Books
Initial Release
Beginner
Free
- Falling In Love With Baduk - Play a Game in One Week (by KBA) → official Korean Baduk Association guide Download
- A Go Guide from a Beginner (by Charalampos Kapolos) → available in many languages Download
- Improving at Go (by Jonathan Prevost) → not a technical Go book, but one about what to expect on your journey Download
Recommended books
- Single introductory book:
- Go: A Complete Introduction to the Game (by Cho Chikun)
- A Scientific Introduction to Go (by Yang Yu-Chia)
- Learn Go: Possibly the most played board game in the World (by Neil Moffatt)
- First volume of one of these beloved book series:
- So You Want to Play Go? - Level 1 (30 kyu - 20 kyu) (by Jonathan Hop)
- Learn to Play Go: A Master’s Guide to the Ultimate Game (Volume I) (by Janice Kim, Soo-hyun Jeong)
There are many good books for beginners, but some I find hard for real beginners (e.g. Second Book of Go by Richard Bozulich), a bit confusing for real beginners (e.g. Shapes of mind - Go course for beginners by Mateusz Surma) or a bit too dense for real beginners (e.g. Go for Beginners by Kaoru Iwamoto). These are wonderful books and should be read, but not as the first initiation text.
DDK
The DDK list of recommendations is based on solid books that although comprehensible and very useful for DDK players, can be read and will most probably provide some value at SDK, and even / Dan level. Similarly, many of the SDK books can be tackled at DDK with success.
Opening & Joseki
- Opening Theory Made Easy (by Hideo Otake)
- How to Open Go (by Dwyrin)
Middle Game
- Centering The Mid-Game (by Dwyrin)
End Game
- Playing the Endgame: A Brief Introduction (by William S. Cobb)
Proverbs / Principles
- An Encyclopedia of Go Principles (by Richard Bozulich)
- Proverbs (Nihon Ki-In Handbook, Vol. 1)
Fundamentals
- Lessons in the Fundamentals of Go (by Toshiro Kageyama)
Theory
- The Theory of Go (by Tony Yang & Han Han)
L&D Theory
- Life and Death (by James Davies)
Tesuji
- Tesuji (by James Davies)
Handicap
- Handicap-Go Strategy and the Sanrensei Opening (Rob van Zeijst & Richard Bozulich)
Games
- Double Digit Kyu Games (by Neil Moffatt)
- How Not to Play Go (by Yuan Zhou)
SDK
The SDK book list is an extension of the DDK book list. Some of the books in the later are worth reading and re-reading at multiple milestones until achieving high Dan (e.g. Lessons in the Fundamentals of Go) and some strong players recommend exactly this. Nevertheless, some concepts and ideas can flourish only after achieving better familiarity and understanding of the game. Consequently, the topics addressed by the best SDK books become quite diverse. Here is only a narrower-scoped selection of what I consider the most useful books.
Opening & Joseki
- Fuseki Revolution: How AI Has Changed Go (by Toramaru Shibano)
- Joseki Revolution: Overthrowing Conventional Wisdom (by Toramaru Shibano)
- Typical Mistake (by Young Sun Yoon)
- Whole Board Thinking in Joseki Vol. 2 (by Yilun Yang)
Attack & Defense
- Attack and Defence (by James Davies)
- Improve Fast In Go (by Milton N. Bradley)
- Attacking and Defending weak groups (Rob van Zeijst & Richard Bozulich)
End Game
- The End Game (by Tomoko Ogawa)
- Absolute Counting: in the Endgame (by Meien O)
- Micro endgame of Go (by hanayeol)
Proverbs / Principles
- Essential Go Proverbs (by John Power)
Fundamentals
- The Fundamental Principles of Go (by Yilun Yang)
- The Direction of Play (by Takeo Kajiwara)
Theory
- EZ-Go: Oriental Strategy in a Nutshell (by Bruce Wilcox)
- Counting Liberties and Winning Capturing Races (by Richard Hunter)
L&D Theory
- Tsume-Go Strategy 1 Learn to Recognize Vital Points in Go Problems — Corner Patterns (by Thomas Redecker)
- Mastering basic corner shapes Step-by-step (by Young Sun Yoon)
Tesuji
- Get Strong at Tesuji (by Richard Bozulich)
- Tesuji and Anti-Suji of Go (by Sakata Eio)
Games
- Understanding Dan Level Play (by Yuan Zhou)
- Master Play: The Style of Lee Changho (by Yuan Zhou)
- Master Play: The Style of Takemiya (by Yuan Zhou)
- Master Play - The Style of Go Seigen (by Yuan Zhou)
- Invincible - The Games of Shusaku (by John Power)
We also recommend guides that walk you more thoroughly through a small selection of books while providing rationale for why the book and concepts are important at each level. Take note though that all of these guides are opinionated, as is our own. Only you can try to judge, in hindsight, what books have helped you the most.