Go Reviews

Learning from the Stones
reviewed by Gordon Fraser, 2k

"Know the enemy and know yourself; in a hundred battles you will never be in peril." This famous quote by Sun Tzu in The Art of War has as much relevance today as it did when it was written many centuries ago. In his thirty-four page monograph, "Learning from the Stones", published by the Strategic Studies Institute of the U.S Army War College, David Lai examines Chinese strategy and compares it to the principles laid out by Sun Tzu and to the game of weiqi (go). This fascinating book provides an interesting insight into Chinese military and diplomatic thought by analyzing a professional go game from the perspective of Sun Tzu's principles. It then shows how this has relevance to current issues such as Taiwan and North Korea.
Go players will find the analysis of the game using Sun Tzu's principles well worth reading. You may gain insight into your own game and other ways to think about the game. From a broader perspective, the book takes a more global view of the importance of go for understanding the world and provides a framework for a fresh insight into some of the issues facing the world today. This book will appeal to go players as well as to people interested in history, political thought and current events.
Learning From the Stones is available from the Strategic Studies Institute of the U.S. Army War College. A pdf copy of the book can be downloaded from the following link:
http://www.carlisle.army.mil/ssi/pubs/pubResult.cfm/hurl/PubID=378/