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Nie Weiping on
Go
By Philip Waldron
I must beat
the Japanese 9-dans. Move X showed good judgment and took the whole board
situation into account. One must come up with a battle strategy that is based on
detailed analysis. Memorize these sentences and you will have absorbed 75% of
the content of "Nie Weiping on Go".
Curiously,
the first 27 pages of this go book contain no go at all, but rather a
biographical sketch of Nie Weiping's childhood and early career. Poorly written
and rife with nationalism, the chapter was likely inserted by a government
propaganda officer and contributes little to the overall book. The actual
go
content of the book is divided into several chapters, including forcing
moves and utilizing thickness, each ostensibly related to the overall theme of
positional judgment. Il lustrating each concept is a collection of game
commentaries, showing how a particular theme played a role in a Nie Weiping win
over (you guessed it) a Japanese 9-dan. After suffering through the initial
biography, I had hoped that the commentaries might contain a few grains of
useful advice, but this was not to be. With the exception of the last two "fully
annotated" games, a typical analysis gave a half-dozen variation diagrams
accompanied by a largely superficial commentary, which included such trivial
advice as "Knowing one's enemy like oneself wins all
battles."
"Nie Weiping on Go" appears to be
more of a propaganda piece than a serious effort to teach go. Players interested
in positional judgment should consult the book of the same name, while those
wanting in-depth game commentaries would do better with a Go World subscription.
Overall, this book is a disappointment.
Published by Yutopian Enterprises
(www.yutopian.com),
C1995
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