K20: Essential Go Proverbs To Order
by John Power
Essential Go Proverbs is the ultimate guide to mastering the ancient game of go. Written by the author of Invincible, this book compiles a comprehensive collection of the most important go proverbs, distilled from centuries of wisdom and experience from the game's top players. Whether you're a beginner or a seasoned player, these proverbs will deepen your understanding of the game and improve your play. Each proverb is accompanied by detailed explanations and examples, making it easy to apply them to your own games. With Essential Go Proverbs, you'll develop a more intuitive sense of the game and learn how to make strategic decisions with confidence. This book is an indispensable resource for any go player looking to take their game to the next level.

What you will find in this book:

* 104 proverbs with 431 examples and 258 problems in 522 pages.
* These examples and problems will not only deepen your understanding of the proverbs but also the strategy and tactics of the game itself.
* 45 years in the making, this is the largest and most comprehensive collection of examples and problems focussed solely on the go proverbs ever published in any language.
* Not only does this book analyze the proverbs in detail, it also shows the relationship between one proverb to others.
* Contains many interesting and profoundly original games in which these proverbs were applied.


For a review of this book, go to:
https://lifein19x19.com/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=19126&p=277958#p277958




K89: Fuseki Revolution
How AI Has Changed Go
To Order
by Shibano Toramaru 9-dan
translated by John Power
Go-playing AI programs have changed the very nature of professional go. Since the emergence of AlphaGo in 2016, the conventional wisdom of go has been transformed. Opening patterns previously favored by professionals of all levels have lost popularity and some have disappeared altogether. Large moyos have lost out to the thoroughgoing preference of AI for actual territory and its skill at reducing moyos. Josekis have been transformed, with ‘standard’ moves disappearing and their place being taken by new techniques invented by AI. Even some moves that were previously considered taboo, as being crude or ineffective, have been reassessed by AI and have earned places in the standard repertory. In this book, Toramaru Shibano, one of the top players of his generation, gives his own take on the fuseki revolution. He focuses on changes in the contemporary way of thinking about go strategy, organizing his analysis under the following three main headings.

Chapter One: The reasons why popular openings declined
Chapter Two: Changes in conventional wisdom and new sets of values
Chapter Three: Revolutionary new josekis invented by AI

Shibano maintains an independent attitude about go theory and is not afraid to let us know where and why he sometimes disagrees with AI. In an appendix, Shibano gives his own recommendations on the tactics to use with openings like the sanrensei that still feature strongly in amateur go.

The writings of Shibano on which this book is based have been highly praised by John Fairbairn. His review can be read at: Fairbairn review



K90: Joseki Revolution
Overthrowing Conventional Wisdom
To Order
by Shibano Toramaru 9-dan
translated by John Power
In Joseki Revolution, Shibano focuses on local exchanges, in contrast to the predominantly whole-board focus on fuseki strategy of his previous book, Fuseki Revolution. Even so, Shibano's analysis always maintains a global view, as the basic nature of go is such that without whole-board judgement, there is no local judgement. Even when you are evaluating a joseki in a corner, a whole-board viewpoint is always essential.

Of particular interest in Joseki Revolution is his treatment of the taisha, the avalanche, and the magic-sword josekis. Shibano shows how, thanks to AI, these extremely complicated josekis have been "swamped in a wave of simplification."

In Chapter 3 Shibano discusses the merits and demerits of the four corner enclosures based on the 3-4 point. He investigates the reason why the small-knight enclosure has declined in popularity and why the previously shunned two-space enclosure has become so popular.

The book consists of 35 themes divided into four chapters as follows:

Chapter 1. Changes in basic josekis
Chapter 2. The transformation in opening strategies
Chapter 3. Up-to-date information about corner structures
Chapter 4. Looking at the most up-to-date josekis

In an appendix, Shibano examines some unconventional moyo-oriented fuseki strategies and gives some advice on how to handle these large-scale moyos. The appendix also contains a section on the revival of the high Chinese Opening and explains why this opening strategy is strategically sound.




K94: Weird and Wonderful
Extraordinary Moves by Professional Go Players
To Order
by Kim Ouweleen and Peter Brouwer
This book is a collection of moves that are so out of the ordinary that we cannot help but marvel at them: such moves are the weird and wonderful of go. Chapters include: miraculous tesujis that resurrect dead groups; ladders that do not work but are played out anyway for strategic purposes; dragons that bite their own tails; impossible looking invasions deep inside enemy territory; endless loops to escape defeat; and rare sequences that look so bizarre they make you laugh. If you want to study professional play and marvel at the creativity of human go, you will enjoy this book.




K26: The Direction of Play To Order
by Kajiwara Takeo
Kajiwara is famous for his iconoclastic opinions on fuseki. In this book, this great go theorist lays down the basic principles of his opening theory. He emphasizes the importance of careful analysis beginning with the very first moves in order to determine the correct direction of play. He demonstrates that each stone has a life of its own, thus expressing the individuality of the player, and that the key to a powerful game is understanding the relationship between every stone and the overall position.

Independent review: bengozen.com