Dictionaries page

If you want overviews on Go, rather than comprehensible fragments, one place to seek them would be the major reference works. This is not likely to be helpful to beginners, naturally enough.

Table of contents Nihon Ki-in's encyclopedia series Top Level Middle Level First and Revised editions New Edition Introductory Level Seibundo Shinkosha Dictionaries Hankuk Kiwon series Other Joseki dictionaries Online Life and Death dictionary

Nihon Ki-in's encyclopedia series

Top Level

• Great Joseki Encyclopedia (定石大事典) (2 volumes) published 1986 and 1987. About 19,000 diagrams.
  • Chinese ed. title 定式大辞典
• Great Fuseki Encyclopedia (布石大事典) published 1989
• Great Tesuji Encyclopedia (手筋大事典) published 1992

These are anonymous corporate works, typically priced at 24000 yen for a large volume of 1000 pages in a slipcase. Out of print.

tchan001: Pictures of the above top level books can be found at this post

Middle Level

Nihon Ki-in Encyclopedia Series: three editions;

• First edition: Black cover, in green box. Published in the 1970s.
• Revised edition (Zouho-kaiteiban 増補改訂版): White cover. Published in the 1990s. Minor corrections and additions.
• New edition (Shinban 新版): Color cover. Published around 2010.

First and Revised editions

Consists of five titles of two volumes each (上 and 下), ten books in all.

• Basic Fuseki Encyclopedia by Rin Kaiho (基本布石事典) :Mostly about fuseki theory up to the mid-1970s.
  • English translation: Dictionary of Basic Fuseki (3 volumes), published by Yutopian
• Basic Joseki Encyclopedia by Ishida Yoshio (基本定石事典)
  • English translation of the first edition: Ishida Joseki Dictionary by Ishi Press.
• Basic Tesuji Encyclopedia by Fujisawa Hideyuki (基本手筋事典): An ambitious attempt to include almost any kind of move in Go as tesuji.
  • English translation in four volumes published by Slate and Shell. Out of print, but available in e-book format from smartgo.
• Basic Life-and-Death Encyclopedia by Cho Chikun (基本死活事典): Book 1 describes basic and some practical life-and-death; Book 2 is a collection of classic problems.
  • English translation of Book 1: All About Life and Death (two volumes)
• Basic Handicap Go Encyclopedia by Otake Hideo (基本置碁事典)

New Edition

Current, in print edititon. Consists of four titles, six books in all.

• Basic Fuseki Encyclopedia by Yoda Norimoto (ISBN-13: 978-4818205949 on Amazon Japan and ISBN-13: 978-4818205956 on Amazon Japan). (two volumes, 500+ pages and 2400yen each) Mostly new materials.
• Basic Joseki Encyclopedia by Takao Shinji (two volumes, 500+ pages and 2400yen each)
  • English translation, 21st Century Dictionary of Basic Joseki was published in two volumes by Kiseido in 2011 and 2012.
  • German translation, Lexikon der Joseki I,II and III.
• Basic Tesuji Encyclopedia by Yamashita Keigo (ISBN-13: 978-4818205963 on Amazon Japan): Follows more traditional definition of tesuji, that is clever local play. (600+ pages, 2800yen)
• Basic Life-and-Death Encyclopedia by Cho U (ISBN-13: 978-4818205970 on Amazon Japan). (600+ pages, 2800yen) Corresponds to Book 1 of earlier editions, considerably expanded.

There is more info about these encyclopedias at https://www.nihonkiin.or.jp/publishing/books/kihonjiten/index.html (in Japanese).

Introductory Level

There are ten small encyclopedias, formally called the Nihon Ki-in Small Encyclopedias (日本棋院小事典). Each volume is pocket size, about 220 pages and 900 yen. No authors, marketed also as 'Quick' guides. Topics:

• Life and Death
• Tesuji
• Even Game Joseki
• Handicap Go
• Fuseki
• Trick Plays
• Hoshi Joseki
• Endgame
• Proverbs
• Technical terms

Five of the series books have been translated into English, by Yutopian as the The Nihon Ki-in Handbook Series.

Seibundo Shinkosha Dictionaries

A series of dictionaries were published by Seibundo Shinkosha (誠文堂新光社) in the 1970s and 80s. Comprises much very good material. It included:

• Tesuji Encyclopedia (Republished in 3 volumes) by Segoe Kensaku and Go Seigen 手筋辞典 (事典 in new edition)
• Small Joseki Dictionary (2 volumes) by Suzuki Tamejiro and Kitani Minoru 定石小辞典
  • Small Joseki Dictionary (2 volumes) by Kato Masao (1987) 定石小辞典
• Fuseki Dictionary (2 volumes) by Takagawa Kaku 布石辞典 高川秀格
• Ko Dictionary by Murashima Yoshinori コウ辞典 村島誼紀 1983
  • (Chinese translation) 劫争辞典, 理艺出版社
• Operations Dictionary by Segoe Kensaku 作戦辞典 瀬越憲作
• Handicap Go Dictionary by Maeda Nobuaki 置碁辞典 前田陳爾
• Yose Dictionary by Kano Yoshinori ヨセ辞典 加納嘉徳 1974
  • Yose Jiten/Errata
  • (Chinese translation) 官子辞典, 理艺出版社
• Modern Joseki Application Dictionary (3 volumes) by Go Seigen 現代定石活用辞典（上中下） 呉清源 1976
• Famous Tsumego Dictionary by Hashimoto Shoji　名作詰碁辞典
• Masterpiece Tsumego Dictionary by Sekiyama Riichi and Sekiyama Toshio　傑作詰碁辞典
• Small Life and Death Dictionary by Kato Masao 死活小辞典
  • New edition: 囲碁死活大事典, MyNavi? Publishing 2021. More than 600 diagrams. ISBN-13:978-4839977917

Comments

The Suzuki/Kitani Joseki Dictionary is a cut-down version of the old Igo Daijiten.

The Takagawa Fuseki Dictionary is quite different from Rin's. Where Rin's dictionary is a broad survey of fuseki practice up to the 70's, Takagawa's is much more an exposition of how he sees fuseki. (Takagawa, Fujisawa Hideyuki, and Go Seigen were considered the masters of fuseki of that time.) Like all experienced pros he has tried all kinds of fuseki in his career. In this dictionary most of the example games are with him playing either Black or White.

There is little enough in the Japanese encyclopedia and dictionary material that tells one about the middle game. One series of books that addresses this is the Igo Dan Players Series, initially over eight volumes - but perhaps not quite up to the editorial standards of a dictionary.

The progression here seems clear enough: towards the top amateur levels, you can get something about openings and tesuji from books; for the rest you are thrown back on the abundant supplies of pro games and problem collections.

Dave Sigaty: The Tesuji Dictionary by Segoe and Go is classic. Anyone who has the chance should grab it.

Hankuk Kiwon series

For comparison, the titles of Hankuk Kiwon dictionary-style series published around 2000, probably on the same general level as the Small Dictionaries.

1. Handicap Baduk
2. Trick Plays
3. 3-3 Invasions
4. 4-4 and 3-4 Openings
5. Middle Game and Strategy
6. Invasion and Reduction
7. Poseok (i.e. fuseki)
8. Haengma
9. Soksu (bad style)
10. Endgame

This has a different feel entirely - certainly more pragmatic, oriented towards fighting. The contrast only goes to support the general argument put forward by John Fairbairn on the Haengma / Discussion topic. There is new thinking coming out of Korea about the way to organise the material of Go/Baduk.

Some of the titles above were translated to Japanese and published by Kien Tosho (棋苑図書) in 2004 - 2007.

Other Joseki dictionaries

There have been a number of joseki dictionaries down the years.

• Gendai Joseki Jiten 現代定石事典 by Yamabe Toshiro.
  • Chinese translation: 围棋定式大辞典 from 1985 comprises 850 pages and 9971 diagrams (ISBN 7-5434-0248-3

• Igo Joseki Dictionary 囲碁定石事典 by Kobayashi Koichi (Gakken, 1998) - Link

• Joseki Genten 定石原典 by Kajiwara Takeo and Nakayama Noriyuki - three volumes, published by Koma Shobo (1981). It has a lot of insightful Kajiwara-style thinking. Republished by Yujinden (1992). - Link

There are certainly others, by Takagawa, Miyashita Shuyo. Of course the information in these compilations is uneven, and of limited value as a reference unless you want to make your own comprehensive study of some joseki.

• Joseki Volume 3 Dictionary by Robert Jasiek.

Online Life and Death dictionary

• Basic Life and Death Dictionary (In Japanese by Eba Hiroki)