Tsumego

Tsumego, a Japanese go term adopted into English, are problems mainly about life and death^[2], but also about ko, capturing races, cutting, connecting, etc. As a rule they are local problems, but a few involve the whole board.

There are many published collections of tsumego, or life-and-death problems, many in Asian languages but increasingly many in Western languages. Many collections are available on the internet. SL also has a growing collection of go problems.

Most professional players and top amateur players agree that solving tsumego is the best way to improve^[3].

Further reading

It is important to know how to approach a life and death problem. We have a few pages discussing this topic.

• How to approach a life and death problem.
• Beginner's Guide to Tsumego
• Tsumego conventions
• A New Approach to the Creation of Go Problems
• Yu Ping on Tsumego
• The Important Skill of Calculation Starts With Doing Life and Death Problems

Some related terms

• Etymology
• Life and Death
• What does main line in tsumego mean ?

Problem pages

• Problems and Exercises
• Go Problems on the Internet

Other

• Tsumego Speed And Accuracy Table
• Take a bet on life and death - a tsumego tournament variant
• Standard Normal Form
• List of Major Works of Japanese Tsumego

[1] Simply 死活题, because 题 = 问题 = question/problem rather than Wéiqí = Go / sǐhuó = die/live / wèntí = problems => 围棋死活 and/or 死活问题

[2] In Japanese life-and-death is written 死活 and pronounced shikatsu

[3] In his "Commented games volume 1", Lee Sedol says playing relatively fast games and reviewing them as the most effective method.