Life and Death (Elementary Go Series)

This book is perfect for advanced beginners who are ready to continue disciplining their game. The slow building of complexity, the ordering of patterns, and the perfectly framed problems make this book hugely useful. Less experienced players be warned, however; Davies often boldly pronounces many statements that would be self-evident to more advanced players, but which may be more cryptic for starting players. Consider the perfunctory "Since each half of the white group touches both of the internal liberties, White is alive" (page 17). Having studied the problem, laid it out on the board, and worked through variations, I am pleased to say I NOW understand precisely what Davies means (and I'm a far better player for it, given the ubiquity of this arrangement). But without a board and stones nearby and some patience, this statement would have required more textual explanation for someone at my level (maybe 13 kyu?). In other words, prepare to GET TO WORK to improve your game.

If you are a Go beginner, I recommend studying (as I did) the book of Go problems for 30-25 Kyu before this one. But after that and Richard Bozulich's book, this is certainly the next book to turn to. I'm currently studying this book, "Life and Death," and another book in this series by the same author, "Tesuji." "Life and Death" is a step easier than "Tesuji," although counter-intuitively they are volumes 4 and 3 in the series. Although the techniques used to kill or save groups come from "Tesuji," the positions in "Life and Death" are simpler, more basic and far, far more common. The problems are a bit easier. So I recommend studying this one first.

Excellent book. Short, to the point, and has already improved my ability to assess the life or death of a board position. I look forward to reading it many times as my skill and understanding progress, along with the other books of this great series. I'm also really happy with the size. It's a great little pocket book. Easy to carry around and contemplate over coffee, etc.

Great problem book on life and death. Problems are well organized so it serves as a good reference as well.

An outstanding book on a tough subject. Highly recommended

Doh!

A very good resource for experienced Go players who are ready to move to the next level.

Perhaps others will not have as much difficult as I've had with many the types of problems in this book, but most of the concepts have been very tough to get, so far. One of the things that makes the problems and concepts hard to grasp is that small differences in the types of positions can make the evaluation different. Whether or not stone are connected or loose, whether having one eye more or less will meaning the difference between living or dying or making ko or seki, and how the seemingly more improbable move is the one that is correct, have to been easy things for me to understand so far. But as someone who tries to take his study of the game as seriously as possible, such things are fundamental. And these small problems give a good window into the tactical intricacies of the game, and if having troubles with the problems is frustrating for right now, I can still imagine that the rewards for perseverance will be good over the board. So, if you're a fairly experienced player wanting to get better, or even just barely past the beginning stage, than there are few places to begin that next step than with this book. Get it, study it, get frustrated with it and yourself, but keep coming back to it.