a Pro series. It's set up as a daily series of exercises on all parts of the game. They're good problems by themselves, but with the breadth of coverage they will also highlight your weaknesses quite well.

I've just started going through these books, and would like to second pwaldron's suggestion. Just to give you a bit more info, each of the two volumes contains 30 sets of problems, all taken from professional games, and each set includes 4 Close Combat problems (tesuji) 4 opening problems, 4 Life and Death problems, 4 joseki problems, 2 whole board problems taken from professional games and one 13x13 whole board endgame problem. This last one involves determining the best sequence of moves and counting the score. So all in all that's 1140 problems which span pretty much all aspects of the game. The two books also come with one separate answer book.

I'm interested in buying these books (EDIT: Encyclopedia of Tesuji - Go Seigen 3 vol series.), too, but I have two major questions:

• How much work would be required to begin reading them? I don't read Chinese symbols at all but I'd be prepared to learn.
• How do you get them shipped to London? Yutopian are quoting about 45 USD for International airmail which is absurd.

No need to know Chinese. I only know "black" "white" "correct" "wrong" and it's quite enough. As for shipping, I got the slowest, cheapest shipping available from them. They are nicely bound hardcover books, so the Yutopian price + shipping is still pretty reasonable for what you get. At least, this is what I think, I love these books.

I presume you mean that "International Surface" was the shipping method you chose - it is the cheapest that they offer, now. How long did it take for the books to be delivered? I don't mind waiting but I am moving in a few weeks and don't want to have stuff delivered to this old address after I depart.

Is it considered safe to give Credit Card details to Yutopian?

Is it just me or is it cheaper for an English resident to import books from Japan than buy English ones? Lot's of these seem really good but Japanese ones are much cheaper and the postage is similar/cheaper if you buy in bulk. (or it was last time I checked) Also major retailers stock them so it's actually much easier to find what you want.

That said, the train like a pro series sounds very tempting so I'll look in to it. I'm currently trying to build up a collection of books that will allow me to work on all aspects of my go, so a series designed to provide exactly that sounds perfect for getting the ball rolling. How ordered do the problems feel? Does it feel like later problems build upon earlier ones or is it just a collection of individual problems?

Charlie wrote:I presume you mean that "International Surface" was the shipping method you chose - it is the cheapest that they offer, now. How long did it take for the books to be delivered? I don't mind waiting but I am moving in a few weeks and don't want to have stuff delivered to this old address after I depart.

Is it considered safe to give Credit Card details to Yutopian?

I don't remember exactly, but it took 4-6/7 weeks I think. It wasn't a lot, but I had kind of forgotten about them already (a fun thing about purchasing with long delivery times: it's like a surprise gift to yourself). I do remember though that I had made also a (supposedly faster) purchase at Yesasia.com and Yutopian's arrived before Yesasia's.

Splatted wrote:Is it just me or is it cheaper for an English resident to import books from Japan than buy English ones? Lot's of these seem really good but Japanese ones are much cheaper and the postage is similar/cheaper if you buy in bulk. (or it was last time I checked) Also major retailers stock them so it's actually much easier to find what you want.

Yes, Japanese books are cheaper than their English counterparts...

Splatted wrote:
That said, the train like a pro series sounds very tempting so I'll look in to it. I'm currently trying to build up a collection of books that will allow me to work on all aspects of my go, so a series designed to provide exactly that sounds perfect for getting the ball rolling. How ordered do the problems feel? Does it feel like later problems build upon earlier ones or is it just a collection of individual problems?

It doesn't seem to me as if the problems build on each other - with the possible exception of the joseki section, in which the set of problems often contrasts options from one starting point. If you are interested in a book that does build on earlier problems, 200 Tesuji Problems by Shirae Haruhiko 7d does that - though some of those problems might be on the easy side for you.