100 Challenging Go Problems for 100 Days of Study
By Nihon Ki-in
Cover show/hide
Details show/hide
| Title | 100 Challenging Go Problems for 100 Days of Study |
|---|---|
| Author | Nihon Ki-in |
| Translator | R. J. Terry |
| Publisher | Yutopian Enterprises |
| Codes | y05, PAY05 |
| Date | 1995 |
| ISBN | 0-9641847-4-5 |
| Pages | 210 |
| Dimensions | 8 1/4. x 6 5/8. - 207mm x 168mm |
| Publisher's URL | https://www.yutopian.com/yutop/cat?product=PAY05 |
Blurb show/hide
This book contains a special selection of problems taken from Kido Magazine'sChallenge Corner,which offers ranking diplomas to readers who mail in the correct answers to a number of problems. (usually eight problems are published every month.) The problems test the reader on every facet of the game. The book is divided into eight sections: The Opening, The Middlegame, Intuition, Sabaki (Fancy Footwork), Reading, Race to Capture (Semeai), Life and Death, and The Endgame. If one studies the problems assiduously, one cannot fail to add depth to one's understanding and build up one's fighting strength as well.
Some of the problems would actually tax the skill of professional players! (Most of the problems have been adapted from real professional games.) But to the extent that one solves the problems correctly, one can be assured of one's real playing strength. As an indication of the difficulty of each problem, the success rate of the original respondents to the magazine for that particular problems is given. Those impossibly difficult problems that received a reader success rate of less than 1% have been omitted. (The highest success rate for any problem was 77%.) In addition, each problem is given an introduction, to help the reader to focus on the theme of that problem.
The reader will be pleasantly surprised at the depth and clarity of the solution and explanatory diagrams. Reading this book is the next best thing to getting professional training at the Nihon Ki-in!
""Contents show/hide
| The Opening • 13 Problems | ...7 |
| The Middlegame • 18 Problems | ...33 |
| Perception • 7 Problems | ...69 |
| Sabaki [Fancy Footwork] • 16 Problems | ...83 |
| Reading • 16 Problems | ...115 |
| Races to Capture [Semeai] • 7 Problems | ...147 |
| Life and Death • 17 Problems | ...161 |
| The Endgame • 13 Problems | ...195 |
| Glossary and Index | ...207 |
Reviews show/hide
Review by Phil Waldron (AGA) show/hide 30/09/2005
| Review Author | Phil Waldron (AGA) | Reviewer Strength | 6d |
Common wisdom holds that one of the best ways to get stronger at go is to study problems. Opinion differs on whether to study easier or more difficult problems, but those players looking for a mental workout may want to acquire a copy of "100 Challenging Go Problems for 100 Days of Study." Problems are divided into eight chapters, each devoted to a different topic such as sabaki, reading, the endgame and perception.
The most important word in the title of this book is "Challenging"; these problems are tough. Each one appeared in the Japanese go magazine Kido, and the original readers were invited to mail in their solutions for grading. The English translation gives the fraction of the original respondents who provided a correct solution. In most cases, only about one player in five successfully solved the positions, although success rates as low as 2% can be found. One problem was taken from a professional title game, and it is some comfort that the pro also got it wrong during play!
While individually each problem is very good, I found that with only a dozen problems per chapter there is little chance to build up momentum on any gi ven topic. No sooner do we begin the sabaki puzzles, for example, than the reading challenges appear. The problems in this book are also unusual enough that studying them really is for its own sake. Unlike studying basic life-and-death, for example, readers will not find the positions appearing later in their own games.
Ultimately "100 Challenging Go Problems for 100 Days of Study" is exactly as advertised. There are one hundred problems, and they are challenging. While this doesn't stand out as a much-have title, it is worth going through, and I would recommend it as a general interest book for strong-kyu and dan players.
Review by David Carlton show/hide
| Review Author | David Carlton | Reviewer Strength | 1 kyu |
| Author's Email | carlton@bactrian.org | website | http://www.bactrian.org/~carlton/ |
This book contains 100 problems from Kido magazine's "Challenge Corner". I've looked at the problems at the beginning of the book, and they're quite hard; I'm an AGA 2 kyu, and I was pretty flummoxed by them. Basically, if you have a hard enough time figuring out where the big area to play is and what a standard move to play there is then this book isn't for you, because the problems are subtler than that. But if you're dan-level, give it a shot; I suspect that it's pretty good, but I'd appreciate it if strong players could give me feedback on how they feel about it.