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A Dictionary Of Modern Fuseki: The Korean
Style
Compiled from professional Korean games by the Seolim Publishing
Company
Translated by Kim Seong June
Kiseido; October, 2004
$30
Reviewed by Peter Shotwell
Checking in at a
big and hefty double-sized 304 pages, this new book from Kiseido is twice the
usual price and twice the weight, but I think for any casual or serious player,
it is many times the value. It breaks up the old ideas about many fuseki and
replaces them with the Koreans' legendary, fresh and imaginative thinking. This
is particularly true if (like me) all that is on your go shelf is the Ishida
dictionary and a few of the Japanese standards on
fuseki
Using an easy-to-digest format with four
full-board diagrams per page, 59 opening patterns are analyzed in detail in
regard to what is old and what is new. The new ideas about the Chinese and
mini-Chinese openings covers 54 pages; 47 pages are devoted to a great variety
of ingenious pincer openings; and 16 pages cover the san-ren-sei. Also, a number
of probe- and invasion-style openings are analyzed; dozens of other pages are
devoted to more peaceful positional openings and the book ends with 36
full-board problems.
What all this means is
that you can study the whole volume to try to find the new logic of the times,
or you can prepare specifically for your next match against an arch-opponent.
Several pages are devoted to the "Kobayashi opening" and several more to dealing
with a stone on 3-5 point. Even better, you can learn the reasoning behind using
an approach with the first-move if you're White; or with the third-move if
you're Black-and both diagonal and same-side approaches are discussed (!).
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