Yang Yilun's Ingenious Life and Death

Rating:
Summary: Great puzzles worth the effort to resolve
Review: I've been playing go intermittently for 15 years and am a 3 kyu player. Study and near constant play are the only way to improve at this game. (Indeed, it is said that you need to play a thousand games to breakthrough to Shodan.) Every once in the while I am possessed by the urge to improve and get stronger - and so embark on a go book buying splurge. Personally, putting the effort into solving these puzzles will make you an overall more effective player. Solving life and death problems is important practise to develop board reading and fighting skills. Volume 1 of this book includes 110 puzzles divided into two sections (Elementary and Junior). Each puzzle is given a brief title and a cryptic clue to direct your thinking. The puzzles are printed on an even page and the solutions revealed on the following page. These puzzles are ingenious because they detail situations that you are likely to encounter when playing against a competitor. (Most puzzles are not as natural, usually depicting unusual situations that you simply never encounter.) Technically, I found most of the puzzles in this set to be very tough and time consuming in arriving at a solution. The elementary puzzles seem to be targetted for 5 to 8 kyu players, while the Junior section appears to be aimed at 3 kyu to Shodan ranked players (you will need to be able to read 5 to 10 moves to solve most of these puzzles). The solution page usually includes two or three possibilities - the correct approach and one or two failures, with a short paragraph of commentary on each possible play. I think solving these puzzles is a good investment of time and effort - and I recommend the puzzles for experienced go players only.

Rating:
Summary: Past Beginner's Level
Review: These are two volumes of teaching puzzles put together by Yang Yilun, a well-known Chinese 7 dan player. Yang has shown a dedicated interest in the game, both as a player as well as a coach and teacher. After a very strong career in the Shanghai area Yang is now teaching in the United States, with many fortunate students.

The puzzles in the books are arranged into 4 categories - Elementary and Junior in the first volume, and Senior and Advanced in the second. Do not be mislead by the title 'Elementary.' These are all a cut above the typical tesuji style problem, which often asks only for the best move or trick to use next. These puzzles all expect the reader to have an instinct for tesuji already developed, and expect some ability to 'read' the problem and think ahead. Most require that one can lay out a series of moves to exploit a weakness. Each ensuing section demands stronger skills. Volume 1, which is sold here, is aimed at amateurs from 10kyu to 5kyu or better. But even a shodan will find the Advanced puzzles a challenge.

This is as it should be. I have been embarrassed by some of the simple problems and lucky with a few of the more difficult, but, overall, these books give a player a very good way to both assess where he or she is as a player and work on the very skills that will carry them to the next level. The important thing is that one shouldn't treat these as if these as if they were mere brainteasers. Don't worry if you 'get it' on the first try or not. Work the puzzle through either mentally or by play, and aim at grasping the principles involved. Expect to come back time and time again until you feel comfortable that you can recognize a parallel situation and evaluation the options involved.

I like the simple, easy to read format of the books quite a bit. With my eyesight it is a delight to find a book on Go that I do not have to squint at. Many players will find this book and it's sequel just the thing to help them make sure that they play 1000 different games on the way to shodan, instead of the same one, over and over. This should be on any player's must have list.

Rating:
Summary: Past Beginner's Level
Review: These are two volumes of teaching puzzles put together by Yang Yilun, a well-known Chinese 7 dan player. Yang has shown a dedicated interest in the game, both as a player as well as a coach and teacher. After a very strong career in the Shanghai area Yang is now teaching in the United States, with many fortunate students.

The puzzles in the books are arranged into 4 categories - Elementary and Junior in the first volume, and Senior and Advanced in the second. Do not be mislead by the title 'Elementary.' These are all a cut above the typical tesuji style problem, which often asks only for the best move or trick to use next. These puzzles all expect the reader to have an instinct for tesuji already developed, and expect some ability to 'read' the problem and think ahead. Most require that one can lay out a series of moves to exploit a weakness. Each ensuing section demands stronger skills. Volume 1, which is sold here, is aimed at amateurs from 10kyu to 5kyu or better. But even a shodan will find the Advanced puzzles a challenge.

This is as it should be. I have been embarrassed by some of the simple problems and lucky with a few of the more difficult, but, overall, these books give a player a very good way to both assess where he or she is as a player and work on the very skills that will carry them to the next level. The important thing is that one shouldn't treat these as if these as if they were mere brainteasers. Don't worry if you 'get it' on the first try or not. Work the puzzle through either mentally or by play, and aim at grasping the principles involved. Expect to come back time and time again until you feel comfortable that you can recognize a parallel situation and evaluation the options involved.

I like the simple, easy to read format of the books quite a bit. With my eyesight it is a delight to find a book on Go that I do not have to squint at. Many players will find this book and it's sequel just the thing to help them make sure that they play 1000 different games on the way to shodan, instead of the same one, over and over. This should be on any player's must have list.

Rating:
Summary: Several Steps Past Tesuji
Review: This is the first of two volumes of teaching puzzles put together by Yang Yilun, a well-known Chinese 7 dan player. Yang has shown a dedicated interest in the game, both as a player as well as a coach and teacher. After a very strong career in the Shanghai area Yang is now teaching in the United States, with many fortunate students.

The puzzles in the books are arranged into 4 categories - Elementary and Junior in the first volume, and Senior and Advanced in the second. Do not be mislead by the title 'Elementary.' These are all a cut above the typical tesuji style problem, which often asks only for the best move or trick to use next. These puzzles all expect the reader to have an instinct for tesuji already developed, and expect some ability to 'read' the problem and think ahead. Most require that one can lay out a series of moves to exploit a weakness. Each ensuing section demands stronger skills. Volume 1, which is sold here, is aimed at amateurs from 10kyu to 5kyu or better. But even a shodan will find the Advanced puzzles a challenge.

This is as it should be. I have been embarrassed by some of the simple problems and lucky with a few of the more difficult, but, overall, these books give a player a very good way to both assess where he or she is as a player and work on the very skills that will carry them to the next level. The important thing is that one shouldn't treat these as if these as if they were mere brainteasers. Don't worry if you 'get it' on the first try or not. Work the puzzle through either mentally or by play, and aim at grasping the principles involved. Expect to come back time and time again until you feel comfortable that you can recognize a parallel situation and evaluation the options involved.

I like the simple, easy to read format of the books quite a bit. With my eyesight it is a delight to find a book on Go that I do not have to squint about. Many players will find this book and it's sequel just the thing to help them make sure that they play 1000 different games on the way to shodan, instead of the same one, over and over. This should be on any players must have list.

Rating:
Summary: Several Steps Past Tesuji
Review: This is the first of two volumes of teaching puzzles put together by Yang Yilun, a well-known Chinese 7 dan player. Yang has shown a dedicated interest in the game, both as a player as well as a coach and teacher. After a very strong career in the Shanghai area Yang is now teaching in the United States, with many fortunate students.

The puzzles in the books are arranged into 4 categories - Elementary and Junior in the first volume, and Senior and Advanced in the second. Do not be mislead by the title 'Elementary.' These are all a cut above the typical tesuji style problem, which often asks only for the best move or trick to use next. These puzzles all expect the reader to have an instinct for tesuji already developed, and expect some ability to 'read' the problem and think ahead. Most require that one can lay out a series of moves to exploit a weakness. Each ensuing section demands stronger skills. Volume 1, which is sold here, is aimed at amateurs from 10kyu to 5kyu or better. But even a shodan will find the Advanced puzzles a challenge.

This is as it should be. I have been embarrassed by some of the simple problems and lucky with a few of the more difficult, but, overall, these books give a player a very good way to both assess where he or she is as a player and work on the very skills that will carry them to the next level. The important thing is that one shouldn't treat these as if these as if they were mere brainteasers. Don't worry if you 'get it' on the first try or not. Work the puzzle through either mentally or by play, and aim at grasping the principles involved. Expect to come back time and time again until you feel comfortable that you can recognize a parallel situation and evaluation the options involved.

I like the simple, easy to read format of the books quite a bit. With my eyesight it is a delight to find a book on Go that I do not have to squint about. Many players will find this book and it's sequel just the thing to help them make sure that they play 1000 different games on the way to shodan, instead of the same one, over and over. This should be on any players must have list.

Rating:
Summary: For experienced players only
Review: Volume 2 begins with puzzle number 111 and ends at 200. As a continuation of volume 1 (see my review of volume 1), volume 2 is subdivided into two additional sections, Senior and Advanced. The clues are much more detailed for section 3 and 4 then in the previous volume, and the puzzles are significantly more difficult. The first 46 puzzles, making up the senior section, are for this 3-kyu ranked player, exceedingly difficult, requiring you to be able to read 10 to 15 moves. And for solutions, instead of getting the answer and two or three possibilities, the reader is now provided with 5 or 6 variations with detailed explanatory notes as to why the variation fails, or is weak as compared to the recommended solution. Regarding the ADVANCED section, these puzzles are, for my skill level, brutally tough. Some detail as many as 10 variations - and none of the solutions are obvious (at least to me). I don't know what your ranking must be to readily solve the last set of puzzles, but I suspect that it must be low dan level, at a minimum. The ingenious aspect of the all the puzzles, as I noted in my review of volume 1, is that they are board situations that you are likely to encounter in an actual game. Highly recommended for experienced players only.