Let's read Go books

[snakesss]

My idea is to read whatever I can as fast as possible without missing the main idea to come back to the ones I deem better later on. I still played almost half the positions in those books on a board on ogs.

I read the following in listed order:
1- River Mountain Go 1
2- A Go Guide from a Beginner
3- 81 little Lions
4- 2nd Book of Go
5- Opening Theory Made Easy
6- River Mountain 2

From these 6, I definitely recommend RMG 1 and Opening Theory Made Easy.

This month, I am reading Direction of Play by Kajiwara, Lessons in Fundamentals by Kageyama and Shape-up(10kyu course). Lessons in fundamentals is an especially fun read, with Kageyama drifting off to vague baseball analogies and impertinent memories from his childhood.

[bugcat]

This thread looks worth a bump.

I’ve only got two Go books:

1. A heavily outdated book on 3-3 by Cho Chikun
2. An endgame book I bought from Antti Tormanen whilst I was drunk, it has a Christmas tree

[richyfourtytwo]

@bugcat

I’ve only got two Go books:

I have a duplicate copy of ‘Get Strong at the Endgame’. Happy to send it to you if you want, so you’d have three!

[bugcat]

c:

That’s a lovely offer but I reckon I’d find it hard going, better for me to get something less dry. On that note, this might be a good time to get into Go reading :3

[txwolf]

Books are overrated. After all those readings, I am still a 3kyu.

[DVbS78rkR7NVe]

A year from the start of this thread I’ve finally finished The Go Consultants.

[bugcat]

A couple of months ago I accidentally bought dupes of

Deep Thought: Extremely Thorough Pro Game Commentaries (Volume 1), Yuan Zhou, 2013
The Young Chinese Go Masters (Volume 1), Yuan Zhou, 2015

Anyone fancy these? I’ll be sending from England, so I can’t ship them to America or anything like that.

@richyfourtytwo Sure, I’d like that, thank you c:

[Vsotvep]

I’ve read exactly four pages since this thread started…

On the other hand, I was a 5k when the thread started, and I’m still a 5k now.

[ayaros]

I know that elsewhere someone made something similar, but I still think that a specific section where we can put our go books listed and with a detailed review made from OGS users would be great. Different ranked players can have different point of views on the book contents and can leave different advises for other readers and this can become a good compass to orient new players that are looking continuously for solid material to start their learning ladder.

This location should be organized like a list where all can contribute and where we shall put at least:

• front cover picture,
• title,
• editor,
• reviewer’s alias,
• reviewer’s rank,
• the review text.

There are a lot of old books that most of us read but new-comers don’t know at all.
What do you think about the idea?

Continuing with books-to-read argument, I am finding really nice the reading of this book.

The author evaluates some interesting pro game’s positions and how the players dealt with that. For each short sequence of moves, he evaluates which alternatives were possible and the relative consequences both strategically and tactically. The value of the book in my opinion is the quality of commentary on these variations. It is not too hard to follow and all seems simple (seems… until you don’t try to anticipate yourself how you would play in the same situation before to turn book’s page and see the actual game continuation and author’s analysis).

[MooToYouToo]

I’m trying to re-read ‘Lessons in the Fundamentals’ and ‘Attack & Defense’ at the moment. I last read them when I was about 6kyu (1kyu at the moment). I find it hard to stay motivated when re-reading books though, I would rather just do easy tsumego sets over and over! I’ll make a pledge to finish them and post about it in this thread before the year is up.
I also highly recommend Justin Teng’s book collection and guide as a reference for what books to get at each level, especially that bit at the end with recommendations for each rank.

Other books I’m currently reading, or will try to read this year:

• Reducing Territorial Frameworks by Fujisawa Shuko
• Re-read Lee Changho Collected Tesuji Volumes 1, 2, 3 & 4 (having to do these online or with a janky pdf I made, because ordering from china is too expensive right now)
• ヨセの強化書基礎編―九路で鍛える実戦式ト
• ヨセの強化書 応用編―九路で鍛える実戦式ト
  ^ Those two are Japanese 9x9 endgame books that I found on ebay. Pretty addictive. I’ve almost finished the first one, but the second might take a while because it’s much more difficult.

My wishlist for when I can afford more books is:

• 1001 Life and Death Problems
• Get Strong at Tesuji
• Graded Go Problems for Beginners Volume 4
• Get Strong at Endgame

Speaking of which, @richyfourtytwo, is that offer for ‘Get Strong at Endgame’ an open one? I’d be happy to pay for postage if you aren’t in the UK. If not then no worries.

[mister10]

Lesson in the fundamentals of Go.

Best book for every level in my opinion (Covers almost everything)

Invincible games of Shusaku, for fuseki and general new ideas of opening patterns.

Greets

[bugcat]

The 3-3 Point Modern Opening Strategy
Cho Chikun, 1991 / 2015
trans. Stuart Dowsey
pub. Ishi Press
Paperback, 214 pages

Contents

Foreword
Glossary
1 - 12 Introduction: Around the 3-3 Point
13 - 79 Ch. 1, The 3-3 Point with the Star Point and the 3-4 Point
80 - 126 Ch. 2, 3-3 Point Joseki
127 - 187 Ch. 3, 3-3 Point Fuseki
188 - 214 Ch. 4, Problems

The glossary defines over two pages the basic Japanese terms (book spelling) aji, aji-keshi, atari, dan, fuseki, gote, hanami ko, hane, joseki, ko, komi, komoku, kyu, miai, nirensei, sanren-sei, san-san, sente, shodan, takamoku, and tesuji.

All positions discussed in the book are taken from Cho’s own games. Because of the publication date, you won’t find any information about post-bot 3-3 sequences and their role in the modern opening, which has to be considered a major drawback.

---

In the Introduction, Cho discusses:

some variations

In Star Point, 3-4 Point, and 3-3 Point

https://online-go.com/joseki/12104.
https://online-go.com/joseki/840.
https://online-go.com/joseki/3762 in the context of a low Chinese
the kosumi Q15 in https://online-go.com/joseki/374, again in a low Chinese setting
R17 after a Black tenuki in https://online-go.com/joseki/809

In 3-3 Point Joseki

https://online-go.com/joseki/37846.
https://online-go.com/joseki/153 in the context of a middlegame attack

In 3-3 Point Fuseki

https://online-go.com/joseki/4334.
https://online-go.com/joseki/6307.
https://online-go.com/joseki/4074.

In Chapter 1, Cho discusses (in the context of a sanrensei):

a load more variations

In 3-4 Point and Star Point (1)

https://online-go.com/joseki/314.
https://online-go.com/joseki/496.
https://online-go.com/joseki/887.
https://online-go.com/joseki/3076.
https://online-go.com/joseki/38173.
https://online-go.com/joseki/2299.
https://online-go.com/joseki/2710.
https://online-go.com/joseki/573.
https://online-go.com/joseki/2724 with Black further fixing at P12
A long discussion of the aji available to White if Black doesn’t play P12

In 3-3 Point and Star Point (2)

https://online-go.com/joseki/13603 with Black fixing at R15
https://online-go.com/joseki/56039.
https://online-go.com/joseki/56078 with Black cutting at Q18, and a further long discussion of this position
https://online-go.com/joseki/56072.

In 3-3 Point and Star Point (3)

https://online-go.com/joseki/519 in depth
https://online-go.com/joseki/295.
https://online-go.com/joseki/25164 in depth
https://online-go.com/joseki/25140.
the mistake variation https://online-go.com/joseki/50350

In 3-3 Point and Star Point (4)

https://online-go.com/joseki/50434 in great depth
https://online-go.com/joseki/28554 with Black Q17

… Sorry, I can’t list any more variations. Got tired out.

---

The gist of my review would be like this: it’s not a bad book. The scope is broad and the explanation is thorough, and the fact that all examples are from real professional play is a plus. However, there’s no escaping the fact that in the five years after this book’s publication, the human understanding of the 3-3 point both in a local and global context has greatly changed.

Since this is, really, a technical book about the 3-3 itself, rather than a book using 3-3 positions to illustrate broad principles, it’s dated quite badly. If you play two hundred games as, say, an OGS 1d I think almost all the positions in the book will appear. But crucially, in most of those 200 games the most relevant 3-3-related positions will not be found in the book. So, although I reiterate that it’s not a poor book, I can’t recommend it in the year 2020.

[MooToYouToo]

I finished ヨセの強化書基礎編―九路で鍛える実戦式ト (Yose Training - Basic Edition) and started posting the problems to r/baduk. I highly recommend buying the book if you visit japan or are willing to order from there.

Now reading the copy of Get Strong at Endgame that richyfourtytwo kindly sent me.
It starts with 42 full board 11x11 problems to test your starting level. You write down your answers but you don’t check if they are correct. Then after doing all the tesuji and counting problems you go back and do them again, check the answers, and see how much your endgame skill was improved by the book.

I really like the format, but these 42 problems front-load the book with a lot of work. Writing down endgame answers is a real pain when the diagrams don’t have co-ordinates. It’s not so bad though, just a bit of a commitment, and I can’t wait to get to the tesuji problems.

‘Lessons in the Fundamentals’ and ‘Attack & Defense’ are on the backburner again. Tsumego and Tesuji books reign supreme.

[bugcat]

I got Attack & Defense and The Breakthrough to Shodan for Christmas this year.

I’ve yet to really break into either of them, though.

[bugcat]

Recommendations from @trohde ca. January 2015:

Your perfect library

Hello @Yunzi (is that you? — nice to “see” you here, too ) Hard for me to answer, because … I’m still hovering somewhere around 13k and 19k. I have too many books already, and I can’t bring myself to read any of these from front to end It’s quite hard for me to say which books are recommendable for which strength. BUT here is what I recommend: Richard Bozulich – “The Second Book Of Go” (perhaps from 25k on?) Charles Matthews – “Shape Up! (For A Stylish Baduk)” …

[bugcat]

Could someone review 38 Basic Joseki, please?

Recently I often hear it referenced, but I can’t find a source for even what those 38 titular joseki are.

I did find this 2013 L19 thread but it’s a bit sparse, again not even explaining what joseki are covered.

[Atorrante]

@bugcat

38 Basic Joseki

Written in 1973, so probably a bit old fashioned.
Deals with 3-3, 3-4, 4-4, 3-5 and 4-5 openings.

200+ pages for 38 josekis; so not an in depth treatment of the josekis.

[okonomichiyaki]

I can’t offer a thorough review as I haven’t studied it deeply. But I own a copy so can at least offer this:

pictures of table of contents

[bugcat]

Much appreciated!

[mark5000]

@bugcat

Could someone review 38 Basic Joseki, please?

As the title suggests, 38 Basic Joseki covers a limited set of joskei. This should delight newer players who might otherwise get overwhelmed by the number of possibilities. At 231 pages, the book spends plenty of time explaning each joseki. This gives newer players more of a chance to grasp the underlying concepts. So it’s not so much a reference book as it is a textbook.

I recommend this book for players with poor joseki knowledge who are trying to understand joseki better. Experienced players expecting a reference book will probably be disappointed when the book lacks a variation they’re looking for. Of course, a lot has changed since the book was published (most notably the AI revolution), and many variations in the book are outdated. In my opinion, experienced players can better study modern joseki by studying modern games.