Books by Level

This book is the best and most authoritative introduction to this ancient and fascinating game. Written specifically for the western reader by one of the strongest players in the world, it presents the rules, tactics, and strategy of this unique game in a step-by-step, easy to understand way. Besides showing you how to play, it contains essays about the world of Go which will broaden your knowledge and understanding as well as pique your interest. From history to modern tournament play, from traditional playing sets to computer Go, you'll find it in these pages.

This workbook is for players who have just gotten in touch with the game. It provides exercises to help deepen and ingrain the understanding of the rules. You will learn about the correlation and dependencies of the stones to each other, and thereby be able to improve your games. The first exercises are very easy, gradually increasing to moderate difficulty as you progress through the book.

This is our first book in German. As with all our multi-lingual books, you can choose to see either language, or even both. More books in German are planned.

Graded Go Problems for Beginners are the ideal books for players who have just learned the rules of Go, bridging the gap between a beginner’s book and some of the more ‘advanced’ elementary books.

Review of this book: bengozen.com/book-review-graded-go-problems-for-beginners-vol-1

Volume Two of this series adds 327 elementary level problems.

Review of this book: bengozen.com/book-review-graded-go-problems-for-beginners-vol-2

The So You Want to Play Go? series is a step by step course that begins with the bare basics for beginners in the first level, to more advanced topics in level 4. Great for total beginners or even experienced veterans, the So You Want to Play Go? series is aimed at teaching the principles and fundamentals of the game in a fun and interesting way, so that Go is enjoyable for everyone.

The award-winning first book in the Learn to Play Go series. Takes the complete beginner step-by-step all the way to playing real Go in fourteen chapters that can be read in 10-15 minutes each, each with a try-it-yourself section at the end. Suitable for kids, demystifies the learning process for adults.

By far the clearest introduction yet to be published in English. — Game Magazine

Second in a series that takes you step-by-step to stronger Go playing — field-tested theory for the modern practitioner of the ancient art of Go. Self-test chapter to check your progress. Requires only a basic knowledge of the rules for comprehension. Helpful for beginners, or more experienced players who feel 'stuck'.

The So You Want to Play Go? series is aimed at teaching the principles and fundamentals of the game in a fun and interesting way. Level 2 of the series is aimed at double-digit kyu players and goes into more detail on the opening, middle game, life and death, and tesuji.

A key feature in the Go books Neil has written is an evaluation of the intention behind each and every move played. The vast majority of game reviews on the Internet and in traditional books have sparse move commentary. Beginners and many intermediate players are thereby sold short---they have to guess why most moves were played.

In this book, Neil analyzes six double digit kyu games. He illustrates shortcomings in the reactionary and localised, small-scale thinking that characterizes play at this level. Every move is evaluated, with variations showing the effect of better moves. By commenting this way, the reader is made to think about each move - the repetition reinforces better thinking, much as repeated Go problem solving sharpens your reading.

These game commentaries should help players tidy up their play, make them more efficient, and start to see new ways of appraising positions, moving them towards single digit kyu level.

This book will have a revolutionary impact on any kyu player who reads it. Zhou clarifies common kyu level misunderstandings that hold kyu players back from reaching dan level. He explains that the skills needed to reach shodan are not things like a thorough knowledge of josekis or an ability to read out long sequences, but rather the elimination of some common confusions about how the game should be approached. The principles involved are not difficult to understand, and Zhou clarifies them by giving detailed analyses of how they are being ignored in three different games between kyu level players.

Learn the secrets of professional Go playing from two top masters of the game. Seven Go dangers — learn what to avoid. Eight secrets of winning play. Real games — even, high, and low-handicap — analyzed in depth.

The essential principles and techniques of good fighting: Battle strategies for invasions, reductions, running battles, contact fights, identifying key stones and expendables, capturing races, and ko fighting.

Professional player Janice Kim reveals the fundamentals of shape and guidelines to correct opening and endgame play learned at the world's top Go training ground, the Korean Go Academy.

Tesujis are the tactics of short range combat in the game of Go. This volume presents over three hundred examples and problems of them, aimed at training the reader to read and spot the right play 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.

Following the general pattern of its predecessor Tesuji, this book organizes over two hundred life-and-death problems and examples into thirty-six short chapters. The problems are grouped around common tesujis (throw-in, placement, etc.) and standard shapes (the one-, two-, and three-space notchers on the sides, the corner L groups, etc.). This makes Life and Death an excellent text to learn from, then an invaluable reference work to come back to.

Cho Hun-hyeon Lectures on Go techniques provide an understanding of the basic fundamentals of Go. Learning to play Go at the dan level is like learning a foreign language. Cho's lectures provide an analysis and practical exercises for studying and learning the basic techniques (words and grammar) of Go that will enable the low and mid kyu player to begin playing consistently at the higher kyu level.

These techniques are explored in 45 opening problems.

Volume 2 continues with 54 late opening and early middle game problems.

Understanding and recognizing good shape will help you become a strong player and develop the intuition that will instantly guide you to find the strongest moves in middle-game fighting. Includes chapters on the efficient placement of stones, on standard shapes (both good and bad), and 245 problems to practice your ability to find the shape move.

The most useful book for beginning players ever written. After introducing the basic principles of opening play, the reader is shown practical sure-win strategies to use in handicap games. A chapter is devoted to tesujis (tactical brilliancies), with 69 examples and 50 problems. The book ends with a chapter on the endgame.

In this book, Yuan Zhou looks at common kyu-level mistakes in tactics as well as in strategy. His commentaries on six games played by single-digit kyu players point out and explain both mistakes and good moves. Earlier versions of these commentaries were included in the American Go Association E-Journal; the commentaries have been significantly expanded for this publication. This is a great follow-up to How Not to Play Go, elaborating and illustrating the principles discussed there.

If you liked the first volume, you'll love the second volume. Yuan Zhou discusses kyu-level mistakes in another six games.

Yilun Yang is justly famous among his many devoted students for his remarkable guidelines about how to play Go. These basic principles cover virtually every situation and enable a player to find the best play with a minimum of reading. Now, for the first time, he has consented to allow the publication of a book containing a broad selection of these principles, focusing especially on the opening and the early middle game.

This is Slate & Shell's most popular book. Buy the printed book.

This is an exhaustive manual that details how sparkling technique may bring one's game alive. 61 Model situations are examined, in which deadly hane, exquisite placements, and stunning attachments, among other skillful finesse, are shown to be surprisingly effective. The flip side of the matter, crude moves (or 'anti-suji') are offered in contrast, demonstrating how thoughtless play can throw away the chance for an advantage. The positions in the book are illustrated in more than 700 diagrams, which makes comprehension of the material simple.

This is both a thoroughly enjoyable exploration into one of the most fascinating aspects of Go, and a text which can be invaluable for growing stronger. This book has been out of print for years.

Killing isolated groups or finding a way to make two eyes for them is an important technique that every Go player must acquire. Although this is first and foremost a problem book (containing 230 problems), the explanations of the main topics make it useful as an introduction to life and death and it should be accessible to players who have read an introductory Go book and played a few games. Divided into three parts, the first part systematically covers the basics of life and death, starting with the fundamental concept of eye space. Next, the three essential tesujis used to kill groups are introduced: the hane, the placement and the throw-in. In another section the reader is shown when it is appropriate to expand his eye space and when he should fall back and play on a vital point. Part Two contains 100 life-and-death problems of positions that arise from josekis and their variants. The final part contains 64 problems for the reader to review and practice the principles learned in the first two parts.

How do you win a won game? How do you win a lost game? Study the endgame! More specifically, study this book and you will really get strong at the endgame.

The book starts out with a 42-problem test. Unless you're already strong at the endgame, expect to do badly, but after studying the 120 endgame-tesuji problems in Part Two and the 101 endgame-calculation problems in Part Three, you should have no problem scoring close to 100%. The 28 problems on 11x11 boards in Part Four illustrate the interplay between different-valued endgame moves in realistic situations.

Reviews of this book: gobooks.nemir.org/books/k57.html

This book contains four games analyzed and explained by Yuan Zhou. Zhou is especially adept at clarifying what is happening in pro games so that even relative beginners can benefit from studying them.

This e-book is a selection of commentaries on professional games from two print books by Yuan Zhou. There are two of the fourteen games in Master Play: The Styles of Seven Top Pros and two of the fourteen in Understanding Pro Games, both published by Slate & Shell.

The first in a series of books on the playing styles of top pros by Yuan Zhou. This series is aimed at helping amateurs to understand what it means to have a consistent style of play and to develop their own. In this book, Zhou uses a very thorough analysis of two of Lee Changho's games to clarify why Lee's style is called “calm and solid” and why it is so effective.

This second book in Yuan Zhou's series on the playing styles of top pros deals with the famously difficult style of Go Seigen, the greatest player of the 20th century. Most amateur players are completely mystified by Go's play. Zhou makes clear what he is up to. Having a better understanding of a particular style, even a very difficult one, will help you to develop your own.

This book contains two famous pro games that are annotated in an unusually thorough way. Almost every move is explained and critiqued. The aim is not only to give readers a full understanding of what is happening in the game, but also to encourage readers to study the games properly by thinking about how they would continue before looking at the next diagram. Frequent queries about what to do next are intended to remind you to do this. You will be surprised to discover how much more fully you understand these games as a result of the unusually detailed commentary.

This second volume adds three famous pro games that are annotated in an unusually thorough way. Almost every move is explained and critiqued.

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.

The middle game of Go often appears chaotic, but there is order in the chaos, as this book plainly reveals. 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.

The endgame tends to be the neglected side of the game of Go. This is strange indeed, for it also tends to be where the outcome is decided, and frequently accounts for about half the stones played. This volume seeks to rectify this situation by setting forth the basic tactics, strategies, and counting techniques needed in the endgame. Everything from the smallest local tesujis to the global macroendgame is covered with numerous examples and problems, many of them drawn from the Japanese author's professional games.

Go begins with virtually unlimited possibilities on an empty board. Here a 9-dan professional Go player explains how the game takes shape, bringing correct modern opening technique within the reach of all players. Elementary in its approach, In The Beginning illuminates depths of Go strategy that few amateurs understand well.

Review of this book: bengozen.com/book-review-in-the-beginning

In his workshop lectures Yang guides players through the special approach to thinking about and playing the game that he has worked out during many years of teaching. He believes that play should be guided by applying easily understood principles rather than by memorizing common patterns and sequences. Yang argues that there are too many variables in Go to make memorizing set patterns very efficient, but there are a relatively small number of easy to understand precepts that can effectively guide players' reading and play in every situation that arises.

The three lectures in this book present some of these guidelines that are especially applicable to the opening stage of the game: When to Tenuki in the Opening, Choosing the Direction of Attack, and Playing Complicated Joseki.

Review of this book: The Workshop Lectures

This volume is based on five lectures:
• How to Invade shows how to invade large areas your opponent is trying to surround.
• Choosing the Correct Pincer and Side Extensions in the Opening provide guidelines for choosing a pincer or extension in different situations.
• Playing a Territorial Game and Playing a Moyo Game show how a consistent style of play will yield better results.
All five lectures reflect Yang's emphasis on understanding general principles rather than memorizing patterns.

Volume 3 of this popular series contains five lectures:
• Playing the Opening shows how to apply Yang's opening principles in some common situations.
• Developments Around the 4-4 Point discusses common situations with a 4-4 corner stone, especially double approach moves.
• Punishing Weak Groups Directly explains how to tell if a group is weak, and how to attack it if it is; this lecture also covers Yang's basic guidelines for fighting.
• Using Forcing Moves explains when to use forcing moves and when to hold them in reserve.
• Handling Weak Stones discusses how to defend weak stones.
As always, Yang emphasizes the importance of understanding general principles rather than memorizing particular patterns.

Volume 4 of this popular series contains four lectures:
• Good and Bad Shape lays out guidelines for making good shape and avoiding bad shape when opposing stones are in contact.
• When to Play Fast or Slow covers when to play fast moves and when to play slow moves in the opening.
• Playing a Fighting Opening completes Yang's analysis of how to play the three basic types of games: territorial, moyo, and fighting. Lectures on the first two are included in Volume 2 of The Workshop Lectures.
• Destroying Large or Nearly Completed Positions shows how to severely damage positions that your opponent was probably already counting as territory.
As always, Yang emphasizes the importance of understanding general principles rather than memorizing particular patterns.

Volume 5 of this popular series contains three lectures:
• Choosing Areas in the Opening looks at the relative potential each player has in a given area to help decide whether and how to play in that area.
• Handling Unusual Opening Moves discusses how to deal with unusual opening moves by your opponent.
• Protecting a Position talks about how to protect a weak position.
As always, Yang emphasizes the importance of understanding general principles rather than memorizing particular patterns.

This book is the result of research and thinking about the nature of play by Go players with ranks from 9 kyu up to 1 kyu. More precisely, about the barriers in thinking that make the step up to dan level seem insurmountable for so many. The kyu-dan boundary quite consistently represents a fundamental change in thinking, a quantum leap in the way that kyu and dan players see the board. This book helps you recognize and correct the limtations of kyu thinking.

The So You Want to Play Go? series is aimed at teaching the principles and fundamentals of the game in a fun and interesting way. Level 3 takes single-digit kyu players on the road to 1 dan.

This book provides a vast number and a large variety of opening problems for the inexperienced player. Explanations are brief, with emphasis being placed on principles to give the reader a feeling of what a good opening move is. To this end each problem is presented by stating an opening principle that can be used to solve the problem. By seeing how these opening principles are used in games, your intuition in the opening will become highly developed.

This book provides a large variety of tesuji problems. Tesuji are skillful moves that accomplish some clear tactical objective, such as capturing stones or a group, rescuing one of your own groups, linking up your stones, separating your opponent's stones, making good shape, etc. There are about 45 different kinds of moves that make up tesujis. Some of these tesujis occur quite frequently in games, while others are seldom seen.

This book presents examples of every kind of tesuji. The more common ones occur in numerous problems, but even the less common ones will be represented a number of times. All of these different tesujis are scattered throughout the book. Just as in a game, one never knows what kind of tesuji will appear. It may be easy to find it, but often it is hard; it might be a quite common tesuji, but it could be one of those that rarely occur. Going through the 501 tesujis in this book will be like getting a tesuji experience in 501 games. However, in a game, many tesujis will go by unnoticed; in this book, each problem will be a learning experience.

Rescuing and capturing stones are two vital techniques in the game of Go. These two techniques are introduced in depth through 80 exercises.

Tricks in Joseki teaches the reader how to apply joseki flexibly and to avoid pitfalls. The techniques are introduced in depth through 80 exercises.

A collection of eleven masterpieces by some of the great players of the post-war era. An exhaustive commentary accompanies each game. Starts with the atomic-bomb game between Iwamoto and Hashimoto, Takagawa's dominance of the Honinbo title, the rise of Sakata and Fujisawa Shuko, Fujisawa Hosai and his imitation Go strategy, and more.

For those without iPad or iPhone: please check out the PDF sample of Modern Master Games. This book was originally released in SmartGo Books; Kiseido has since published a print version.

This is Go the Natural Way! are the watchwords that the author takes as his philosophy of play in this unique volume, but the book could also be viewed as The Best Games of Takemiya Masaki. When he published the material that has been translated here, Takemiya was Honinbo and at the top of his form. Few professional Go players were serious rivals for him. And the ones who were are today considered as great players in the same way as he is, such as Cho Chikun, Kato Masao or Sakata Eio. All of these players and many more make appearances in this volume.

Have you ever wondered what pros think about during a game? This book gives you a unique opportunity to find out and you will frequently be surprised. The book follows a game between two teams: Go Seigen and Kitani Minoru (the young hot-shots) versus Segoe Kensaku and Suzuki Tamejiro (the established top players). The members of the teams were allowed to consult with each other in another room between moves, and a reporter made notes on what they said and what they did on the practice board. As a result we have an incredible record of what the players were planning and hoping for, what they thought their opponents were doing, and what they decided not to do as well as why they made the choices they did. There could not be a more thoroughly commented professional game.

Surrounding a large moyo is a lot of fun, and the Sanrensei opening is perfectly suited to do it. Patterns of the Sanrensei is a complete study of Sanrensei opening strategies that Michael Redmond used successfully in professional tournament games. In section 1 the reader will find the six Patterns, Black's six basic game plans for the Sanrensei. Section 2 is collection of twenty of Michael Redmond's games, in which the Sanrensei Patterns are shown in actual play. Throughout the book Redmond gives a detailed analysis, making clear the meaning behind his tactics.

Michael Redmond is the only Western Go professional to reach 9 dan. Written directly in English and specifically designed for SmartGo Books, then refined as he translated it to Japanese, this book is a treasure for every player interested in the Sanrensei opening, whether you want to play it or defend against it.

Review of this book: Patterns of the Sanrensei

For those without iPad or iPhone: please check out the PDF sample of Michael Redmond's book. Slate & Shell has published a print version of this book.

This book concerns common joseki mistakes, why they are bad, and how to take advantage of them. Each mistake originates in a real game where an amateur made a real mistake. Joseki books typically concentrate solely on the correct line of play, with perhaps lip service paid to mistakes whose subtlety eludes all but the most advanced of players. The faulty lines are dreamed up by the author, a professional Go player, and do not reflect the mistakes of astounding simplicity that amateurs routinely commit. Showing only the mistake is insufficient: an opponent of equal skill will often fail to take advantage of these mistakes. Therefore, a thorough discussion of the mistake is necessary to truly learn its nature.

We have chosen games reflecting many of the most common joseki mistakes committed by amateur players, most of whom fall between 3 kyu and 4 dan. Although some of the specific mistakes contained in this book are unlikely to be precisely duplicated in the reader’s games, the concepts behind them will prove an informative study for players of many levels. Consider this a practical guide to learning joseki sequences and the ideas that govern them.

The idea for this book arose from the interaction of Jiang and Guo in giving joint lectures on the Kiseido Go Server, beginning in 2004. They have known each other since they were pros in China, where Guo was at one time a pupil of Jiang's.

The mistakes in playing joseki sequences and in selecting joseki for particular game situations that are the subject of this book are all taken from actual games played by amateurs, many of them dan level players. A print version of this book is available from Slate & Shell with the title All About Joseki.

This book provides a full-length biography of Honinbo Shuei, detailed commentaries on 79 of his games, and a collection of Shuei's commentaries. Honinbo Shuei is still esteemed as the best model for even modern professionals to follow. A must-read for every serious Go player.

This book combines all six books previously published on the Kindle: Life, Games (four volumes), and Commentaries. A vast improvement in readability, and a bargain to boot.

This book has been widely acclaimed as a masterpiece on one of the greatest Go players who ever lived. Click here to learn more about this work.

A legendary work by a legendary player. 'Razor-Sharp' Sakata, so long at the forefront of the Go world, produced, when he was at the height of his powers, a classic text on the theme of killing stones.

Sakata conveys, with exquisite erudition, the thrill of the chase and the satisfaction of the winner when a well-planned attack bears fruits. At the same time, he offers a thumbnail sketch of the history of Go through the ages, masterpieces of attack from his own and others' games, fascinating glimpses into the nature of offbeat joseki and the shape of stones, as well as classic games which he fully annotates. One is the famous game between Meijin Shusai Honinbo and Karigane Junichi, hailed as a 'group-capturing masterpiece played between the top players' of the day.

This book has been out of print for a number of years; we're excited to bring it back to life. The SmartGo Books edition of this tour de force has been enhanced with 27 additional diagrams that replace long sequences of letters that were hard to follow.

This small book (originally created by the Wings Go Club) is based on lectures by Mr. Yang. Ninety-five pictures with succint comments show how to destroy and preserve territory, with focus on how far to extend and where to invade in a wide variety of positions.

In the normal course of a Go game, you're eventually faced with managing a weak stone. Knowing how to handle the situation adroitly may mean the difference between winning and losing. This study guide presents a discourse about sabaki techniques, written in the typically lucid and hard-hitting style of Mr. Yang, 7-Dan professional. Following his discourse are a dozen practice problems to help you determine if you have absorbed the material.

Don't be deceived by the small size of this book. It's packed with applicable information and likely will require several readings to fully master. But, as you apply the techniques and develop your judgment, your regular opponents will be in for a surprise as you demonstrate your newly acquired flexibility and lightness.

This book contains four thoroughly commented games from Go Seigen's matches with Fujisawa Kuranosuke. Because Fairbairn draws on numerous sources not available in English, the discussion is unusually illuminating.

These four games are selected from the print book 9-Dan Showdown, published by Slate & Shell. The print book contains thirty games with extensive commentary as well as a great deal of historical and biographical material. In the e-book version, only the game commentary, with colour notes (slightly abridged), is included.

Fujisawa Shuko was one of Japan’s top players from the 1960s. Among his contemporaries, he ranks with Go Seigen and Sakata Eio for his creativity and the depth of his understanding of Go. His two greatest achievements were becoming the first tournament Meijin in 1962 and winning the first six terms of the Kisei title from 1977 to 1982. Shuko won this title against Hashimoto Utaro at 52, an age at which most pros are washed up as title contenders. He went on to defend this title against challenges from the young stars of the day who were dominating all the other titles: Kato Masao, Ishida Yoshio, Rin Kaiho, and Otake Hideo.

The Games of Fujisawa Shuko presents all 40 games that Fujisawa played in the Kisei title matches, including the seven in which he was dethroned by Cho Chikun. Most of these games were first published in Go World, but two against Hashimoto never appeared there and one had only an extremely brief commentary. John Power has provided new commentaries for these games to make this volume complete.

Shuko was a player of great originality, with an unmatched intuitive grasp of the essence of Go. He was the player other professionals consulted when a fuseki or middle-game problem was to difficult for them. He was a great exponent of thickness and had a knack for astonishing other professionals with the boldness of his ideas, especially in the transition from the fuseki to the middle game.

Studying and playing through these games will give you an appreciation of the profundity of Go as well as an appreciation of the genius of Fujisawa Shuko.

Sabaki is one of the most intriguing techniques of Go. In the hands of accomplished players it can seem like pure sorcery. At times the stones can appear to dance with life. While playing lightly hither and yon, the opponent's forces can end up ineffective, over-concentrated and misdirected.

Yoda Norimoto has been one of the leading players on the Go scene for more than ten years. In this landmark volume he uses a question and answer format to explore a variety of the aspects of Go regarding sabaki from each player's point of view.

78 Model Problems, each with limited responses, are posed for the reader to solve. Despite this narrow focus, finding the correct solution can be surprisingly difficult. But Yoda clearly explains all of the possibilities, so the reader can cultivate the judgment to find the key line of play in such positions.

What actually is thickness? And how is it best utilized? Hane Naoki 9 dan, former Kisei, has a surprising answer. He does not necessarily seek to use it to attack as many players do, nor to dominate the opponent. Instead, Hane says that thickness gives him leeway to play in a relaxed way, rather than going all-out, to be satisfied with a mere sufficient gain instead of a big windfall and to play moves that others might deem too mediocre to consider.

This book shows the keys to doing that successfully. Using positions from his actual games, Hane highlights both the most significant strategic and tactical moments, while also pointing out fundamental truths about the game that one needs to master in order to play skillfully.

This book is O Rissei's account of how he captured the Kisei title. It reveals his thoughts as he challenged the best players in the world and overcame them to win the Go world's highest title. The key to his win was innovative play in the opening, stubborn persistence in the middle game and precise calculation in the endings. All of these facets are explored in this work.

In Chapter 1, O Rissei presents sixteen strategies that he has used to get the advantage in the opening of his games. These are cutting-edge moves that are rarely found in even the most up-to-date joseki dictionaries. Chapter 2 illustrates the continuations and offers the reader a chance to guess at the winning play in a problem format. Chapter 3 brings all the elements of the book together in a thorough analysis of six of O Rissei's games played against the best Go players in the game today. Again, a problem format gives the reader the chance to match wits with these great talents.

Catching Scent of Victory is one of the rare books in the world that delivers more than it promises. It explains how to set the stage in the opening of a game of Go so that one has a chance to win, then demonstrates the mechanics of the play and finally shows how events typically develop through the middlegame. But then it goes even farther, to step behind the scenes and recapture the human element of top-level match play. It is a testament to the panorama of O Rissei's Go career. And as such, it proclaims that one must always be on the lookout for suspicious moves.

Everybody loves a good fight. There is nothing better to get the adrenalin pumping and the heart racing. While playing Go, it is even more enjoyable than capturing the opponent's stones. In Japan today, perhaps Yamashita Keigo is the most successful attacking player on the Go scene. His effectiveness in attacking has brought him to the pinnacle of the Go world, winning the Kisei title.

In this book, Yamashita retraces his career, from his first forays as a fledging professional to one of the masterful games that gave him the Kisei title. Over ten chapters, he analyzes these games in detail, starting with Highlight Scenes that he presents of the games to follow and where he challenges the reader to find the best move. Then he explains the essence of his approach to the game and the key to attacking. The next chapter offers problem positions from 12 memorable games that he played, selected by his teacher, Kikuchi Yasuro, who for many years was one of the top amateur players in Japan. The final chapter contains biographical information and an intimate look at Yamashita's growth and maturity as Go player.

Rather than being a brilliant or flashy player, Yamashita has achieved success through tenacious and indomitable play. That characteristic has served him well and is the kind of thing that can be emulated by anyone. This book gives a complete picture of Yamashita's development and the most notable aspects of his play. Altogether, it is instructive, entertaining, inspiring and informative. It shows how Go is currently being played at the highest level and the attacking innovations to be seen there.

In his long career, Fujisawa Shuko won a place among the elite of the Go world lasting several decades. Few players have won as many prestigious Go tournaments as he did. But in addition, he was one of the most important mentors for younger generations of players.

This series offers an intimate look at Shuko Sensei's mentoring process. 80 Problem Positions in each book challenge the reader to match wits with Fujisawa Shuko's students. Then, Shuko Sensei himself gives the Only Move as the solution. Few players would disagree that the analysis that follows is a triumph of the imagination.

Innovative moves in the opening are explored in this first volume. These are the newest moves in the fuseki or joseki as they are examined by the next generation in the dormitory or played in top competition.

This second volume examines fighting moves in the middlegame. The positions that are investigated are from games played by the best of the younger generation in Japan, China, and Korea against each other or against the best of the older generation. As always, Shuko Sensei sharply criticizes complacent moves, and points out how to take control of the games.