Life In 19x19

In order to cram more tsumego-solving into my schedule, I'd like to have some on hand all the time for whenever I have a free minute. Any good pocket-sized tsumego books out there for purchase in the US?

If you have a smartphone, that's probably your best option. I'm not sure what to recommend, as far as books go.

You might try Maeda Nobuaki's "Life and Death: Intermediate Level Problems". It's a pocket sized yellow book that only costs $8 at Slate and Shell

http://www.slateandshell.com/SSGR005.html

I haven't looked at my copy in a while, but I went through it a few times and liked it.

In another thread ethanb suggested this L&D tsumego book and he said that it helped him to advance from 4k to 1d in four months. It is said to contain tsumego for strength between 7k and 2d.

None of the go apps for Android seem to have a very worthwhile problem mode. Hugoban has a problem mode that seems to half-way work, but the problems aren't sorted by difficulty or anything, which makes it mostly useless.

That book looks pretty good, and the price is right. I'll add it to my wishlist.

Tengen wrote:You might try Maeda Nobuaki's "Life and Death: Intermediate Level Problems". It's a pocket sized yellow book that only costs $8 at Slate and Shell

http://www.slateandshell.com/SSGR005.html

I haven't looked at my copy in a while, but I went through it a few times and liked it.

That book is 100% awesome for quick study, and perfect for SDK level. Glad somebody else mentioned it first, I mentioned it in another thread recently and I'd be afraid of sounding like an advertisement.

1. Download collection of your choice. http://tsumego.tasuki.org/?page=tsumego
2. Print on paper.
3. Fold to pocket size.

Edit: the point is to bring as many problems as you can comfortably fit in your pocket, that would be even more portable than a book and you can toss them away when you have solved them or they become unreadable from the wear, you can always print them again.

fwiffo wrote:None of the go apps for Android seem to have a very worthwhile problem mode. Hugoban has a problem mode that seems to half-way work, but the problems aren't sorted by difficulty or anything, which makes it mostly useless.

Yeah, this is something I want to add to gobandroid. Hopefully I can get to this in the next couple weeks. Would you test it out?

The idea is to just want to have lots of problems always at my fingertips no matter where I am. Back when I was improving quickly, I was consuming tons of problems on a daily basis, but lately I've had so little time to set aside for study, let alone playing, that I've hardly been doing any. But if I have them available at all times then I can squeeze a couple in whenever I've got a free moment.

I've kind done the same with playing. I don't often have a good hour of uninterrupted time to play a serious game (or not often enough), so I've started playing on DGS from my phone so I can squeeze in a move whenever I have a moment.

@oren: Oh, you're the gobandroid developer? Yes, I would love to be a beta tester. I am a programmer (though not much Java), so I should be good at breaking it.

These were excellent to carry in my pocket and whip out when I was bored in class: http://senseis.xmp.net/?NihonKiInDanLevel

Kiseido repackaged these pocket-sized books into the "Graded Go Problems for Dan Players" series but I'm not sure if those are pocket-sized like the original. Even though they say they're dan level only, I found the 5d L&D book incredibly easy and think it is more like KGS 1d level. I think you would be fine with getting the 1d L&D book and/or the 1d tesuji one.

Araban wrote:These were excellent to carry in my pocket and whip out when I was bored in class: http://senseis.xmp.net/?NihonKiInDanLevel

Kiseido repackaged these pocket-sized books into the "Graded Go Problems for Dan Players" series but I'm not sure if those are pocket-sized like the original. Even though they say they're dan level only, I found the 5d L&D book incredibly easy and think it is more like KGS 1d level. I think you would be fine with getting the 1d L&D book and/or the 1d tesuji one.

The Kiseido reprints are normal-Kiseido-book sized (like the Get Strong At books).

I got the first L&D and tesuji books in the Kiseido series and they at least start out doable for me.

these are nice pocket sized

http://www.godiscussions.com/forum/show ... stcount=84

I have the first one shown in his series (numbered 4) http://www.godiscussions.com/forum/show ... stcount=64

I bought mine at Kinokuniya in Seattle

and I also have ひと目でわかるポケット詰碁200 (this one is my favorite and is even better pocket sized, but may be below your level already). Also bought from Kinokuniya.


I also have some Chinese and Korean ones too (not really pocket sized though). I find that the Asian problem collections are much better than the Western published collections. They seem to be sorted by skill level much better too. And they skip the really, really lower level problems of "find the stone in atari".

Cool, now I just gotta find a place that sells these books. At least it's good to know that such things are out there.

I have a couple of the books xed_over pictures and they are exactly what you are looking for.

There are 6 volumes of Go Problems for Kyu Players: http://www.slateandshell.com/SSWC001.html