Studying problems is a way to train us, to solidly improve our capabilities to read during actual games. Often we want to do big things without doing the small necessary things that big things need. Same in baduk, often we want to be a strong player but we don't work enough to read correctly, to see what is really going to happen. To use this problems collection you have to try them every day and step by step you will find in yourself a new strength, self-confidence and you will "feel" the game, the natural flow of the stones. Studying problems is like learning words when mastering a foreign language. The more words you add to your vocabulary the more comfortable you feel speaking the language. Solving Go problems has nothing to do with sitting behind a Go board in a cold and dark attic, sweating for hours while trying to solve one position. Again it is quite similar to learning foreign words: you go over them, read the translation (solution) and once the whole list is completed you check how many you actually remembered. You repeat this as long as you feel like it. Pierre Audouard

2003-05-24 Jan van der Steen

1998-07-13