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Go Reviews Here you will find reviews written by you, the readers. Sorted alphabetically by title, the reviews cover a wide range of go- related products such as books, movies and equipment. You can also look at excerpts from newly released go books at Hot Off the Presses.
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Ifyou've been following Bozulich's remarkable series, this is probably the most important book because it reviews the key strategic subtleties that make go so wonderful. The Basics of Go Strategy is an expansion and improvement on his classic, but long-out-of-print, Strategic Concepts of Go. Bozulich starts out by illustrating the delicate balance between the need for retaining aji, and the need for playing forcing moves, which eliminate it. Then he shows how probes continue this dialogue because the opponent is forced to answer in one of only a few ways.
Next is how to avoid-and attack-heavy stones. The proverb says, "Play urgent points before big points," because if you play on big points before securing your weak stones, you end up with heavy ones. Unfortunately, these are all too often too big to sacrifice, so, as you run away, you are left with dameba -- points of no value -- while the attacker profits with every move.
If there are heavy stones in go, then there are light ones, so a short chapter on sabaki follows, and many examples scattered through the book show how to use them. These basic themes of 'bad' vs. 'good' then continue in a chapter on the differences between junk stones and key stones.
Putting all these concepts to work on a grand scale, the final chapter on thickness shows how you can end up over-concentrated if you forget four crucial proverbs.
"Don't play near thickness!" means, don't get too near your opponent's solid stones. "Don't use thickness to make territory!" because you will nearly always end up having played too close to your own. Instead, "Use thickness to attack!" and "Drive your opponent in the direction of your thickness!" and success will follow.
The book ends with 101 problems that will keep everyone from 10 kyu on up to somewhere past shodan comfortably busy for quite a while, but the results will be worth it.
Shotwell, a longtime go writer, is the author of Go Basics: Concepts And Strategies for New Players.
Thisbook is part of the "Get Strong At Go" series from Kiseido. The book has about 172 problems. The first 80 or so problems are fuseki problems that deal with niren-sei, sanren-sei, the Chinese opening and the Shusaku opening. The second part of the book deals with general opening problems, problems more to test positional judgment. I would say that 30k-5k would find the first half of the book more useful. I was able to go through all the problems in the first half.
A downside to thebook is that it does not have a comprehensive theory section. In the first couple of pages, the book explains relevant go terms and it has a very short section on explaining basic opening patterns. However, there is no comprehensive theory section, nothing on what to look for in the opening or guiding principles. It does not explain fuzzy terms like "big point" or concepts like nullifying influence. Particularly in regards to the shusaku opening, the book has an all too brief blurb about it. I found myself not being able to understand the solutions of the shusaku problems especially with newly learned moyo ideas floating in my head.
The first 80 problems, I found incredibly useful. Problems focused on moyo based strategies. I was able to learn pretty quickly mechanics of building of a moyo in first 20 moves. Most of the problems were focused on where black would play, which is also a downside. I feel that I can play black pretty well with a moyo strategy but playing white is another matter. I would have liked more problems on how white can foil black's moyo strategy. Again shusaku problems I found difficult to understand; either way, I won't be playing the shusaku opening anytime soon.
The third part of the book I found incredibly opaque. I guess I am simply not strong enough to understand the problems. I would guess that these are dan-level problems. The problems required an attention to detail, and finesse that I could not simply understand what the point was. Especially since the problems did not give a list of possible of answers, the most obvious answer to me would often not be explained in the solutions, which seemed quite arbitrary to me.
Fuseki is hard, it requires both reading and positional judgment. A lot of the principles are fuzzy and hard to grasp. I do think that this book helped me with the big picture view of the board. It is a certainly a book that I would review again as I get stronger. I would recommend that readers study a more thorough book on fuseki theory and then look at this book to test understanding.
Osoba is a 2007 Shodan Challenger, one of more than 50 go players working to attain goals by this year's US Go Congress in Millersville, PA. This review was submitted as part of the Challenge's ongoing study program, in this case an assignment to review books about the opening.
Full disclosure: I own every issue of Go World magazine, 110 of them to be
exact, all 13.4" of shelf space; if I'm not the most objective
reviewer, I'm certainly an informed one. Not that well informed of
course – if I'd read half the material that's in there, surely I'd
be shodan by now!
But I know enough to know that the Go World material from the past thirty years is the OED, the Britannica, the magnum opus, the mother of all lodes of go wisdom. Now the complete first 108 issues, from 1977 to 2006, is available for $99.95 on three DVDs, 7.54 GB to be exact, 108 PDF files (available separately for $2.50 each.), with access to a variety of search option. My favorite is the GoBase page, with 30 or so preset categories and a keyword-based system. Each CD contains complete indices for all issues (oddly, each link offers the option to "Click and Buy" the issue you already presumably own), but to avoid error messages and get the most out of it, you'll want to dump everything into one directory on a hard drive.
What's there? Just about everything, and lots of it – nearly 7000 pages in all! The heart of the collection is detailed analysis of more than 1000 of the most important title matches played in the past thirty years. The games alone will keep the most avid student busy for years.
On the instruction side, it's hard to know where to begin. Honda's The Great Joseki Debates, now out of print and selling online for up to $30, appeared in its entirety in Go World first; and there are many other equally worthy book-length series: "Good and Bad Style", "Blueprint 361", "Tesuji Magic" and "Annals of Handicap Go", to name a few. The "News" section features a complete account of world go; oddities and curiosities such as "The 19 Stone Extension" and "The Driftwood Board" abound throughout; and did I mention the covers? Each one features a piece of classic Asian art with a go theme, beautifully printed with explanatory text. Great gobs of problems, targeted instruction on every phase of the game for all levels, the equivalent of 50 or more books covering every aspect of the game – the GW oeuvre is truly "one-stop shopping" for the serious player.
Now that you can search, sort and find all this stuff, how will you use it? There are some drawbacks to viewing this type of material on the monitor. Text and accompanying diagram often do not appear together, and flipping back and forth onscreen is clunkier than just using eyeballs and paper. (I guess that's one reason that even the digital age, there are more books in print than ever.) So when you find instructional material you want to read, you'll probably want to print it out. Printing sample pages on my HP PSC 500 inkjet printer and comparing to the original, I found the quality of the digital copy pretty good, certainly legible, but not quite as sharp as the original; I found some of the black stone numbers in the diagrams a bit hard to read. They're not as clear, for instance, as the diagrams in EJ PDF downloads that are prepared digitally, rather than scanned; but they might print up better on a higher quality printer, and they probably wouldn't bother some people. On the other hand, bright white printer paper makes the text stand out, compared to the off-white paper of Go World print copies. To see for yourself, download issue #45 and see what you think.
For the serious student, the Go World digital archive is unquestionably the best value on the market today. But when it comes to studying, I'm glad to have my hard copies; I'll probably search, find, then do it the old fashioned way -- sit down with a Go World magazine and a go board and begin to lay out the stones.
For over thirty years, Go World magazine has been the premier source of English-language go news, teaching and game analysis. First published at a time when only a handful of go books were available, Go World quickly became an invaluable resource for Western go players. Recently Westerners have been faced with the worrisome prospect of Go World’s valuable contents vanishing into history, but fortunately this fear can be laid to rest with the release of the Go World Archive, an electronic collection of the first 108 issues of the magazine.
The Go World Archive can be purchased in two ways: issues can be purchased and downloaded individually or, more economically, larger collections can be ordered on DVD. I ordered the complete collection, and was impressed with the elegant three-DVD set delivered a few days later. I was pleased to find that Go World issues are distributed as PDF files, which allows for portability across many computer systems. Digital issues are faithful copies of the originals, and the complete collection includes over 6000 printed pages of material, ranging from commented games to tsume-go problems. Fortunately, the digital version includes a searchable index file and table of contents to aid in searches for a particular article. Finally, there are scans of the beautiful magazine covers, although unfortunately not at high enough resolution to be usable as desktop wallpaper.
While my experiences with the Go World Archive were positive overall, there are two difficulties worthy of note. Page images were generated by scanning the original printed versions, and some artifacts, mainly blocky text and diagrams with crooked lines, are visible in places. While this doesn't have much practical effect, the final product is not as attractive as it might otherwise be. More disappointing was the fact that the PDF files have several security features enabled. Extracting page images or copying and pasting text is forbidden. Given that the files as whole can be copied without difficulty, this seems like an unnecessary aggravation rather than a serious effort at copy protection.
These minor difficulties aside, the Go World Archive is a wonderful resource for Western go players and I highly recommend it. It is the largest collection of commented games in available in English, and a treasure trove of teaching material for players of all levels.
The Go World Archive is available from Kiseido Digital.
Breakthroughs in computer go are often greeted with both interest and skepticism, and a recent Reuters report of a go program “not far from reaching the level of a professional go player” was no exception. “Put up or shut up” is my usual reaction, and I was delighted when one of MoGo's authors agreed to a test match. The computer would be connected to KGS for a seven-game series, and I could play at any time to ensure there wasn't a human waiting on the other end. We alternated colors and played with 7.5 point komi, although a mix-up in the settings had the first two games played without compensation.
I began the first game applying carefully-considered tactics and strategies honed after years of play. I got slaughtered. I reacted to defeat like a typical human, rationalizing that I don't play well on small boards, I was tired and I played White without komi. While this was all true to varying degrees, the fact remained that I had just lost, and lost badly. This was clearly a competitor worthy of respect. Like the Terminator, it would not feel pity or fear and would not succumb to boredom: I would have to play seriously to win the match. My attitude adjustment took only a few seconds of reflection, and the rematch began almost immediately. The end of this game exposed another human emotion: satisfaction. I had won. Pasted it, actually. I was so pleased that I didn't even bother to rationalize away the fact that I had played Black without komi, and I smugly imagined MoGo’s transistors quivering at the thought of another game. Take that, C3PO! By Game Three, MoGo was set to play with full komi and the match was on in earnest. A combination of my improving small-board experience and more serious play yielded three straight wins before I dropped another game to MoGo, but a final victory sealed the match for the human side with a convincing 5-2 margin.
I later had the chance to play some more games with MoGo on reduced komi to estimate its strength, but it wasn't easy. I managed to win a no-komi game holding White, but later lost when receiving partial compensation. It seems safe to conclude that MoGo plays with (AGA) dan-level strength on a 9x9 board, an estimate supported by MoGo's results against other players online. Fully even games against strong amateurs seem to be a little too much for it to handle, and its strength diminishes somewhat on larger boards, but the day when it achieves full equality may not be so far off. MoGo looks like the real thing.
Waldron is a regular contributor to the E-Journal; the Go Review column appears in the Friday Member’s Edition, free each week for AGA members.
Recently, I have been feeling lost in the opening of my games After about the first twenty moves, if no fights were imminent, I was not sure what to do next. Given that confusion, I appreciated Otake Hideo's book for its clarity and insight into the guiding principles of the opening game.
Otake presents twenty "strategic principles" of the opening game. Each principle has its own proverb (for example, "Have a counterplan to deal with invasions") and a collection of about four examples. The principles are grouped into three sections: the fundamentals (which focus on beginning moves, enclosures, pincers, and moyos), the principles on good shape (such as avoiding empty triangles and creating ponnukis), and strategic concerns (such as thickness, reducing moyos, and stealing the base). Each principle is relatively self-contained, so you can choose to focus on what's most important to you.
I really benefited from the examples. Otake's style is to set up a situation with one diagram and then use several diagrams to explore alternatives. Not only does he show use how to use his principle, but he shows you the consequences of not using the principle. The result is a very engaging exposition that I found easy to follow and learn from. I especially appreciated the focus on the difference between the third and fourth line --- Otake made the distinction come alive for me with his proverb "The 4th line is the line of development, the 3rd line is the line of completion". I also benefited from his discussion on pushing from behind and avoiding unnecessary ataris. Overall, I believe the shape section has helped me the most, especially since many of the principles are valid beyond just the opening.
I would recommend the book for anyone just starting to think about joseki. Otake covers a few josekis from the viewpoint of using the star point or the 5-4 point. The emphasis is not on learning the joseki, but appreciating how these points can be used, giving a solid theoretical background for future learning.
Sadly, the book has no problems per se, although Otake does ask a few times for the reader to choose the next move. I would recommend using the principles on the problems in the back of Ikuro Ishigure's "In The Beginning". I also found a few proverbs nonspecific. Otake's principle to "Find the right pincer" begs the question of what is right? (Based on his examples, I would say "find the pincer that both attacks and extends".) But these are small concerns in light of the quality exposition. I'd recommend the book for anyone struggling with their opening game.
Ugh. Another game ending with me trailing by 20+ points after an opening where I stumbled into the midgame with a couple of baseless groups stretched across the board. Time to accept the Shogun Challenge to read and review a book on the opening. Going through my seldom-used go library, I saw a tome that I bought ten years ago and never found the time to read: "Opening Theory Made Easy" by Otake Hideo. It’s a compact book of 170 pages and promises "Twenty Strategic Principles to Improve Your Opening Game."
I was caught immediately by the simplicity of the method Otake uses to demonstrate his principles. He uses mostly three-quarter-sized boards and in many cases less than twenty stones to show the way. The twenty principles are divided into three chapters: Fuseki Fundamentals, Good Shape and Strategy.
Here are some of
the lessons I learned:
In summary, I found Otake's book well written and full of new ways to look at the go board. This is not a book of joseki. It deals in the establishment of whole-board fundaments into which the joseki are incorporated. His examples are clear, concise and to the point. He shows variations and how they lack the advantage of his examples. Now if I can just avoid the temptations and follow Principle 20: "Don't cling to stones that have served their purpose."
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Last updated on March 9, 2008
