Product Description

Volume V of this award-winning series 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.

Templates for fighting in any situation
Guidelines to correct shape
Opening theory made simple
Principles of standard sequences, or joseki
Techniques for winning endgame
Test Yourself sections check your progress
Approachable for newbies

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #64244 in Books
• Published on: 2003-11
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 210 pages

Customer Reviews

Another in an excellent series
This volume continues the great work that the authors have done in volumes I-IV.

One of the unique things about this series - and one of the things I like about it - is that they are written "broadly" instead of "deeply". That is, each book is written to a phase in your development as a Go player, covering the things that you're going to be seeing on the board during that phase - openings, fighting, end-game and all.

This is in contrast to most Go books, which cover a particular aspect in great detail, trying to cover the advanced and not-so-advanced aspects at the same time.

When I look for a new Go book, I always wish for some kind of guide as to what level it's appropriate for. Though there's a lot of individual variation in this area, I'll take a shot at it for this book: I would say that it's teaching material for 20k to 10k players. It would also serve as good review material up to, say, 5k, providing a fresh perspective and filling in some details.

Players below those levels would definitely want to go back to previous volumes in the series and work their way up to this one. Players above those levels might not find much new here, unless they've gotten there mainly through a lot of play and not much study - in which case they might still benefit from this presentation.

The Modern Go Instructor
This is an excellent book about Go.

In the preface of this book, Janice Kim says that she considered calling the book "My System." Of course, the reference was to Aron Nimzovitch's chess book with that title. That book stressed some elements of chess, such as the blockade and overprotection that had been underestimated or overlooked by many good players. Anyway, as I'm sure we all realize, that title simply would not do.

But it would have been the wrong title anyway. The proper title, had Kim wanted to make an analogy with chess, would have been similar to that of World Champion Wilhelm Steinitz's book from the 1880s (The Modern Chess Instructor). Needless to say, that sort of title would not have been appropriate here either, but it is the proper analogy.

Steinitz came up with about a dozen fundamental principles of positional play. And Kim has done roughly the same thing in this book. Of course, Steinitz was devising these principles himself, while Kim is simply repeating what has been well-known for centuries.

Or is she? The simple principles that she drums into us, all of which ought to be well-known to all low-kyu players, are not the whole story. The implications of these principles constitute the teaching she presents. For example, we all should know that the threat of a five-stone capture of a single stone (a pon-nuki with a friendly stone added touching two of the capturing stones) is inefficient. Kim shows an implication of this is that we ought not threaten to make such a capture, and an implication of not wanting to make such a threat is that we ought not form a "closed triangle" that will lead to us making such a threat.

She's turned a set of go proverbs into a coherent procedure for evaluating moves in most fights.

Kim starts by reminding us that in a race to acquire territory, the maxim is to get out in front of one's opponent and then cut him off! And then there are her Fourteen Points (as I call them) of Shape in Fighting:

1) Attach, Hane
2) The Tiger's Mouth
3) The One-Point Jump
4) Jump-Cut the Knight's Move
5) Cut, Extend
6) Prevent the Bamboo Joint
7) The Empty Triangle
8) Sacrifice Two
9) Cap, Knight's Move
10) The Center of Symmetry
11) Peep, Connect
12) Hit the Head of Two (or Three)
13) The Squeeze
14) The Star Capture

Kim gives us more advice than this. On openings, she reminds us that her principles are: first approach the corners (in one of five ways: the 4-4, 3-4, 3-3, 3-5, or 4-5 points), second enclose or approach "unbalanced" corners, then play in the side star regions, make secondary side extensions that aim at invasions, after the sides, enlarge and defend towards the center, the third line is the line of territory, the fourth line is the line of influence, find your "good side," bases are crucial: don't make groups without a base, and stay away from strength.

And there are endgame principles: locate the big endgame, calculate, look to the edges, take and keep sente, be sure to get the double-sente moves, endgame moves related to a group's base are urgent, watch your liberties, watch the safety of your stones, and finally, save the endgame for the endgame!

On all her principles, Kim gives some great examples and exercises for the reader.

This is a fine finish to a marvellous set of five introductory Go books.

An Excellent Series Continues
My first Go book was the first volume of Janice Kim's Learn To Play Go series. From there, I quickly jumped into the other three books in the series. When browsing for a new board on the website for Kim's company, Samarkand, I saw her announcement that the fifth book in the series was out. I picked it up immediately.

In studying the game, I'd gotten to the point where the opening and issues of shape were becoming important, and it's amazing how Kim's book just enlightened me on these sometimes difficult areas of the game. In one review for Volume IV of the series, a reviewer mentions how Kim interweaves advice on specific plays with general concepts. This effective technique is used here as well.

This is an excellent go book, but obviously it is not for everyone. If you've never played the game before, this is going to be way over your head, and I would suggest Volume I of the series. If you're familiar with the basics, Volumes II-IV are definitely worth reading. Once you've digested those (or equivalent material elsewhere), I totally recommend Volume 5. Not only does it continue the series' reputation for excellent go writing, it extends it.