Slave Children of Thomas Jefferson

Samuel H. Sloan

History

Kiseido Publishing Company

THE SAINT OF GO: Shusaku was the leading player of the golden age of go in the mid-19th century. He has become known to later generations as the Saint of Go (Kisei or Gosei) and is recognized by modern players as one of the greatest geniuses in the history of the game. His victories over his contemporaries in a number of matches contributed to his reputation, but its main foundation is his perfect record, not even approached by any other player, of nineteen successive wins in the annual castle games played in the presence of the shogun. SHUSAKU'S REPUTATION: Shusaku is considered the best model for aspiring professional players to study, especially his games with black. He was unexcelled in his complete mastery of the strategic principles and the practical techniques of go. His games are a treasure house of all the varied elements of the game, from the fuseki to the endgame, but in particular they provide amateur players with ideal material for studying the art of fighting in the middle game. Here are some 20th century views of Shusaku: "Shusaku simplified the complexity of go, concealing his great strength and profound analysis beneath the smooth surface of his game... It is not an exaggeration to say that all the principles and all the techniques of go are embodied in concentrated form in Shusaku's go." - Segoe Kensaku 9-dan "The speed and forcefulness of Shusaku's play with black are like lightning striking the go board; his skill at finishing off his opponent once he took the lead is unrivalled." - Hayashi Yutaka, go historian

Invincible, The Games of Shusaku

Humor & Entertainment

Shusaku

Puzzles & Games

The opening is theoretically the hardest part of the game of go. To professional players, it is the hardest part in practice, as well; in championship games that last two days, for instance, the first day is usually spent playing and thinking about the first 50 moves, and the second day is spent finishing all the rest. Such is the consistency of professional play in the middle game and endgame that if a player comes out of the opening with a bad position, it is almost impossible for him to catch up. Amateurs sometimes rush through their initial moves, saving their powers for the fighting later, but this is more an indication that they do not understand the opening than a sign of talent. The number of possibilities in any opening position is so vast that a player must rely on his feeling for the game rather than on rigorous analysis for guidance. Here he has the greatest chance to use his imagination, play creatively, and develop a personal style. This is the one phase of go that has shown any significant evolution during the past few centuries, and it still defies absolute comprehension.

In the Beginning: The Opening in the Game of Go (Elementary Go Series)

Ishigure, Ikuro

In the game of go, the opening moves focus on the corners of the board. Over the thousands of years of go playing, this aspect of the game has been intensively studied and a large number of opening formulas, or josekis, have been discovered and refined. Every go player needs to have a working knowledge of the basic ones. 38 Basic Joseki cuts incisively through the labyrinth of joseki to give the reader a solid grounding in the subject. Working steadily out from the 3–3 point to the 4–5 point, it surveys the principal variations of the 38 most common corner patterns, pointing out the key ideas in each and showing the reader how to choose and use josekis in relation to other stones on the board.

38 Basic Josekis (Ekementary Go Series)

Kosugi Kiyoshi

James, Davies

Tesujis are the tactics of short-range combat in the game of go. This book presents over 300 examples and problems of them, aimed at training the reader to analyze and spot the right move in all sorts of tactical situations. It covers a wide range of material while concentrating on fundamentals. Its problems manage to be both hard enough to challenge and easy enough to solve, and there are enough of them to keep the most avid busy.

Tesuji

The approach to life-and-death problems used in this book is to emphasize the status of standard groups. Most life-and-death problems in books are presented in the following manner: Black to play and kill; or White to play and live; or Black to play and live in ko; etc. This format has the advantage that even without looking at the answer, you usually know when you have solved the problem. Unfortunately, during a game there is no one standing at your elbow to tell you that this group can be killed or that one can be saved in ko, etc. In actual play you have to work out the status of each group that comes into question. I believe that this way of presenting problems will help many players to win games.

Life and Death (Elementary Go Series)

The middle game of go often appears chaotic, but there is order in the chaos, as this book plainly reveals. The result of a joint effort by a tournament-winning Japanese professional player and an experienced American go writer, it lays down a few clear principles, then goes through a wealth of applications: examples, problems, and case studies from professional play. The reader emerges with a thorough grasp of how to choose strategy, how to execute dual-purpose attacks, how to defend with contact plays, how to force his opponent into submission or cooperation, how to invade and reduce territorial frameworks, and when to fight a ko. This is knowledge that no player can afford to be without.

Attack and Defense

Ishida, Akira

Used. Very Good conditions. May have soft reading marks and name of the previous owner.

The Endgame (Elementary Go (Kiseido))

Davies, James

Ogawa, Tomoko

In handicap games, the handicap stones are high on the star points and are not efficient in securing territory. It is therefore natural and strategically correct for Black to emphasize influence. However, kyu-level players lack the ability and the confidence to play an influence-oriented game; instead of taking chances on positions in which the territorial boundaries are not clearly defined and are often wide open, they prefer to build iron-clad territories in the corners and on the sides. This is strategically unsound. Kyu-level players also tend to play defensively and are not inclined to attack the stronger player. The result is that their opponent steadily starts gaining an advantage in both territory and influence after the first few moves of the game. The correct strategy for Black in handicap games is to place priority on building influence and to use this influence to relentlessly attack. This way of playing might seem to be unreasonable against a strong opponent, but it will actually make your handicap games less complicated and your strategic goals more clear. It is the aim of this book to teach the principles and techniques that will enable the kyu-level player to play this kind of game. Handicap Go starts out with a chapter laying out 20 principles that a player should constantly keep in mind while playing their games. The second chapter outlines a ‘sure-win strategy’ that Black can use in his games to increase his chances of winning. The third chapter looks at handicap games from the viewpoint of White. The fourth chapter presents four example games. The book ends with 38 problems that expand on the theoretical discussions contained in the first chapters and explore variations that were omitted there.

Handicap Go (Elementary Go Series)

Nagahara, Yoshiaki

Bozulich, Richard

Dictionary of Basic Joseki

Yoshio Ishida

Reference

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