Basic Techniques of Go

Ishi Press book from 1969, now in a revised edition (Kiseido). Authors Haruyama Isamu and Nagahara Yoshiaki. The third edition from 1992 was completely rewritten to eliminate most of the Japanese terminology that was present in the previous editions, making it much easier to read. Only the more usual Japanese terms are used in this edition (e.g. atari, sente, gote, joseki).

This book is an attempt at writing an all-in-one book for single-figure kyu players, covering tesuji, fuseki, handicap games at nine, six and four stones, and the endgame. It does an interesting job of covering an immense subject.

Basic concepts are explained carefully: sente and gote; ladders; shortage of liberties; aji; miai; kikashi; sabaki, light and heavy; and ko.

The tesuji chapter is distinctive because it categorizes a large number of tesuji quite thoroughly:

1. Special properties of the corner
2. horikomi
3. Sacrificing two stones instead of one
4. keima watari
5. sagari (descent)
6. kosumi
7. tsuke
8. tsuke-koshi
9. hasami-tsuke (called pincer attachment, but known as a clamp)
10. hane
11. ni-dan bane
12. warikomi
13. atekomi
14. ate (atari) used as a high level tactic
15. kiri
16. How to defend against a cut
17. nozoki
18. oki (placement)
19. nobi
20. miscellaneous tesuji

Each section explains the tesuji with a reference diagram and several examples. Then there is a sub-chapter with 50 tesuji problems.

The even game fuseki chapter has sections on corner moves, shimari (corner enclosure), kakari, and proper timing of shimari, kakari, and extensions.

The nine-stone handicap chapter discusses the tsuke-nobi joseki.

The six-stone chapter discusses boshi and uchikomi.

The four-stone chapter focuses on the 4-4 point low approach high extension joseki with reference to: hasami, double kakari, double hasami, tsuke, keshi, and uchikomi.

The Yose chapter explains counting, sente yose, counting the size of yose plays, Endgame Tesuji 1, and nine yose problems.

There is an ebook version for the iPad.

Reviews

David Carlton's review of this book.

axd: Totally insignificant, but following struck me about the cover picture, which shows obvious arrangments to make it "photographically" nicer:

• I count 28W and 25(maybe 26)B stones
• the lids of the bowls lay on the same side
• I would expect the White bowl to be at the far end side of the picture, and Black facing the wall. Maybe only the white bowl has been moved to a more visible place.

Table of Contents

to be added

Sample Material

to be added