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Tricks in Joseki
by Yang Yilun
Yutopian Enterprises, 2001.
Reviewed by Robert McGuigan
The subject of joseki is
both important and difficult for aspiring go players. It's said
that learning joseki will make you two stones weaker; on the
other hand we're told that learning joseki is an important part
of becoming stronger. This conflict is resolved when we
realize the difference between rote memorization and
understanding the meaning of each of the moves.
We've all had trouble when
our opponent played an unfamiliar move in a corner sequence. It
could be a legitimate variation or it could be a trick. If we
are not familiar with the move, all we can do is try to read it
out. But this sort of reading is more difficult than
life-and-death or tesuji problems because the goal is not as
clearly defined. Perhaps our opponent has made what we
feel is an incorrect move, but how do we take advantage of it?
"Tricks in Joseki" helps by presenting 80 problems of
just this type.
Handling joseki well
requires us to have a grasp of shape and a sense of equal
balance in a position. Thus, in addition to providing
reading practice, the problems in this book also help us to
learn about shape and balance. Furthermore, they help us
get an idea of how much to expect in taking advantage of an
opponent's unusual move. Suppose we have decided that our
opponent's move is improper. If we take advantage of this,
how much should we expect to gain? There is a tendency to
think that when our opponent makes a joseki mistake we should be
able to make a large gain or cause our opponent's position to
collapse. While is sometimes the case, more often all we will be
able to do is weaken our opponent's shape, gain a few points
more territory than usual, or get a little more power.
Trying for too much can be as bad as trying for too little and
can make a trick move or a joseki mistake into a good move.
Studying the problems in
"Tricks in Joseki" can help develop a sense of what we
can do and how to do it. It is a great complement to
standard joseki books and is most appropriate for mid single
digit kyu players through dan level.
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