SoDesuNe

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The Tactic of the Soldier,
the Exactness of the Mathematician,
the Imagination of the Artist,
the Inspiration of the Poet,
the Calm of the Philosopher
and the greatest Intelligence.
Zhang Yunqi


This is me

I started to play Go back in April 2009, after - surprise - watching the anime 'Hikaru no Go'. At that time I was studying in Vienna, which was very lucky because I could attend the beginner course at the famous [ext] Go7, where I almost achieved [ext] to lose my first 50 games straight ^^
So the first thing I learned about Go was: It is but an unforgiving game!

Still, I found it to my liking. When I look back now, I'm kind of proud about that tenacity for I sure lost almost every game at the beginning.
One thing, which I now blame for this hard start, was having no guidance. Of course they were many books at the [ext] Go7 and I'm sure people told me their preferences as well, but I was a man dying of thirst and what I got were only possibilities on how I could manage the thirst. I just feel no one gave me water in the first place.

I started with Cho Chikun's Elementary Go problems (from [ext] Tasuki's), but since I was 20k(?) even those where too high for me and the lack of answers lead me to give up on this book dissatisfied.
What's the point in trying hard to solve the problem, when you never know if your solution is correct? Yeah, I know the answer, which might satisfy some people: You can be sure when you have brute-forced every alternative.
All work and no fun make me a dull boy.

The holy grail of my starting Go career was the book [ext] In the Beginning. Finally some guidance, at least for the first dozen moves!
I became approximately two stones stronger after the first reading.
Then I discovered [ext] goproblems.com and the [ext] Graded Go Problems For Beginners series and my rise could begin! : D


(26.09.2011: 1k on KGS)



What I would do, if I had to start studying Go all over again

I know there are A LOT of (good) guides out there on how to become stronger but many (all) of them tend to give only general advice.
Therefor I will post a concrete list of some books here, which I think made me noticeably stronger.

Just a short preliminary remark: There are many ways to get stronger and everybody is different in what he or she prefers. Some people hate doing Tsumegos, because they find it boring, others praise [ext] replaying and memorising professional games and then they are people who just play a lot.
By all means, do what you enjoy the most. The following is just my way, I became stronger with those books. I think, quite some people will tell me that I missed some very important books and/or that they have a different opinion on the books I mentioned. That's okay, for I can only speak of things I experienced. Because of this, my "guide" takes you only to 2k+ (KGS), when I progress further I will update this "guide".
Here we go:


Kyu

Beginner-Kyu (30k-15k (KGS))

Although I said that the holy grail of my beginning Go career was In the Beginning, this book is in my opinion much better and covers all the same.
You get a really good idea about the strategic concepts of the first douzen moves like Fuseki fundamentals (e.g. extensions, pincers, Moyo), good shape (e.g. how not to harm your own stones, empty triangle) and general strategy (e.g. attacking, reducing, sacrificing).
Furthermore the book won't start to overburden you with too much detail. It is very simple, therefore easy to understand and to apply. The latter profits from the usage of a lot of diagrammes.

Go is all about reading and being able to visualize sequences, so it's best to start early practising this skill.
I like the [ext] Graded Go Problems For Beginners series, because they offer a lot of different Tsumegos and Tesujis. But they don't stop there, they also have quite a few problems involving making a Ko or a Seki, or winning a capturing race. Furthermore they also offer problems regarding the opening, the middlegame and the endgame.
So, you really can train all aspects of a Go game. I don't know any other book which would offer all this.


Intermediate-Kyu (14k-7k (KGS))

This is the one and only middlegame book you'll need for a long time. It teaches you everything about how to attack and what attacking moves actually are; and it shows the opposite side: How to defend.
Furthermore it has chapters about invasions, reductions and how to build up a framework for yourself.
What might be even more important (but hard to grasp at this level) is the illustration on how to play if you are ahead in territory or ahead in terms of power.
You won't immediately understand everything in this book and you surely will read it more than three times over your Go career, but all this book offers is utmost essential and is a must need to know!

One hell of an important book!
Here you will learn every Tesuji you need to master to become a Dan player. But [ext] Tesuji does not just offer an overview of the different Tesujis, it wonderfully explains every single one and rounds that up with a lot of examples to practice. The book really is a jewel!
If you might not be convinced yet: The book also has a very useful (and highly regarded) explanation on how to read out a position, it covers a whole chapter.
This book, too, can be a bit difficult at the beginning, because it requires that you read out quite a few longish sequences. But don't be discouraged, the important point with this book is to learn to recognize the shapes in which the different Tesujis occur.

There is not much to say about this one. If it comes down to practice life-and-death, this book is one of the best choices for intermediate players. Solely because of its vast number of situations and its increasing difficulty, you will build up confidence in reading out sequences.
The one downside there might be: The problems are all very artificial, but then again, vital points are always the same and by solving all the problems in this book, you will surely use every important life-and-death tactic and Tesuji, which will benefit your play.

What One Thousand and One Life-and-Death Problems is for Tsumegos, Get Strong at Tesuji is for Tesujis. It might be one of the most powerful problem books for intermediate players in Go and together with [ext] Tesuji by James Davies easily one of the most powerful Tesuji books in English at all.
Also offering problems with different difficulties, this book invites you to resolve it several times and always learn something knew. I, for once, solved it five times already and I can say with confidence: This book alone made me at least one rank stronger.
As a remark: The problems in this book feel a lot different to life-and-death problems. You are not always asked to kill something or to make live but to gain a local advantage or put your opponent in bad shape. That's a different thinking and that's why many moves might be completely new to you. But that alone shows how much you can learn from this book.

See above.


Advanced-Kyu (6k-3k (KGS))

See above.

I find it hard to explain this book, because shape is a very abstract matter.
You will often hear or read about good shape or bad shape, but the theory behind it is very hard to grasp. To phrase it simply: Bad shape often invites a Tesuji, which will put the player with the bad shape in a even worse situation. So bad shape invites attacking, while good shape secures your stones. This is what this book tries to teach you with its problems.
At first you might get almost every problem wrong or you are totally clueless what or where to play (I experienced both), but that's okay. Take your time to think of an answer and than just check the solution and when you have been wrong, just try to understand what the correct move achieves and why the solution is better than what you would have played. You'll get a lot of new ideas and you will start to see more moves during your play after solving this book two or three times.

The title tells about two central aspects of Go. Capturing enemy stones and rescueing one's own stones.
The reason why I include this book: It offers 80 really nice problems, which I find highly educational, because you have to find some not obvious looking moves (no standard vital point spotting). Furthermore, I feel that the focus in this book lies in reading further ahead, compared to books with problems for a similiar strength.
A very good book to practice one's skill!

There is no way around, you need to practice reading, reading, reading and again reading ^^ But there are a lot of books out there with which you can practice. I think this book is one of the best to still have fun while doing Tsumegos.
The book structures the problems in circles of ten. 1 being the easiest problem (said to be around 7 Kyu, but in my opinion some problems are far more difficult) and 10 the most difficult (said to be around 2 Dan, but this is exaggerated, I think). In my opinion the problems are on average around 3 Kyu KGS.
Becauses of the structure you will have some easy and some hard problems, so it's not always troublesome to come up with a solution. But on the other hand you will slowly have to read deeper to find the right move and this is a nice challenge.
Furthermore this book has a really nice size: It fits in every pocket, so you can carry it around to always have some nice Tsumegos to solve ; )


Expert-Kyu (2k+ (KGS))

Yes, it still comes down to more reading practice ; ) Volume one and two will be very easy for players with this rank but nonetheless they are a good repetition.
Volume three increases the difficulty enormously, I think, and needs a lot more careful reading and even spotting the first move. You will have to verify your sequence against a lot of possible counter moves, which will sharpen your structur in reading to not forget any Tesujis White (it's always Black to play) might have. Furthermore a lot of problems feature Semeais, so you will get used to count liberties during your own fights, which will make you a stronger fighter and thus strengthen your play in the important middlegame.



General advice (for all strengths)

1. Games

Play a lot of games (preferably face to face or online - bots can train a lot of bad habits)! I mean it. If you want to become stronger, you have to experience many situations, so that you will not be thrown off balance by certain plays and so you will know faster where the best move is. Furthermore after reading something like [ext] Attack and Defense you need to play a lot to apply and get a grip on all the new ideas.
If you have the chance, play against stronger players, because you can learn the most from them. On the other side don't be afraid to give handicap as you will learn a lot about attacking stones, living in small places and making the most of each move.
If you have the time, play two games a day. I would recommend (not binding, of course!) the following time settings if you play online:

15 minutes maintime
5*30 seconds Byo-Yomi

If you're just starting with Go, there's no need for more time because chances are your reading is not good enough to use the time. If your reading gets better and better, you will always have to push you out of your comfort zone, to force yourself to read even faster or to assess the position faster.


2. Reviews

Always search for three to five mistakes in your lost games (e.g. ask yourself why you have lost the game?)! If you know why you have lost the game, you know how you can do better next time.
It would be perfect if you knew a stronger player who could review your games, because he or she will most likely see more mistakes and thus can point you in the right direction. If you don't know anyone stronger, try posting some chosen games in the game analysis sub-board at [ext] http://www.lifein19x19.com/forum. People are usually very nice and helpful there.


3. Tsumegos

As you can see from my list of recommended books, I favour the approach of doing a lot of Tsumegos and Tesuji problems to become a stronger player.
So here a few words on how to do those problems: The most important part is to do problems on a regulary basis. E.g. five problems a day is way more efficient than doing fifty only on Sundays.
Problems sharpen your eyes to recognize shapes and thus vital points, furthermore they teach you often reoccuring tactics like [ext] Hane on the first line. But to use this tactics and quickly find the vital point, it's best when your brain is frequently occupied with doing exactly this: Using tactics and finding vital points. Therefore: Try to do problems on a regulary basis. You'll save a lot of time and trouble, when you are faced to solve a similiar problem in a real game.
Secondly, better do too easy than too difficult problems. Of course it's best, when you will hit the middle, but since this is not very easy to achieve, better stick to the easy ones.
Third, if you follow my "guide" and study all the problem books I mentioned, you'll have to solve approximately 4000 problems. This is not enough, by far! I solved Get Strong at Tesuji like five times, One Thousand and One Life-and-Death Problems like three times, [ext] Tesuji like three times, Graded Go Problems For Beginners Vol. 3 three times as well and the fourth volume two times (not including the thousands of problems I did on [ext] goproblems.com and GoChild). So, repeat to solve all those books until you know the answer for each problem at sight (at least under ten seconds). A good method to give the problems a fresh appearance: Rotate the book through 90° when you have solved every problem and rotate it another 90° next time. So you can do all problems from four different angles.

A small remark: Look at the answers if you think you got the solution or when you can't find a solution after a reasonable time (after a couple of tries, respectively if the problem starts to annoy you ; ) ). If you were wrong, go back and figure out why your move does not work.


Tsumegos vs. Tesujis
This aims at the question, what's the difference between these two and is one of them more important than the other?
Simplified, Tsumegos teach you visualizing Go stones to read out sequences and to be able to derivate at certain points without forgetting the previous moves. Tesujis on the other hand teach you where to start reading. (Having said that: Of course almost every advanced Tsumego problem involves a Tesuji. But when you start with very easy Tsumegos, you will experience that there are no Tesujis used. First comes elementary reading and visualizing, because without this you will have a hard time reading out Tesujis, since they generally require to read out more moves.)
As Go evolves a lot through shapes you will notice soon, that certain shapes have weaknesses (e.g. cutting points or [ext] liberty shortage). Then when you start studying Tesujis you'll see the same shapes over and over again, because every Tesuji has its shape.
So with mastering a lot of Tesujis you will drastically decrease your time needed to spot weaknesses within the shape of your opponent. That is why I would advice to favour Tesuji problems over Tsumegos, except for the beginning.
Another reason is, with progressing up the ranks there will be less and less possibilities to really kill your opponent, so it is more important to gain small advatages by attacking him from the right direction or by hitting the right points thus making him overconcentrated or putting him in bad shape. Even more important are moves which - sometimes almost magically - connect your stones or capture important cutting stones.
These tactics are almost exclusively taught by Tesuji problems.


4. Josekis

If you start playing, you will not know any Josekis, that's okay because your opponents won't know any either. So, it's useless to try to play Joseki moves, when your opponent keeps answering non-Joseki moves (except you are already strong enough to profit from it, but then we wouldn't have the Joseki learning question in the first place, I assume).
In my opinion, the best way to learn Josekis is to look them up, when they appear in your game. I recommend this free website to do so: [ext] http://www.dailyjoseki.com.
If you prefer to study Joseki in a book, I can recommend the newly published "[ext] The 21st Century Basic Dictionary of Joseki" by Takao. The second volume will be published in early 2012.
Of course, if you don't know what a Joseki is, when do you know what to look up? Vicious circle.

Here are a few standard Josekis, which I think are important to know in the beginning. Keep in mind, first: If your opponent does not know the Joseki, your knowledge is mostly useless. Second: These Josekis are not good in every situation! But in the beginning of your Go career, this plays a minor role.

B2 is a good move in a lot of situations.

'a' and 'b' are principally Miai, but you will mostly take the side where the resulting wall builds the biggest framework.

If you choose to block with 'a'.

If you choose to block with 'b'.

'a' and 'b' are principally Miai, but you will mostly take the side where the resulting wall builds the biggest framework.

If you choose to play 'a'. Black has to defend at 'x' (I just can't put more than ten numbers in one diagramme).

For reference, if you choose to play 'b'. Black has to defend at 'x' as well.



Excursus: Studying professional games

You will often hear and read that one way of becoming a stronger player is replaying and memorizing professional games with comments. That's because you should get an idea of how stones move (shape, direction, flow). It's a sensible approach but for me it has - in general - several downsides.

a) The obvious one: Replaying and memorizing professional games takes a lot of time. When I would sit down and do this, I could easily do a bunch of Tsumegos, play a game and get it reviewed in the meantime instead.
So if you really want to follow this approach, be sure about two things: You have the necessary spare time and you will have to do it for a considerable amount of time, respective amount of professional games. Otherwise there will be almost no effect.
b) Understanding or just copying? Depending on your rank there will be a high chance that you will not understand every move of the game you're replaying. This strongly applies to most games with comments from internet sources, where it just says "A sharp move!" and offers maybe one variation every fifty moves. Printed books (e.g. Invincible or books by John Fairbairn) are a lot better in this regard.
The point here is: Copying moves does not enrich your play. The idea behind replaying professional games is not to be able to copy the moves but to understand why the players played the way they did, what a certain move should achieve, what they plan and so on. In the long shot you should get a broader view of the Go board to better assess the position and play according to a strategy: That is, shape, direction and flow.
c) If you have read [ext] Attack and Defense, you will have noticed that there are also quite a few professional games to illustrate certain principles. I really like this approach and that is at the same time a downside in replaying ("raw") professional games. Most of the time you don't have a focus on certain aspects, you just replay and memorize. So you can't tell - in general - what a game has taught or will teach you if you did not focus on it in the first place. To do so requires some thoughts before you even start looking at the game: What do you want to learn? And if you have a clear conscience, why don't you buy a book, which is specialized on this particular matter in the first place? (Like [ext] Attack and Defense.)

To put it in a nutshell: Personally, I think replaying professional games is not very efficient and you can make better use of your time while enjoying (and learning about) the game of Go.



Links

Rules & starting points

If you don't know anything about Go, this website teaches you the very basics.


Boards

Biggest english-speaking board for the game of Go.


Tsumego online

Very good website to do problems of a wide variety online. You can practice Tesujis, Tsumegos, your opening, your endgame etc.

Similiar to [ext] http://www.goproblems.com but it also offers very good compilations of problems for certain strengths. The two downsides: The usage is not very intuitive and you have to pay to use it.

A lot of Tsumego compilations for various strengths to print, but without answers.


Joseki dictionaries

A very good website, which lets you browse through Josekis actual played in professional games. Furthermore you can see the surrounding stones in the resulting position to get a feeling when this Joseki is played by professionals.


Play Go online

I think the most popular internet Go server among western players. I tend to only play there.


Videos

Reviews and general

Very good video reviews of amateur games (Kyu and Dan games) in English.

Highly educational website with a lot of videos in English on how to punish overplay or with general advice how to play in certain situations. Even some video reviews of famous professional games can be found there.

The YouTube-account of Battousai with a lot of lectures (about e.g. fighting, invasions, influence and openings), and videos of him playing against high-dan players while he comments on what he thinks about the position.


Openings explained

In this video Battousai explains the idea behind the Orthodox Fuseki.

Behind this link you'll find three very good lectures to download explaining the Chinese Fuseki (low chinese, mini chinese and micro chinese). Again from Battousai.


Online Go Shops

A very good german shop, which has almost every important english Go book. It has some german translation of famous books aswell.

A nice us-american shop, which has some good books in foreign languages.

The official reseller of Kiseido products in Europe. It has a nice sortiment of non-english books.

A nice swedish Go shop, which has a lot of chinese and english Go books in its sortiment.



...to be continued...



Comments, feedback and questions

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