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One Thousand and One Life-and-Death Problems
Keywords: Life & Death
A Kiseido publishing book by Richard Bozulich, volume 2 in the Mastering the Basics series. The book is divided into the following sections: 1 move problems:
200 problems: Black to live 3 move problems:
200 probems: Black to live 5 move problems:
100 problems: Black to live Each problem (tsumego) in the book gets only one solution diagram. The introduction states that it is up to the reader to verify that the solution presented is the best solution to each problem. See also: Comments by readersDieter: I'm a fond lover of tsumego, and thus this book with 1001 problems is a sweet treasure. The level of the first move problems is rather low: I (1 Dan) did a bit more than one hour over the first 140 problems in two intervals - waiting in a queue, so not really trying to break my record. So it's fair to say that they take me less than 20 seconds to solve, subtracting the time used for flipping pages and verifying the answers. I got three wrong out of 140. I like this: it is fast food for the brain. I do have one severe criticism of the book. The solution diagrams are accompanied by two lines of comments that are mere variations on the theme "After Black 1, there is no way for White to kill". Only very occasionally avoiding ko is mentioned and exceptionally a wrong first move is indicated. I have nothing against solution diagrams without comments: I rely on the knowledge of the Nihon Ki-in (in this case). But if the writers do add comments, they should be worthwhile. Stefan: Not to imply that your criticism isn't valid, but to be fair to the author he does warn the reader in the Preface. In order to include so many problems in a limited number of pages, the explanations are minimal. The reader should make the effort to verify that the answer to each problem is indeed the best and most profitable and to prove to himself that any other move fails to achieve the stated objective. This effort is also part of the practice that these problems provide. And about the 'avoiding ko' point: in all problems, Black must either live unconditionally or kill White unconditionally. That is, an answer that leads to a ko is a failure unless Black can live or kill by creating a double ko. Velobici: The level of the first move problems must be below 1 Dan... I can solve them and I am no 1 Dan. I would estimate them as being 10 kyu to 5 kyu. This is a copy of the living page "One Thousand and One Life-and-Death Problems" at Sensei's Library. (C) the Authors, published under the OpenContent License V1.0. |