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Basic Techniques of Go
by Haruyama and
Nagahara, Ishi Press
by Robert McGuigan 4d
It was
with a nostalgic feeling that I opened "Basic Techniques of Go" in preparation
for this review. One of the first modern, technically advanced go books
available in English written by professional players, it was the first
post-beginner book I encountered in my own go education, almost thirty years
ago. Opening my mind to the vast potential of the game, "Basic Techniques"
was a revelation and in just 170 pages this book covers the same territory as
five or six volumes of the Elementary GO Series. It was originally written in
English in 1969 by two Japanese professional players with the help of Richard
Bozulich, and targeted go players who wished to reach first or second dan
strength.
Covering what one needs to know to reach
that goal in such a short book means that it is very condensed. Even so, there
are many find-the-next-move problems and answers, as well as chapters on tesuji,
even-game opening theory, handicap go (nine-, six-, and four-stone games) and
the end-game. Discussion of basic joseki and middle game tactics is sprinkled
through the book. Many readers have remarked on the extensive use of Japanese go
terminology in this book. By now useful English equivalents for many of these
terms have been developed and become widely used, but when I first found this
book it was so exciting for me that I didn't mind the Japanese terminology and I
still feel that the reader shouldn't let this get in the way. However, there are
so many more cosmopolitan books available now that any future edition of "Basic
Techniques" should probably use fewer Japanese
terms.
Although it's hard to
say what level player will benefit most from this book (the authors assume a
background equivalent to the material in Iwamoto's "Go for Beginners"), I think
somewhere around 15-kyu would be about right. Another interesting possible use
for this book would be as a comprehensive 1-stop review for single-digit kyu
players who have probably seen most of the topics in other books..
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