Get Strong at Tesuji

Get Strong at Go #6

by Richard Bozulich

The fastest way to become strong at go is to constantly study tesuji and life-and-death problems. But they also advise you not to study difficult problems. Easy problems, they say, are the most beneficial, even for dan-level players. In other words, quantity of problems studied rather than difficulty is the key to becoming strong. In this way, you will familiarize yourself with the key moves in all kinds of patterns, thereby developing your tesuji intuition that will help you zero in on the key points that arise in your games.
This is the perfect book for studying tesuji. Aimed at the player who has just learned the rules and played a few games, Get Strong at Tesuji contains 534 problems that will develop your tesuji intuition to the level of a dan player. The problems are divided into three levels of easy (10-kyu to 5-kyu), intermediate (5-kyu to 1-kyu), and advanced (5-kyu to 1-kyu). There are also a few dan-level problems toward the end of the book so that you can judge your progress after tackling the other problems.

Genres: Go, Games, Nonfiction

196 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 1996

Reviews

[Simon · Rating 5 out of 5]

I picked this book up along with One Thousand And One Life-And-Death Problems couple of years ago.

They're both collections of local problems in the corner without any in depth theory or concepts. You learn by solving the problems and checking the solution. They are both great for sharpening your reading skills and being able to recognize certain patterns but I enjoyed Get Strong at Tesuji more because the problems weren't just limited to life and death even though they did account for a significant portion of the problems included.

I found the non life and death problems where you need to settle stones, connect your groups, build thickness, play for sente, or find end game moves more useful because lot of the times in games I play out of habit without carefully reading the outcome. Whereas when life and death situations are involved most players (once they recognize it is such a situation) will put more effort to read. And just like life and death problems the whole point of solving these problems is to recognize them in games and realize certain tesujis might be in play.

The problems are also rated in stars for difficulty but they're mixed throughout the book which makes it fun to read straight through the book. Rather than the life and death book where it gets increasingly difficult and counter productive to try problems that are too challenging.

[Iago · Rating 4 out of 5]

Libro de problemas muy variados en los que se indica su dificultad. Es un libro bastante completo, una buena continuación de "Tesuji" (Elementary Go Series). Muestra posiciones relativamente sencillas, con varios problemas en los que la solución es de la misma clase: squeeze, placement, clamp, wedge... Lo mejor es que no están agrupados por "familias" de problemas, sino que están mezclados, de modo que uno tiene que averiguar qué tesuji es el correcto para solucionar el problema.

[Ben Koops · Rating 4 out of 5]

Een fijne verzameling tsumego met een goede variatie moeilijkere en makkelijke problemen. Helpt enorm bij het visualiseren van zetten en het vooruitdenken. Soms zijn de oplossingen minder voor de hand liggend, als je er een tweede keer doorgaat kun je het tempo opvoeren om te zien hoe ver je bent gekomen.

[Tim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good tesuji challenges for mid-level English-speaking Go players.