Review: Get Strong at the Endgame

General Specification

* Title: Get Strong at the Endgame
* Author: Richard Bozulich
* Publisher: Kiseido
* Edition: 1997 (first printing)
* Language: English
* Price: EUR 19.50
* Contents: endgame
* ISBN: 4-906574-57-2
* Printing: good
* Layout: intermediate
* Editing: very weak
* Pages: 198
* Size: 146mm x 209mm
* Diagrams per Page on Average: 6
* Method of Teaching: examples
* Read when EGF: 10k - 1k
* Subjective Rank Improvement: --
* Subjective Topic Coverage: --
* Subjective Aims' Achievement: +

Preface

When I first read the book in 1997 as a 4d, it had no effect on my
endgame skill, I suspected it to have quite a few mistakes but, at
that time, my endgame calculations were too weak to be sure whether
the mistakes were the book's or mine. Although people like to point
out errata in books, so far the errata page on Sensei's Library for
this book has mentioned only one significant mistake and a few typos.
On David Carlton's book review webpage, Georg Snatzke (then 1d),
suspected a lot of mistakes but has not been sure about his own
understanding, either.

To clarify whether the book contains just a few or a lot of mistakes,
in 2018 I (now 5d) have read the book for the second time after having
educated myself about endgame theory. Usually, I need at most one day
to read a typical book for single digit kyus. However, I have spent
two weeks on my second reading of this book. Half of the time, I have
invested on a) solving every problem carefully versus b) understanding
and verifying correctness of the short texts in the book.

Overview

This is a problem book with 291 problems and answers but essentially
without theory. For that, we are referred to Ogawa's The Endgame and
its variety of traditional endgame theory under territory scoring.

The book has four chapters and a short appendix, which compares
professional versus amateur endgame play in one particular game. The
answers of chapter 1 appear late in the book. This gives the reader
options of how to use the initial "test". He can consult the answers immediately, or read chapters 2 and 3 about tesujis and evaluation,
then solve the problems of chapter 1 again before reading its
solutions. If, however, the reader wants to use this as a measure of
his improvement (as the author advertises), he would have to recall
his first solution of the problems in chapter 1 and compare to his
second solution.

37 of the 42 problems of chapter 1 and the 28 problems of chapter 4
are copied from Kano Yoshinori 9p's Yose Jiten (Endgame Dictionary). I
have recognised, and solved within a second, quite a few of the
problems of the chapter 2 about tesujis because their shapes appear in
various classical problem collections or Ogawa's book. On the other
hand, the selection of endgame tesujis (or sometimes ordinary moves
behaving like tesujis) is representative. The problems in chapter 3
about evaluation show standard shapes (such as late follow-ups of
josekis), are compiled easily but useful and relevant training
nevertheless.

Typically, there are two diagrams for the answers of chapter 1
(correct versus failure variation), three diagrams for the answers of
chapter 2 (correct, failure, comparison to ordinary moves) and two
diagrams for the answers of chapter 3 (Black versus White starts). The
problems of chapter 4 must be solved for Black's or White's start so
typically the answers show two diagrams per problem.

Conceptually, the book is best assessed by perceiving two parts. Part
I comprises chapters 1 + 2 and their answers, the problems of chapter
3, and the problems and answer diagrams of chapter 4. Part II
comprises the answers of chapter 3 and the answer texts of chapter 4.
Part I trains reading, tesujis and endgame evaluation. Part II conveys
the author's applied sequences and calculation of endgame evaluation.
I do not know whether the answer text in chapter 4 originates from
Kano or Bozulich.

Part I

We have small board (usually 11x11) positions during the late or very
late endgame. Each problem combines a few local endgames and we must
find a correct move order to achieve the best result. The reader must
spot tesujis and apply tactical reading. Move values might guide or
deceive him so this chapter is hardly about evaluation. For the
intended single digit kyu reader, effort is required. A low dan player
might classify the problems as easy to intermediate. A beginner of
endgame skill may find some of the problems hard, given the task of
finding optimal play.

Chapter 4 continues chapter 1 but now we apply knowledge acquired
during earlier chapters, must solve every problem twice (once for
either starting player), the problems are of an intermediate
(sometimes advanced) level, we are also asked to calculate move values
and spend much time on solving. Even dans can find these problems
interesting.

A reader not having seen a tesuji in chapter 2 before must invest
effort on some of the problems. However, recognising a familiar shape
makes a solution very easy. Similarly, some readers profit little from
the tactical reading exercises in the book if they have already
acquired a reasonable basic reading skill - some other readers might significantly improve if this should be their first, or an early,
relevant source for training tactical reading or tesujis.

The problems of chapter 3 are good for training basic endgame
calculation if the reader already knows some theory to apply it here
and does not look at the answers. Circa half of the problems is easy
and half is of intermediate calculation difficulty. Tactical reading
or tesujis only play a minor role in this chapter.

If the book only consisted of part I, my assessment would be: it is
useful for single digit kyus to train their tactical reading, become
aware of tesujis and train their basic endgame calculation. On the
other hand, since the texts provide rather little information, one can
as well read the diagrams of Asian endgame books possibly without
understanding any text. This book offers little different because too
many examples or shapes are copied from other sources.

Even if we ignore part II, the typos permit an only intermediate
assessment of the editing. The layout is also not a highlight. For
example, repeating the same problem task 14 times in chapter 4 reduces
it to a layout element.

The answer diagrams in chapter 4 have the following three mistakes.
Answer 271 Black starts: White 14 is a mistake resulting in Black's
win by 1 point (not in a tie, as the book's typo suggests) and must be
played at 17, threatening a wedge as a follow-up and achieving a tie.
Even with the dame filled, White need not reinforce the lower left
region. Answer 271 White starts: likewise, White 11 is a mistake;
played at 14 improves the score by 1 point for White. (Furthermore,
"White 1 is the most efficient move." is wrong because White 5 is more efficient and different places in the book teach such details of local efficiency relevant in other positions.) Answer 283 White starts:
unlike the book suggests, the moves are not "straightforward". Black 4
results in White's win by 3 points. Instead, Black 7 is correct and
results in White's win by 1 point so is 2 points better.

The book does not mention most alternative, correct variations, which
are not just equal options. The book should have a few more pages
showing relevant, important, difficult variations. Just one correct
diagram for a starting player is not always enough.

Part II

For almost all of the easy problems in chapter 3, the answer diagrams
and texts are correct. Otherwise, the best that can be said about part
II is that the reader should simply ignore it. This presumes his
awareness of this advice.

Each of the answers in chapter 3 and the texts of the answers of
chapter 4 contains many mistakes. Georg Snatzke nails it neatly when
saying that there was a really big flaw in this book, bigger than in
any other go book he knew, a lot of the solutions in the Bozulich-part
of the book must be simply wrong, he could never trust the given
answers, slowing him down and diminishing many of the positive aspects
of the book. What are those mistakes?

We might tolerate typos affecting values because by far most of the
mistakes are more severe. We can also tolerate intentional rounding if
a number with a fractional component is rounded to the nearest
integer. However, there is also rounding to the wrong adjacent integer
or rough rounding some 2 points off resulting from guessing or lazy calculations. While the reader is asked to calculate move values,
sometimes the author only gives rough lower or upper bounds.

In chapter 4, many move values are small so also many mistakes are
small. When teaching endgame calculations, small mistakes (which are
not intentional, correct rounding) must also be avoided so that the
reader learns well.

The author cannot decide how to assess a basic ko. He sometimes calls
it a half point ko, assesses it as one third of a point (as one would
do under modern endgame theory), states the difference 1 between Black
or White winning the ko or estimates a ko as some unspecified
fraction.

The author could have eliminated circa two thirds of his mistakes in
endgame evaluation by spending another 3 to 6 weeks on editing and proofreading. He would have found the trivial mistakes and those
mistakes for which application of endgame theory approaches his limit
of understanding at the time of writing the book.

Such mistakes are especially important. For part of the easy or
difficult value calculations, the author shows his scope of
understanding. With more effort, he could have applied his knowledge
and avoided many of those mistakes approaching his limit of
understanding. It mainly affects two kinds of mistakes: calculation
when a local endgame has not so easy follow-ups and the distinction of
gote and sente. The former is a consequence of Ogawa's weak
description of theory for follow-ups. The latter is a major problem of traditional endgame theory.

A couple of mistakes lie beyond the author's understanding of endgame evaluation, reach his limits where his understanding is unsure and can
easily result in mistakes, or hit the gaps of traditional endgame
theory. For a responsible writing of the book, he should have studied
endgame theory and practical application in professional games for,
say, three additional months and thereby enabled himself to avoid most
of the remaining mistakes related to calculation of follow-ups or gote
/ sente distinction.

This would have restricted remaining mistakes to those beyond the
scope of traditional endgame theory: reassessing local double sentes
and their move values in view of their inexistence; distinguishing
gote from sente when it is particularly difficult; continuing local
sequences for too long when they must be interrupted by plays
elsewhere; neglecting a careful study of gote versus sente options and
so on. As a consequence of not knowing how to verify such aspects,
additional mistakes sometimes occur as a side effect. For example, if
gote and sente are confused, or a sequence is too long, wrong move
values are calculated.

There are also various other, infrequent kinds of mistakes, such as
not knowing which option is correct and therefore taking the average
of the results of two variations.

Not everything that looks like a mistake is one. For one advanced kind
of follow-up calculation, I have spent one hour on trying to
understand the short text of a particular answer to find out the
author's implicitly used method of calculation and verify its correct application. This addresses another major problem of the too short
answer texts: a few numbers are mentioned, the reader has to decrypt
the text to identify what those numbers express and then invest much
effort in understanding how these numbers are combined in a
calculation, provided the text does not contain any mistake.
"Difference" is used informally when two diagrams are compared like
pictures and we shall spot and count those black and white points that
are different. When three diagrams are compared, interpretation is
much more difficult and made even more difficult by ambiguous
references: does the author mean the position before a sequence, after
a sequence or (as in some other answers) after move 1 of the sequence
shown? Next, the reader must understand whether to add or subtract,
and which number from which other number. Decrypting the texts is an
extra puzzle. The reader is supposed to already understand all
incarnations of the theory fluently, even those parts hardly described
anywhere before.

In other words, what this book really lacks is an explanation of the
underlying theory or at the very least a careful, step-by-step
application during the calculations. It is not the sheer number of
problems that can make one stronger but it would be: good explanations
paving understanding of what numbers are being calculated, why, how
they are combined when the calculations proceed and how to recognise
methods of calculation for application to other examples. Instead, the
author adds more confusion when restricting considered intersections
(locales) without specifying them or when even changing them.

When a problem asks how much move 1 is worth, the disappointing answer calculates the value of the move as part of its sequence. The author
might not be aware that a move itself can have a different value. The
book is more disappointing whenever it calculates a move value but the interesting, difficult part of calculation would be the verification
of gote versus sente or successive versus interrupted local play.
Calculating a double sente move value is often easy but the book does
not offer the much more demanding calculation as gote or sente.

I cannot recommend a book with so many, relevant mistakes and gaps in explanation and calculation. A reader trusting the author might even
become weaker from applying wrong endgame evaluations in his own
games. A beginner might learn at least calculation in easy examples,
provided he can distinguish them from the intermediate problems of
evaluation, whose answers should be ignored. The book requires a major correction the most urgently.



Disclaimer: Robert Jasiek is a researcher in the endgame and other go
theory, author of endgame books and other go books, and go teacher.

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