Life and Death Problems 1

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Life and Death Problems 1 - Basics
http://home.snafu.de/jasiek/LifeAndDeathProblems_1_Cover.png
By: Robert Jasiek
2013
196 pp.

Table of contents

The book is available [ext] directly from the publisher or from European retailers.

The author and publisher of Life and Death Problems 1 - Basics is Robert Jasiek. The book is of A5 size, has 196 pages, has 5.5 diagrams per page on average, is written for players from circa 20 kyu to 5 kyu and has the suggested price EUR 23 (book) or EUR 11.50 (PDF).

Reviews

Review by the Author

General Specification

  • Title: Life and Death Problems 1 - Basics
  • Author: Robert Jasiek
  • Publisher: Robert Jasiek
  • Edition: 2013
  • Language: English
  • Price: EUR 23 (book), EUR 11.50 (PDF)
  • Contents: life + death
  • ISBN: none
  • Printing: good
  • Layout: good
  • Editing: good
  • Pages: 196
  • Size: 148mm x 210mm
  • Diagrams per Page on Average: 5.5
  • Method of Teaching: principles, structure, examples
  • Read when EGF: 20k - 5k
  • Subjective Rank Improvement: +
  • Subjective Topic Coverage: o
  • Subjective Aims' Achievement: ++

Introduction

Life and Death Problems 1 has been written with especially these two aims:

  • To fill a gap in the literature. Previously, it was difficult to recommend an English book specialising in life and death for a broad beginners' range. Not everybody wants to start with Asian books.
  • To offer a systematic overview on all important basic techniques of life and death. Beginners do not wish to study many problems books to reinvent the wheel, but they simply want to know: what are the basics?

The book concentrates on its problems and answers, but it also teaches the necessary techniques and principles.

Problems

The book contains 171 problems and their answers. Most of the problems are newly invented. There are about three problems per finer technique. Since every major technique has three finer kinds, the altogether nine problems per major technique allow the reader to become familiar with it. The final problem chapter has ten mixed problems.

The easy techniques have the simplest problems, whose solution relies on the reading of just one short sequence and denotes the 20 kyu end of the recommended range. Other techniques have problems of various degrees of difficulty up to about 5 kyu level. Typically, the most difficult problems can have about ten variations, of which a small number have a dozen moves per sequence. Most problems, however, lie in between: their solution consists of a few variations, of which each has a few moves.

A double digit kyu will find the most difficult problems too difficult; the idea is to motivate him to overcome his current level and learn solving more than the easiest problems. A single digit kyu can solve the simplest problems at a glance; one must, however, not dismiss their techniques, because each kind of move can be relevant in life and death situations.

How often have we thought that a problem book did not show every interesting variation? This book is different: every important variation is shown and explained. Thereby, the reader can verify the correctness or incorrectness of his reading. He learns not to overlook any relevant variation, but he is encouraged to develop a reasonably complete reading of move sequences.

Theory

Every chapter introduces its technique with definition, short description, and one or a few examples. This prepares for the problems and their answers. An extra theory chapter introduces basic terms, such as 'eye', 'lake' (potential eye) and 'nakade'.

Techniques are studied on two levels. A problem can be solved on the level of the fundamental techniques, such as 'threatening to cut' or 'preventing an atari'. When this is insufficient, the following techniques of the 'second level' are an alternative set of tools. There are techniques related to

  • the positional environment, when running or connecting to another group,
  • an almost constant eyespace, when fighting about a lake, nakade or partition of the eyespace,
  • an eyespace of changing size, when using an 'expansion', 'reduction', 'big reduction' or 'throw-in',
  • liberty shortage, when using a 'snapback', 'one-' or 'two-sided approach block', 'external' or 'internal liberty shortage'.

Most of these major techniques have 'creating', 'threatening' and 'preventing' as their finer kinds. For example, one can 'create', 'threaten to create' or 'prevent' an external liberty shortage. In a life and death situation, threats are said to be as important as a move's direct meanings.

Double and multiple purposes or threats, basic reading principles, a short epilogue and a detailed index conclude the book. The principles can help to simplify reading, by disregarding inferior and emphasising interesting moves.

Conclusion

Life and Death Problems 1 can be a beginner's first or second problem book on life and death. For the intermediate player, it is a systematic reference to the basic techniques and reading principles.

Review by baghwanb (Bruce Young)

The lives and deaths of groups is an essential part of the game of Go. Taking (or losing) stones off the board is not the main purpose but it is an exciting part of the game and can often lead to victory or defeat. It can also be one of the most frustrating aspects of the game for the developing player. As such, L&D is a vital aspect for beginning and intermediate players to get a solid grip on and even advanced players need to refine and develop their skills. Robert Jasiek’s Life and Death Problems 1 - Basics provides a tutorial for the essential methods to determine or change a position’s status between alive and dead.

This book is targeted for players in the 20k-5k range (EGF). With that in mind it marches the reader through many of the various techniques for establishing life or death in a group. Each of the eight main chapters starts with an overview of a major topic such as liberty shortages or eyespace or environment and then proceeds to break that down into several individual techniques or considerations in that field. Theory is introduced first with a few examples and then three problems are given for the reader to solve. Personally, I find this mix of example/problem to be very useful since the reader has a “general hint” based on the topic and so can focus their problem-solving to some degree as opposed to a “play somewhere” style. Players new to Go should find this especially encouraging. Many will also find this topic/problem style more productive than a “glossary of shapes” approach. Instead of memorizing set shapes, positions, and sequences, the reader refines their reading skills so they can be applied to all potential situations.

Using this style, many aspects are covered. Jasiek starts out with a rigorous definition of terms used through the book. At first, the distinctions between “lakes”, “potential eyespace”, “final eyespace”, etc. may seem overly detailed and minor, but the goal is to provide a framework that can be used to discuss the individual purpose(s) of any given move. This continues at the sub-section level with (for example) “attacking a lake” being a separate sub-section from “preventing a partition”. An impatient reader may ask, “Just show me how to kill it!”, but this level of granularity works very well in leading that same reader through the general topic step by step to build understanding and confidence.

The sets of problems in each subsection do an excellent job of demonstrating the executions of the principles just described. Jasiek includes both thorough explanations of why the correct answer is right (including possible continuations past the immediate L/D problem) and a multitude of variations on wrong plays. I found both of these to be very valuable. It is good to see the full detail on continuations after the right first move (in case the reader just got lucky with a proper initial choice but didn’t read out the whole sequence properly) and refutation of the wrong choices is essential to showing how they don’t work (under almost any possibly permutation of following plays). Players near the upper end of the suggested skill range may find a few of the problems basic, but working my way through the book, I (at 6k AGA) could only solve a few at a glance from immediate experience and/or what I consider “common knowledge”.

Another fulfilling aspect of the problem sets is that in a few cases the “correct” play is to simply play elsewhere since the status of the group cannot be changed. This bit of uncertainty forces the reader to fully read out the situation in every problem since there is a very real chance that further play will only waste a move or potential ko threats. This is an aspect I find very productive for the reader in problem books. “Forced reading” in an isolated situation (as opposed to in the heat of an actual game) helps hone the skills that all players, pro or amateur, need to continuously develop. In my opinion, spending time on this with a book directly leads to thorough and better reading on the board.

The book wraps up with some quick topics on identifying “interesting” places to play in order to trim the decision tree of full situational reading, a final problem set drawing from all the topics presented, an (much appreciated) index, and a final overview of L&D basics and a description of themes for upcoming books.

Overall, I found this book to be useful as a continuation in Go studies. The suggested skill range seems quite appropriate to me since near-beginners could be a bit overwhelmed and dan-level players should already be well-versed in these levels of evaluation and techniques. The focus on methods and theory provides a good companion to the dead shape/live shape books that are already out there. Just don’t be put off by the initial introductory terminology but instead embrace the level of detail that Jasiek uses to present the material. It will pay off in the end.

Table of Contents

The Table of Contents is [ext] at the author's site.

Sample Material

A [ext] Sample is available.


This is a copy of the living page "Life and Death Problems 1" at Sensei's Library.
(OC) 2014 the Authors, published under the OpenContent License V1.0.
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