Beginning go strategy

[kaliya]

Hi all, I am looking for something to start learning the basics of go strategy (concepts like aji, kikashi, sabaki, how and when to use them etc.). Since I'm still a weak beginner player, I was also wondering if I firstly need to improve still a bit before approaching such a study.

What's your opinion? Any suggestion?

TIA

[CarlJung]

Are your tesuji skills awesome?
If not, make them awesome first. You have plenty to gain from awesome tesuji skills.

[kaliya]

Yes I train a lot on tesujis. I always keep "Tesuji" from the EGS in my pocket, which I reread often, and I do many tesuji problems on Goproblems.com, but I still miss a book such as "Get strong at Tesuji".

I will try to get it.

Thank you.

[freegame]

I was also wondering if I firstly need to improve still a bit before approaching such a study.

The difficult thing is to find a book that will add to your current knowledge, without too much overlap, and without gabs.

You mentioned sabaki. Lets take that as an example:
If you want to learn about sabaki Vital Points and Skillful Finesse for Sabaki is a nice book.
But without quite some basics you will find it very hard to really understand the explanations, and diagrams.
Once you spend a lot of time and finally do understand it, you will find it has a limited influence on your game.
This is because even though you might be strong at sabaki, the majority of the game will still be at your "old" level,
making the same (basic) mistakes.

You might want to have a look at the book I wrote. (The Next Move)
This book covers a wide range of topics and explains them in a practical and balanced way.
The theory is explained using common proverbs and statements as the foundation.
The aim of this book is to give you the knowledge to use these proverbs and statements as
practical tools for finding good moves in your games as well as help you with further studies.
The book is available at my website
there you can also find more info and a preview.

[CarlJung]

Follow the link in the first post in this thread.
viewtopic.php?f=12&t=1393

It shows what you can reach if you only do tsumego/tesuji and study pro games.

[freegame]

It shows what you can reach if you only do tsumego/tesuji and study pro games.

You can also reach mid dan level by just playing games and nothing else. It is a matter of what you enjoy doing most. After all it's a hobby

[dfan]

At 8k I think you can get something out of Attack and Defense from the Elementary Go Series, which is still one of my favorite go books. It's a good investment, since you should reread it every time you gain a rank and you will learn something new.

[CnP]

http://senseis.xmp.net/?StrategicConceptsOfGo (but OOP)

http://senseis.xmp.net/?TheBasicsOfGoStrategy

I've got both and I get the impression they'll be good for many more re-readings in the future. You don't actually need both of course but that's a different story.