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bechols's review
3.0
Lots of specific examples, but many of them felt half-finished - I didn't see the outcome I was supposed to.
yorugua1891's review
4.0
Very nice volume, improvement over the previous one.
After a great start to this series, I was somewhat disappointed with volume 3 since I thought it lacked substance. That flaw is completely corrected here. The authors provide us with a manual packed with valuable information for conducting our battles. The material is still at a beginners level, but it will probably be useful even for some single digit kyu players (at least those below 5-7 kyu).
Before jumping into the tactical section of this book, we are presented with an explanation of the important difference between invasion and reduction. This is crucial, since invading when you should reduce provides your opponent not only the opportunity to profit from killing, but also it makes your opponent strong which he can use to help other sectors of the board. Likewise, if you reduce when you should invade, you are going easy on your opponent.
Then we jump right into the battle strategies. There are a broad selection of key ideas and elements presented to the reader. These are helpful and are illustrated with nice examples. It is true, the treatment of the topics is not very deep, but it does provide a very good basis to help the beginner with getting stronger. Players stronger 5 kyu will not find any beneficial information here. I am currently 7 kyu and even though I knew most of the concepts I found some sections that helped with my understanding.
Attacking, defending and life and death are some of the key chapters here. All have clearly presented information that is valuable to the reader. I did like the chapter on ko, since it gives us clear guidance on how to approach these fights. At my level I have been guilty of avoiding ko when I am ahead in a game and ended up losing as a result. After reading this book I have ingrained in my mind that in most cases you should fight the ko. The chapter on capturing races is probably the weakest part of this book, since the explanation could have been so much more clear and precise. If you really want to understand how to evaluate capturing races, even extremely complex ones, read The Second Book of Go (Beginner and Elementary Go Books) by Bozulich.
Overall, there is enough helpful material here to make this book a purchase worth your while. Especially if you are in the range 15k to 7k.
After a great start to this series, I was somewhat disappointed with volume 3 since I thought it lacked substance. That flaw is completely corrected here. The authors provide us with a manual packed with valuable information for conducting our battles. The material is still at a beginners level, but it will probably be useful even for some single digit kyu players (at least those below 5-7 kyu).
Before jumping into the tactical section of this book, we are presented with an explanation of the important difference between invasion and reduction. This is crucial, since invading when you should reduce provides your opponent not only the opportunity to profit from killing, but also it makes your opponent strong which he can use to help other sectors of the board. Likewise, if you reduce when you should invade, you are going easy on your opponent.
Then we jump right into the battle strategies. There are a broad selection of key ideas and elements presented to the reader. These are helpful and are illustrated with nice examples. It is true, the treatment of the topics is not very deep, but it does provide a very good basis to help the beginner with getting stronger. Players stronger 5 kyu will not find any beneficial information here. I am currently 7 kyu and even though I knew most of the concepts I found some sections that helped with my understanding.
Attacking, defending and life and death are some of the key chapters here. All have clearly presented information that is valuable to the reader. I did like the chapter on ko, since it gives us clear guidance on how to approach these fights. At my level I have been guilty of avoiding ko when I am ahead in a game and ended up losing as a result. After reading this book I have ingrained in my mind that in most cases you should fight the ko. The chapter on capturing races is probably the weakest part of this book, since the explanation could have been so much more clear and precise. If you really want to understand how to evaluate capturing races, even extremely complex ones, read The Second Book of Go (Beginner and Elementary Go Books) by Bozulich.
Overall, there is enough helpful material here to make this book a purchase worth your while. Especially if you are in the range 15k to 7k.
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