What Grade are Problems for?
Last Updated 13 November 2002
Many Go problem books have grades on their covers. But these can mean anything from "These problems should be instantly familiar to players of Grade X" to
"Players of Grade X should be able to solve these problems given an hour of concentration on each one". This page is an attempt to measure the books of Go problems
currently available to the English speaking Go community. I will be happy to include any other titles, provided that there is some indication of where they can be obtained from.
A well established part of professional go training is to work through books of easy problems as fast as
you possibly can. Professional players are all able to solve very simple problems extremely fast,
but it is hard to tell cause from effect. Can you really become stronger just by speeding up your atari spotting
ability? Or is this just a side effect of learning to handle some of the harder concepts in the game?
This page is concerned with collecting data towards answers to these questions.
To start with, it will simply be a table of the times people report to me. With luck there will soon
be enough information to start including some graphical representations of the results.
What we are measuring is the time it takes you to work through the whole of the book in question.
If you need to check the answers then try to subtract off the time you spent looking them up.
All contributions are welcome. Just send me an Email, giving
- The title of the book
- Your playing strength
- The time it took you to work through the book
- Roughly how many of the problems you got wrong.
If the book is one you have already worked through many times, say so.
If you don't want your name to appear here, say so and I'll enter you as anonymous.
If you only worked through part of the book, say which part. Some of the harder ones may need to be divided up
Here are some titles to start with. More can be added when I have any figures for them:
- Graded Go Problems for Beginners Vol 1
Kano Yoshinori, Nihon Kiin 1985, 239 problems
- Graded Go Problems for Beginners Vol 2
Kano Yoshinori, Nihon Kiin 1985, 327 problems
- Graded Go Problems for Beginners Vol 3
Kano Yoshinori, Nihon Kiin 1985, 421 problems
- Graded Go Problems for Beginners Vol 4
Kano Yoshinori, Nihon Kiin 1985, 390 problems
- 1001 Life and death Problems
Richard Bozulich, Kiseido 2002, 1001 problems
- Rescue and Capture
Yang Yilun, Yutopian 1997, 80 problems
- Yang Yilun's Ingenious Puzzles Vol 1
Yang Yilun, Yutopian 1996, 110 problems: 66 "Elementary", 54 "Junior"
- Yang Yilun's Ingenious Puzzles Vol 2
Yang Yilun, Yutopian 1997, 90 problems: 46 "Senior", 44 "Advanced"
- The Art of Go vol 1, Connections
Yutopian 1996, 186 problems
- The Art of Go vol 2, Sacrifice Techniques
Yutopian 1999, 91 problems
- Get Strong at Life and Death
Kiseido 1997, 230 Problems
- Get Strong at Tesuji
Kiseido 1996, 534 problems
- Maeda Elementary '10-4 kyu'
Japan, 1965, 225 Problems
- Maeda Middle level '5-1 kyu'
Japan, 1965, 210 Problems
- Maeda Higher '3 kyu- dan level'
Japan, 1966, 150 Problems
- Maeda/ Slate & Shell 2001
Slate & Shell 2001, 110 problems
Graded Go Problems for Beginners Vol 1
| Name | Grade | Time Taken | No. Wrong | Time per problem |
| M. Macfadyen | 6 Dan (European) | 9 m. 50 | 0 | 2.5s |
| S. Fawthrop | 5 Dan (USA) | 13m.15s | 0 | 3.3s |
| D. Fotland | 3 Dan (USA) | 22m | 0.8% | 5.5s |
| S. Goss | 2 Dan (European) | 31m. | 0 | 7.8s |
| K. Healey | 1 Kyu (European) | 25m. | 0 | 6.3s |
| S. Bailey | 2 Kyu (European) | 30m. | 0.4% | 7.5s |
| B. Hearn | 4 Kyu (USA) | 25m | 0.4% | 6.3s |
| P. Evensen | 5 Kyu (European) | 24m | 0.4% | 6.0s |
| T. Collins | 6 Kyu (AGA) | 49m. | 0.4% | 12.3s |
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Graded Go Problems for Beginners Vol 2
| Name | Grade | Time Taken | No. Wrong | Time per problem |
| M. Macfadyen | 6 Dan (European) | 21m. | 0 | 3.9s |
| S. Fawthrop | 5 Dan (USA) | 37m.23s | 0 | 6.9s |
| S. Goss | 2 Dan (European) | 95 m. | 2% | 17.4s |
| P. Clarke | 1 Kyu (European) | 70 m. | 1.5% | 12.8s |
| M. Kegelmann | 1 kyu (European) | 117 m. | 4% | 21.5s |
| S. Bailey | 2 Kyu (European) | 115m. | 7% | 21.1s |
| C. Nentwich | 4 Kyu (European) | 48m. | 3.2% | 8.8s |
| D. Schmidt | 4 Kyu (USA) | 114m. | 6% | 21.0s |
| T. Collins | 6 Kyu (AGA) | 177m. | 6.7% | 32.5s |
| P. Spacek | 16 Kyu (European) | 201m.48s | 3% | 37.0s |
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Graded Go Problems for Beginners Vol 3
| Name | Grade | Time Taken | No. Wrong | Time per problem |
| M. Macfadyen | 6 Dan (European) | 32m. | 0 | 4.6s |
| S. Goss | 2 Dan (European) | 155 m. | 2% | 22.1s |
| D. Hanotin | 1 Dan (European) | 279 min | 7% | 39.8s |
| D. Keeble | 1 Dan (European) | | 11% | |
| P. Clarke | 1 Kyu (European) | 150 m. | 5% | 21.4s |
| D. Schmidt | 4 Kyu (USA) | 364m. | 12% | 51.9s |
| D. Keeble | at 6 kyu (European) | | 13% | |
| D. Hanon | 14 Kyu (European) | 5 hr. | 20% | 42.8s |
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Graded Go Problems for Beginners Vol 4
| Name | Grade | Time Taken | No. Wrong | Time per problem |
| M. Macfadyen | 6 Dan (European) | 59m. | 1% | 9.1s |
| S. Goss | 2 Dan (European) | 373 m. | 15% | 57.4s |
| D. Hanotin | 1 Dan (European) | 289 min | 26% | 44.5s |
| P. Clarke | 1 Kyu (European) | 210 m. | 9% | 32.3s |
| D. Hanon | 8 Kyu (European) | 3 hr. | 15% | 27.7s |
| D. Hanon | 11 Kyu (European) | 6 hr. | 20% | 55.4s |
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1001 Life and death problems
| Name | Grade | Time Taken | No. Wrong | Time per problem |
| M. Macfadyen | 6 Dan (European) | 234m. | 1% | 14s |
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Rescue and Capture
| Name | Grade | Time Taken | No. Wrong | Time per problem |
| M. Macfadyen | 6 Dan (European) | 23m. | 4% | 17.3s |
| V. Laatikainen | 5 Dan (European) | 39m. | 9% | 29.2s |
| S. Goss | 2 Dan (European) | 72m. | 15% | 54s |
| D. Keeble | 1 Dan (European) | 100m. | 29% | 75s |
| P. Clarke | 1 Kyu (European) | 75 m. | 20% | 56.2s |
| S. Bailey | 2 kyu (European) | 22m. 20 s. | 7% | 16.8s |
| K. Healey | 1 Kyu (European) | 4 hr. | 33% | 180s |
Note: Steve Bailey's time followed a period of study of this book.
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Maeda Volume 1
| Name | Grade | Time Taken | No. Wrong | Time per problem |
| M. Macfadyen | 6 Dan (European) | 91m. | 4% | 24.3s |
| P. Clarke | 1 Kyu (European) | 210 m. | 16% | 56s |
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Get Strong at Life and Death
| Name | Grade | Time Taken | No. Wrong | Time per problem |
| M. Macfadyen | 6 Dan (European) | 102m. | 5% | 26.6s |
| D. Keeble | 1 Dan (European) | 211m. | 49% | 55s |
| D.Verhofstadt | 1 Dan (European) | | 0% | 8s |
(Note, the first section of this book is at a lower level than the rest)
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Get Strong at Tesuji
| Name | Grade | Time Taken | No. Wrong | Time per problem |
| M. Macfadyen | 6 Dan (European) | 125m. | 2% | 14s |
| S. Goss | 2 Dan (European) | 303 min. | 10% | 34s |
| D. Keeble | 1 Dan (European) | | 26% | |
(Note, this large collection (534 problems) is a very good candidate for the "do lots of easy problems fast" exercise)
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Maeda Volume 2 (Middle)
| Name | Grade | Time Taken | No. Wrong | Time per problem |
| M. Macfadyen | 6 Dan (European) | 143m. | 10% | 40.9s |
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The Art of Go vol 1, Connections
| Name | Grade | Time Taken | No. Wrong | Time per problem |
| M. Macfadyen | 6 Dan (European) | 147m. | 11% | 48s |
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The Art of Go vol 2, Sacrifice Techniques
| Name | Grade | Time Taken | No. Wrong | Time per problem |
| M. Macfadyen | 6 Dan (European) | 122m. | 22% | 80s |
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Maeda Volume 3 (Hard)
| Name | Grade | Time Taken | No. Wrong | Time per problem |
| M. Macfadyen | 6 Dan (European) | 135m. | 12% | 54s |
(Note: This looks like Maeda vol 3 is very similar to vol. 2 which I do not believe.
I haven't looked at this book for about 15 years, but I studied it very thoroughly when I was getting past 1,2,3 dan in the late '70's. This sort of thing sticks).
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Life and Death Intermediate level / Slate & Shell 2001
| Name | Grade | Time Taken | No. Wrong | Time per problem |
| M. Macfadyen | 6 Dan (European) | 55m. | 6% | 30s |
(This is of a similar level to volume 1 of the old Maeda series, but with rather more of the problems which are difficult first
time round, but well known 'textbook' shapes if you read a lot.
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Yang Yilun's Ingenious Puzzles Vol 1 (Elementary and Junior)
| Name | Grade | Time Taken | No. Wrong | Time per problem |
| M. Macfadyen | 6 Dan (European) | 115m; 156m. | 20%; 25% | 105s; 213s |
| R. Jasiek | 5 dan (European) | 25 hr. | 50% | 13.6m |
| Dieter Verhofstadt | 1 dan (European) | | 0% | 15m |
(Note: Pairs of numbers separated by ; refer to "Elementary" and "Junior" sections)
(Note) Dieter Verhofstadt's figures are only for the first 15 problems)
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Yang Yilun's Ingenious Puzzles Vol 2 (Senior and Advanced)
| Name | Grade | Time Taken | No. Wrong | Time per problem |
| M. Macfadyen | 6 Dan (European) | 671m. | 51% | 7 min22s. |
(Note: I found little difference between "Senior" and "Advanced" standard, until the last 15 problems, which took over 4 hours and I still got 10 of them wrong).
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