This is a book that takes a while to get through. Every few pages a new tesuji is shown, and then there are problems for the reader to solve using the new moves.
I originally understood tesuji to mean "trick play". I thought it was something that happened on rare occasions by masters of the game. But tesuji are really not tricks as much as known positions of stones that lead to some kind of a forcing play or capture if you know the pattern. I would call the Ladder and the Net some basic tesujis. I guess my point is that I assumed I didn't really need to read a book on tesuji since it was just some weird trick plays - well, I was wrong.
Tesuji is a book with a lot to offer. Davies details quite a few tesujis and then gives some great problems to help you practice. I am nearly done with my first pass through the book, but I can tell I need to revisit it regularly. Why? First, I have forgotten some of the patterns already. Second, I did a fairly poor job at the problems. In general, I could guess what the critical first move of the sequence would be, but I wasn't able to see the "forced" response or get the chain of moves through to the solution. I think that as I absorb a few of the tesuji in the book, I will be able to wrap my brain around a few more, until I eventually have more or less memorized the tesuji in the book. The fact that I can't read the problems out to the end tells me that I need to improve my reading - or simply that I am a 15 kyu, and I have a lot to learn.
Despite the book being a pretty strong challenge, it has already paid off in game. Here is a game where I recognized the opportunity for a "Nose Tesuji".
Here is the position where I recognized that a Nose Tesuji was possible. A play at 'A' by white is the Nose Tesuji - I guess getting the name from the fact that the 2 black stones stick out like a nose. The set up wasn't quite perfect yet, so I played a stone to set up the trap...
White 1 below doesn't seem to be an attacking move, but it isolates the black stones at F13, G13 and sets up the tesuji. I am guessing that my opponent doesn't know this tesuji, so he isn't prepared to defend against it. His Black 2 doesn't affect the tesuji, so I spring H13 on him...
The Nose Tesuji reduces his group to two liberties and by struggling to escape he loses another liberty. Now the 5 black stones are in atari - nice job Nose Tesuji!
Having read Tesuji, and having seen the praise it has received on GoDiscussions, I believe it is an essential book for a player's GO library.
No comments:
Post a Comment