Hi there. Just wondering—is it fairly common to “play out” some tsumego problems either on a physical board or Go editor? My rank currently fluctuates between about 12-15 kyu between OGS and DGS, and sometimes I struggle with some of the problems from even the second and third books of the Graded Go Problems for Beginners. Most are doable from book 2 without much issue, but sometimes I have to experiment on an actual (or virtual) board, as I can’t always just work it out in my head. Is this pretty normal and still encouraged at this level? I try to read out in my head, but sometimes I just cannot do it and have to work it out on the board.
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Book 3 is indeed not easy for a 12-15k. You could practice easier tsumegos. If you still want to practice book 3, then I suggest you try to work out the solution in your head for a few minutes, and only if you can’t find it, work it out on a board. Then, after checking if your solution is correct, come back to the initial position and read variations in your head again.
Yeah, the listed kyu ranges on these books seem a bit off. Volume 2 is supposedly recommended 20-25 kyu, but some of the problems are definitely harder than 20 kyu.
I try to mark the ones I get wrong and then go back to them after I finish the book. I always try to do in my head first, but I figured there must still be value to working out on the board if I can’t do it in my head.
Any other recommended purely Tsumego books at this level?
Many tsumego books in east Asia languages. Interesting because you don’t need that much to read the languages (besides black to play).
It won’t hurt your progress if sometimes you spend time on more difficult problems (still in your brain), it’s just usually considered as less efficient as doing easier ones until you reach to do them with more ease.
I can’t recommend paper books since you already mentioned Graded Go Problems and Davies “life and death”, and other paper books I own are at least as hard. When I was a DDK I used to practice tsumego on the app “Tsumego Pro”. You can buy sets of 200-300 problems for about 2€.
There are also many free and easy problems on tsumego-hero.com
I forgot SmartGo app has about 200 for free and about 1,000 more that can be purchased.