Speed Baduk for Beginners
Speed Baduk for Beginners by Kim Sung-Rae published by Oromedia.
Velobici: Got a look at these books at the 22nd US Go Congress. They are aptly named...for beginners.
codyk 's Review of Speed Baduk for Beginners vol. 1:
The facts: 183pg 7"x10" paperback published by Oromedia. Beginner topics are briefly introduced, then drilled with ~20 problems per topic. Topics covered:
1. Liberties 2. Capturing 3. Escaping 4. Atari 5. Connecting 6. Blocking 7. Where to atari (towards 1st line, etc) 8. territory 9. suicide 10. life & death 11. shortage of liberties 12. snapback 13. net 14. ladder 15. capturing race 16. filling liberties 17. increasing liberties 18. live vs dead stones 19. ko 20. seki 21. good / bad shape 22. good / bad moves 23. neutral points 24. endgame
The bad: Initial impressions are poor. The paper quality is worse than kiseido, although not quite as bad as a newsprint workbook. There are some typos ("cotting") and diagram glitches (the # label for a diagram showing up behind the stones), although nothing that affects the substantive material.
Compared to other books aimed at a similar audience, the breadth of coverage isn't great given the cost of the book. For example, hanging connections aren't covered until vol.2
The author has a master's in education, and it shows. There are several full-page diagrams that either have seemingly little to do with the rules of go, or outright break them: for instance, a cute diagram resembling an owl with several already-surrounded black stones for the eye area, or a 'ladder puzzle' that has the reader trace lines of stones with her eyes and take the first turn whenever possible.
The good: The author has a master's in education, and it shows ;) Pedagogically, this book absolutely blows away the other "complete beginner" books I have seen, such as Learn To Play Go Series volume 1 or Graded Go Problems For Beginners volume 1. There are enough problems to ensure the material is retained, unlike the former, and just enough introduction to organize the material very well, unlike the latter.
More importantly, the book involves what I believe is the most effective way to learn game skills: brief introduction of a new skill, isolation of that skill in a limited but realistic setting, integration of the skill into the larger game (props for the 3 I's go to straight blast gym, but the basic idea applies anywhere from martial arts to test prep). Each new topic has just enough introduction, e.g. 4 small diagrams with a sentence under each, explaining what a snapback is. Then the topic is isolated with many small corner diagrams of increasing difficulty, all of them involving e.g. snapbacks. Real integration is hard without playing the game, but the book does an admirable job by then presenting a full 13x13 with many interesting areas, only a few of which can be solved using the skill in question.
The material is limited in scope, but the fundamentals are very well chosen - ladders, nets and snapbacks are a lot more important at this stage than any opening theory beyond 'don't play on the first line'.
Difficulty level: A 20kyu should be able to solve pretty much anything in the book on sight. This is probably the trickiest problem in the book:
Answers for all 3 volumes are in a seperate booklet, good for resisting or removing the temptation to look at answers.
Bottom line: If you're teaching beginners, especially children, this book is without peer as far as I can tell. For self-study, as long as you're young at heart enough to tolerate some of the cutesy diagrams, and dont mind trading a little less 'value' (in terms of number of topics) for very solid coverage of fundamentals, this is a good contender for a first book.