Hello, Ms. Suzuki. About three years have passed since I started playing on PandaNet. I’m still a kyu player, but recently I feel that my speed of improvement has slowed down a little. They say that the shortcut to improving is doing life-and-death problems. I’m sure I remember reading that your hobby is solving life-and-death problems and that you have been fond of them since you were a kid, but I’m afraid that I immediately get sick of them and switch to playing actual games. What I would like to ask you is how can one become fond of life-and-death problems? If there’s some knack, please tell me. Also can you tell me why solving them is a shortcut to getting stronger? What do you think is a good ratio between studying and playing? Consultation One: Mr. Nakamura Hello, Mr. Nakamura. Thank you for your question. It’s certainly true that I think that studying life-and-death problems is a shortcut to improvement. The reason is that in an actual game (especially in the middle game and endgame) you have to choose moves based on reading. In order to read a few moves ahead and choose the best move, reading ability is necessary. Especially in crucial middle-game fights each move can be decisive, so the side that reads more accurately will win the game. Studying life-and-death problems is a good way to develop your reading ability. I think that the way to acquire the knack of solving problems easily is to lots of simple problems that are below your go level. After all, it’s boring to spend a long time on problems you can’t solve. One thing you can do is to decide the amount of time you’ll spend on a problem, for example, five minutes. If you can’t get it in that time, just look at the answer and memorize the tesujis involved. Going through the same collection of problems a number of times, repeatedly doing the same problems, will also help you in actual play. If you still get bored, study problems for just ten minutes between games or on the train, doing just a couple of simple problems each time. Studying life-and-death problems is essential for improvement. I hope you can persevere without getting sick of them.