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New for Beginners
January 05, 2004
By Roy Laird
December was a great month for go
books, with three exciting new titles for new
players. First, the freebie! Bruce Wilcox has been
teaching and writing about go for more than twenty
years. His "EZGO" theories have helped many
bewildered beginners to make enough sense of the
game to rise into the higher-kyu ranks. Now Wilcox
has released
EZGO: An Overview, a free 43-page download
containing the essence of many of his ideas. Go to
http://www.usgo.org/resources/downloads/EZGO_overview.pdf
to view or download this entertaining and
instructive booklet. Even stronger players will
find thought-provoking ideas here that they won't
see elsewhere, ideas that Wilcox explores more
deeply in his book, EZGO: Oriental Strategy in a
Nutshell.
Good news for Janice Kim fans! Janice's "Learn To
Play Go" series has attracted thousands of fans.
The first four volumes appeared between 1994 and
1997, but since then readers have had to make do
with occasional columns in the American Go Journal
and E-Journal. The six-year wait has ended with the
publication of Volume V: "The Palace of Memory,"
the largest volume yet in the series. We learn to
create "Templates of Fighting . . . assemblages of
seemingly unrelated 'good shapes' that I've found
constantly recurring in positions between skilled
players," like "martial art forms." Available from
Janice Kim at http://www.samarkand.net
or from Amazon.com.
Another long wait has ended, as Tuttle Publishers
retires its fifty-year-old title "Go: The National
Game of Japan." Replacing Arthur Smith's archaic
analysis is "Go! More Than A Game," Peter
Shotwell's blow-by-blow expedition through the wild
and woolly history of go around the world. Relying
on professionals like Boston-based pro Huiren Yang
and Feng Yun, the former World Women's Champion now
living in new Jersey, Shotwell offers a clear,
game-oriented introduction to the details of the
game itself, but what sets this book apart is the
depth of detail in the last forty pages. Only "The
Go Player's Almanac" offers more detailed
information. Get it at http://www.amazon.com
for 30% off!
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