Lessons in the Fundamentals of Go

Context - read through the book at ~11 kyu.

Lessons in the Fundamentals of Go is an ambitious book, with advice for pretty much any stage in a game, with an emphasis on real and realistic board positions that I appreciated. Most diagrams are accompanied not just by the correct follow-up sequence, but at least one incorrect sequence to help the reader understand why the answer is that way and not the other way. This is enough detail that I could play through some other variations myself to study further. Each section also includes a teeny bit of chatter to break up the study with some amusing stories related to the author's Go experiences.

The book's strong chapters, the ones that I came away with more, were the more concrete and specific chapters - those on tesuji, endgame and ladders and nets, covering approximately 30% of the book. In these chapters, there are examples, problems, and solutions, along with sufficient commentary explaining the though process for finding the correct solutions.

The weaker chapters, to me, were those on more vague concepts and higher-level strategy such as connecting and cutting and shape. In these chapters, I came away with just a little, as many of the positions were explained by declaring the wrong position obviously wrong or too amateurish or improper without any further details. Perhaps the ambition to cover so much material led to not much detail in each section; or perhaps the intended audience is stronger than I am and these things are clear when given just one or two variations, but I did not take away much useful information from a solid half of the book. Not nothing, mind you, but some vague concepts and no confidence to correctly apply those concepts in-game.