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Lessons In The Fundamentals Discussion
   

Lessons in the fundamentals of Go is the best selling Go book in Europe - according to "Het Paard". It is many a player's favourite. So in order to provide some counterweight, I state here and now that, although I like(d) it a lot, I find it heavily overestimated and even disappointing in retrospect. It is possible that I have forgotten what it taught me. "Stank voor dank" as we say in Dutch. Here is my criticism.

  • Kageyama repeatedly says how important it is to study the fundamentals. In fact, he does that more than giving any fundamentals. So, after reading one is really convinced that the fundamentals are fundamental, but sadly so they are also fundamentally absent in the book.
  • Kageyama's ample provision of fundamentals is given by mere examples. In pursuit of firm claims in the book, I found three:
    • Finish the ladder asap
    • Look for a geta instead of the ladder
    • Fundamentals of life and death: reduce/widen eyespace first, play the vital point next.
  • One of the chapters "The stones go walking" is really very poor. While "The struggle to get ahead" teaches you something, namely, that you should try to get ahead of your opponent's group into open space, "The stones go walking" tell you nothing except that the stones, like man, were born to walk. The whole chapter is ink wasted on incapability to explain the concept.
  • I don't claim that BasicInstinct contains the truth and nothing but the truth, but Lessons... doesn't contain anything like it - except for well hidden hints in the examples - while it is difficult to imagine something more fundamental.

In summary, it is a wonderful book, more because of its wit than because of its useful advice. It reminds you there are things which are not explained elsewhere, but neither are they in this book.

--Dieter

HolIgor: Getting ahead is a great fundamental principle. The more I play the more I appreciate it. The difference in a black or white stone in a certain place is usually very large and we have to learn to appreciate it.

Another great principle in the book is a lesson to use influence for fighting and not for territory. This is not an obvious thing, it has to be learned.

And I remember one more great advice from Kageyama's book. Don't count your spheres of influence as territory. For example, a kogeima shimari is not a territory yet and should not be counted as such in the middle of the game. When you learn to apply this rule you won't feel frustrated when you loose it, moreover you will not get obliged to defend what seems obviously yours. From the psycological point of view the game becomes much easier, you see the board better. When your opponent make a standard second line yosu miru to you kogeima shimari, you really have a choice.

About the ladder. Kageyama's main advice is to learn to read it out. Stone by stone. It is amazing that at the level of IGS 5k* from time to time my opponents make mistakes in reading the ladders.

unkx80: About ladders, um... yes. Have fun with a problem I posted at [ext] http://www.goproblems.com/prob.php3?id=1212, which is a game between two professional 9-Dans :-)


Scartol: I just finished the book, and enjoyed it immensely. I felt like I was being lectured by an elderly gentleman with a very strict sense of tradition and his own skill. Every time I read a phrase like "Anyone who misses this question has no future with the game," I would immediately get the problem wrong and feel very stupid.

But then I'd remember that practice is the only thing that makes anyone better at anything, and that lots of cranky old men use belittling tactics to get students to think more before trying. I prefer (to hear and to use in my classroom) a more gentle approach, but if nothing else, Kageyama's style made me feel great when I got a problem right (both times).

Ultimately, though, I think the book is very useful for the same reason that teachers like Kageyama are so cranky -- because mid-level students (of all kinds) get very high on their minor successes, lapse into laziness and pride, forget the basics,start to fail, and give up. His insistence on knowing the fundamentals (even when he doesn't explain them very well -- I agree with Dieter on this) really made an impression on me. It's the same thing for reading or basketball or succeeding in business. There are no shortcuts, crawl before you walk, always know what you're doing and why.

Now who knows where I can find a copy of Lessons in the Fundamentals of Not Playing Go on IGS until 5:00 AM Causing One to Avoid Work and Skip Meals and Not Bathe?


I had an interesting encounter with Kageyama's advice recently. Playing in my first tournament (I'm now 18k but was 20k at the time), I was having a teaching game with a 2 dan player, and we were joined in discussion by a 3 dan player (who won his division with a perfect record). We were discussing various possible fuseki moves when the 3 dan pointed out 'Kageyama says that go is all about connecting and cutting. Given that, what do you think is the best move?' Since then my thinking about the game has changed, and I think a lot about cutting and connecting, and I sense a real improvement in my play.

I guess this is probably a common experience...

wysi



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