Tsumego
Tsumego, a Japanese go term adopted into English, are problems mainly about life and death, 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[2].
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
Other
- Tsumego Speed And Accuracy Table
- Take a bet on life and death - a tsumego tournament variant
- Standard Normal Form
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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 his "Commented games volume 1", Lee Sedol says playing relatively fast games and reviewing them as the most effective method.