Go Online

Reams & Reams of Free Stuff
January 27, 2003
By Roy Laird

Oddly enough, one of the most valuable go-related things you can do online is to find materials that are best printed and perused offline. If you know where to look, you can find printed materials that aren't even available in print. By "printed materials", I mean text and diagrams presented in a format that is easier to use in print than online, in contrast to the many online resources we have discussed previously. Whether you want to strengthen your game, learn more about the amazing history of go, or sing a silly go song, you can do it in your easy chair, using freely available downloads. 

Let's start with a site maintained by the Wings Across Calm Water Go Club, the AGA's only official online chapter. Go to http://www.wingsgoclub.org/, click on the button on the left labeled "Books." Here you will find three outstanding full-length books, worth $60 or more if they were available in print -- which they are not. Wings member Steve Bretherick has translated the popular two-volume "How to Play Against the Stronger Player," and John Stephenson prepared the manuscript of this valuable addition to the growing body of work devoted to handicap go. Through a special arrangement as an AGA chapter, Wings makes these materials available to English-speaking go players at no cost. Over 10,000 users have downloaded these books. Also available is the massive "Go on Go," a detailed commentary on some of Go Seigen's greatest games by the master himself, translated by Jim Yu. Download up to 4 MB and print out over 1000 pages of great material available nowhere else!

Two reams worth of free material for study isn't enough? No problem. For starters, check out the "Articles" section of the mammoth gobase.org site at http://gobase.org/studying/articles/. This is a deceptively rich page: many of the links contain dozens of articles. New players should especially check out the "Hanging Out at Dan's" series, by Teach Yourself Go author Charles Matthews. Several chapters of a new book explaining the concept of "shape" in simple terms are also available at http://gobase.org/studying/articles/matthews/shape_up/.

If you've printed out all the good stuff we've found so far, it's time to check your cartridge, reload the paper drawer and forge ahead to http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/igo_e/igomenu.htm. Here you will find more than 200 installments of "The Magic of Go,", a weekly English-language column started by Kiseido founder Richard Bozulcih and continued presently by Dutch pro Rob Van Ziejst.

There's lots more instructional material -- see  http://www.usgo.org/resources/internet.asp for details -- but the list of online articles about go doesn't stop there. If you didn't know that go has played an important role in Asian culture for millennia, expand your appreciation of go by checking out some of the historical material that's available. For a general grounding in the subject, the articles you can find at http://gobase.org/information/history/ will get you started. John Fairbairn's articles at http://www.msoworld.com/mindzine/news/orient/go/special/gofeatures.html go into greater depth in a number of areas.

Those who believe that go is just a game can skip this paragraph, but those who know otherwise can find some anecdotal writings on subjects as diverse as dragons, Albert Einstein, and sex discrimination in go can be found at http://gobase.org/stories/?id=intro. But when it comes to whimsical and non-technical material, the Bob High Memorial Library at http://www.usgo.org/bobhighlibrary/, is the mother lode. Still want to know more about the role of weiqi in Chinese society? Could go somehow help bring North and South Korea together? Why can't computers play go? Does playing actually strengthen the brain? Where and how did go begin? Here you will find links to essays addressing all of these questions, plus annotations of go "sightings" in Western literature, and much more. For the ultimate in pun-ishing whimsy, don't miss "Adventures of Go Kiburi", professional player extraordinaire who wanders through time with his sidekick, iki Jibiki. Or try out a few of the silly go songs on offer there, before settling down to study your new acquisitions.

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