81 Little Lions

81 Little Lions: An Introduction to the 9x9 Board for Advanced Beginners is a short book written by Dr. Immanuel Devillers? and released for free at the OGS's forum back in 2015.

As the title indicates, the book aims at providing tactics and strategies adapted to the 9x9 board.

A new edition, revised, was released in 2019.

Contents

The first chapter, on basics, explores how the size of the 9x9 board affects different aspects of the game, such as influence and the survival of groups, and includes a section on openings, enumerating what Dr. Devillers? describes as the total six good moves to start on that board: Tengen (5-5 Point), Takamoku (5-4 Point), Mokuhazushi (5-3 Point), Hoshi (4-4 Point), Komoku (3-4 Point) and Sansan (3-3 Point), with an example for each taken from pro games.

In the second chapter, concerning tsumego, the author writes about the particular importance that solving tsumego has for improving on the 9x9 board, also providing a guide on how to study them and pointing to links where they can be found.

In a similar vein, the third chapter offers advice about how to study joseki, something Devillers? claims to be useful and important even for beginners, also providing links to where joseki for the 9x9 board can be found and two variants of tengen joseki.

The fourth chapter explains how two techniques, the chapel and the attach-crosscut, can be used for furikawari, using a game between Kudo Norio 9p and Yamada Kimio 9p to illustrate the former and showing number of variations of the latter.

The fifth chapter offers a few pointers about the use of jumps on the 9x9 board; the sixth, a few exercises and variations; the final chapter includes a section with the links listed throughout the book.

Table of Contents

• Welcome to 9x9
• About This Edition
• Short History

1. The Basics
   1. Openings
      1. Tengen (5-5 Point)
      2. Takamoku (5-4 Point)
      3. Mokuhazushi (5-3 Point)
      4. Hoshi (4-4 Point)
      5. Komoku (3-4 Point)
      6. Sansan (3-3 Point)
   2. Influence Is Subtle, Control Is Everything
   3. A Mistake Is Always Lethal
   4. Instant Tsumego
   5. Komi Is a Bitch
   6. There Is Not Enough Space to Run
   7. Two Groups Are Enough
2. Tsumego
   1. Example Tsumego
   2. Study Guide
   3. Where to Find Tsumego
3. Learn Joseki
   1. My Favorite Joseki
      1. Tengen (5-5) Joseki — Variation 1
      2. Tengen (5-5) Joseki — Variation 2
4. Furikawari
   1. The Chapel Technique
      1. A Pro Game Example
   2. The Attach-Crosscut Technique
5. On Jumps
   1. Good
      1. One-Point Jump
      2. Two-Point Jump
      3. Three-Point Jump
   2. Bad
      1. Three-Point Jump With White Stone on Tengen
   3. Depends
      1. Two-Point Jump With White Stone Around
6. Practical Trainer
   1. Training 1
   2. Training 2
   3. Training 3
7. The End?
   1. Link List

Download

Further information, download options and updates can be found in the official release thread for each edition of the book:

• The original 2015 edition;

• The 2019 revised edition.