Content Last updated January 7, 2015

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Content Last updated January 7, 2015

Preface

Hi everyone! Being largely self-taught throughout my entire Go journey so far, I have gained most of my knowledge through reading books. Below is my personal book list of books I've owned or read throughout my ~7 years of playing Go. I don't remember a ton of specific info about each book (and it would be way too time-consuming to take each one back out and browse through them), but I do remember some interesting stories about them. At the end of each book I have a rating and a rank range unless stated otherwise that I think is suitable. I have the books roughly arranged by language and level order/series. I hope you find this informative and the side stories interesting!

I got my books from a variety of sources, including Tiger's Mouth monthly tournaments, local tournaments, online, bookstores in China, and the vendors (Kiseido/Yutopian, Slate and Shell, Baduktopia) at annual US Go Congresses. If I were to estimate how much I/my parents spent on Go books, it'd be around $750. I also had gotten a number of books as prizes from tournaments. $750 might sound like a lot, but over 7 years it’s only a little over $100 per year, which isn’t too much for a child’s Go education if you compare it to music lessons or a sport, which most children participate in.

A quick note before we begin: This is not intended to be ~100 book reviews, but rather a compilation of my experiences and memories with each book as I remember them. I know that you may not have a lot of disposable money to be spending on Go books, so hopefully this list can help you narrow down your choices or highlight books that I thought were really helpful towards becoming a stronger player. Of course, I don’t own every Go book ever published, so if you have any questions about any books not on this list, let me know and I’ll try to help you out. :)

Lastly, please read the epilogue at the very end for my compilation of most valuable books to become stronger!

Table of Contents

Introductory Books

Lessons in the Fundamentals of Go

Elementary Go Series

Mastering the Basics Series

Get Strong at Go Series

The Heart of Go Discovery Series

Shuko: The Only Move Series

Dan-Level Tsumego Books

Commented Pro Games

Reference Books and Dictionaries

Miscellaneous Books

Other Books I Have Read but Don't Own

Go World and Other English Publications

Chinese Books and Publications

Epilogue and Book Recommendations by Level

Introductory Books

Teach Yourself Go—Charles Matthews

My first Go book! I remember coming back from swim practice one day and my mom telling me she bought it from Barnes and Noble. This book is actually a pretty good and comprehensive introductory book. It goes over a lot of the basic principles a beginner should know from all parts of the game. Solid book. 9/10; 30k-15k

Learn to Play Go Series—Janice Kim and a couple others

------------------------------

Volume 3: The Dragon Style

This book basically goes over some shapes and then gives examples of pro games. Imo it wasn't really that beneficial outside of just getting some exposure to certain shapes and names though. The examples were ok, but I don't think beginners would digest much that would be directly relevant to their own games. 4/10; 20k-10k; wouldn't particularly recommend

Volume 4: Battle Strategies

In contrast to volume 3, this book was a lot better! It goes over basic tactical maneuvers that appear frequently in games. I think this was the second Go book I owned, and probably brought me from 17k to 13k or so. Like I say almost everywhere else, technique is everything in lower-level Go (and still the primary factor of games through 5d), and this book does a decent job at introducing basic tactics. 7.5/10; 20k-10k

Volume 5: The Palace of Memories

I actually bought this book together with volume 4 at Barnes and Noble. This book talks more about opening principles, and while it's certainly not a bad book, I can't say it was as concise and educational as Opening Theory Made Easy by Otake Hideo (which I don't own but have read part of). Basically the book explains some principles, gives some examples of pro games, and has some problems towards the end of the book. That said, I think this book did help me a lot in getting from 13k-10k. 7/10; 15k-10k

Dan-Level Tsumego Books

Liping Huang's Problem Series Volume 1—Liping Huang and Nancy Xu

I'll admit I never actually went through this entire book, although I don't remember why. Looking at it again briefly, the problems (there are 114 of them split into three levels) are pretty classic ones that you would probably find in a lot of other life and death books with pretty practical tesujis. 7.5/10; 1d-5d

Train Like a Pro 1/Train Like a Pro 2—Kim Sung-rae

This series consists of two books; the second simply being different sets of problems from the first, hence I lumped them together. The concept of the book is actually pretty cool: it’s split into “days”, each consisting of 4 of each tesuji, opening, life and death, joseki, 2 “guess the next move of a pro game” problems, and a 13x13 whole-board endgame problem where you are supposed to find the best moves and calculate the final scores. Each book contains 30 days of materials, which means a total of 1140 problems. The quality of the problems are pretty good and suitable for dan-level players and get progressively harder (I think). The solutions come in a separate book, which is kind of cool and kind of not cool, as it discourages anxious flipping before actually expending considerate effort to solve a tough problem. On the other hand, it is a little inconvenient, but I guess that’s ok. However, there are only answers in the solution book with only one diagram each, which means that if your answer is wrong, you have to figure out why, as there are no explanations to help you. I remember trying to follow the day schedule the book gives you to try and finish both books before a tournament, but I ended up stopping at some point in the second book. I’ll probably go through these books again one day. 8/10; 3d+

Graded Go Problems for Dan Players Volume 2: 300 Tesuji Problems (3k-3d)—Nihon Kiin/Kiseido

I did this book when I was 3d so it's hard to say I got a lot of value out of it because it was rather easy for me at the time and I could finish the whole book over the course of a day. That said, it compliments Get Strong at Tesuji and is still a good book just to sharpen your tactical intuition and ingrain some of the more basic tesujis into your head. I think weaker players would get good value out of this problem set. 8.5/10; 3k-2d

***Graded Go Problems for Dan Players Volume 4: 300 Life and Death Problems (4d-7d) —Nihon Kiin/Kiseido***

Hoo boy. This book is incredibly infuriating because the problems get way harder in the second half of the book. The first 100 or so problems aren't so bad for a 5d, but then they just taking longer and longer to solve. I have yet to finish this book (I've picked it up and dropped it multiple times), but I think thoroughly going through all of the problems in it multiple times will be really useful for improving one's reading ability. 10/10; 5d+

***Graded Go Problems for Dan Players Volume 5: 300 Tesuji Problems (4d-7d) —Nihon Kiin/Kiseido

***

Like volume 4, this book is just as excellent. The problems are a little bit easier to go through, but honestly to be able to internalize the answers is really hard. I went through this book the first time back in 2013 whenever I was waiting for the bus after school/while I was on the bus going back home. Just recently I picked it up again, and I still can't find most of the answers instinctively. When you can do that, I think your tactical sense in games will be razor sharp. 10/10; 5d+

Graded Go Problems for Dan Players Volume 7: 256 Opening and Middle Game Problems (1d-7d) —Nihon Kiin/Kiseido

I actually got this volume before volumes 4 and 5 (it came out before them) back in 2013. It's a pretty good book, but like other opening problem books, sometimes the answers can be a little subjective and I'm sure there are other possibilities for solutions. I actually remember looking at some of the problems with Hugh Zhang 7d, and he was raising his eyebrows at some of the answers. It's still definitely not a bad problem set though and worth a reread or two. 8/10; 4d+

Igo Hatsuyoron volume 1—Inoue Dosetsu Inseki

Ha.Ha.Ha. Yea...this book is too hard. Not even going to bother with it for a long long time unless there's a special reason to. I guess it's fun to have though. 8/10 as a collectible; 1.5/10 as practical study material; 10/10 as tryhard material if you're at least 7d; 7d+

Commented Pro Games

Commented Games by Lee Sedol I—Lee Sedol and Lee Sena

If there’s one book on commented pro games you should get, it should be this one. The commentary is extremely thorough and insightful. However, what I like most about this book are the quotes under each figure about Lee Sedol’s thoughts pertaining to that point in time in the game. The side stories interspersed throughout the games about Lee Sedol’s childhood are also quite interesting to read about. In fact, they were so interesting to read about that I think I had skipped through the book to read them all together before going back to the game commentary. I got this book before it was even officially released in English at the 2012 AGA Pro qualifier finals and finished it the month after, reading it on the airplane ride back to Maryland after the Go Congress, on the airplane to Lille for the 2012 World Mind Sports Games a few days after, and I think I finished it on the way back. There are three commented games in this volume. If there’s any other incentive to get this book, it’s that the third game is in fact the game used in Hikaru no Go (SMALL SPOILER??) when Hikaru plays against Ko Yongha towards the end of the manga. Read the manga yourself if you want to know who was who. ;) 9/10; 4d+

Commented Games by Lee Sedol II—Lee Sedol and Lee Sena

I believe this book came out a year later, and I was able to pick it up at the 2013 Go Congress. I haven’t yet finished the book (it’s probably next on my list and is sitting on my desk shelf in my dorm at the moment), but it’s of similar stellar quality as the first volume. Maybe I’ll write a little more about it after I finish it. 9/10; 4d+

Winning a Won Game—Go Seigen

So I have this big problem with wrapping up games where I’m ahead after opening/early middle game, and then proceed to throw the game one way or another by doing something stupid. The title of this book seemed quite appropriate, no? Of course, there is a difference between thrashing to kill a big group to make your opponent resign, and playing solidly to sustain a lead that is insurmountable. Most amateurs don’t resign when they’re behind by a few points even if there’s no realistic way to catch up. Winning a won game takes a lot of positional judgment and counting skills to accurately judge what kind of strategy is best to take in the latter part of the game. I remember reading this book around May/June of 2013 while sitting in my high school chemistry teacher’s room when I was visiting friends after being done with classes. The book is fairly interesting to read, as it uses language in the form of a dialogue between Go Seigen and Mr. X (an amateur player I presume). The two go over 10 of Go Seigen’s games. I don’t think you’ll really make a big jump in your ability to “win a won game” after reading this book, but it’s still not bad of a book just as commentaries on some of Go Seigen’s games. 6/10; 3d+

The Go Consultants—John Fairbairn and T Mark Hall

I think I finished this book? I honestly can’t remember. Anyways, this book is a solid 150-page commentary about a single(!) rengo game between Suzuki Tamejiro and Segoe Kensaku against Kitani Minoru and Go Seigen. I don’t remember too much other than the book other than that I had read it in the family room of my house at some point. There’s a lot of narration and quotes from the four players about their consultation, which makes it fairly entertaining to read. The commentary is very thorough and pretty much move-by-move. That said, the only thing I remember taking away from this book was a cool move in the upper left corner (look up the game or buy the book if you want to know what I’m talking about!). It’s still a pretty entertaining read though. 7/10; 1d+

Invincible: The Games of Shusaku—John Power

Many thanks to my friend Ben at BenGoZen who generously traded me this HARDCOVER book in exchange for two graded go problems for dan players volumes that I bought separately. There is a TON of historical background about almost all of the top players during the Edo period, the politics at the time, and so much more. It's truly THE book to get for people interested in Shusaku's era. There's also a ton of commented games, including Shusaku's famous 19 castle games and many more. That said, I never went past the opening historical background chapters for a long time after getting this book until Fall of 2014, where I finally cracked down and read/replayed through all of the Castle Games. I'm not sure what to say about the educational study value of this book, as while Shusaku was a top player of his time, a lot of the openings during that time are almost completely irrelevant now. Even though the middle game is more relevant, I just feel like the strength of top modern pros exceeds the quality of games played back then. I'm not sure if I'll go back to this book for studying games except for fun, as in my opinion studying modern games is more beneficial. 10/10 as a collectible; 7.5/10 as study material; 5d+; recommended to all interested in Shusaku and/or the Edo period of Go.

Miscellaneous Books

Improve Your Intuition Volume 1: Intuition in the Opening—Takagawa Kaku

This series consists of 3 small volumes (each is under 50 pages) that were originally published in Go Review, a Nihon Kiin publication. This volume goes over a number of basic opening principles and makes a good refresher for low dan players and pretty good material for mid-kyu players. I actually quite like the format of this book; basically it explains principles and then gives practical examples. That said, it's not the most thorough book, but it does fairly well with what it presents. 7/10; 7k-2k

Improve Your Intuition Volume 3: Part 2: How to Reduce a Moyo—Takagawa Kaku

Like the first volume, this one also follows the same format in presenting some principles and then giving practical examples, which is really nice. I still don't remember this book having a huge impact on my improvement, but looking at it again, it looks pretty decent. The topics in my opinion are more beneficial for slightly stronger players compared to the first volume. 7/10; 5k-2d

The Best Play: In-Depth Game Analyses—Feng Yun

I'm pretty sure I read this book while I was on the toilet. This book is basically just commentary on two amateur low-mid dan games by Feng Yun. I guess the commentary is not bad, but I don't think you'll get a ton in particular out of this book. 6/10; 5k-1k

Come Up to Shodan—Rin Kaiho

This book is another compilation from Go Review and goes over three amateur games (two between kyus and one between 1ds) and thoroughly explains the mistakes made. I guess it's okay, but there are way more useful books one can get to improve. 5/10; 5k-1k

Go Problems for Kyu Players Volume 4: Whole Board Problems—William Cobb

This is a small pocket-sized book containing about 21 problems. The problems are not bad, although I don't think you would be able to take a lot of this book. 5.5/10; 5k-1d

Golden Opportunities—Rin Kaiho

This was another book that I remember reading a lot on the toilet. I honestly can't remember anything that I took away from the book, but there are a lot of interesting historical stories accompanied by some nifty tesuji examples. Questionable Go educational value, but interesting book I guess. 5.5/10 (add two points if you want to read it for the stories); 3k+

New Moves—Alexander Dinerchtein and An Younggil

I actually don’t “own” this book per se; it was lent to me by my friend Edward Zhang, and I have yet to return it. xD This book is basically about trick moves or unusual joseki variations, which Dinerchtein and An then discuss. I really don’t recommend studying this book because many of the moves suggested in this book are in fact bad style and will get you screwed over if your opponent knows the refutation. In addition, the moves depend a lot on the whole board (they present each with one board example), and if you don’t know what you’re doing and blindly play the unusual move in a real game, if the surroundings are slightly different you could be left in a bad position either way. The only redeeming feature of this book in my eyes is that you can read about how Dinerchtein and An judge positions. 3/10; 3k-3d; would not recommend

Understanding How to Play Go—Yuan Zhou

Who doesn’t want to understand how to play Go? In this book, Yuan Zhou 7d reviews some of his games against other high-dan players. The commentary is clear and thorough, which is a plus. However, there isn’t a lot of lasting value towards improving your own strength, as it’s hard to apply the commentary to your own games. In addition, I feel like the material isn’t a high enough level to provide for sufficient study for mid-high dan level players. That said, I do think it’s a decent book for kyu players looking to try and understand dan-level games, although it’s not as important as improving reading ability through life and death and tesuji problems. The difference between this and a mid-high dan reading commentary on pro games is that at a higher level, whole-board judgment and flow becomes a lot more important, which can be obtained by reviewing pro games. At the kyu level, simply improving your reading ability is sufficient towards becoming a dan player. 6.5/10; 3k-1d

How to Play Handicap Go—Yuan Zhou

I remember originally wanting to get this book because I was playing in the monthly Tiger’s Mouth tournaments, which gave out book certificates as prizes. Because it was always a handicapped tournament, I wanted to get better at handicap games so I could win more. Of course, in my opinion, studying handicap games is not really a good way to improve your strength at even games, because the moves played in handicap games are often either overplays or slack. Nevertheless, if you want one book about handicap games, this one is not bad. 7/10 if you’re interested in handicap games; 3.5/10 otherwise; 3k-2d

Lee Changho's Novel Plays and Shapes—Lee Changho

After flipping through the book again, I just noticed that a chunk of the book is out of order *shrugs*. Anyways, I think I got this book because I wanted to learn more about cool moves or something. However, this book is kind of more of a joseki book about “new” (in the context of the year 2000) moves and analyzes them. The analysis is pretty thorough, but as I think I said somewhere before, books are in my opinion not the ideal way to study joseki. 5/10; 4d-6d

A Dictionary of Modern Fuseki: The Korean Style—Seolim Publishing Company

If you scroll down further, you’ll see that I have a sub-section for reference books and dictionaries. However, this book is so old (published in 2000) that it doesn’t really deserve to go in that section anymore. I actually have a kind of funny story about this book. In the Fall of 2008, I participated in a UMBC tournament (I was 3k at the time), my second real-life tournament ever. I won all three of my games, which won me one book from a selection at a table. I really wanted this book out of all of the ones there, so I was really excited at the conclusion of the tournament. The prizes were announced from the bottom division up, and in the division right before mine (I think), the winner took this book, leaving me feeling rather disappointed (I was 13 at the time). I think I ended up getting Understanding How to Play Go instead, but in the back of my mind I still wanted to get this book. Fast forward about five years later, where I finally got my hands on the book. I believe I opened it once or twice and then dropped it. It’s so old that komi had been changed to 6.5 from 5.5 (under Japanese rules) after the book was published. Openings and josekis have changed so much over the past decade and a half that many of the variations have become almost obsolete. If you want to study openings (at the dan level, so not just basic principles), look at modern pro games instead. 2/10; 1k-1d

A Way of Play in the 21st Century—Go Seigen

What do I remember most about this book? Falling asleep and never finishing it. Anyways, I think I got this book because it was by Go Seigen and I was interested in studying his games and stumbled upon this book when picking out a prize after a TM tournament. Anyways, it’s basically another opening book, although pretty outdated in terms of modern styles (this book was published in 1997). The language in the explanations are also sort of dry, but Go Seigen’s small excerpts about his thoughts on Go as a game at the beginning of each chapter are pretty interesting to read. I can’t say that reading this book will improve your Go a great deal, but it is okay for seeing Go Seigen’s insights and judgments about certain positions. 5.5/10; 1k-4d

Jungsuk in Our Time—Seo Beong-soo and Jung Dong-sik

Ahh…yea I got this book too when I was around 5d and wanted to improve my joseki knowledge. Unfortunately, this book, like several of the others on my list, as published over a decade ago (2000) and has since been rendered somewhat obsolete in the face of modern Go. That’s not saying that these old books are necessarily bad, but rather that they don’t consider modern variations that have become more popular lately. In addition, with WeiqiTV being accessible online and daily updates of pro game records, joseki books have become less helpful as a print form. I just found that I still have a bookmark smack in the middle of this book, so maybe I’ll finish it someday just for the sake of finishing it. 4/10; 5d+

21st Century New Openings Volume 1—Kim Sung-rae

This book was published in…oh wait! You can’t even find the publishing date in the book for some reason. After doing some research online, I think the publishing date is 2008 and that the English version was not translated later than the Korean version, but that they were published at the same time. You might still be able to guess what I am going to say about this book based on the previous couple books. Looking at the second volume on Sensei’s Library, the first sentence says, “Originally Kim Sung-rae planned to write one Fuseki book every 3 years, but due to a great deal of new developments since the first book he decided to publish the 2nd one earlier than planned.” So yes, the book is already outdated, even though it was only published 6-7 years ago (which when you think about is still a long time). I would say that it’s still ok for the average amateur to study however, considering how it was at least published after komi was changed. That said, I still think it’s not the most efficient way to study opening, and that watching/reading commentaries of modern pro games is much better. 6/10; 4d-5d

**Positional Judgment—Cho Chikun**

I haven't really fully grasped the concepts of this book yet, but I think it's a really good book about a very important topic, as positional judgment becomes increasingly important at the mid-dan level. I think I've gone through it once before, but I don't remember much about it and am currently slowly making my way through it again. I think it's definitely valuable for any mid-dan level player. 9/10; 5d+

Go as Communication: The Educational and Therapeutic Value of the Game of Go—Yasutoshi Yasuda

Okay this book isn't actually about improving your strength, but rather talks about the educational (non Go-related) value that Go as a game has on both young and elderly people, and methods of how to promote Go. It's a pretty interesting read for those Go promoters out there.

Epilogue

Before I give my more concise list of books that I would advise people read, I would like to just say that just because I didn’t find a book that educational or rated it low, that does not mean I didn’t gain anything from reading the book (for those that I still finished). After reading so many books, I probably still gained some knowledge from even the worse ones. In addition, some of the low ratings are because I believe there are more efficient methods to improvement for certain levels, but not necessarily because the book itself was bad (although it could have been). The books listed below are the ones that I think are MOST important and conducive for improvement. There are others that I rated somewhat highly but are not included in the list below because I felt that they either weren’t entirely necessary or as essential as the ones listed. The following list also does represent a loose order that you should read the books in.

30k-10k:

● My written guide for 30k-10k

● Opening Theory Made Easy (I didn’t list this book above because I never fully read it nor did I ever own it, but it’s good) by Otake Hideo

● Lessons in the Fundamentals of Go by Toshiro Kageyama

● Do beginner-level Go problems wherever, doesn’t have to be from a book

● Play a lot of games

9k-1k:

● Attack and Defense by Ishida Akira and James Davies

● 1001 Life and Death Problems by Richard Bozulich

● Reducing Territorial Frameworks by Fujisawa Shuko

● Get Strong at Tesuji by Richard Bozulich

● Graded Go Problems for Dan Players Volume 1: 300 Life and Death Problems (3k-3d)—Nihon Kiin/Kiseido (I’ve never picked this one up, but it’s probably just as good as volume 2)

● Graded Go Problems for Dan Players Volume 2: 300 Tesuji Problems (3k-3d)—Nihon Kiin/Kiseido

● Get Strong at the Endgame

● Reread Attack and Defense again as you get towards 1k

● Reread Lessons in the Fundamentals of Go

1d-4d

● The Direction of Play by Kajiwara Takeo

● Go World magazines (or just start reading commented pro games)

● Reread Attack and Defense one more time (maybe around 2d)

● Redo Get Strong at Tesuji again at 3d

● Reread Reducing Territorial Frameworks

● Graded Go Problems for Dan Players Volume 7: 256 Opening and Middle Game Problems (1d-7d) by the Nihon Kiin/Kiseido

● Lee Changho’s Selected Life and Death Problems volumes 1-6 by Lee Changho

● Lee Changho’s Selected Tesuji Problems volumes 1-6 by Lee Changho

● Xuanxuan Qijing (never done it but it’s a classic set)

● Gokyo Shumyo

● Reread Lessons in the Fundamentals of Go

● Positional Judgment by Cho Chikun

● Redo Graded Go Problems for Dan Players volumes 1 and 2 if you can’t figure out the answers within 30 seconds each

5d-6d

● Graded Go Problems for Dan Players Volume 4: 300 Life and Death Problems (4d-7d) by the Nihon Kiin/Kiseido

● Graded Go Problems for Dan Players Volume 5: 300 Tesuji Problems (4d-7d) by the Nihon Kiin/Kiseido

● Commented Games by Lee Sedol I, II, and III (when it comes out) by Lee Sedol and Lee Sena

● Reread Lessons in the Fundamentals of Go

● Reread The Direction of Play

● Reread Positional Judgment

● Do other classic tsumego sets other than Igo Hatsuyoron (a list can be found here: http://senseis.xmp.net/?ClassicalGoProblemBooks)

● Redo Lee Changho’s Selected Life and Death/Tesuji Problems volumes 5-6 if you can’t figure out the answers within 30 seconds each

● Redo Graded Go Problems for Dan Players volumes 4 and 5 if you can’t figure out the answers within 30 seconds each

● Learn to understand Chinese or Korean if you can’t already so you can watch WeiqiTV or BadukTV commentaries

7d+

● Learn to understand Chinese or Korean if you can’t already so you can watch WeiqiTV or BadukTV commentaries

● Redo previous life and death/tesuji sets if you don’t find them easy by now

● Don’t slack on playing serious games and make sure you review them thoroughly afterwards (you should really do this at all levels once you hit SDK)

● Embark on a treacherous journey that is Igo Hatsuyoron.

● ??? Idk lol, can’t really speak from experience here, but that’s what I would suggest.

Justin Teng is a 6d AGA/6d KGS/7d Tygem Go player who also streams occasionally on Twitch.tv. Find him on Twitch, Facebook, or Youtube! For a more thorough Go biography, you can click here. For his recommended tsumego sets for all levels, click here.

Content Last updated January 7, 2015

Preface

Lastly, please read the epilogue at the very end for my compilation of most valuable books to become stronger!

Table of Contents

Introductory Books

Lessons in the Fundamentals of Go

Elementary Go Series

Mastering the Basics Series

Get Strong at Go Series

The Heart of Go Discovery Series

Shuko: The Only Move Series

Dan-Level Tsumego Books

Commented Pro Games

Reference Books and Dictionaries

Miscellaneous Books