Dictionary of Basic Tesuji, Volume 4: Tesuji for Life and Death Problems, Part 2 and for the Endgame, Fujisawa Shuko

Shuko’s Dictionary of Basic Tesuji is one of the most famous Japanese go books, but it has been of little use to those who don’t read Japanese. Now it has been translated into English in four volumes. The fourth volume deals with tesuji that are useful for life and death situations and for the endgame. Fujisawa presents particular situations and shows effective ways of dealing with them, along with the problems with the ineffective ways of playing that you are likely to have considered. Tesuji are the highly efficient plays, a knowledge of which is the key to getting stronger in the tactical dimension of go. This book will open your eyes to possibilities you have never dreamed of.
Sample Pages Available.

 

Comments & Reviews

By all means, this is a great book, filled to the brim with GREAT tesuji problems and an occasional discussion on specific tesuji techniques (which I don’t find so important and I usually already know them [applying them is another story, hehe] so I usually skip over…some may also feel this way as well).

However, the thing that gets to me is how difficult some of these problems are. Lot of the problems are taken from high-dan tsumego books such as Igo Hatsuyoron (sometimes), Gen Gen Gokyo/Xuanxuan Qijing (very frequently), and Gokyo Shumyo (sometimes). However, the brief yet descriptive enough commentaries given for failure as well as the correct variations for each of the problems are very nice and usually the first move for the problem is given away based on the title of the tesuji it is given (example: “Problem 33: Atari”), though I am sure the latter may not be well accepted by all.

While it wasn’t a problem for me, not getting tempted to see the solution may be difficult for some with this book, because the solutions are pretty much right under the problems, so all it takes is a quick glance of the eye.

This is surely not a book I go over for, say, bedtime, since it’s not really light material, but it is definitely a great book for when I’m downstairs with my real board and stones and in the mood for serious studying. I’m about 2d – 3d on almost all of the systems, and the problems take anywhere from 1 minute (hardly) to as long as 30+ minutes (occasionally), with a 3 out of 4 success rate, so I can’t recommend this for kyu players. However, dan players who really want in for a challenge (or high dan players to just brush up on their tsumego :p) should check this excellent book out. I am definitely tempted to go out and get the other 3 volumes now!

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