Graded Go Problems for Beginners. Volume One. Introductory Problems. 30-Kyu to 25-Kyu

Graded Go Problems for Beginners

by Kano Yoshinori, Richard Bozulich (Translator)

This is the first volume of a four-volume collection of problems and is intended for players who are learning the rules of go. The nearly 1500 problems this series contains cover all phases of the game, from the opening to the endgame. It is assumed that the reader is studying a good and comprehensive beginner’s book on go, such as A Complete Introduction to the Game by Cho Chikun. For reference, however, a brief summary of the rules is included.

Genres: Go, Games, Nonfiction, Reference, Gaming

208 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1985

About the author

From Sensei's Library:

Kano Yoshinori (加納 嘉徳 Kanō Yoshinori, April 14, 1928-1999) was a Nihon Ki-in 9-dan professional Go player.

Kano was born April 14, 1928 in Kyoto, Japan. At the age of nine, he become a student of Suzuki Hideko 5-dan in Tokyo. In 1943 he attained the rank of professional 1 dan, and was promoted to 9 dan in 1968. He has won the 1948 Young Professional Cup?, the 1955 top section of the Oteai, and the 1961 Prime Minister's Cup. He played in the 14th, 20th, 25th, and 26th Honinbo leagues.

As an author, known as an endgame expert, and for the Graded Go Problems For Beginners series. He is the author of an endgame dictionary.

His pupils were O Rissei and Yun Ki-hyeon.

Reviews

[Coryke · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not terribly difficult for anyone who has played more than a handful of go games. Nevertheless, there are still a few problems where some thoughtfulness is required. This book is ideal for those just starting out with the game of go or for those who want a refresher or to sharpen their chops by starting back at the beginning.

[Jamie Newman · Rating 5 out of 5]

These are great problems for beginners (aka me). There were quite a few times that I didn't understand the answer and then played it out on my board and had an AHA moment! Gonna erase my answers and do them again!

[Jason · Rating 5 out of 5]

Solid material, but meant for a 9x9 board (which is what a 25 kyu player should be playing on anyways). There are only a few 19x19 problems at all, most is very small game strategy. I bought a paper copy, then bought another on the SmartGo app and found the app was waaaaaay more enjoyable to read it on because it was interactive.

[Glen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a first-book of problems, not a how-to-play-Go book. After this book, I moved on to In the Beginning because being able to live and kill in simple situations isn't enough to play on a 19x19 board.

A few problems in "Graded Go Problems for Beginners" were much harder than the others and needed further explanation. But all told, this was many times more helpful than the hours I spent on goproblems.com. There is a method to this book and an order to the problems that helped me understand things (instead of just solve problems on instinct) and improve my game. Most problems are quick enough to be fun as opposed to serious concentration work. Very nicely done little book.

MY NOTES AND OPINIONS:

Problem 36: The answer in the back is the only correct answer because the white stone above and to the right of (1) is in atari.

Problem 132: Why can't black play in the upper right corner of his shape? Because if white plays at (1), it's double-atari and therefore death.

Problem 143: (2) and (3) are miai. If white plays at (3), black makes a second eye at (2).

Problem 161: White can live by running out (e.g. on the second line) and making a single true eye in the corner. Black 1 most effectively prevents that, making it better than other moves. This problem is much harder than most of the others in this book.

Problem 193: I think it's OK for black to start one square to the right of (1) in the answer (doesn't matter which one).

Corrections/explanation welcome!

[Jason · Rating 5 out of 5]

A good collection of 250 VERY beginner problems in Go. It starts by explaining the rules and gives the most basic of basic situations, but it eventually gets to more complicated problems.

What I find so great about this book is that it not only gives the correct answer, but it also shows a wrong answer for every problem, and EXPLAINS WHY IT'S WRONG. I find this to be very helpful. Sometimes with other lists of problems, I'll think the wrong move is correct and won't be able to see why. Having an explanation of why incorrect solutions are incorrect makes this an invaluable resource for the budding Go player.

[Malcolm Bastien · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good book. It seems to get challenging during the middle, then easy again near the end. I felt like there were only a handful of problems that were challenging, I'd say there was a lot of repetition to drive home certain patterns and concepts (which is why the four stars).

Only a few times did I feel like the correct or incorrect solutions deserved more of an explanation than the book gave.

The book was also super heavily focused on capturing, seki, and atari. Only maybe six problems in the whole book involved area or influence. Nothing about bases or extensions. I'm not going to deduct for that because I assume they will be found in the next volume (which I haven't read yet).

[Evan · Rating 4 out of 5]

While not exactly a book one reads in the traditional sense, this workbook or collection of go problems (tsumego) covers several facets of the game from life-and-death situations to the opening, endgame, and capturing races. While doing problems online is nice, having the ability to click-through to the answer or try several attempts that might be correct doesn't exactly transfer to an in-game setting where a stone laid is a stone played. Staring at a static drawing and working out the positions mentally is a more appropriate method in which to solve tsumego. Definitely a must-'read' for anyone looking to improve at go.

[Mish · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really enjoyed the problems in this book.

I highly recommend it if you're a complete beginner to the game. I had been reading a lot of other GO books alongside this, and while the book started out challenging, by the time I was half way through, I had read so many other things, that the second half of the book was really easy.

If you're going to get this, you should get it via the "SmartGo One" app. The book will be less than half the price of the print version and the puzzles in the app are interactive!! The best selling point!

Just bought/downloaded book 2. Hopefully it's just as good!

[Andrej · Rating 3 out of 5]

Go problems for beginners. Many of them are repetitive, probably to build a new player's muscle memory. Good coverage of basic tactical moves, but almost no strategy. Most of the problems have a straightforward 1-move solution, which is more boring than to look ahead further. I very much prefer the approach used in Cho Chikun's "Complete Introduction" in this regard. Explanations are also laconic and not very useful: "1 is more profitable than 2."

[Chris Peckover · Rating 5 out of 5]

As someone who has never played go, I found this book as intuitive as I could’ve hoped. It starts out extremely easy, but soon gets fun, and then downright challenging. Only 2 out of 239 problems gave explanations that weren’t enough to understand the complexities of the questions. Considering that I’m a total noob — that’s pretty amazing.

[Brendan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Regardless of your strength it's worth working through this book. Nothing particular hard but a great way to work up to harder problems and to learn to read at a glance. Run through these quickly to use the problems as warm up reps for harder problems.

[Screw Driver · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good tsumego book. I’m 15 kyu on OGS. I liked solving the problems in this book more than: blacktoplay.com,“Go: the Infinite Path” app, “Beginners exercises” on Sensei’s library. Most problems were easy for me but not uselessly easy.

[Jon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quick blitzable set of basic go problems probably a bit too easy if you've played a bit. But an excellent first book to pick up after learning the rules.

[Max · Rating 4 out of 5]

decent drills for the basics of life and death / capturing / seki

[Neal McDonald · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book will give you enough info about Go to see how beautiful it is— you should!

[Deniz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book to level up fast after you've played a few dozen games.

[Sebastian · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very good place to start.

After someone learns the rules of the game and some of the general principles, an important component in those first go games is the ability to read sequences correctly. An effective way to develop this skill, besides playing, is by solving problems.

This book has 239 problems for beginners. Some of them are really easy, such as spotting the move that puts the opponent stones in atari, but others will challenge the beginner player and provide a decent mental workout. Considering that this is aimed for players that are between 30k and 25k I would have to say that the selection of problems is pretty good. The only criticism I have is that maybe the author included to many problems that are really simple, but I do understand the reason for doing so.

There are three other books in this series, all of them extremely effective in training much needed skills for playing go, so I recommend you seek them out as you progress.

[Invisible · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a very nice collection of Go problems for beginners. The book starts with trivial problems, but by the end of the book, you'll start to pause to think about the problem first. All solutions are nicely explained, and the book has a re-read value in it. Even when you reach 15-kyu or better strength, it's nice to flip through it and solve some easy problems.

Other books in the series nicely ramp up the difficulty in problems and are highly recommended. In fact, you'll probably want very soon to move on to Vol 2 of this series.

[Steve Paulson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is my 2nd start at go and this was much easier to go through than the 1st time I read it some 5 years ago.

Which is ok. This is a fine book of basic problems for beginners.

It could be even better with some introductory theoretical commentary for each of the subject areas. Yes, I know that there are plenty of intro books that provide that but, for a beginner, providing some additional context for the problems would be very helpful.

[Bryce Johnson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Even though I've played very little go, I really enjoy thinking about go puzzles, and this is a very nice collection. This really is a beginners book so many of the answers are obvious, but I still got a couple wrong from not thinking through them correctly. This is actually the second time I've read this; maybe on a third run-through I'll get them all instantly.

I don't know if I'll ever play much go, but I am looking forward to working through the next puzzles in the series.

[Aniket · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fantastic book for someone who has just learned the rules of the game. Its one failing is that by the time a player is out looking for books to improve their game, they are probably past the level of this book already. Probably best for a beginner without much opportunity for actual play, or who really wants to nail down the fundamentals.

[Thjodbjorn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hopefully, I learned enough to suck a little bit less.

[Steve]

GO

[Daniel Hagström · Rating 4 out of 5]

Same problems several times. And sometimes the explanation for the right move is a bit thin. But overall a good introductory book.

[Vũ Anh · Rating 4 out of 5]

finally completed this book