JapaneseGoBooks/Topics

Sub-page of JapaneseGoBooks

Bill: In June, 2006, I wondered what general topics were prominent in Japanese go literature. To get a rough idea I did some keyword searches on [ext] Amazon, Japan and counted the number of books for each keyword. (Of course, many books got no hits at all, either because they covered several topics or because they fell through the cracks. For instance, a book on Shusaku might be full of his games, but not show up in the games keyword search. And some books got counted more than once. Still, I think we can get a rough idea from these searches.)

The main book topic was Life and Death.

Next was a surprise to me, Joseki. (So much for losing two stones!)

Tied with Joseki was Tesuji.

Next came Fuseki.

These four topics were in the top tier. On the second tier was Pro Games.

On the third tier were Handicap Go, the Endgame, Fighting (Tatakai), and Kankaku (Feel or Intuition).

What about the Middle Game? It's hard to believe that it would fall below the endgame. Well, there are a number of topics that are basically middle game topics: Shinogi, Sabaki, Attack and Defense, Fighting, Uchikomi and Keshi. Each by itself is on the bottom tier, except for Fighting. But add them all together with books on the Middle Game, and they form a top tier category.

Another surprise for me was that Sacrifice was on the bottom tier. I think that it is very important. Ditto for Shape, although it may be covered under other topics.

Sakata's Killer of Go series has five books, one on Attack (Killer of Go), one on Tesuji (Tesuji and Antisuji of Go), one on Fuseki, one on Joseki, and one combining Life and Death with the Endgame. That's a pretty good survey course.


JapaneseGoBooks/Topics last edited by Bill on June 27, 2006 - 07:49
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