Train like a pro

    Keywords: Life & Death, Ko, Tactics, Problem

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A two volume series written by Sung-Rae Kim, translated into English by Les Waller, and published by OroMedia in June 2005. An answer book for both volumes is a separate pamphlet.

Each 190 page volume consists of material for 30 days of study. Each day's study consists of 19 problems: four close combat problems, four 19x19 whole board opening problems, four life and death problems, four joseki problems, two problems from professionals actual game practice, and one 13x13 whole board endgame problem. Beginning with day 12 in volume two, two 19x19 whole board close combat problems replace the four partial board close combat problems. In the opening problems, one is required to choose among three possible moves shown on in the problem.

"This book is made for students who try to be Baduk(Go) professional players in Korea. The degree of difficulty is high." -from the introduction

Volume 1: ISBN: 89-90079-26-8
Volume 2: ISBN: 89-90079-27-6
Answer Book: ISBN: none shown

Selection from problems for day one.

Page 1 - About 4 Close combat problems

I estimate them to be about the same level of difficulty as the 'B' and 'C' level problems in Segoe Tesuji dictionary.[1]

[Diagram]

Black to play


Page 2 - About 4 Opening problems

Choose the best of three opening moves. Mostly direction of play stuff.

[Diagram]

White to play

Page 3 - About 4 Life and death problems

[Diagram]

Black to play.

Page 4 - About 4 Jeongseok (joseki) problems

The layout here is to find the most common continuation of a joseki. [2]

[Diagram]

Find the best answer

Page 5 - About 2 Pro's actual game practice problems

These problems show some position from the middle game of an actual pro game, with the last move marked. Your job is to figure out the next 1-5 moves, depending on the problem.

[Diagram]

5 moves, W: Zhou He-yang

Page 6 - 1 Endgame problem

The late endgame of a 13x13 game is shown. You are asked to write down the best endgame moves, the total points of territory for both sides, and find the winner.

[Diagram]

Black to move. Find best moves and end result for both sides


[1] Calvin: Opinions may vary, of course. Most of the tactics in these books are beyond my ability, so don't trust my judgement.

[2] Calvin: These are not whole-board "choose the best joseki" problems. It's more about joseki recognition, so this is the only section I find disappointing.


These books are really aimed at dan level players. I talked to Mr Kim last autumn and he said that one should spend 3-4 hours per "day" in the book to study the problems before you look at the answers. That would mean for the two books at least 180 hours of study time. The first few "days" are easy but the rest is really for dan level players.

MrOoijer


ilan: The first problem is essentially Problem 13, Section 3, page 183 of the book Semeai Tesuji. There it is rated 3 Dan for a 1 minute solution and 1 Dan for a 3 minute solution.

Note that these are Japanese ratings, so according to Rank World Wide Comparison they are mid kyu level problems for KGS people.


Review by Ivo Schuurink, 1-dan : [ext] http://gogame.info/samples/2/index.html

DrStraw: I have to say that these are some of the most challenging problems I have seen in a long time. I particularly like the way that the solutions are in a separate book and so you are not tempted to peek. As an AGA 5d I have not solved all of them and am not confident in my answers to all the others. I have not yet looked at the solution book and do not plan on doing so until I have solved them all.


Malcolm: I think this book is great study material for dan players. I won it as a prize in the Paris 2006 tournament, been studying it since. I've been through the first volume, am halfway through the second, while rereading the first. I find the second volume harder going than the first. Advice: once you've worked through a book, start again! I agree that "one day" of the book can easily merit four hours study.

Errata

Errata: The following problem from vol. 1, day 2 seems to be a mistake.

[Diagram]

Problem diagram

[Diagram]

Solution from book

The book gives this solution, with Black getting a ko.

[Diagram]

My diagram

Malcolm : As far as I can see White lives. unkx80 also seems to think so.

[Diagram]

Dead?

maruseru : Hm, I still only get a ko, or White dies outright.

After your sequence above, Black takes at 5, White connects at 6, then Black plays hane at 7. White can't play at 'a' because of a shortage of liberties. Continuing, if White takes at 4 and Black retakes at 1...

[Diagram]

Dead?

... White plays 1, but Black connects at 2, leaving White with a dead-three-shape in the corner. Alternatively...

[Diagram]

Ko?

... if White plays 6 to enlarge his eyespace, it's still ko. Later, when Black fills an outside liberty with 7, White will eventually have to connect at 8. Black can always connect at 4, so when White loses all his outside liberties, he will have to take the four Black stones in the corner and it's still ko.

Am I missing something?

[Diagram]

Ko?

tderz: position after last diagram.
Perhaps the BS should be missing, making capture a a threat?

[Diagram]

Ko?

tderz: (At least) two scenarios are possible:

  • White could capture at a, Black [circled point],
    White lives by oshi-tsubushi b before Black could create damezumari c.
  • Black blocks at d after White's capture at a.
[Diagram]

Ko?

tderz: This looks like a ko.

[Diagram]

White lives

unkx80: W6 lives. It does not matter if B7 is exchanged with W8. The thing is, (1) if later Black plays at W4, then White simply captures at a and we get a bent four in the corner with two external liberties, which lives, and (2) any other move by Black cannot reduce White's two external liberties, and so cannot prevent White from living by oshitsubushi at a.

maruseru: Yes, after I edited the page and before I just got back, I thought about the problem some more and your W6 occurred to me as well. Thanks for the clarification.


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