Valery Shikshin Knihy

This book examines all possible types of semeai, providing you with prepared formulas that let you calculate the status of each semeai and help you become a better judge of starting or passing on the semeai. To best illustrate how and when to apply these calculations, Valery shares his personal collection of problems, which he has accumulated over several decades from the games of professionals, European and Russian champions, Russian masters and his own students."Semeai is one of the most difficult sections of go techniques for amateurs, but there's nothing mystical about it - it (semeai) can be calculated." - Valery Shikshin

This book is an insightful tool for enhancing your playing skills. It give you a deeper appreciation of the game and analytical skills held by strong players.Topics include game analysis, estimating territory, large-scale analysis of a position, and analysis in preparation for tournament play. The scheme for analysis is detailed, and the reader is challenged with problems to test his understanding."It is no exaggeration to say that the true understanding of a game begins with a correct game analysis." - Valery Shikshin

Unlike many books which deal with problems of life and death of groups, this book discloses the theory and philosophy behind this type of problem.By using the theory of tsumego, Valery Shikshin teaches you how to look in the right direction for a correct solution; this will prevent you from making mistakes and, in the long run, it will save you a lot of time.There are more than 300 tsumego problems and examples laid out in this book, emphasizing the rules behind killing and saving groups in the corners and sides, including tsumego involving seki and ko.

Shape is one of the fundamental concepts of Go. If a shape is good, then the correlation between the stones is impossible to destroy, but if a shape is bad, then it is possible to destroy and, by doing so, inflict irreplaceable losses. In this book, the author only examines shapes related to the middle game, which are shapes connected to fighting, atsumi shapes, sabaki shapes, semeai shapes, shapes related to connecting stones and others. This book is Volume 3 of the Theory and Practice of Go series.