Level Up

    Keywords: Tactics, Problem, Books & Publications

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Level Up! is a series of Korean workbooks, written by Lee Jae-Hwan?, supervised by Yoo Chang-Hyuk 9-dan, and translated into English by Lee Seong-Geun? and Daniela Trinks. The author and translators are graduates of the Department of Baduk Studies at Myongji University. They are published by Baduktopia.

The books begin with go fundamentals and help the learner grow into more advanced concepts as the volumes continue. Each volume is 168 pages long, and follows the same format. After a short glossary of go terminology (mostly English or Korean, with a occasional Japanese alternatives) appropriate for the volume, a brief episode of a serial manga introduces the volume, generally about eight pages long. The books continue with 20 lessons, each of which briefly introduces a new or review concept, and then drills the concept with 24-36 problems. Interspersed among the lessons are two or three short articles on go culture, especially in South Korea, and a number of “opening samples,” game records containing only the first 20-35 moves of a game. The book concludes with three 20-problem tests to help the student assess her mastery of the concepts contained in that volume.

While the volumes emphasize capturing problems, tesuji, and life and death situations, a strong attempt is made to include good haengma, opening, endgame, and even basic strategy. Basic joseki, beginning with the starpoint, are introduced in volume 8, with emphasis given to the purpose for each move, or at least the haengma used for each. Review volumes are additionally available for use after every fifth study volume; these use the same structure as the regular books, less the manga episode.

The answer keys for the problems are not part of the books themselves, but are instead made available as PDF files on the publisher’s website. Unfortunately, they are plagued by frequent proofreading errors, showing a different problem in the answer key than the one given in the book itself. This, coupled with many grammatical errors in the English translation makes the books occasionally burdensome, but these problems never preclude the books’ clarity. Clearly intended for a younger audience, these books will help the very beginner of any age to advance quickly, especially in local-area fighting on the board.

Ten volumes, along with two review volumes, are currently available in English, as of September 2011. Slate and Shell is no longer selling them, but they are available from Yellow Mountain Imports. The Baduktopia Korean-language website shows that seven additional volumes are available in Korean under the name “Jump Level Up!” but there is no indication of when or if they will be available outside of South Korea or translated into English.

Scope of each volume:

Each volume reinforces and further develops concepts from the previous volume. Listed are are new concepts only.

Vol. 1 - Basic rules of go, how to capture or escape from capture with groups of stones, counter-atari, the benefit to playing in corners, the purpose of the first four lines, tiger’s mouth and peep (connecting and cutting), direction of atari, double atari, capturing races and outside liberties, avoiding jachung, ladder, concentration and thought.

Vol. 2 - Recognizing which stones to try to save/capture, preventing your opponent from escaping, life with two eyes/death without, ladders with weak stones/ladder breakers, nets with two liberties, chokchoksu (oiotoshi)

Vol. 3 - Chosing stones to try to capture; counting liberties; increasing liberties; continuous atari; strengthening weak stones; connecting via tiger’s mouth, push, and first line; cutting by thrusting; 3-, 4-, and 5- point unsettled life and death shapes; basic corner approaches and enclosures; blocking; nets with three liberties

More to come!


This is a copy of the living page "Level Up" at Sensei's Library.
(OC) 2012 the Authors, published under the OpenContent License V1.0.
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