Books by Richard Bozulich

Along with playing games, practice is essential for mastering go technique; namely, practice in analyzing positions and reading out all their variations. However, the practice players get from their games is limited, whereas problem books can give the amateur go player a vast variety of positions that might occur in their games. Practice also keeps the mind sharp and in top form.This is the reason professionals are always solving problems and often spend considerable time composing them.Practice must also include repetition if it is to be effective. If you have to find the same kind of tesuji in similar patterns over and over again, spotting that tesuji in a problem or in a game will become second nature.It is the purpose of this book to provide a vast number and a large variety of life-and-death problems for the in experienced player.The problems are not hard; they range from very easy to moderately difficult. A dan player should be able to solve them within a minute, sometimes on sight, but it may take a bit longer for kyu-level players.If you have just learned the rule s and played only a few games, you will benefit from studying these problems. Three types are presented: 1) problems in which you have to read only one move ahead; 2) problems in which you have to read three moves ahead; and 3) problems in which you have to read five moves ahead. In this way, the problems become progressively harder, from very easy to rather difficult.It may take you a bit of time to work through this book, but in the end you will have mastered the basic techniques of the life and death of groups.

Opening and Middle Game Go Problems for Kyu Players presents 200 problems of positions that regularly arise in the opening and middle game. It is intended to supplement the Graded Problems for Beginners and Graded Problems for Dan Players series.Whereas the books in those two series are mainly about life and death, this book consists mainly of whole-board positions that regularly arise in the opening and middle game. Some of the topics covered are fighting inside spheres of influence, neutralizing thick positions, using thick positions to attack and make territory, the direction in which to attack and the direction in which to build walls, invading thin positions, defending and attacking weak groups, and matching the joseki to the overall position. Numerous examples of some of the most important go proverbs are given, such as 'Play hane at the head of two stones,' 'When caught in a crosscut, extend,' and 'Capture the cutting stone.' The initial problems in the book are in the 15- to 20-kyu range, but they gradually become harder in the latter part of the book reaching the level of 1-kyu by the end of the book.As a bonus, an exhaustive exposition of the early 3-3-point invasion josekis is presented in an appendix. These josekis have come to dominate the openings in professional and amateur go since they were played by the artificial intelligence program known as AlphaGo. These josekis should be studied by every ambitious kyu player who hopes to rise to dan level.

When evaluating a position, besides determining the balance of territories, an important consideration is the identification of weak groups. Positions often arise in professional games where one side seems to have secured a sizable amount of iron-clad territory, while the other side has little or even no area of the board that he can count on as territory. However, if the side with all the territory has a weak group, the other side can rectify this territorial imbalance by attacking that group. The purpose of the attack is not to capture the weak group, but to harass it and, in the process, build influence that will negatively affect the opponent's groups elsewhere on the board. Even when the territorial balance is relatively even, one side can gain an advantage by attacking a weak group. On the other hand, failure to reinforce a weak group can result in the disruption of the territorial balance. This book covers all the techniques of attacking and defending weak groups. Each of the nine chapters starts with a few examples of the technique under study, then continues with a few problems showing how that particular technique was used in a professional game. The tenth chapter presents additional problems whose solutions draw upon the techniques studied in the preceding nine chapters.

The techniques of attacking, along with tesuji and life-and-death, are part of the middle game, but, whereas you will find an abundance of literature on the latter two subjects, books that focus solely on creating or spotting vulnerable stones, then illustrating how to correctly attack them, are hard to find. This book is aimed at helping to alleviate this lack. Accurate analysis - spotting tesujis and killing or rescuing stones - is certainly the backbone of middle-game strength, but creating or finding vulnerable stones, then attacking them correctly is an equally important technique and one that many amateurs are deficient in. The 136 problems in this book illustrate:• the importance of securing your stones before attacking;• in which direction to attack, taking into account the strength and weakness of your own stones and those of your opponent's;• when it is advantageous to confine your opponent's stones or when it is better to gouge out their eye space; • how to execute leaning attacks, that is, attacking stones in one part of the board in order to build strength to capture or threaten stones somewhere else;• splitting attacks, where stones are separated into two groups and both are put under siege;• that the ultimate purpose of attacking is not to kill your opponent's stones, but to threaten them so as to secure territory or to build influence.

During the opening stages of the game the players stake out positions and more or less divide the board. Normally each player wants to win and take just over 50% of the board. This usually involves a balance between safety and risk; that is, making a safe and non-invadable extension or an extension that is slightly farther and limits the opponent's territory. The drawback of the latter is that the position now becomes invadable. This usually means that when an invasion takes place, the invading stones do not have enough space to make an extension that guarantees life. That, in turn, means the invader has to run away. However, running away is not always the best strategy as it is one-sided - that is, it allows your opponent to harass the run-away stones while securing territory and building influence. Often it is far better to make the beginnings of eye-shape - to breathe life into the invading stones - before running away. In other words, 'to make sabaki.'Along with fighting a ko, sabaki is one of the most difficult concepts to put in practice, as it involves a variety of high-level techniques, such as sacrificing stones, making good shape, calculating complex variations, using forcing moves (kikashi), and good style (for example, avoiding the elimination of aji).The numerous examples and 122 problems taken from professional games, will introduce the readers to all the techniques that may be required to achieve sabaki in almost any position that might arise in their games.