Life In 19x19

Someone (Bill Spight?) mentioned doing some Go problems somewhere (GoBase.org?) that just mark a problem as correct with getting the first move, and how one may be missing important variations as a consequence. Since my central air broke, making it too hard for me to stay in my office with my computer for more than a few minutes at a time, I have been running in-and-out to do problems at goproblems.com. I have noticed that knowing that it IS a problem, as well as having some direction (L&D, connection, etc.), allows me to at the least get the first move by thinking of what move I must prevent. While I have learned some new tesuji, I feel like I'm cheating by not always seeing every variation before I play. I know that one could recommend thinking until one has seen everything, but sometimes one just doesn't know what one doesn't know.

In any case, my wife and I go back to teaching Monday, so we'll have our extra income coming in again, and I can get some more Go books. (And fix the air!) I'm torn between Attack and Defense for general knowledge and maybe a book on tesuji for all the local "tricks" one needs to pick up (squeezing, eye stealing, etc.). Anyone want to recommend 2-3 books on any aspect of Go that I should pick up first?

Attack and Defence
Get Strong at Tesuji

Seriously, do get strong at tesuji like 5 times.

What level do you want the books to be aimed at?

You are not the first person to ask this question

Check out the go books subforum, lots of lists, recommendations, questions about books, etc.

http://www.lifein19x19.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=17

There are some sticked threads you will probably find useful.

skydyr wrote:What level do you want the books to be aimed at?

My level, of course. Well, I guess I am somewhere between 20-10 kyu. But I don't think that a single number is very useful. I'm pretty darn sure that my understanding of fuseki is better than 10 kyu; my yose knowledge might be 30 kyu; my ability with "tricky" corner L&D is probably about 18-15 kyu; my ability with general Go problems seems to be around 10-12 kyu and improving rapidly (but those are very artificial!); and my middle game might be between 20-15 kyu.

emeraldemon wrote:There are some sticked threads you will probably find useful.

Yeah, I think that I have read every thread here and at Senseis involving book recommendations. I figure, though, that it can't hurt to ask as new books become available every so often. And sometimes a newer book will become a new "standard."

Abyssinica wrote:Seriously, do get strong at tesuji like 5 times.

Along with Attack and Defense, this and Suji and Anti-suji of Go are the books I currently have at the top of my want list. Again, I would be happy to hear any other opinions, though. Also, I am pretty sure that I will order the following instruction to help with one of the weakest aspects of my play: http://www.gocommentary.com/the-secret- ... asion.html

Aidoneus wrote:Along with Attack and Defense, this and Suji and Anti-suji of Go are the books I currently have at the top of my want list. Again, I would be happy to hear any other opinions, though. Also, I am pretty sure that I will order the following instruction to help with one of the weakest aspects of my play: http://www.gocommentary.com/the-secret- ... asion.html

I would think both of those book may be a little advance for you at the moment. Make sure you have mastered L&D and Tesuji, both by Davies (or the more modern equivalents if you prefer) before you tackle those.

DrStraw wrote:

Aidoneus wrote:Along with Attack and Defense, this and Suji and Anti-suji of Go are the books I currently have at the top of my want list. Again, I would be happy to hear any other opinions, though. Also, I am pretty sure that I will order the following instruction to help with one of the weakest aspects of my play: http://www.gocommentary.com/the-secret- ... asion.html

I would think both of those book may be a little advance for you at the moment. Make sure you have mastered L&D and Tesuji, both by Davies (or the more modern equivalents if you prefer) before you tackle those.

Hmm, I got the idea that Davies' Tesuji was at about the same level as Get Strong at Tesuji (though I forgot that Suji and Anti-suji of Go is out of print):
http://senseis.xmp.net/?SoDesuNe
http://www.lifein19x19.com/forum/viewto ... ?f=17&t=91

But reviewing this list (http://senseis.xmp.net/?GoBook) again, I see that Tesuji is listed under theory and Get Strong under problems. So, maybe I should just get both! Let's just not mention this to my wife.

Tesuji and life & death are important subjects, to be sure, but in the ddk range, a lot of the standard books about those will be somewhat advanced. It may be worth just looking at the graded go problems for beginners series (you can skip volume 1) or a book on shape. The problem series, at least, will cover life and death, tesuji, and other subjects with very broad strokes to provide a foundation for further study.

skydyr wrote:Tesuji and life & death are important subjects, to be sure, but in the ddk range, a lot of the standard books about those will be somewhat advanced. It may be worth just looking at the graded go problems for beginners series (you can skip volume 1) or a book on shape. The problem series, at least, will cover life and death, tesuji, and other subjects with very broad strokes to provide a foundation for further study.

I suppose that I should have first stated what I already have. I have the sgfs for Graded Go Problems vol. 1 (it came with SmartGo) and the book Weiqi Life and Death 1,000 Problems. I also have Matthews' Shape Up! and On Your Side, both dvds of Bruce Wilcox's Go Dojo, problems from goproblems.com (a good $10 investment!), and access to Cho Chikun's L&D encyclopedia, as well as various sgf problems included with other Go programs (Many Faces of Go, XuanXuanGo, LifeandDeath, etc.). Of course, I need to spend more time with what I already own.