The Second Book of Go

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The Second Book of Go, by Richard Bozulich. The first edition was published by The Ishi Press. A new edition, with several differences, was published by Kiseido in 1998.

See also [ext] David Carlton's review.


This is a book for those who have just learned the rules and now start to want to know more about the game. The first edition is divided into four parts:

The Basics

(Eyes and living groups, capturing races, tesujis, life and death, shape)

The Opening

The Middle Game

The Endgame and Ko-Fights

I found this book extremely helpful, interesting and fun to read. It brought me from nothing to 22k* on IGS.

- DavidPeklak


Jan: The contents above refer to the first edition. The second edition's contents are:

  • Preface

Part One: Strategy

  • A Brief Glossary of Japanese Go Terms
  • Chapter 1: The Opening Move
  • Chapter 2: Handicap-Go Strategy
  • Chapter 3: Josekis
  • Chapter 4: Securing Territory by Attacking

Part Two: Tactics

  • Chapter 5: Tesuji
  • Chapter 6: Life and Death
  • Chapter 7: Counting Liberties
  • Chapter 8: How to Win Capturing Races
  • Chapter 9: Good and Bad Shape
  • Chapter 10: The Endgame
  • Chapter 11: Ko Fights
  • Bibliography

Chapter 6 and the last three chapters are a bit short, in my opinion. But the rest is excellent!

Dieter: Chapters 7 & 8 are the famous articles by Richard Hunter, one of the most helpful and self-contained treatments of an aspect of the game. The book is certainly worth buying for these chapters alone.

Jan: Yes, those chapters were one of the reasons I bought this book over a year ago. However, I still don't have the theory memorized :-) All I know is: 'Count! Read! Count! Read! Count! Read!' (and be aware of eyes and approach moves). That's good enough at my level - perhaps even better?

In retrospect, those two chapters stand out from the rest of the book: in thoroughness as well as in level. I think they would have merited a 'Workshop'-like book, a la Monkey Jump Workshop.

Dieter: The author agrees with that: see Richard Hunter.

Jan: Great minds think alike! I probably got the idea from SL anyway :-)

TaoVegan: This is a great book! It's well organized and the material is presented in an interesting and applicable manner. It is, as stated above, perfect for the beginner who is moving on from the basics and looking for that first taste of detailed Go instruction. It's a great overview of strategy, tactics, and concepts to be read many times over, learning something new each time.

juhtolv: IMNSHO you'd better skip those chapters 7 and 8 and get a book called "Counting Liberties and Winning Capturing Races" instead, if possible. In that book those chapters are in extended form.

Tirian: All of the chapters are covered more comprehensively in other books. In fact, the whole book seems like a subtle ad for the reader to go out and buy the entire "Elementary Go Series". This is not a weakness of the book -- it's marvelous to have a single work that takes you from just knowing the rules to having a basic understanding of every phase of the game. Then you lose your first fifty games and plan your course of study appropriately.

I'm rereading the book for the fiftieth time now (1st edition), and am wondering what more advanced players think of the joseki that are taught in the book. I'm only really used to knights-move approaches to the 4-4 point, but I've never seen anyone play quite like Bozulich suggests. Have his styles gone out of fashion in the past twenty years?


This is a copy of the living page "The Second Book of Go" at Sensei's Library.
(OC) 2005 the Authors, published under the OpenContent License V1.0.
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